TL;DR you can install Libreboot on a T470 with a 7th-gen Intel processor as you would any T480.

Everything below is relevant to T470 units with a 7th-gen Intel CPU. I don't have a 6th-gen Intel unit to test and those may have a different chipset.

The T470 and T480 have very similar hardware, with Intel 7th-gen CPU options available for both models. So out of curiosity, I decided to try flashing the T480 build of Libreboot 25.06 to my T470.

If you are new to Libreboot or Coreboot, I'd suggest going through the documentation first, i.e. https://libreboot.org/docs/install/t480.html. A good video guide is also available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGKhsjvlSBQ. As for BIOS and Thunderbolt firmware, I just updated to the latest versions of each for the T470.

An external BIOS chip programmer is necessary for installing Libreboot itself. I chose to use the CH341a. If you choose to do so as well, be aware that

• without an adapter, the CH341a will push 3.3 volts to the BIOS chip, even though the actual chip in the T470 is rated for 1.8 V
• the chip did survive many previous me_cleaner tests and the final Libreboot flashing despite using an unmodified CH341a. YMMV, use at your own risk.
• Pins 1,2,3,4 are along the same side of the socket as the lever. Use the 25xx section.
• it is always a good idea to back up and double-check the original BIOS chip contents before flashing Libreboot

Libreboot starts up normally and Linux boots with no issue. While I have not exhaustively tested every feature of the T470, I can go about my daily tasks as usual and write this post on my Librebooted T470. Caveats found on the T480 seem to apply to the T470 as well, most notably with the audio jack and internal microphone. Neither of these components are working, although the documentation suggests USB sound cards as a workaround for now. Internal speakers and webcam do work, however.

EDIT: USB-C charging works, but data transfer does not. I'm not terribly surprised though since that section of the board did go from having a dedicated charging port and single USB-C connector on the T470 to having two USB-C connectors and a mini dock connector on the T480.

Additionally,

• No noticeable difference in performance or battery life (I had previously disabled hyperthreading, but Libreboot prebuilt images have it disabled as well).
• TrackPoint felt somewhat harder to use, but that was alleviated by switching from libinput to evdev (note evdev is not supported in Wayland sessions).
• Expected in hindsight since I just used the T480 build as-is, but the laptop will now identify itself as a T480 in various hardware info utilities.
• Intel ME has been neutered.

If you are looking to buy a laptop for Libreboot, I would suggest you skip the T470 since it is only dual core and instead go for the T480 since it comes with a much more performant quad core if the CPU is 8th-gen. But for those of us who already have a T470 or for any reason are limited to buying a T470, Libreboot is an option for us too!

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Recently I bought a used ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen.4 that seems to be in very good condition overall but one thing: the graphical performance is well under the expectation. And that's shit, because that was actually the main reason I decided to buy this laptop now.

The graphics card is a Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti laptop, and it is performing consistently and slightly below the GTX 950M I've been using up until now. This last card is in an Ideapad that's identical in specs and configuration to the new one, but with a 4 gens older GPU and a 5 gens older CPU. Both also have Intel integrated chips, that I also benchmarked (with Furmark), and I've been getting the same consistent distribution: older iGPU < newer iGPU < 3050 < 950, in which the 3050 makes no sense. This damn laptop has a 2K screen (16:10) but struggles even slightly more than the other one to run at decent 1080p FPS, while everything else runs faster because of the better CPU.

I finally tried out both CachyOS and KDE (I love Plasma!) with the new laptop. I expected an effortless install with Cachy but ended up spending hours trying to debug the bad performance, so I decided to install Windows to test it out and confirm if I was properly utilizing the card. I got the same results.

I've tried the discrete card drivers from the Lenovo website, and I now have running the one from Nvidia's. I've got no problem report from anywhere, but the system information in Nvidia control panel displays some unexpected values, like "Graphics boost clock" at 1035 MHz when it should be 1485 MHz, "Memory bandwith" at 176.03 GB/s when it should be 195 GB/s and "Bus" with PCIe x8 Gen4 when it should be PCIe x16 Gen4. I took the reference values from here and here for the bus spec.

It's the 60W variant (as displayed in the Nvidia CP) and I didn't know there were several - so something I can't change in this card? Anyway, this one is close to the best (35~80W range)

Could it have been undervolted/underclocked previously? Is that something that persists between operating systems? Could you do that on this Thinkpad?

The BIOS only lets me force the use of the discrete card and has some power setting for performance that was already on with AC power.

I have MSI Afterburner installed, can I learn something with it? I think the card is fucked somehow, but would really love to find out exactly what's wrong, since it's still performing and also because I might wanna pass it on to someone who would be conscious of the limitations, and get another one just like it! The thing is I love this laptop, it's exactly what I wanted, but without a decent performance in some graphic intense games.

Ultimately I supose I might eventually have to get the board schematics and start measuring currents, but is there something I can try before that?

Anyway, long post already but I would apreciate if someone could help me with these matters. I know Thinkpads usually don't even have discrete graphic cards but I thought some one here coukd help me. Thanks!

Hi guys, I couldn't think of a more qualified community for this question.

My trustworthy T470s' USB C port (front right) is failing - only connecting to a charging cable when at a particular angle.

Is there an effective way to swap out that peripheral? I have replaced so many things in it and would not mind one more to keep her alive :)

Currently running via dock and regular charging port but that doesn't fit my lifestyle the same.

TL;DR: On the xx30 series, the 4MB "top" chip is easily recoverable, even if you fail to make a backup. If you install the 1vyrain BIOS or use 1vyrain to install Coreboot, only the 4MB chip is affected. However, if you apply me_cleaner to the 8MB "bottom" chip and lose the backup, you cannot return to the stock BIOS!

A few years ago, I had wanted to try out Coreboot (using pre-built "Skulls" images), but didn't want to bother with buying and learning how to use a hardware chip programmer. So I used 1vyrain, as mentioned here: https://lemmy.ml/post/23117122

1vyrain just overwrites the 4MB chip with the supplied image. The 8MB chip is unaffected. Nothing on the 4MB chip is machine-specific. So if you can still boot into Linux but no longer want Coreboot, the recovery is trivial:

1. Boot Linux with the kernel parameter iomem=relaxed
2. Install flashrom if needed
3. Get a copy of the stock 4MB image (I'd recommend v2.60): https://github.com/xy-tech/x330-bios/tree/main/stock/original
4. Flash the image: sudo flashrom -p internal -i bios --ifd -w /path/to/v2.60.bin --noverify-all
5. Wait for it to finish and reboot

If it doesn't POST, you can do the same, but with a hardware programmer.

If you made a mistake with your Coreboot config, but can still boot, and just want to flash a new build of Coreboot, no need to restore stock BIOS and do 1vyrain again, just flash your coreboot.rom like so: sudo flashrom -p internal -i bios --ifd -w path/to/coreboot.rom --noverify-all

That's all that is relevant if you don't have a hardware programmer like the CH341a.

Now the mistake that made me write this post: I had extracted the bottom 8MB chip from one of my X230 and applied me_cleaner to it. Seeing it had worked so well, I jumped to the conclusion that a backup for one X230 would work for another X230. So I flashed my second X230 with the cleaned 8MB image without making a backup. Coreboot worked fine, but then I realized I forgot to apply the keyboard EC patch.

Turns out, the contents of the bottom chip are machine-specific and the stock BIOS will not boot if it has been tampered with or swapped with a backup from another machine. And without the stock BIOS, the EC cannot be flashed.

If I do find a way to make the stock BIOS boot again, I will post an update here.

Device: Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 8

i noticed that my thinkpad runs at a noticably lower but largely stable framerate aber waking up from sleep (after opening the lid and logging in).

Playing some audio also reveald crackeling noises about twice a second, which werent there before.

cpu usage remains low at 3%

actual cpu performance seems to be as good as before sleep.

ive had some issues with sleep on my desktop before (same config) but they were never so severe...

does someone here have similar issues or found a solution for this yet?

Device: Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 8

i noticed that my thinkpad runs at a noticably lower but largely stable framerate aber waking up from sleep (after opening the lid and logging in).

Playing some audio also reveald crackeling noises about twice a second, which werent there before.

cpu usage remains low at 3%

actual cpu performance seems to be as good as before sleep.

ive had some issues with sleep on my desktop before (same config) but they were never so severe...

does someone here have similar issues or found a solution for this yet?

soooo - i got a... thinkpad x1 ... yoga gen 8 - and its great!

works flawlessly, i love the trackpoint - great navigation.

however! i have found that this middle trackpad button isnt really a middle mouse button at all! its great for scrolling with the trackpoint and it works great for a middle-mouse-button click when just clicked once, but when held, the laptop seems to expect a scroll from the trackpoint.

i need the middle-mouse-button-dragging for navigation within the godot game engine and blender.

sooo - i tried finding a way to emulate middle click using both left - and right trackpad buttons, but to no avail.

the closest i have gotten is by cloning and running this repo here, which made it so that, when left and right buttons are pressed, they emulate the physical middle trackpad button pres... which lets me scroll using the trackpoint, but doesnt actually emulate the real middle mouse button press (so still no middle-mouse-buton drag ;( )

(yes, i tried the gsettings command they provide in the - that didnt work either, seemingly nothing changed)

does someone have a solution for this?

Hi, I have tried undervolting my t480 before, but ran into several issues, I wonder if that was because I was just not doing it correctly? never found a proper guide or tips for it really, anyone have any idea how to properly do it? reading other people's stuff, seems it is indeed worth it to try at least.

For those interested in some numbers on how much a quad-core mod might affect your power usage and battery life. This post only covers power consumption of the CPU as measured by RAPL to eliminate other factors such as LCD panel type, attached USB devices, or number of SSDs installed.

Averages for dual-core i5-3210M, 35W TDP:

• Idle: 2.87 W
• Moderate load: 13.79 W

Averages for quad-core i7-3612QE, 35W TDP:

• Idle: 3.84 W
• Moderate load: 13.03 W

Since I have been unable to source a ULV-modded board, I am looking for justification to do the mod myself. As part of this, I tested a S230U with the dual-core i5-3317U, 17W TDP:

• Idle: 2.49 W
• Moderate load: 9.51 W

Will come back with more numbers if I succeed in putting the ULV chip in an X230. Don't hold your breath since it's a complicated operation with many potential issues. You are also welcome to DM me if you want to sell a ULV-equipped board.

Experiment setup:

• Command: sudo powerstat -R 10 10
• Idle: Debian 13 TTY, X session logged out
• Moderate load: Xfce desktop, Librewolf with uBlock Origin, playing a 720p Youtube video
• I am not sure how much this affects the numbers, but the S230U is on the stock BIOS while the two X230's are on Coreboot with me_cleaner.

Hi everyone,

I’ve had my E580 since 2018 and it’s been flawless, a true workhorse. I’m planning to pass it to my son and upgrade to a more powerful laptop, ideally staying in the ThinkPad E series for cost reasons. However, I’m overwhelmed by the available configurations. My target is 32 GB RAM and a good 16" panel (preferably 100% sRGB), though since I’ll use the laptop almost exclusively at home with an external monitor and keyboard, a 14" could also work. I run Linux but often use a Windows VM. My questions are:

• AMD or Intel and which specific model should I consider? Is a “Ryzen 7 250” a reasonable choice?
• AMD-based models sometimes don’t list the Wi‑Fi chipset. Any idea on whether those will work reliably under Linux?

Any general tips or things to avoid would also be appreciated.

For instance, what about this: https://imgur.com/a/43LpduT? Or this? https://imgur.com/a/y9IW4mK (image in Spanish, but the name of the components are in english)

The intel one is almost 50% more in price.

Thanks a lot in advance!

E.N.

According to https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht510809-how-to-reinstall-the-operating-system-linux, the only Lenovo "addition" to a Fedora installation is the /opt/lenovo directory. Could anyone list the contents of this folder? Does it only contain the xcclogger application? Thanks!

I recently bought a T580 and it's a great laptop but it could use some upgrades. I'm trying to upgrade to 32gb RAM which might be overkill but I plan on using this for a long time. What's the best place to buy aftermarket RAM? I was looking at these from Crucial but there end-of-life. Should that be a concern? Thanks in advance.

geteilt von: https://lemmy.ml/post/36647831

Piateho augusta som napísal článok o mojom ThinkPade, kde po jeho napísaní mi napadlo, že by som mohol urobiť dlhodobú recenziu o tomto stroji.

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For casual web browsing, coding, and document preparation, I'm getting just shy of 4 hours on a 6-cell and a little more than 6 hours on a 9-cell. Granted that's with a quad core mod, IPS display, and full Coreboot, so the typical power consumption with a browser window open might be anywhere from 13 to 16 watts.

How's your battery life? Any optimizations I might be missing out on?

Follow-up to my earlier write-up on Corebooting my i7-3612QE X230: https://lemmy.ml/post/23117122

Since I initially flashed the top 4MB BIOS chip with Coreboot via 1vyrain, the bottom 8MB remained intact with the Intel ME. Its contents are independent, so no need to worry about updating the 4MB BIOS for this procedure if it's already Corebooted.

I used an unmodified black CH341A with the included generic black clip. Pins 1-4 are on the side with the lever, align red wire of the clip with the indent or dot (pin 1) of the bottom 8MB chip.

While I purchased the CH341A with a 1.8 V converter, the chip was not detected with the converter in place, so I resolved to take a risk and do without it. Although the CH341A output reads 5 V on a multimeter, that's supposed to be the open-circuit voltage, which falls to around 3.3 V with any load, which the X230 chips should tolerate very well for the brief flashing operation. Please keep in mind that there's still a risk, especially if you are an owner of such a quad-core board.

Put the chip in the test clip and then plug in the CH341A into a system with flashrom and the iomem=relaxed kernel parameter. Save the contents of the chip:

flashrom -p ch341a_spi -r bottom.bin

It may detect multiple compatible chips. I couldn't really read the engraving on the chip itself, so I picked a random one. The particular choice shouldn't matter now, but might later. In this case,

flashrom -p ch341a_spi -r bottom.bin -c <YOUR CHIP>

Then verify that the dump matches the chip contents:

flashrom -p ch341a_spi -v bottom.bin -c <YOUR CHIP>

If anything fails, unplug the CH341A, redo the test clip, and plug in again.

Grab a copy of me_cleaner and run bottom.bin through it. It'll know what to do with the raw dump, no need to prep or otherwise bless the file:

python me_cleaner.py -S -O bottom_clean.bin bottom.bin

-S: In addition to stripping down the Intel ME, also set the AltMEDisable/HAP bit just in case

-O bottom_clean.bin: output result to bottom_clean.bin

Now to flash it the clean file back to the chip:

flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w bottom_clean.bin -c <YOUR CHIP>

This is where the specific selection of compatible chip does matter. On my first run, it failed to erase before writing the chip. Fortunately, it's mostly a matter of trial-and-error if you really can't read the chip markings and the other compatible model worked for me.

I can confirm that everything works as expected after the procedure, even the dreaded suspend-then-hibernate and resume. No noticeable changes in boot time, performance, or battery life.

There's a listing on eBay for a T580. Everythings seems fine just that the seller states that the external battery is not included but the internal battery is still intact. Even if I buy a battery separately, is this a good idea?

This is from a sampling of aftermarket batteries for the "old body style" ThinkPads (T510, X230, etc.). This may or may not apply to newer ThinkPads using flat Li-Polymer cells.

In general, the performance of an aftermarket battery correlates with its cost. The cheapest aftermarket cells provide half the battery life of more expensive ones and degrade sooner.

Brand-agnostic observations

• Some batteries don't play well with charge thresholds. If not allowed to reach 100%, they lose track of the actual charge over the course of a few cycles. This usually manifests as suddenly dropping to nearly empty from 30% to 50%.
• If it advertises support for the **30 series, the battery will probably pass the boot-up verification on those models.
• Aftermarket labels make liberal use of Arial instead of Helvetica. Maybe I have an eye for typefaces, but this should be a dead giveaway that tends to slip under the radar.
• Good aftermarket batteries tend to be considerably heavier than low-quality ones.
• Low-quality aftermarket batteries tend to fit poorly in the slot.
• Boxes for aftermarket batteries, compared to originals, are missing the large sticker on the box with Lenovo part numbers, barcodes, and regulatory markings.

Kingsener

• Reasonable cost
• Genuine capacity, matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand, slightly looser fit than original
• May sporadically register 0% on a Corebooted X230, but immediately returns to normal without shutting down
• Gradually loses track of charge with thresholds

Dr. Battery

• Most expensive
• Genuine capacity, matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand and fits well
• Gradually loses track of charge with thresholds

DTK

• Relatively lower cost
• Genuine capacity, but less than that of the original
• Feels lighter than the original, but fits well
• Rubber feet fell off after less than a month
• Did not test charge thresholds for this brand

"Lenovo" with fake recycle symbol

• Reasonable cost
• The RECYCLE symbol uses a wider font and there is a typo in the text: "Use of enother battery may present a fire or explosion"
• However, capacity is genuine and matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand and fits well
• Comes in a plain, unmarked cardboard box
• Works well with charge thresholds
• Rubber feet fell off after less than a month
• Can vary by actual manufacturer

Unbranded

• About half the price for half the battery life and a third the lifespan compared to a higher-quality battery
• Advertised 57 Wh, actual 48 Wh, compare to 63 Wh of genuine Lenovo
• Lighter and worse fit than original
• Rubber feet fell off within two weeks
• Loses track of charge within a few cycles if thresholds used
• Works fine for a few months, but capacity thereafter decreases noticeably beyond about 150 cycles
• May use scavenged cells: serial numbers on the cells inside are far apart, which would be uncharacteristic of a factory receiving and using fresh cells from a reputable manufacturer
• Can sporadically cause laptop to get stuck in suspend, requiring a hard restart
• Can vary by manufacturer

My use cases for these bottom-of-the-barrel batteries is getting beater ThinkPads up and running with some degree of mobility and getting rid of the void otherwise left if the battery is absent. Also fine for BIOS updates that demand a charged battery.

If for whatever reason you don't want to buy a new nub and you feel that the nub is kinda loose (eg. you need to put too much pressure to move the pointer or you need to crank up to eleven the software sensitivity), one quick fix is to pad the hole of the nub with anything that makes the hole tighter and able to better grip the stick.

In the picture, I'm using a paper adhesive tape (which is easily removable) with the glue part towards the hole. Also, for obvious reasons, I highly recommend NEVER using anything permanent like glue or green stuff (use green stuff to manufacture your own diy nub if you feel courageous enough to do that)

I needed only two layer, but you will need to tweak around how many layers fits your use.

Now the hole is tighter and I can use the nub with 2.5 software sensitivity (on linux).

To insert the adhesive tape, cut a somewhat big square (area a bit larger than the nub) and, using the point of a mechanical pencil/needle or anything similar, gently push the tape inside the nub's hole and fix it to the "walls".

then put the nub back on the stick and see how it works.

after doing this "arts project", cut the excess of tape that can be seen once the nub is back to the trackpoint.

Thats it.

a good "gambiarra" that I'm using and will be probably my permanent solution (I'm not recommending to be your's permanent solution, but it will be mine's)

(PS: Gambiarra is a word that means what is supposed to be quick temporary fix that ends up being used for longer than that)

Can I cannibalise the screen from one and put it into the other?

Searching tinternet shows they're both 12.1 inch screens, but I don't know if that means they identical.

This is my daily driver at the moment - X201s modded with a 51nb motherboard with i7-10710u (a.k.a X2100). A lot of geo nerd cred to whomever can guess the location by the mountains :)

geteilt von: https://lemmy.ml/post/34208852 This is basically a review of the laptop whose picture I posted yesterday.

Každý, koho poznám, má nejaký laptop. Či sú to tie Chromebooky, ktorých operačný systém sa má v blízkej budúcnosti spojiť s Androidom, MacBooky, ktoré stratili to ich slávne svietiace jablko (pozri tento článok), alebo notebooky od Lenova, medzi ktoré od roku 2005 patria aj ThinkPady. Mne sa podarilo jeden zohnať za celkom dobrú cenu na Alze (áno, spadol som do kultu ThinkPadov, ale o tom si povieme až na záver), takže si ho poďme teraz zrecenzovať.

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It's a ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 (AMD version)

Specs:

• Ryzen PRO 7 8840HS
• AMD Radeon 780M
• 32 gigabytes of RAM
• 1TB NVMe SSD

Link to article about it