Lenovo ThinkPad T14/T14s (Intel) Gen 1

This article covers the installation and configuration of Arch Linux on a Lenovo ThinkPad T14/T14s (Intel) Gen 1 laptop.

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
Touchpad		Yes
TrackPoint		Yes
Touchscreen		Partial
GPU		Yes
Webcam		Yes
Bluetooth		Yes
Audio		Yes
Wireless		Yes
Mobile broadband		Untested
Fingerprint reader		Yes
Smartcard reader		Untested

Firmware

Secure Boot

As of January 2021 deleting Secure Boot keys and installing your own keys (for example by using KeyTool) will brick the device. This is a problem that is similar to one which has been reported on some other Lenovo laptops and is likely due to a faulty firmware. If the device is stuck in a boot loop after replacing the Secure Boot keys, the only way to repair it is by replacing the mainboard of the device. Hopefully, the issue will get fixed with a firmware update in the future.

Power modes

Warning: BEWARE OF POSSIBLE SKIN BURNS, THE DEVICE GOES BEYOND 75 C IN POWER MODE. Some Thinkpad laptops has a "lap mode" detection, used to throttle the device if it detects that you are using it in your lap, which is not something that is implemented for Linux, there is not anything that will detect that the laptop is in your lap and throttle the device. See

Lenovo Vantage software manages 3 power modes in Windows with Intel DPTF, they are managed through acpi calls:

economy
balanced
performance

There is not a software to manage Intel DPTF for this laptop, so we need to do that manually.

If you do not enable the performance mode, the GPU will throttle at 57 C and the CPU Mhz will be throttled too. Which makes applications stutter. So far, in a desk, using the performance mode while connected to the power supply was not a problem.

For the ThinkPad T14 Intel, the ACPI calls are as follows:

economy	\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC._Q6F
balanced	\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC._Q6E
performance	\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC._Q6D

To enable ACPI method calls through /proc/acpi/call, install the acpi_call kernel module. Install acpi_call-lts if you are using linux-lts.

Tip: Alternatively, install acpi_call-dkms for Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS).

Then call one of the ACPI methods above to enable a power mode. For example, run the following command to enable performance mode:

# echo '\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC._Q6D' > /proc/acpi/call >/dev/null

The result of the call can be determined by examining the contents of /proc/acpi/call. A successful call for the previous method is indicated by the following output:

# cat /proc/acpi/call; printf '\n'

0x8012b01

You can check what is the throttling temperature in Celsius for the NVIDIA GPU if you want to make sure, note that you need the nvidia-settings package installed:

$ nvidia-settings -q GPUMaxOperatingTempThreshold

An output of or means it is in performance mode.

Intel Turbo Boost

Check that Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 is enabled using

$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo

An output of 1 means it is not enabled, so you will have to reset your BIOS to defaults. After doing that, running the command again should print 0. You should be able to see your CPU boosting way higher.

Suspend

S3 suspend works, optionally you can set the Config > Power > Sleep to Linux in bios.

Smartcard Reader

Untested, see Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (AMD) Gen 1#Smartcard reader

Touchscreen

Works out of the box but with incorrect touch coordinates.

Needs to be better configured.

Sound

This laptop requires firmware in order for the soundcard to work. See Advanced Linux Sound Architecture#ALSA firmware.

gollark: In some cases the two of them are the same sort of thing (i.e. self-hosted fora).

gollark: Yes.

gollark: So "not free".

gollark: > you disagree with any moderation except illegal content?By *platforms*, pretty much.

gollark: I think that communities should generally *aim* for as-free-as-reasonably-practical speech, and *platforms* should be generally also as non-restrictive as legal.