Lenovo ThinkPad T530

GPU

Detecting Mini Display Port

When using NVIDIA Optimus the Display port will not be accessible. To have access, change the GPU to discrete in BIOS and auto detect OS to false. Restart and you can now access the mini-display port.

See Bumblebee, or disable the dedicated GPU in the BIOS for power-saving.

Intel HD 4000

See Intel graphics.

NVIDIA NVS 5400M

See Nouveau for open-source driver or NVIDIA for the proprietary driver.

When in discrete graphics mode, The backlight does not work while in UEFI Mode. This limitation does not exist in Legacy Mode.

Input

Hotkeys (Media Keys)

Media keys that work out of the box:

• Wireless On/Off
• Backlight Brightness (If you use the nVidia driver, configuration will be needed - see below)
• Thinklight / Keyboard Backlighting
• Sleep

Keys that do not work out of the box, depending on your DE (you can bind them):

• Mute
• Vol+/-
• Prev/PlayPause/Next
• Lock
• Mic Mute (may not register with xorg-xev)
• Fn+F7 - Display Toggle (Projector?)
• Fn+F6 - WebCam Toggle
• Launcher (right of Mic Mute)

See Extra keyboard keys for necessary configuration.

Hardware

The following hardware requires additional configuration to function properly:

Dock

See dockd.

Compatible docking stations for the T530:

• 433810U - Mini Dock Plus Series 3 90W
• 433815U - Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 90W
• 433830U - Mini Dock Plus Series 3 170W
• 433835U - Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 170W

Networking

Both the Ethernet and wireless are supported by Arch out of the box. All the available Intel wireless cards are very well supported, including good powersaving. The Lenovo branded (Realtek) card does not work as well and does not support powersaving on Linux.

Backlight Brightness with the Nvidia driver

When using the proprietary nvidia driver, it needs to be instructed to take care of brightness control.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-brightness.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GF108M [NVS 5400M]"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

Ericsson H5321 GW Mobile Broadband modem

The Mobile Broadband modem may need the following change to be made into module settings so that mobile data starts to work.

/etc/modprobe.d/cdc_ncm.conf

options cdc_ncm prefer_mbim=N

Troubleshooting

When using LVM on LUKS for full-disk encryption, your computer may appear to freeze after your boot loader (e.g GRUB) starts the kernel. This is only a graphical issue; if you type in the encryption password and hit enter, it will continue booting and you'll see output again once the kernel gets further along in the boot process. However, if you update the BIOS to the latest version, that will fix this issue, and you'll be able to see the prompt for the LUKS volume password.

See also

• Technical specifications