Lenovo ThinkPad X240

This article or section does not follow the
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.
Reason:
Reference to "current time" in the tip; generally too short - provides only a basic overview. If all models are similar enough, collating all the information into the hardware table would be the best solution. This page is also missing an accessibility, firmware and function keys section.  (Discuss in
Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad X240
)
The
Lenovo X240
is a laptop from the Lenovo Ultrabook Series and also is a complete redesign of the X Series. This can be observed especially with devices like the touchpad, which has been changed to be a one-click touchpad instead of having the classic 5 button touchpad. The X240 is a very light device, weighing in at just 2.84 lbs (1.36 kg) and measuring 12.02" x 8.19" x 0.79".
Tested Configuration
Tip
Below were the tested configurations at the current time.
Feature
X240
X240 (20AMS4SM00)
X240 (20ALA0K-WIG)
X240 (20ALCTO1WW)
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 2.7GHz
Inter(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.6 GHz
Inter(R) Core(TM) i5-4300U CPU @ 1.9 GHz
Graphics
Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT
Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT
Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT
Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT
Ram
8 GB
8 GB
4 GB
4 GB
Disk
Samsung 5120 SSD
Seagate ST500LM000-SSHD-8GB
WDC WD10JPVX-08JC3T5
Samsung 840 Evo
Display
12.5" IPS FHD (1920x1080)
12.5" IPS FHD (1920x1080)
12.5" IPS 1366x768
12.5" IPS FHD 1920x1080
Wireless
Intel Corporation Wireless 7260
Intel Corporation Wireless 7260
Intel Corporation Wireless 7260
Intel Corporation Wireless 7260
Built-in Battery
9 Cell
9 Cell
Not Tested
3 Cell
Additional Plugable Battery
6 Cell 19+
6 Cell 19+
6 Cell 19+
3 Cell
Backlight Keyboard
Yes
Yes
Yes
-
ThinkLight
No
No
No
-
Fingerprint Scanner
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Camera
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
NFC
No
-
-
-
System Configuration
Use analog sound card by default in ALSA
You likely need to change the ALSA default sound card if you want to output sound via line-out by default.
Install the
alsa-utils
package, run
aplay -l
and inspect its output:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3232 Analog [ALC3232 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
The card that drives the analog line-out is in this case card #1. Create a global configuration file to make it the default:
$ cat /etc/asound.conf
defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.timer.card 1
Alternatively, the same configuration may be set in
$HOME/.asoundrc
.
Touchpad
The touchpad works out of the box. You will need to install
xf86-input-synaptics
.
Some users may prefer to use the trackpoint over the touchpad. In that case, the touchpad can be disabled via
synclient TouchpadOff=1
(will be gone after re-login). See
Synaptics
for more information and options.
Battery
Despite they focus on power management under Microsoft Windows, it might be useful to read the following articles from the official documentation:
Easy ways to extend your battery life - ideapad/Lenovo/ThinkPad laptops
Display contrast reduced while on battery mode on ThinkPad X220
TrackPoint
The TrackPoint is usuable out of the box, but the default parameters for speed, sensitivity and inertia yield only insufficient navigation ability given the high-res display. The following udev configuration delivers a snappy experience:
$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/10-trackpoint.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="serio", DRIVERS=="psmouse", ACTION=="change", ENV{SERIO_TYPE}=="05", ATTR{press_to_select}="1", ATTR{sensitivity}="196", ATTR{speed}="255", ATTR{inertia}="4"
Consult the
ThinkWiki
for other configuration possibilities such as scrolling.
Keyboard
The keyboard works out of the box mostly, including the
Fn
key and XF86 aliases. For the LED of the
XF86AudioMute
button to work
acpi_osi="Linux"
needs to be appended to the
kernel parameters
.
Most WMs/DEs handle the special XF86 keys automatically, but you might need to add a configuration yourself. Tools like
amixer
(
alsa-utils
),
xorg-xbacklight
,
arandr
and
lxrandr
help in this regard.
The button
XF86WLAN
automatically toggles the (soft)
rfkill
block state of the wireless device. Keep this in mind when you set it up to connect/disconnect to your wireless network. You can also unblock wlan without using this key:
rfkill unblock wlan
.
The keyboard does not have an LED for
CapsLock
. If your WM/DE does not come with an indicator you can use
indicator-keylock
AUR
in the tray.
The indicator LED for
XF86AudioMicMute
seems to be broken in some way. According to
this commit
it should work with
snd-hda-intel
but it does not. There is also an
older kernel patch
available that might or might not help, but probably does not work with a current kernel as is.
Keyboard Backlight
The default hotkey for the keyboard backlight (
Fn+Space
) is automatically supported by
GNOME
. In order to set the keyboard brightness from a terminal it is possible to choose between three different levels of brightness using the following commands:
0% brightness:
# echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness
50% brightness:
# echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness
100% brightness:
# echo 2 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness
Alternatively, installing the package
acpilight
AUR
allows to do the same thing using a different syntax:
0% brightness:
# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 0
50% brightness:
# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 50
100% brightness:
# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 100
Fingerprint Reader
The fingerprint reader is a Validity Sensors model (138a:0017) also used on the Thinkpad X1 Carbon and T440. ThinkFinger does NOT support this reader. This fingerprint reader requires libfprint to be build from the current git (
https://github.com/ars3niy/fprint_vfs5011.git
). Alternatively, it can also be done going through
Fprint
, for 20ALA0K-WIG.
Fingerprint Login
Install
the
fprintd
package to enable the fingerprint login in
GNOME
.
Caveats
Common hardware problems
This page
provides a list and links regarding common issues with X240 hardware.
NFC Reader
Some of the x240 devices have a NFC reader integrated in the touchpad. However it seems that this type of NFC reader is not support for Linux. This
post
seems to confirm this.
Grey noise with analog audio when audio is not muted
On some X240 and other TP 4xx models, persisting grey noise is hearable when the audio mixer has not been muted. The issue has been
reported to the ALSA developers
, but as of now, the issue persists. Affected users are encouraged to report their situation in the linked thread.
See also
A user's configuration walk through
Lenovo X240 Hardware Maintenance Manual
Lenovo X240 User Guide
X240 on ThinkWiki.de (German)
X240 on ThinkWiki.org