Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (Gen 2)

This article or section does not follow the
Laptop page guidelines
.
Reason:
Needs a function keys and Accessibility section. (Discuss in
Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (Gen 2)
)
Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
Touchpad
PS/2
Yes
GPU (Intel)
8086:3e9b
Yes
GPU (NVIDIA)
10de:1f91
Yes
10de:1fb8
Yes
Touchscreen
056a:51a0
Yes
Webcam
04f2:b67c
Yes
Ethernet
8086:15bc
Yes
8086:15bb
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:0029
Yes
SD-card reader
10ec:525a
Yes
17a0:9755
Untested
Smart-card reader
058f:9540
Untested
Audio
8086:a348
Yes
Wi-Fi
8086:2723
Yes
Fingerprint reader
06cb:00bd
Yes
Thunderbolt
8086:15ea
Untested
This page covers the ThinkPad P1 (Gen 2) and the ThinkPad X1 Extreme (Gen 2), as their hardware is extremely similar.
Thunderbolt
Warning
Ensure you are on the latest BIOS firmware as doing the following steps on older BIOSes may brick your device
To use Thunderbolt 3, go into BIOS and enable BIOS Assist mode (Thunderbolt 3 -> Enable BIOS assist mode)
Power management
As of writing,
a bug exists
where the battery data can appear corrupt, wildly incorrect, or seem to change drastically from boot to boot. To workaround this bug you should add battery to the
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
.
MODULES=(
battery
)
Remember to
regenerate the initramfs
for these changes to take effect.
Note
You can also build the battery module into your kernel.
Video
As of Linux 5.2.9, the Nouveau driver can cause quite a lot of kernel panics when using the webcamera.
Brightness control
OLED display
OLED screens have no backlight, brightness cannot be controlled by changing backlight power in the traditional way. Instead, it can be controlled using PWM by enabling following option:
/etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
options i915 enable_dpcd_backlight=1
Alternatively, you can add it as a
kernel parameter
:
i915.enable_dpcd_backlight=1
Brightness control is not yet supported by standard tools. You can try
oled-backlight
AUR
.
LCD display
Hybrid graphics
Hybrid graphics (also known as
NVIDIA Optimus
) allows the system to use the integrated Intel graphics and the NVIDIA GPU interchangeably without rebooting.
Brightness control under hybrid graphics should work "out of the box" with no kernel command line options necessary. If you notice brightness controls cease working, check that your BIOS settings are still for "Hybrid Graphics" and not "Discrete Graphics".
Discrete graphics
Discrete graphics means only the NVIDIA GPU is available to the system (i.e. "Discrete Graphics" selected in BIOS).
Brightness control can be controlled with
xorg-xbacklight
. Keys might need to be bound using a tool like
xbindkeys
.
Keyboard
There is an issue with keystrokes being skipped at times (
see the Lenovo forums
). This is resolved with system firmware version 1.30. See
Firmware
to check your current version and upgrade.
Touchpad
If you are having issues with trackpad functionality not working after a sleep and resume, like non-smooth tracking or tap clicking not registering, you can switch back to the older communication protocol:
/etc/modprobe.d/trackpad.conf
options psmouse synaptics_intertouch=0
More details on what this does at
BBS#229349
.
Wi-Fi
If your Wi-Fi card is occasionally not detected after reboots, this may be related to a known bug that is related to windows fastboot.
Workarounds are to completely shutdown the machine (no suspend or reboot), on next boot it works for me.
Alternatives suggested are to first boot into windows, and/or disable windows fastboot in the bios.
References:
[1]
[2]
[3]
Ethernet
If you have issues with a gigabit connection being capped at 100 MB/s and you are using the
e1000e
driver, try adding
pcie_aspm=off
to the kernel boot parameters.
Additionally, run the following to get a more slight network performance improvement:
ethtool -s <INTERFACE> autoneg on speed 1000 duplex full
References:
[4]
Firmware
BIOS and firmware updates are available via
fwupd
, the Lenovo Vantage application on Windows, or from
Lenovo's website
.
The latest BIOS version is highly recommended. All information on this page should assume the latest BIOS unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Note
To install Arch Linux you need to disable
Secure Boot
. If you cannot do so (e.g. because of
error: failed to save storage - write protected
), it may help to reset the BIOS to factory defaults (F9) and/or upgrade your BIOS.
Check BIOS version
From Lenovo's firmware readme, to check the system's installed BIOS version:
DETERMINING WHICH VERSION IS INSTALLED

 [Checking on ThinkPad Setup]

  1. Turn on the computer.
  2. While the "To interrupt normal startup, press Enter" message is displayed
     at the lower-left area or lower-center of the screen, press the F1 key.
     The ThinkPad Setup menu will be displayed. If a password prompt appears,
     type the correct password.
  3. Locate the UEFI BIOS Version line.
     "UEFI BIOS version (BIOS ID)" will be shown on the UEFI BIOS Version line.
  4. Turn off the computer.
Alternatively, use fwupdmgr from
fwupd
without rebooting:
$ fwupdmgr get-devices
...
├─System Firmware:
│     Current version:     0.1.30
...
Disabling Absolute Persistence
Warning
Switching to and flashing the Non-Absolute Persistence BIOS (Versions ending in P) is permanent and irreversible.
Lenovo offers two BIOS versions with their releases; Absolute Persistence and Non-absolute Persistence. Absolute Home & Office (originally known as CompuTrace, and LoJack for Laptops) is a proprietary laptop theft recovery software (laptop tracking software) with features including the abilities to remotely lock, delete files from, and locate the stolen laptop on a map. More information about its functionality and vulnerabilities can be read
here
If you do not subscribe to this service and have no use for it, you can flash an alternate BIOS provided by Lenovo listed as "Non-Absolute Persistence". The BIOS versions are identified by their letter at the end of the .cab file. Versions ending in W include Absolute's features and versions ending in P remove it. The Non-Absolute version is included in the zip file containing BIOS updates from Lenovo's website or you can directly download it from
fwupd.org
.
To install the Non-Absolute Persistence BIOS, you must first permanently disable Computrace in the BIOS. Once done, you can flash the Non-Absolute Persistence (P version) with the same instructions.
Flashing BIOS
Updating
Download the zip file labelled "BIOS Update Utility (Linux)" from
Lenovo's support website
or
fwupd.org directly
. Extract the zip file, then use
fwupd
to update the firmware:
# fwupdmgr install
filename
.cab
Then reboot immediately to finish the upgrade.
Reverting to previous versions
To downgrade your bios, you can use the
--allow-older
flag with fwupd.
Note
Be sure to read the release notes for the BIOS updates as many updates do not offer the ability to revert back to prior versions