Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 7)

Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
Video
8086:3ea0
Yes
Wi-Fi
8086:9df0
Yes
Ethernet
8086:15be
Yes
Mobile broadband
Yes
Audio
8086:9dc8
Yes
Touchpad
06cb:cd8b
Yes
TrackPoint
06cb:cd8b
Yes
Camera
13d3:56ba
Yes
Fingerprint reader
06cb:00bd
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:0aaa
Yes
NFC
No
Firmware
Warning
There are reports that enrolling custom Secure Boot keys may brick this machine because of firmware bugs.
The most convenient way to install Arch Linux is by disabling "Secure Boot"
Security -> Secure Boot - Set to "Disabled"
. However it is possible to self-sign your kernel and boot with it enabled. For further information have a look at the
Secure Boot
article.
In case your
efivars
are not properly set it is most likely due to you not being booted into
UEFI
. Should the problem persist be sure to consult the
UEFI#UEFI variables
section.
Updates
Automatic (Linux Vendor Firmware Service)
In August of 2018 Lenovo has joined
the
Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS)
project, which enables firmware updates from within the OS.
BIOS updates (and possibly other firmware such as the Thunderbolt controller) can be queried for and installed through
fwupd
.
If your thunderbolt port is unstable after upgrading with fwupd, you can visit the
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 7) driver website
and upgrade the thunderbolt firmware manually.
Manual (fwupdmgr)
Lenovo may in the future provide cabinet files that can be directly installed with fwupdmgr.
Check for Linux
.cab
files from the
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 7) driver website
.
Make sure the AC adapter is firmly connected to the target computer.
Launch Terminal.
Move to the directory where the cabinet file was placed.
Run
fwupdmgr install xxxxxxxx.cab
to schedule firmware update.
Restart the system.
The computer will be restarted and the UEFI BIOS will be updated.
Sleep/Suspend
The BIOS has two "Sleep State" options, Windows and Linux, which you can find in
Config -> Power -> Sleep State
. The Linux option is the traditional S3 power state where all hardware components are turned off except for the RAM, and it should work normally. The Windows option is a newer software-based "modern standby" which works on Linux (despite the name). One possible benefit to the Windows sleep state is faster wake up time, and one possible drawback is increased power usage.
Mark Pearson, a Lenovo employee,
recommends using the "Windows" sleep state option
as it is better supported on modern Intel processors. The same is true for other modern Thinkpads
except for AMD models
(as of November 2020).
S3 Suspend Bug with Bluetooth Devices
Occasionally your Thinkpad will wake up immediately after suspending with certain
bluetooth
devices added. To prevent this, remove the devices or disable
bluetooth
before suspending.
BIOS configurations
In
Config > Thunderbolt BIOS Assist Mode
set to
Enabled
. When disabled, power usage appears to be significantly higher because of a substantial number of CPU wakeups in s2idle.
Tip
You may need to disable Kernel DMA protection in
Security > Virtualization > Kernel DMA Protection
set to
Disabled
Firmware issues
The following issues can all be resolved by upgrading the firmware with fwupdmgr (
see
#BIOS Updates
), but there may be alternative manual/temporary fixes.
Touchpad issues
Due to a bug in a touchpad firmware, the touchpad might not work with following logs in
dmesg
:
[    4.499490] i2c_designware i2c_designware.1: i2c_dw_handle_tx_abort: lost arbitration
[...]
[   12.668795] i2c_hid i2c-SYNA8005:00: failed to set a report to device.
[   13.678765] i2c_designware i2c_designware.1: controller timed out
Freeze when suspending
There are reports of the system freezing after initiating a suspend or hibernate. A temporary fix is to add
snd_hda_intel.dmic_detect=0
to your kernel parameters. see
[1]
. This temporary fix is somehow disable the microphone, use this at your own risk
Power management/Throttling issues
A
bug
causes the CPU to consume less power than under Windows and throttle at 80°C instead of 97°.
Lenovo has confirmed the issue,
explained the cause
and published
updates for the embedded controller and the BIOS
to LVFS .
The alternative fix is to install
throttled
, then
start/enable
throttled.service
.
Audio
This laptop requires
Sound Open Firmware
to work.
If you are still having issues, add the following:
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist snd_hda_intel
blacklist snd_soc_skl
and
append
the following:
/etc/pulse/default.pa
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0 channels=4
load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:0,7 channels=4
Afterwards, reboot.
Clicking/cracking noise when using headphones
If you are hearing clicking/cracking noises when using headphones, this command helped me. I have to run it after each restart.
# hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1d SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x0
Clicking/cracking noise when using speakers
The newest alsa-ucm-conf is missing the speakers configuration. Downgrade it to 1.2.3-2.
# downgrade alsa-ucm-conf
Microphone
On version 5.3 and newer the SOF firmware can be enabled, see
Talk#Microphone
.
If you are having issues getting the microphone to be detected, see the troubleshooting section in
#Audio
.
Camera
Secondary IR
Some models of this laptop include a second infrared (IR)
webcam
(originally to be used with Windows Hello) which is uncovered by the privacy slider.
v4l2-ctl --list-devices
will show all available video devices. The IR emitter can be manipulated using
chicony-ir-toggle
.
Facial authentication can be achieved using
Howdy
.
Function Keys
In the firmware configuration it is possible to swap the
Ctrl
and
Fn
keys.
Key
Visible?
1
Marked?
2
Effect
Fn+Esc
No
Yes
Toggles Fn lock
Fn+F1
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioMicMute
Fn+F5
Yes
Yes
XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F6
Yes
Yes
XF86MonBrightnessUp
Fn+F7
Yes
Yes
XF86Display
Fn+F8
Yes
Yes
XF86WLAN
Fn+F9
Yes
Yes
XF86Tools
Fn+F10
Yes
Yes
XF86Bluetooth
Fn+F11
No
Yes
No Effect
Fn+F12
Yes
Yes
XF86Favorites
The key is visible to
xev
and similar tools.
The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function.
Fingerprint sensor
An official Lenovo firmware with Linux support is available from
fwupd
. After installing fwupd, you can update the Synaptics Prometheus driver for the fingerprint sensor:
# fwupdmgr refresh
# fwupdmgr get-updates
   Prometheus Fingerprint Reader Device Update:
   New version:       10.01.3158804
   New features and enhancements:   Support Linux system
# fwupdmgr update
To use the fingerprint sensor, follow the instructions from
Fprint
.
If you had previously installed the testing version of this driver from lvfs-testing, there should be no issues updating to this driver version from the main repository.
Mobile broadband
The Fibocom LTE module has Linux support once switched to USB mode; see
[2]
and
[3]
Disabling red LED in ThinkPad logo
You can temporarily disable the red LED in the ThinkPad logo on the cover:
Enable writing to the embedded controller registers by adding the
kernel parameter
ec_sys.write_support=1
.
Disable the LED with this command:
# echo -n -e "\x0a" | dd of="/sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io" bs=1 seek=12 count=1 conv=notrunc 2> /dev/null
This would need to be run after each suspend/reboot to be permanent.
See also
https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
Dell XPS 13 9370 quirks
: Some pointers on getting Watt usage down to ~2W, Intel video powersaving features might be interesting, see also the
Intel graphics
page for interesting power-saving options.
Intel Blog: Best practice to debug Linux* suspend/hibernate issues
[
dead link
2023-09-16—HTTP 404]
, including the
pm-graph
tool to analyze power usage during suspend
How to fix volume control (ALSA problem)
This is where the volume fix came from originally.
Windows System Power States
System Sleep States at kernel.org