Lenovo ThinkPad P52

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Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
GPU (Intel)
Yes
GPU (Nvidia)
Yes
Wireless
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:0aaa
Yes
Audio
10de:0fb9
Yes
Touchpad
Yes
Webcam
5986:2113
Yes
Card reader
10ec:525a
Yes
Fingerprint reader
06cb:009a
Yes
The Lenovo P52 is a quad or hex core Intel 8th generation Laptop.
Installation
Warning
There are some possible "BIOS BRICKING" settings. The settings are not directly related to installing Arch, but most Arch users will make configuration changes in the same areas where these settings can be modified.
Make sure to update your BIOS to
V1.17 or later
(current is v1.24 as of March 2019). Earlier versions of the BIOS may become inoperable if you select certain settings:
Hybrid vs discrete graphics -
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile/P52-won-t-start-after-change-to-only-discrete-graphic-card/m-p/4265065
Thunderbolt 3 Support -
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile/Lenovo-P52-bricked-by-selecting-BIOS-thunderbolt-support-for/td-p/4207538?page=12
Note
You can update the BIOS using the bootable (CD) update option from Lenovo, or just update the BIOS using the pre-packaged Windows installation and software and then continue with Arch installation once the BIOS is updated.
Graphics
This laptop has its external display ports
directly wired to the NVIDIA chip
. In loose terms this means that the dedicated GPU must be enabled in order for external displays to be used. Luckily, it is possible to do dynamic switching between the integrated and dedicated graphics, but this is only possible by using the Intel DDX driver
xf86-video-intel
as opposed to modesetting.
The laptop can be used in one of two modes: Hybrid Graphics, or Dedicated Graphics only.
In order to use the integrated Intel UHD 630 GPU (as part of Hybrid Graphics) you need to add the
i915
module to your
initramfs
by adding it as a module in your
mkinitcpio
. This is done by setting the following on
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
:
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
...
MODULES=(i915)
Failure to add the above will leave you stuck when trying to load the
initramfs
and your system will not be able to boot.
It might be possible to make do without the module above by using the
Dedicated Graphics
only (this can be done by changing the setting in UEFI).
Proprietary driver with bumblebee
With this setup the integrated GPU is used by default but some applications can be rendered on the discrete GPU with the
optirun
or
primusrun
launchers. See
Bumblebee
for detailed instructions. The lack of proper v-sync support means that with this method applications rendered on the discrete GPU exhibit tearing. There is also some overhead introduced as a result of moving data inefficiently between the discrete and integrated GPUs, but the Nvidia GPU performs much better than it does with Nouveau.
To get this working you will need
bumblebee
,
bbswitch
,
nvidia
and
xf86-video-intel
.
Then set the following configuration files.
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/intel.conf
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "intel"
    Inactive       "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "nvidia"
    Driver         "dummy"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "nvidia"
    Device         "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "intel"
    Device         "intel"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "intel"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "TearFree" "true"
    Option      "DRI" "3"
    BusId       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
(you probably already have one of these so adjust/add as needed - the dummy device at the end is essential!!):
/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Layout0"
    Option      "AutoAddDevices" "false"
    Option      "AutoAddGPU" "false"

    # Inventions
    Screen      0 "nvidia"
    Inactive    "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "DiscreteNvidia"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option "ProbeAllGpus" "false"

    Option "NoLogo" "true"
    Option "UseEDID" "true"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "dummy"
    BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
EndSection
At this stage, restart your machine. Then you should be able to run applications on the GPU as you normally would with
optirun
, e.g.,
optirun glxgears
. If you want to use the external displays you need to keep your GPU on by running a task on
optirun
and then running
intel-virtual-output -f
(this will stay running and binds the external display ports to virtual outputs that you can use). At this stage you should be able to see and use the external ports.
Fingerprint reader
See
Lenovo ThinkPad T480s
- it works with
python-validity
AUR
but not with
libfprint
.
Touchpad
Every once in a while Linux kernel upgrades will cause issues where the Touchpad and Trackpoint stop working. Booting with kernel parameter
psmouse.elantech_smbus=0
seems to fix it.
FS#59714#comment174924