The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 as a Linux laptop
- Reference: 1678451410
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/10/thinkpad_x1c_g10_linux/
- Source link:
Lenovo ThinkPads have long enjoyed a strong following among Linux types, and the Thinkpad X1 is among the most coveted. The X1 Carbon is the thinnest and lightest, and the [1]Gen 10 latest model is Ubuntu [2]certified . Lenovo offered The Reg one to take a look.
The model we received is a powerhouse: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. As you'd expect for a current machine, it came with Windows 11. We ran Windows Update immediately, and found a whopping 53 outstanding, including multiple drivers. As usual for Windows, once those were installed and the machine rebooted, there were some more updates. After going through the cycle a few times, it claimed there were none outstanding. Then it was off to the Windows Store to install the couple of dozen outstanding updates hidden in there, which Windows Update doesn't tell you about. After that, it was a quick [3]visit to Ninite to install some standard apps . The whole process took barely a working day. This is the kind of fit and finish that running a state-of-the-art professionally written operating system gets you, of course.
[4]
Then, before so much as [5]booting a Ventoy key , we did some essential preliminary steps which [6]we described last year : disabling Bitlocker, disabling Secure Boot in the firmware settings, and so on. That's why we installed all available Windows updates first – to ensure the latest firmware was installed before we began. This done, we started trying some Linux distros on it.
[7]
[8]
The X1 Carbon Gen 10 has an "Alder Lake" CPU, meaning four P (for Performance) cores, each of which can run two threads, and eight E (for Efficiency) single-threaded cores. The CPU shows as having 16 cores in the task manager. The snag with this is that the OS has to be aware that fully half of these are low-powered efficiency cores, and that only low-priority, non-performance-critical tasks should be scheduled onto those.
This is an issue that Apple already faced with macOS on its in-house Apple Silicon boxes, which have a similar performance-versus-efficiency split among their CPU cores – as [9]Arm processors have for over a decade . Apple's OS is aware of the different types of cores, and schedules tasks appropriately – which is quite a [10]complex task. Since Alder Lake CPUs came out, Linux [11]has had to adapt to this as well , changes which appeared in kernel 5.15.35 and were, in [12]theory , backported into Ubuntu 22.04's stable kernel last April.
[13]
Given this cutting-edge kit, we started with the latest Ubuntu, 22.10. We chose the default GNOME edition, as the X1 Carbon has a 16:10 HiDPI (2880×1800), high refresh rate (90Hz), high dynamic range screen, meaning that you will need a desktop environment that supports fractional scaling. Ubuntu "Kinetic" installed smoothly and picked up all the machine's hardware. It registered the high-definition display and defaulted to 200 per cent scaling, which does looks beautifully sharp – but the large text and graphical elements don't leave much room on the machine's 14-inch screen. Enabling fractional scaling in the display settings and dropping it to 175 per cent gives a bit more breathing room; 150 per cent, and while things are getting a little small, you begin to appreciate that this is a very high-resolution display.
However, we found that it didn't run smoothly. The 2022 versions of Ubuntu default to the Wayland display server, but we saw noise and transient bands of corruption on the screen. The default GNOME edition of Ubuntu offers the choice of Wayland or Xorg. After typing your password, don't press Enter – instead, click the cogwheel on the login screen to choose the environment you want. Then press Enter.
This is a good reason for not choosing automatic login. And while we are talking about the login screen, the Gen 10 has a feature to help there: a built-in fingerprint reader, artfully concealed in the power button. GNOME detected this and it worked perfectly.
[14]
We tried GNOME on Xorg instead. It was better, inasmuch as there was no display corruption, but it felt laggy and unresponsive. The mouse pointer didn't move smoothly, and moving or resizing windows felt hesitant. Even letters appearing on screen regularly lagged behind typing. Just in case there was some issue with this short-term release, we tried again with 22.04.2, the current version of the LTS – which [15]now has the same kernel version, 5.19 . It was no better.
To try a more current kernel, we installed the latest openSUSE Tumbleweed. At the point we installed it, this included kernel 6.1, and ran much more smoothly, but it revealed different issues. Firstly, there was no sound: to get that working, we had to install the sof-firmware package, which is also an [16]issue with Fedora on this model. A worse problem is that global display scaling did not work in KDE 5.27 on Xorg, even after a restart. We had to choose Wayland on the login screen in order to get display scaling to work, which is a necessity for the HiDPI display: without it, at its native resolution, text is too small to read. During testing, we got an upgrade to kernel 6.2, which also worked fine.
[17]AmigaOS 3.2.2 released for those feeling nostalgic
[18]How to get the latest Linux kernel on your Ubuntu box
[19]Linux Mint 21.2 and Cinnamon 5.8 desktop take shape
[20]Fedora 38 will still support framebuffer X11 and NIS+
To give a non-systemd-based distro a whirl, we also gave [21]our preferred systemd-free distro MX Linux a go. Our first attempt went wrong – we suspect that auto-detection of the UEFI system partition was confused by Ventoy – and rendered the machine unbootable, necessitating a full reinstall, starting with Windows 11 22H2. The generic Windows ISO from Microsoft's download [22]page threw up an entertaining issue: Windows cannot detect the Gen 10's Wi-Fi adapter. This, of course, means that you can't go online to download the driver. Worse still is that this £1,870 ($2,195) laptop – £2,250 with VAT – has no Ethernet port. It is a slimline machine, but there is plenty of room for a folding port like in the [23]Tuxedo Stellaris G4 we reviewed last year . Part of the reason that there's so much room along the machine's edges is that the X1 Carbon only has four USB ports: two type A and two type C, plus HDMI, a headphone socket and a SIM slot. Fortunately, we had a USB-C mini-hub with an Ethernet port to hand, enabling us to reinstall all those Windows updates – now well over 60, including various drivers.
Mint MATE at 100 percent scaling. It works, but everything is so small it's hard to read
Then we reinstalled some Linux distros: Kubuntu 22.10, which had the same issue as openSUSE of scaling not working in KDE on Xorg, and MX Linux 21.3, the latest "Advanced Hardware Support" edition with Xfce. Here, too, display scaling didn't work right. In fact, the larger the scaling factor we tried, the smaller everything got. After considerable experimentation, we discovered a workaround: if you pick a custom scaling factor, a new box appears allowing you to input a number. Enter a value less than one and it works: 0.8 was rather small, 0.7 reasonable and 0.6 verging on too big.
Xfce at 200 percent scaling, making your £2,000 laptop look like it has a 1990s 800×600 screen
Finally we tried the trusty [24]Linux Mint 21.1 with Cinnamon . We chose that desktop for its fractional scaling support, which worked perfectly, as did sound, Wi-Fi, and everything else, even on kernel 5.15. The only exception is the integrated webcam, which is currently unsupported. For completeness's sake, we also tried Xfce and MATE on Linux Mint. Xfce scaling worked the same as it did on MX Linux, while MATE offered a choice of only 100 per cent (too small) or 200 per cent (too big).
Cinnamon at 150 percent scale but full resolution, which for us is a sensible compromise – which MATE can't offer
Just for comparison, we put the latest kernel on Ubuntu 22.04, Kubuntu 22.10 and Mint 21.1, [25]using the method we described last week , and also for the sake of experiment, [26]using the Liquorix kernel . Both versions worked fine, and when the distro had been displaying any issues of lagginess, sluggish response, display corruption and so on, both kernels resolved them. GNOME on Wayland was the only exception: it froze on login. Mint had no such problems (until we experimentally [27]installed the HWE kernel from Ubuntu ), but the newer kernels worked perfectly anyway.
Conclusions
The "Alder Lake" Core i7-based X1 Carbon is a beautiful notebook computer, if you don't mind Lenovo's modern chiclet keyboards. For this particular vulture, the older seven-row design was vastly better, and we concur with our colleague who decried the modern [28]"godawful chiclet six-row keyboard."
Like other recent ThinkPads, this version has a combination of three physical buttons for the Trackpoint, plus a buttonless trackpad with gesture support, which is a great combination. Even with 32GB of RAM and a terabyte of SSD, it's one of the thinnest, lightest laptops we've ever tried, and running Linux, without the burden of Windows, it runs in total silence most of the time. If the fans are turning, we can't hear them, and the underside becomes just slightly warm to the touch after a while. After running on battery for hours, the power gauge still showed hours left and we suspect it's good for a whole day's use and maybe more.
[29]The Intel 12th generation chipset is still too new for most stable Linux distros: asymmetric core scheduling, its [30]integrated Xe GPU , the webcam, and perhaps worst of all, the need for fractional display scaling with such a high-DPI screen, which caused problems for GNOME on Wayland on kernel 5.15, and both Xfce and KDE on Xorg. Its integration of fractional scaling is a key advantage for the Cinnamon desktop and Mint in general, and the poor HiDPI handling of MATE and Xfce will prove to be critical weaknesses for these older desktops as such displays become more common, unless the projects make rapid improvements in this area. At least KDE has the workaround of using Wayland to get fractional scaling working.
There's a lot you can do to improve the experience, but it shouldn't be necessary. To be fair, though, we are sure that this will improve markedly in a year or so.
We have seen some rave reviews of the Gen 10 X1 Carbon, including one that called it the best laptop ever made. We cannot agree. For the price point, we would prefer to see more ports: say, one more of each size of USB port plus an Ethernet port. And without the external [31]dongle as used on some other ThinkPad models, thank you. A card reader wouldn't go amiss either. It is also a shame that the battery is not removable, and there's no hatch for RAM upgrades or replacements. Some of these compromises are necessary for such a thin machine, but not all of them.
Even so, this is a substantially better laptop than the two thin-and-light Dell Latitudes which have spent time on The Reg FOSS desk recently. While all ThinkPad keyboards are far inferior to Lenovo's own keyboards of 12 years ago, they remain substantially better than almost any other chiclet keyboards on the market, and the Trackpoint is a better pointing device, which enables you to keep your hands over the home keys.
Linux supports the machine well, with the exception of the webcam – and we're confident that will get sorted soon. For now, you might want to use Linux Mint or a rolling-release distro such as openSUSE Tumbleweed, [32]Debian siduction or [33]Garuda Linux , until newer versions of Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora appear. ®
Get our [34]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/thinkpad-x1-carbon-gen-10-(14-inch-intel)/len101t0009
[2] https://ubuntu.com/certified/202204-30215
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/10/ninite/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZAtiNc6dACbAZ7ffUfsXjgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/10/friday_foss_fest/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/linux_nonapproved_laptop
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAtiNc6dACbAZ7ffUfsXjgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAtiNc6dACbAZ7ffUfsXjgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/20/details_on_big_little_processing/
[10] https://eclecticlight.co/2022/04/25/how-macos-manages-m1-cpu-cores/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/01/linux_5_16_alder_lake/
[12] https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/5-15-35-kernel-availability/5921
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZAtiNc6dACbAZ7ffUfsXjgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZAtiNc6dACbAZ7ffUfsXjgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/20/ubuntu_realtime_capable_edition/
[16] https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/wpooq8/thinkpad_x1_carbon_gen_10_linux/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/amigaos_322_released/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/06/ubuntu_latest_kernel_kde/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/02/linux_mint_212/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/01/fedora_38_legacy_tech/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/mx_linux_212/
[22] https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/08/tuxedo_stellaris_amd_gen_4/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/05/mint_211_enters_beta/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/06/ubuntu_latest_kernel_kde/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/25/friday_foss_fest_liquorix_kernel/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/23/ubuntu_kernel_updates/
[28] https://www.theregister.com/2015/06/27/lenovo_mulling_retro_thinkpad_redesign_with_return_to_old_styling/
[29] https://www.theregister.com/2015/06/27/lenovo_mulling_retro_thinkpad_redesign_with_return_to_old_styling/
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/30/intel_arc_gpu/
[31] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/cables-and-adapters/cables-&-adapters_adapters/4x90q84427
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/05/siduction_2022_1/
[33] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/28/garuda_linux_arch_better/
[34] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Optional
Yes, you can
There are "with Linux" options, e.g. "Build Your ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 Intel (14") with Linux"
> https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bundleId=21CBCTO1WWUS2
You get to pick from Ubuntu or Fedora.
I agree it's support is spotty and likely only for the models which got the Ubuntu or other "certification"
Re: Optional
if you change 'us' to 'gb' in that url, you get to build your null - so I imagine the linux version is not available in the uk, sigh.
Re: Optional
Fair enough.
Down here in ZA, we don't get any "Build Your PC" options: just pick from a few pre-selected oddly shaped configurations and bend the knee to an even heftier price premium.
Re: Optional
Thank volume licence agreements: manufacturers pay less per licence but only as long as they install Windows on every machine.
Re: installed on every machine
But then Lenovo also has to support only a single OS profile on that 'every machine' model, plus provide support tools on that OS profile (firmware updater, etc.). As very few OEM's have updaters running on Linux, you'll also lose BIOS updating when you switch, which is a potential support headache in the making for Lenovo.
Linux, Linux, Linux, but supporting 3% of the world's desktop users who use it automatically creates a burden that most companies won't commit to.
Re: Optional
I don't know about the Thinkpad range, but when i bought a V series Lenovo laptop last year, there was an option to buy without Windows and have FreeDOS for about £30 less, and that is what I opted for so i could put Linux Mint on it.
A work around for the fractional scaling issue on Linux Mint Mate only offering 100% or 200% is to go into the control center > Appearance > Fonts > Details and then change the DPI. On a 1080p screen I found that 120dpi is about right.
To make the mouse pointer larger its Control center > Appearance > Theme > Customise > Pointer and you can move the slider to whatever side pointer you find the best.
Right click the menu button from the task bar, preferences > Appearance. To change the icon sizes on the menu
Right click on an empty area of the task bar to bring up a menu to adjust its size.
This is more long winded than just changing the fractional scaling but a reasonable work around,once you work out where all the setting are located. I found it works from me and allows me to keep using Mate, although i might switch to Cinnamon when i come to upgrade to the next LTS of Mint on this computer.
It's not the hardware
Riiiiiight.... so, to get the new shiny chips, you have to have a computer science degree. Otherwise, it's pretty pointless, got it.
Re: It's not the hardware
No, you just have to do due diligence and pick an appropriate distro, rather than an inappropriate distro. It ever was thus.
Small screen non-2-in-1... why?
Why aren't all small screen laptops 2-in-1s? I think all laptops should be a 2-in-1 especially since most have very little options besides USB.
Re: Small screen non-2-in-1... why?
[Author here]
> I think all laptops should be a 2-in-1
Er, I am not entirely sure what you mean. You mean a convertible that can fold back on itself become a tablet?
I do *not* want that. I am sure lots of other people don't either.
If you do want that, Lenovo will happily sell you a Yoga, which is their convertible brand.
I buy laptops to be laptops, not tablets, and if I wanted a tablet, I'd buy one. I do have a cheap old Chinese thing that I bought for a hospital stay, but I never use it. In the last 3 years, my daughter has, mainly for watching videos, which is almost the only thing it is good at.
Re: Small screen non-2-in-1... why?
> I do *not* want that. I am sure lots of other people don't either.
Me neither, and especially at the price point the Carbon sits at. If it was a £200 laptop I might accept it as a trade-off, but it would always be in the "con" list.
Re: Small screen non-2-in-1... why?
I made the mistake of buying not one buyt three of those, thinking each one was an exception. They're fragile. The first two pretty much came apart in my hands, the third I sold because it was inordinately noisy and ran very hot. At last I got the message: not going there again.
I would recommend looking at a 17-inch LG Gram. It probably wouldn't give Liam's X1 a run for its money, but my six-month-old version is very light, is fast and thin - and despite its 17-inch screen, it costs £600 less than an X1. I still think it's the best laptop I've ever used - and I've been using (and occasionally reviewing) them fior 30+ years.
Re: Small screen non-2-in-1... why?
"I made the mistake of buying not one buyt three of those, thinking each one was an exception. They're fragile."
IME, never having owned one but having repaired many, it's down to the hinge mechanism and how the hinges are attached. The cheaper ones use a metal nut embedded into plastic and that plastic seems to age badly such that the embedded nut comes out and you need a new top cover. The better ones with a metal cover and moulded in nut are far less likely to come apart, assuming they designed the hinges properly and routed the video/camera cable(s) so there's minimal movement when opening/closing it.
I remember one well known brand laptop with such poor cable routing that just removing the bottom cover would allow the video cable to move out of position. If you didn't know this, the mere act of removing/replacing the bottom cover would then pinch the video cable and cause a failure either then and there or very soon in the near future.
Legacy
Lenovo should change their name to Legacy and their line to ThoughtPad.
Why they flood the market with legacy Intel technology?
They should probably be better off (at least for the planet) buying back the post lease stock and refurbishing it to factory spec than bring "new" products to the market.
Soldered
So if you go to their configuration page, you can see:
16 GB LPDDR5-6400MHz (Soldered)
Why won't they state the exact model of the chip and list memory chips that are compatible?
That something is soldered is no longer a barrier to upgrade.
Re: Soldered
Everything's a soldering kit if you're brave enough, but these aren't DIL packages from the 1980's - reworking SMD components is a far trickier business.
Re: Soldered
That said, memory is just the one single item that post-sale, can significantly extend the lifetime of a laptop.
I'm not convinced they can't maintain the slim line profile and offer socketed DIMMs.
My 2015 X1 Carbon is still in very good shape, but 8GB is just not cutting it any more.
I've sourced a 16GB motherboard (a later SKU of the same model) from ebay, but that's pretty excessive just for a "memory upgrade"
Touchpads
"Like other recent ThinkPads, this version has a combination of three physical buttons for the Trackpoint, plus a buttonless trackpad with gesture support, which is a great combination."
Mere words cannot display my disgust at "buttonless trackpads", the Apple idea that has infested the rest of the laptop world like a damn STD.
Re: Touchpads
[Author here]
> Mere words cannot display my disgust at "buttonless trackpads"
I think perhaps you misunderstand.
It has proper moving physical buttons: 3 of them, as I said. However these are for the Trackpoint and so they are _above_ the trackpad. However, they are not in any way dedicated and you can point with the trackpad and click with the trackpoint's buttons, which I found myself doing a lot of the time and it works well.
I said it was an ideal combination, and I meant it, because frankly 3 is good, better than just 2 -- middle-clicking is very handy -- and many vendors only gave you 2. Today of course many give you none at all, which I agree is very annoying.
But the thing is that for a while there were a few Thinkpads that shipped with *five* buttons: 3 for the Trackpoint (above the trackpad) _and_ two more below the trackpad. That is, I submit, silly. *Maybe* if you they were logically different buttons or could be redefined, but you couldn't. There were 2 left buttons, 2 rights, and one middle. That is IMHO silly.
The lower left and lower right corners of the trackpad can _also_ be used as buttons, and they physically depress. In fact the whole trackpad does. You can find the corners easily by touch.
But by being buttonless there's more space for gestures, which also work, and work quite well -- much better than on either of my Dell Latitudes for instance.
So you get the best of both worlds this way: a nice big trackpad, if you like those, *and* physical buttons too -- *three* of the things.
TBH, for me, I think they should put the physical buttons right at the bottom... but I have very big hands and can easily cope. I think people with smaller hands would find that difficult, so I wouldn't force it on everyone.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 as a Linux laptop
The sad thing here is that the Lenovo ThinkPad appears to be not as Linux-friendly as the good old IBM ThinkPad.
Re: The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 as a Linux laptop
[Author here]
> the good old IBM ThinkPad
Although I do not feel any great urge to defend Lenovo especially, to be fair, Lenovo only took over around 2005 and started shipping the T60, its first Thinkpad, in 2006.
IBM never made a Core 2 Duo (or even Core 1) Thinkpad.
The IBM ones were not great for Linux, TBH, and while I do still have at least one actual IBM Thinkpad, I don't think there is a single distro that could usefully run on it today, or from the last decade or more.
T14s
The "sensible" alternative to the X1 used to be a T4xx s but now even that one (now called T14s) doesn't have an Ethernet socket any more.
Re: T14s
I'd rather have it built in, obviously, but I just use a USB-C hub that has an ethernet socket in the end of it.
Re: T14s
[Author here]
> I just use a USB-C hub that has an ethernet socket in the end of it.
That's what I did when I had to reinstall Win11, and I am very glad I had it. It is actually a hub for a Planet Computers Gemini QWERTY PDA but it works on the 3 USB-C laptops I've tried it on so far, which is more than I can say for my Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt convertor. Not a single so-called Thunderbolt/USB port has worked yet.
I have helped a colleague set up a high-end Dell Precision portable workstation which came with a USB-C-to-Ethernet dongle in the box. That's better than nothing. It was annoying, though, because this was a huge beast of a 15.6" laptop with dual GPUs and both an SSD _and_ a 2TB spinning hard disk. It was a big beast and there was loads of room for a full-size port.
My personal, cynical theory is that someone simply forgot, they realised when the case mouldings were finished, so they threw in the dongle.
Frankly, for the price of the X1C i7, Lenovo should have done the same.
Re: T14s
[Author here]
> now even that one (now called T14s) doesn't have an Ethernet socket any more.
I am not sure if it was a T14 but I saw a modern T-series at FOSDEM which does have onboard Ethernet -- but not with an RJ45 connector, with an annoying, proprietary Lenovo connector for a special Lenovo dongle. Plug in the dongle and then you have RJ45.
That is absurd, which is why I called it out as such in the article.
The folding ones are not ideal but they are massively better than none at all, and better even than a dongle.
Lenovo Marketing Dept screwed up...BIG TIME
Why on Earth should Lenovo send a seasoned and professional reviewer a machine that had not already been updated to the latest spec of Win 11 + installing all the relevant and updated drivers BEFORE shipping to the reviewer. And wasting the reviewers time updating it.
Smacks of a complete lack of care and attention to detail from whoever was responsible for this. Indeed, heads should roll for it !
If I was the reviewer, I would have returned the laptop at the first sign of this and then written a TWO sentence review: "This is a great looking machine". But in it's shipped form, it is totally impractical for the lay-person to use once received and should be avoided at all cost."
The resulting "fire salvage" sale (that would be forthcoming so they can clear their stocks ASAP) might then teach the Lenovo Marketing Dept not to waste peoples time.
Re: Lenovo Marketing Dept screwed up...BIG TIME
[Author here]
> Why on Earth should Lenovo send... a machine that had not already been updated to the latest spec of Win 11
It did. It was fully installed with all drivers.
My point is that Win11 is still in such a state of flux that a machine newly-installed with the manufacturer's installation image _still_ needed 53 updates to be installed straight out of the box.
I suspect that once an OEM image has been built, it can't be updated without completing the Windows OOBE wizard. ("Out Of the Box Experience.") They _can't_ update it.
The Gen 10 is not a brand new model. It was announced in January 2022 and launched in March 2022.
I suspect, but do not know, that the OEM disk image has not been updated since. Redoing it once per year seems reasonable to me.
Do please note that I had to _reinstall_ the machine half way through the test period, because I did something -- I am not sure what -- and rendered it unbootable. Rather than spend a long time troubleshooting, I just nuked and reloaded it.
Some comments
"That's why we installed all available Windows updates first – to ensure the latest firmware was installed before we began."
Personally, I would have used the Lenovo System Updater and not bothered with the potential hours long Windows Updater. After all, it's only the firmware updates you want and you can easily choose just those from the OEM updater.
"We had to choose Wayland on the login screen in order to get display scaling to work, which is a necessity for the HiDPI display: without it, at its native resolution, text is too small to read."
Global scaling is a relatively new innovation. All the other scaling options, such as choosing icon fonts, toolbar fonts etc are still there. Did they work? The artcile doesn't mention iof that was tried. I would normally not use global scaling because often it's not quite what I want. Making the fonts the size I want means the icons then become too big, so being able to scale stuff manually and individually is how I prefer it anyway.
"rendered the machine unbootable, necessitating a full reinstall, starting with Windows 11 22H2."
That's a surprise. Linux is usually pretty good at sorting out screwed up partitions by, at worst, allowing a wipe. I have seen systems on rare occasions where the boot blocks and other stuff in track 0+ is so badly screwed, the best and only real option is to boot a live OS, Linux, or even Windows these days, and write zeroes over the first few hundred or so blocks making the SSD/HDD seem like a factory new drive to the OS. Was that tried before spending time on an entire Windows install? At the very least, if the Windows install "fixed" anything, it would be safe to just kill the power as soon as the SSD was successfully partitioned, no need to do a re-install.
"the X1 Carbon only has four USB ports
That's one or two more than many laptops these days :-)
The target market for this laptop, I'd expect them to have a USB->ethernet adaptor in their kit. It's an issue with many makes and models of slimline laptops these days. The flip out RJ-45 connectors are great. Except the non-technical users tend to break them with great frequency.
"enabling us to reinstall all those Windows updates – now well over 60, including various drivers."
Again? Why? You already did that once. Any firmware updates useful with the Linux install are persistent and you did them. If drivers are also installing firmware "blobs", and you think you still need them, then they are only used when the OS boots and are lost when you power off or install a different OS.
The best way to see if a Lenovo is likely to have hardware support in Linux before installing anything is to boot the [1]Lenovo Linux Diags Tool and see which of the diags tests are greyed out (might just indicate that hardware does not exist on your model of course). If the diags for the hardware works, then Lenovo, at least, have got drivers for it and so is likely to be available "in the wild" too.
I'm trying not to be too negative over what is a decent review overall, but the points above just struck me as really odd and likely off-putting to someone unaware of the potential pitfalls.
I don't work for Lenovo. I just happen to have a number of customers who use lots of their laptops and I have to deal with that and so have gained a lot of experience, especially diagnosing and dealing with hardware issues
[1] https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht506581
Re: Some comments
[Author here]
> Personally, I would have used the Lenovo System Updater
Fair. I did spend some time in Windows on the machine, though, and it's my SOP to apply all updates before starting to put the thing through its paces.
> Global scaling is a relatively new innovation.
This is true, and it's an area where Linux is still catching up, which is why I spent some time talking about it.
> All the other scaling options, such as choosing icon fonts, toolbar fonts etc are still there. Did they work?
Yes they are.
Notably, as far as I can tell, Xfce's fractional scaling option works by dropping the screen resolution, which also works but is not idea.
You could indeed do a fully custom scaling option and probably get better results, but I feel it is too much work for most people. You could also adjust the Xorg DPI setting, as another commenter pointed out, but I feel that should be a simple slider in display settings.
I found it interesting that in one desktop, Xorg worked better than Wayland, and in another, Wayland worked better than Xorg, which is why I took the time to point this out.
It's Linux. There _are_ ways to work around most things. There were some hints that it is possible to compile your own webcam driver and get that working, but IMHO that is too hard for more people.
> I'd expect them to have a USB->ethernet adaptor in their kit.
Agreed.
> Except the non-technical users tend to break them with great frequency.
Sadly, I can easily believe that.
> Again? Why? You already did that once.
Like I said earlier in the comment: in order to actually be able to use Windows fully. Point entirely taken about firmware updates, though. It did not do those again, but it did have to load a lot more drivers than with Lenovo's OEM install. And being Windows, it is sometimes a case of run Windows Update, watch it install the driver, possibly reboot, then watch it decide it needs to update the driver, or install a specific vendor driver in place of a generic one.
> boot the Lenovo Linux Diags Tool
OK, I admit I did not know about this one.
Optional
Why for f***s sake can we not buy a lenovo without windows. I bought a AMD yoga 2 years ago which is a dream but HAD to pay the windows tax.