Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (AMD) Gen 1
| Hardware | PCI/USB ID | Working? |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| Audio | Yes | |
| TrackPoint | Yes | |
| Touchpad | Yes | |
| Webcam | 13d3:5405 |
Yes |
| Fingerprint reader | 06cb:00bd |
Yes |
| Mobile broadband | Untested | |
| Bluetooth | 8087:0029 |
Yes |
| Smartcard reader | 058f:9540 |
Yes |
This article covers the installation and configuration of Arch Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T14s (AMD) Gen 1 laptop. Almost everything seems to work pretty much out the box with kernel >=5.8.0. Yet untested: wwan
For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop.
Firmware
Secure boot
As of August 2021 deleting SecureBoot keys and installing your own keys (for example by using KeyTool) will brick the device. This is a problem that is similar to one which has been reported on some other Lenovo laptops and is likely due to a faulty firmware. If the device is stuck in a boot loop after replacing the SecureBoot keys, the only way to repair it is by replacing the mainboard of the device. Hopefully, the issue will get fixed with a firmware update in the future.
Fingerprint sensor
The fingerprint sensor works with some recent firmware and software updates.
- Use fwupd to install the latest firmware for "Synaptics Prometheus Fingerprint Reader". The update might have to be done manually as the released firmware is in testing; or you could enable the testing remote in fwupd to allow automated upgrade. The relevant firmwares are Prometheus Fingerprint Reader and Prometheus Fingerprint Reader Configuration.
- fprintd ≥ 1.90.1 and libfprint ≥ 1.90.1 are required. Alternatively, use the latest Git master through fprintd-libfprint2AUR and libfprint-gitAUR.
fprint has more details on how to setup the fingerprint, for PAM-based authentication for example.
If the fingerprint reader is not detected by fwupd but is detected by lsusb you will need to reset the fingerprint reader in the Bios.
Backlight
quiet kernel option is set you may have to add fbcon=nodefer or systemd-backlight will fail on bootBacklight works correctly by manipulating the values, between 0-255, inside /sys/class/backlight/amdgpu_bl0/brightness or using a backlight managing utility.
Before kernel 5.8.6, systemd-backlight@backlight:acpi_video0.service required masking as it failed on boot.
Smartcard reader
Seems to work and read cards. Following instructions from smartcards.
Updating firmware
Updating the firmware using the fwupd utility works as long as all the relevant options are enabled in the BIOS (Enable Windows Update UEFI Update). A BIOS update Bootable CD ISO that is OS agnostic may be downloaded from https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/.
The UEFI BIOS can also be updated without using fwupd; see Flashing BIOS from Linux#Bootable optical disk emulation for more information (and heed the warning at the top of the article). A charged battery and AC power are required for a successful update. Avoid having any addons/docks plugged in when performing the BIOS update.
Power mangement
Enabling S3 sleep
For Suspend to work as expected, enter UEFI/BIOS setup, enter the page "Config -> Power" and set the option "Sleep State" to "Linux".
This will enable S3 sleep as opposed to Windows' "Modern Standby Mode", which Arch Linux does not support at this time. (Despite the warning in the setting's description, Windows will continue to work; it will just sleep in S3 mode, rather than the "Modern Standby" mode.) See the wiki page on Thinkpad X1 Yoga for some more background on S3 sleep vs Arch Linux.
Mobile broadband
The only supported WWAN card is the Fibocom L850-GL, a PCIe card without any Linux drivers (and most probably never will get any, it is an Apple owned chipset now.). All the existing WWAN workaround involve flashing a Sierra Wireless (Qualcomm) WWAN to escape the BIOS whitelist by enumerating slowly. This however does not work in the T14s, the card is entirely disabled and not even visible in lsusb. It is possible that the USB lanes are disabled on the M.2 port.
There exists an alpha-quality driver for the Fibocom L850-GL here. The L860 is not proposed in the T14s AMD but is in the T14s Intel and a linux mainline driver is being worked on by Lenovo for it. See Xmm7360-pci for more information.
Wireless
The onboard wireless card is Intel AX200, and it may have microcode issues when used as-is. A possible fix for WiFi disconnects is turning on iwlwifi antenna agreggation on by creating a modprobe config
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
options iwlwifi 11n_disable=8
and rebooting. Look in Network configuration/Wireless#iwlwifi for details.
Microphone
The microphone may not be operational. A possible fix is to blacklist the snd_pci_acp3x module (to allow newer kernels to use snd_rn_pci_acp3x?)
Webcam
If the webcam is missing after updating to kernel 5.13, install upd72020x-fwAUR (USB 3.0 chipset firmware).