Lenovo ThinkPad X240

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Reason: Reference to "current time" in the tip; generally too short - provides only a basic overview. (Discuss in Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad X240)

The Lenovo X240 is a laptop from the Lenovo Ultrabook Series and also is a complete redesign of the X Series. This can be observed especially with devices like the touchpad, which has been changed to be a one-click touchpad instead of having the classic 5 button touchpad. The X240 is a very light device, weighing in at just 2.84 lbs (1.36 kg) and measuring 12.02" x 8.19" x 0.79".

Tested Configuration

Tip: Below were the tested configurations at the current time.

Feature	X240	X240 (20AMS4SM00)	X240 (20ALA0K-WIG)	X240 (20ALCTO1WW)
CPU	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 2.7GHz	Inter(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.6 GHz	Inter(R) Core(TM) i5-4300U CPU @ 1.9 GHz
Graphics	Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT	Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT	Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT	Intel HD 4400 - Haswell-ULT
Ram	8 GB	8 GB	4 GB	4 GB
Disk	Samsung 5120 SSD	Seagate ST500LM000-SSHD-8GB	WDC WD10JPVX-08JC3T5	Samsung 840 Evo
Display	12.5" IPS FHD (1920x1080)	12.5" IPS FHD (1920x1080)	12.5" IPS 1366x768	12.5" IPS FHD 1920x1080
Wireless	Intel Corporation Wireless 7260	Intel Corporation Wireless 7260	Intel Corporation Wireless 7260	Intel Corporation Wireless 7260
Built-in Battery	9 Cell	9 Cell	Not Tested	3 Cell
Additional Plugable Battery	6 Cell 19+	6 Cell 19+	6 Cell 19+	3 Cell
Backlight Keyboard	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
ThinkLight	No	No	No	-
Fingerprint Scanner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Camera	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NFC	No	-	-	-

System Configuration

Use analog sound card by default in ALSA

You likely need to change the ALSA default sound card if you want to output sound via line-out by default.

Install the alsa-utils package, run aplay -l and inspect its output:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3232 Analog [ALC3232 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The card that drives the analog line-out is in this case card #1. Create a global configuration file to make it the default:

$ cat /etc/asound.conf

defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.timer.card 1

Alternatively, the same configuration may be set in $HOME/.asoundrc.

Touchpad

The touchpad works out of the box. You will need to install xf86-input-synaptics.

Some users may prefer to use the trackpoint over the touchpad. In that case, the touchpad can be disabled via synclient TouchpadOff=1 (will be gone after re-login). See Synaptics for more information and options.

Battery

Despite they focus on power management under Microsoft Windows, it might be useful to read the following articles from the official documentation:

Easy ways to extend your battery life - ideapad/Lenovo/ThinkPad laptops
Manage battery for your laptop in Windows 10 - ThinkPad^{[dead link 2021-11-13 ⓘ]}
Display contrast reduced while on battery mode on ThinkPad X220^{[dead link 2021-11-13 ⓘ]}

TrackPoint

The TrackPoint is usuable out of the box, but the default parameters for speed, sensitivity and inertia yield only insufficient navigation ability given the high-res display. The following udev configuration delivers a snappy experience:

$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/10-trackpoint.rules


SUBSYSTEM=="serio", DRIVERS=="psmouse", ACTION=="change", ENV{SERIO_TYPE}=="05", ATTR{press_to_select}="1", ATTR{sensitivity}="196", ATTR{speed}="255", ATTR{inertia}="4"

Consult the ThinkWiki for other configuration possibilities such as scrolling.

Keyboard

The keyboard works out of the box mostly, including the Fn key and XF86 aliases. For the LED of the XF86AudioMute button to work acpi_osi="Linux" needs to be appended to the kernel line in the bootloader. For GRUB this would be:

/etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_osi=\"Linux\""

Most WMs/DEs handle the special XF86 keys automatically, but you might need to add a configuration yourself. Tools like amixer (alsa-utils), xorg-xbacklight, arandr and lxrandr help in this regard.

The button XF86WLAN automatically toggles the (soft) rfkill block state of the wireless device. Keep this in mind when you set it up to connect/disconnect to your wireless network. You can also unblock wlan without using this key: rfkill unblock wlan.

The keyboard does not have an LED for CapsLock. If your WM/DE does not come with an indicator you can use indicator-keylock^AUR in the tray.

The indicator LED for XF86AudioMicMute seems to be broken in some way. According to this commit it should work with snd-hda-intel but it does not. There is also an older kernel patch available that might or might not help, but probably does not work with a current kernel as is.

Keyboard Backlight

The default hotkey for the keyboard backlight (Fn+Space) is automatically supported by GNOME. In order to set the keyboard brightness from a terminal it is possible to choose between three different levels of brightness using the following commands:

0% brightness:

# echo 0 | tee /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness

50% brightness:

# echo 1 | tee /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness

100% brightness:

# echo 2 | tee /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::kbd_backlight/brightness

Alternatively, installing the package acpilight allows to do the same thing using a different syntax:

0% brightness:

# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 0

50% brightness:

# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 50

100% brightness:

# xbacklight -ctrl tpacpi::kbd_backlight -set 100

Fingerprint Reader

The fingerprint reader is a Validity Sensors model (138a:0017) also used on the Thinkpad X1 Carbon and T440. ThinkFinger does NOT support this reader. This fingerprint reader requires libfprint to be build from the current git (https://github.com/ars3niy/fprint_vfs5011.git ). Alternatively, it can also be done going through Fprint, for 20ALA0K-WIG.

Fingerprint Login

Install the fprintd package to enable the fingerprint login in GNOME.

Caveats

Common hardware problems

This page provides a list and links regarding common issues with X240 hardware.

NFC Reader

Some of the x240 devices have a NFC reader integrated in the touchpad. However it seems that this type of NFC reader is not support for Linux. This post^{[dead link 2021-11-13 ⓘ]} seems to confirm this.

Grey noise with analog audio when audio is not muted

On some X240 and other TP 4xx models, persisting grey noise is hearable when the audio mixer has not been muted. The issue has been reported to the ALSA developers, but as of now, the issue persists. Affected users are encouraged to report their situation in the linked thread.

More later (ToDo)

- Thunderbolt