T440s under linux

FWIW I see the exact same thing with my Windows 8.1 install. It doesn't detect the new battery until I sleep/resume or plug in power.

 

So how's this laptop performing on linux? What distro is it most compatible with? I suppose touchscreen is useless, no?
As much as I enjoy linux I have second thoughts about switching it from win 8.1. How's the rendering quality?

I've been using virtualbox for work but that's slow, the only reason I keep windows is for a few apps and games.

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Hello,

I recently bought a thinkpad T440s (bios version 2.27), I was able to boot xubuntu in legacy mode, but did not succeed to boot in uefi mode.

The way I do it is to grab the latest xubuntu desktop amd64 iso, run isohybrid on it, finally "burn it" on one usb stick.

To boot in uefi mode, I tried many settings, with or without "secure mode" ..., none worked, tried on all usb ports, no luck.

When googling this issue, I found many posts on dual boot with windows (which for instance is in uefi mode),
but I am not concerned by dual boot as ubuntu will be my sole operating system.

I am aware of the help pages on uefi, but I find difficult it to understand what is relevant or not in my case.
I wonder if someone with a close hardware, succeeded to install xubuntu (or another version) in uefi mode.

Would someone of this post tell me how to proceed ?

Thanks in advance for your attention.

Best regard.

 

Anyone using the T440s with the ultra dock? I see there are some issues with displayport MST (?) preventing multiple monitors from working properly. Does this affect all ports or just certain ones? For e.g. could you get two monitors working with the displayport + hdmi or displayport + vga ports (on the dock, not the laptop itself)?

 

I've got an Ubuntu and Windows 8.1 install working in UEFI. It's not the same as what's on most websites because I have Ubuntu on one M.2 SSD and Windows on the a second. I managed (after much pain which was largely the result of the windows installer) to get both drives working with a GPT partition scheme. This means I could pull out either drive and still boot the other - both drives have indepent bootable partitions.
Does your xubuntu live usb boot in UEFI mode? You can check this by looking at the boot screen of the live usb. If it looks like this as opposed to this then it's in UEFI mode.
The only thing I had to end up disabling was secureboot but that was only because I couldn't chainload the windows 8.1 loader... not sure why but cant be bothered with something that's working fine...

From there you need to make sure you've set up your partitions correctly and then install to the correct partition and it should be working!

 

Here's my t440s Ubuntu experience:

Rendering at the full 1080p is too small and painful. Changed the Ubuntu settings (Displays -> Scale for... to 1.2. Looks perfect and crisp to me!). Also had to adjust firefox zoom level in about:config by changing layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to 1.25 from -1. This just changes the scale for firefox to something more more readable.

-The touchpad works fine (actually I think two finger scrolling is smoother than Windows) and when clicking the cursor doesn't jump as much as in Windows. On the downside, no gestures beyond two finger scroll... Trackpoint works, but again no click regions at the top of the clickpad.

-Fingerprint scanner doesn't work (would be cool to be able to sudo and then scan fingerprint!).

-the Function keys that matter work fine: volume/mute; brightness; wifi on/off. Search and settings don't work. I think the monitors button also work but haven't had a chance to test it.

-The biggest trouble I've had yet is that my SD card reader does not work... probably the only thing that I'm willing to put work into solving. I'll check back in if I do get it working (has anyone here resolved sd card reader issues?)

As for battery life haven't had a chance to test it but I've seen power draw everywhere between 10 and 19 watts so far. I have the extended battery so 71+21 watt hours -> good estimate might be 6 or 7 hours. The battery indicator's telling me 5... that must be very conservative or I'm missing something, you can probably squeeze out above 9 hours...

 

The SD card reader seems to be Realtek PCIe, not a USB-based one.

 

Xubuntu 14.04 - sd card reader not working....

 

The fingerprint scanner is a Validity VFS5011 (hardware id on my system in Arch shows: 138a:0017). In Arch, fprint is the necessary module, however this fingerprint reader requires libfprint to be built from the current git, and as yet no stable fprint release supports it.

I did find this though:

The perfect commuter developer linux laptop: Getting the T440s Validity VFS5011 fingerprint sensor (ID: 138a:0017) to work

I'll probably give it a shot after I've finished with higher priority items.

 

I don't have a t440s but I have two other Haswell-generation laptops and they idle at between 4 and 6W under Linux, so I think you should be able to do better. But perhaps you simply like a brighter screen than I do, which could account for much of the difference...

 

I run Ubuntu dual booted along W8 in secure mode. I did no changes from the install. W8 does not boot from Grub but it's easy, every month ;-) , to start W8 from the F12 boot option. No need at all to use Boot Repair, imho. Grub is installed on Ubuntu's main partition ; when the bios is set to run Ubuntu first, Grub starts.

I recently upgraded my Ubuntu Gnome from 14.04 to 14.10. I own an non-touch Intel gpu powered T440s.
1) there are no noticeable bugs (I did not test the SD card reader) ;
2) the Synaptics driver has been greatly updated (see below) ;
3) the new kernel (3.16) does fully take account of all the special keys, including the F9->F12 ones that did not work running 3.13 kernel.

So, the Synaptics cool stuff :

A new option appeared, running

Code:

xinput list-props 10

(maybe you'll have to change the above number), giving :

Code:

Synaptics Soft Button Areas (299):	0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Secondary Soft Button Areas (300):	3395, 0, 0, 2248, 2740, 3395, 0, 2248

that I changed (with a simple script in Gnome's ~/.config/autostart folder) using :

Code:

xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Soft Button Areas" 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

These new settings create soft buttons (by default) in the bottom part of the touchpad. My settings delete these soft buttons.
The settings of the upper (red) trackpoint buttons are now named as "secondary" :

Code:

Synaptics Secondary Soft Button Areas (300):	3395, 0, 0, 2248, 2740, 3395, 0, 2248

I did not change them as they are ok imho.
Great news : the three fingers use is now active ! In the startup script :

Code:

xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Click Action" 1 2 3

means that my choice is left=1finger middle=2fingers right=3fingers. Note that I do not use the tap-to-click stuff : I do only click-to-click.

The trackpoint :
The wheel emulation still does not work. A workaround does exist :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-evdev/+bug/1246683
Björn Tillenius - Blogging about stuffs
I did not try as I use the clickpad.
There is an option I found, hacking around in xinput :

Code:

xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 0

Surprisingly, that means "no button needed to scroll with red stick". Can be useful for touchpad users, but turn down moving mouse cursor with trackpoint...

 

Did anyone try to attach a 4k screen to the docking station, or even two? I'm thinking about getting one of these:
Dell UP2414Q
ASUS PB279Q

I'd prefer the Dell but it only supports 4k 60Hz with MST (Multi Stream Transport) while the ASUS is used to support 4k 60Hz SST (Single Stream Transport). Linux 3.17 should improve things with MST but I'd better here about reality first before buying.

Thanks

 

I've just found out that 4k 60Hz with SST is just possible on Haswell-H processors (which are CPUs for All-In-One PCs, not Laptops). Thus Thinkpads seem to be restricted to use MST for 4k 60Hz and thus requires proper driver support.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/quick-reference-guide-to-intel-processor-graphics

 

Some more info:

The main requirement for supporting 4K@60 on DP SST (single-stream transport) is that the core display clock (CDCLK), which is configured by SBIOS, must be set high enough to drive the dot clock required by the mode. Usually 4K@60 has a 536MHz dot clock, so it requires a 540MHz CDCLK. If the system OEM did not configure the CDCLK at 540MHz for thermal, power saving, or other reasons, then the system will not be able to drive 4K@60 over a single DP stream. Also, Haswell ULT (-U) and ULX (-Y) are limited to 450MHz and 337MHz CDCLK, so they will not be able to do 4K@60 SST. ULT should still be able to do 4K@60 MST, though. ULX can’t because 4K MST still requires HBR2.

T440 s is delivered with Haswell ULT CPUs and thus does not support 4k 60Hz SST
T440 p is delivered with Haswell MB CPUs and thus it depends on how Lenovo set up the core display clock (CDCLK).

According to another source, the Haswell MB CPUs run with CDCLK 540MHz for T540p (and I guess also for T440p) and thus support 4k @60Hz SST.

https://communities.intel.com/thread/51410
http://www.spinics.net/lists/intel-gfx/msg53422.html

 

Hey guys, two short questions

-- any ideas how to enable the keyboard backlight by default (when starting up, after supspend, ...)
-- does the Synaptics 1.8 driver allows to use the trackpoint in 'old-style' ibm mode?

thanks in advance!

 

Special keys F9 -> F12 do nothing on mine (14.10 / 3.16.0). Did you do anything special to get it working?

 

Yes, I had to associate an action to these keys in Gnome Shell's keyboard's shortcuts config (in Gnome control center).
Nothing else, no odd tweak.

I run Vivid now, and the keys with 3.18 kernel do fully work too.

 

Hi, I've just tested my Dell P2715Q with my T440p under debian testing (kernel 4.1) and Win10. When using the docking station with a standard dp cable, I get 4k60 under Win10 but only 2560*1440 under debian testing. Using the mDP output of the laptop, 4k60 works, thus I guess the problem is the docking station MST mode. Any other experiences or even solutions?