205 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
205 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "Experience with running Fedora Linux on a Thinkpad P14s Gen 5"
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description: "Everything works out of the box, but the keyboard and the battery leave something to be desired."
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date: 2024-08-05T21:00:00Z
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draft: false
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toc: true
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scrolltotop: true
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tags:
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- Thinkpad
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- Linux
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- Fedora
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- NVIDIA
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---
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I have recently acquired a Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5. As of the time of writing
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-- summer of '24 -- these machines are brand new, and so is their architecture:
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Intel Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU. Here I report my
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experience with running Linux with the [KDE Plasma][] desktop on this machine.
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My previous daily driver was a T480s (see my old blog post over at [xltoolbox.net][]
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for a report). I also administer two different X1 Carbons (5th generation and
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9th generation), however, I don't use these very often myself.
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Here are the specs (the 1 TB SSD has been swapped for a Samsung 990 PRO with 2 TB).
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```plain
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daniel@seppel9 ~> fastfetch
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.',;::::;,'. daniel@seppel9
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.';:cccccccccccc:;,. --------------
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.;cccccccccccccccccccccc;. OS: Fedora Linux 40 (KDE Plasma) x86_64
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.:cccccccccccccccccccccccccc:. Host: 21G3S00A00 (ThinkPad P14s Gen 5)
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.;ccccccccccccc;.:dddl:.;ccccccc;. Kernel: Linux 6.9.11-200.fc40.x86_64
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.:ccccccccccccc;OWMKOOXMWd;ccccccc:. Uptime: 1 hour, 47 mins
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.:ccccccccccccc;KMMc;cc;xMMc;ccccccc:. Packages: 4338 (rpm)
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,cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cc;;WW:;cccccccc, Shell: fish 3.7.0
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:cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc: Display (LEN8AB1): 3072x1920 @ 120 Hz (as 2048x1280) in 14″ [Built-in]
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:ccccccc;oxOOOo;MMM000k.;cccccccccccc: DE: KDE Plasma 6.1.3
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cccccc;0MMKxdd:;MMMkddc.;cccccccccccc; WM: KWin (Wayland)
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ccccc;XMO';cccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc' WM Theme: Breeze
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ccccc;MMo;ccccc;MMW.;ccccccccccccccc; Theme: Breeze (Dark) [Qt], Breeze [GTK3]
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ccccc;0MNc.ccc.xMMd;ccccccccccccccc; Icons: breeze-dark [Qt], breeze-dark [GTK3/4]
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cccccc;dNMWXXXWM0:;cccccccccccccc:, Font: IBM Plex Sans (10pt) [Qt], IBM Plex Sans (10pt) [GTK3/4]
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cccccccc;.:odl:.;cccccccccccccc:,. Cursor: breeze (24px)
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ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc:'. Terminal: konsole 24.5.2
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:ccccccccccccccccccccccc:;,.. CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H (22) @ 4,80 GHz
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':cccccccccccccccc::;,. GPU 1: Intel rc Graphics @ 2,25 GHz [Integrated]
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GPU 2: NVIDIA RTX 500 Ada Generation Laptop GPU
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Memory: 9,13 GiB / 62,29 GiB (15%)
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Swap: 302,50 MiB / 104,00 GiB (0%)
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Disk (/): 18,77 GiB / 146,59 GiB (13%) - ext4
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Disk (/home): 524,56 GiB / 1,55 TiB (33%) - ext4
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Local IP (wlp0s20f3): 192.168.3.114/24
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Battery: 93% [AC Connected]
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Locale: en_US.UTF-8
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```
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## Difficulties and finally success with installing Linux
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At first, I was totally unable to install [KDE neon][], my preferred Linux distribution,
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on this system. I freaked out. (I don't care if it's officially a 'distribution' or not.)
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The live CD just would not boot. It did work in safe graphics mode, but when I installed
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the system onto the laptop, I was once again unable to boot into Plasma.
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(I already posted in the [KDE forum][] about this).
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At some point it occurred to me that I may need to try a distribution, so I tried [Fedora][]
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-- and it worked!! In order to boot the live CD, I also had to choose basic graphics mode
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just like with KDE neon (which is Ubuntu under the hood). Once I had the live desktop up
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and running, I could enable the NVIDIA repositories, so that the NVIDIA drivers were
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included during system installation. Luckily, the Fedora Project provides a [KDE spin][]
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so that I could continue to use my favorite desktop environment.
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## Hardware
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Except for the initial difficulties getting this system with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU
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to run Linux, everything else just works out of the box. Nice! :-)
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The **trackpoint** works as usual. This is really the main reason why I keep buying
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Thinkpads. A laptop without trackpoint is a no-go for me. In fact, I did consider buying
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a MacBook Pro, but the absence of a trackpoint and the uncertainty whether I could do
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my beloved Linux foo with MacOS made me stick with a Thinkpad.
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The **fingerprint scanner** is integrated into the power button. While not essential, it's
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a nice gimmick and KDE Plasma provides a pretty UI to set it up. Currently, logging
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into the system after booting is not (yet) supported, but unlocking (e.g., after resume
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from sleep) works very well.
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The 3k **screen** is really good, it's very bright and super crisp. At 100%, the
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user interface is quite tiny. Luckily, with Wayland, fractional scaling is now
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easy to accomplish and reliable. With a scale factor of 1.2 (120%), I am very happy
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with my P14s' display. Interestingly though, the corners are rounded, even though
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the laptop frame has sharp corners. I tend to think: If you have enough time wondering
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about something like this, it's probably time to take a break and do something else
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for a while.
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Unfortunately, the **keyboard** is the worst that I have ever had in any Thinkpad.
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It feels like typing on jelly. Luckily, for most of the heavy-duty work, I connect
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the laptop to a Thunderbolt dock with a proper mechanical keyboard attached.
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I wonder why Lenovo does not equip this machine with the same keyboard as in the
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other models -- given the price tag of this machine, the extra bucks surely cannot
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make such a big difference?
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**Camera**, mike, and speakers just work. No problem running Zoom. I have not yet
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tried out Teams.
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## Form factor and weight
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The P14s is somewhat bigger than the old T480s and certainly somewhat heavier.
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Before deciding on the purchase, I carefully thought about my use cases and decided
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that I can live with an extra 200-300 grams that I mostly only carry onto and
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off from the commute train, as well as on my bicycle's rack. Therefore, I made a
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decision for the extra performance (with dedicated GPU, which the alternative
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models, i.e. X1 Carbons or T14s's do not offer).)
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Lenovo [says][p14s-weight] the P14s starts at 1.6 kg, which compares to a MacBook Pro's
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nominal weight. On our kitchen scale, my P14s weighs 1.74 kg.
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In real life, the laptop's body is somewhat bigger than the actual casing, because
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it has a very long "foot" underneath it. This ensures proper ventilation, because
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the two fans blow out the warm air underneath the laptop. While this "foot" makes
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the P14s rather thick, it turns out that this also provides a good grip when pulling
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it ouf of a bag or carrying it around.
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I have yet to come to terms with the new camera casing that all new Thinkpads
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seem to have nowadays.
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{{< figure src="p14s -camera-casing.jpg"
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alt="A photograph of the camera casing of a Thinkpad P14s Gen 5"
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caption="The camera casing. It disrupts the smooth surface of the Thinkpad.">}}
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{{< figure src="p14s-foot.jpg"
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alt="A photograph of the 'foot' underneath a Thinkpad P14s Gen 5"
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caption="The 'foot' underneath the P14s makes it thicker, but also provides a good grip on the machine.">}}
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## Performance
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Compared to the old T480s, the performance gain of the Intel Core Ultra and the
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dedicated NVIDIA GPU is very noticeable. Whether I compile R packages or analyze
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clinical data with ~80k subjects in [RStudio][], develop RAW images in [Darktable][],
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or work with Office in a VirtualBox-hosted Windows machine, everything is very
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snappy. For instance, a typical RAW image is now processed in under 1 second, as
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opposed to ~10 seconds on the T480s.
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The machine wakes from sleep (suspend to RAM) extremely quickly, I guess this is due to
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[novel suspend mechanisms][s3]? On the other hand, boot times are rather slow
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(34-40s on AC power, T480s on battery 31 s!!).
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## Fan
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The fans spin up quickly, but the noise is not unpleasant. Maybe I can tweak the
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fan control in order to have them spin up a little more lazily. But when I had both
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my old laptop and the new one side by side, I realized that the T480s' fan noise
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drowns the P14s' fan noise. Notably, the P14s was running on AC power, while the
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T480s ran on battery. In fact, even the T480s with built-in graphics had its fan
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running most of the time when I was working with it (academic work, researching,
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writing, data analysis etc.).
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## Energy consumption
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The P14s' battery has much more capacity than the T480s' one, 75 Wh vs. 42 Wh.
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However, with my normal work load, the battery drains rather quickly. The
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following screenshot shows the charge level over time as I sat outside,
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editing a manuscript with Word running in a virtual machine (VirtualBox
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with Windows 11 guest) and doing some internet research in a browser. The
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screen brightness was set to 100%. After some 3.5 hours, it's time for a
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break...
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{{< figure src="p14s-battery-drain.png">}}
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## Making the switch from Ubuntu to Fedora
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When I downloaded the Fedora [KDE spin][], I was admittedly a bit anxious.
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I had been working with Ubuntu and KDE neon, which is based on Ubuntu,
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for many years, and I wondered if Fedora would be very different.
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It's not.
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The three things that are really different from my perspective:
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- To install something on the command line, use `dnf` rather than `apt`:
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```bash
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sudo dnf install good-stuff
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```
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- Removable disks (USB drives) are mounted on `/run/media/<USER>` rather
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than `/media/<USER>`.
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- More up-to-date kernel and software
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## Conclusion
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All in all, I am quite happy with the P14s. In the past couple of weeks, it has
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already proven to be a reliable work horse, and this is what I need. The
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keyboard really should be better, but hey, life is not perfect, is it?
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[Darktable]: https://darktable.org
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[Fedora]: https://fedoraproject.org/
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[KDE forum]: https://discuss.kde.org/t/unable-to-start-kde-neon-plasma-on-core-ultra-nvidia-rtx-500-ada/18578
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[KDE neon]: https://neon.kde.org
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[KDE plasma]: https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/
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[KDE spin]: https://fedoraproject.org/spins/
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[p14s-weight]: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadp/thinkpad-p14s-gen-5-(14-inch-intel)-mobile-workstation/21g2002cus#tech_specs
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[rstudio]: https://posit.co/products/open-source/rstudio
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[s3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACPI#S3
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[xltoolbox.net]: https://www.xltoolbox.net/blog/2018/08/exit-thinkpad-t430s-enter-thinkpad-t480s.html
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