Blog post about P14s.

content/posts/2024-08-05-linux-on-thinkpad-P14s-Gen-5/index.md

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