ThinkPad X1 Carbon 5th Gen

I chose between this machine, a Txxx and Dell. I went the easy route this time. Not much research, just needed a replacement. The rest is going to be about using the machine with GNU/Linux Ubuntu.

Compared to the 3rd generation X1 Carbon that I’m replacing, the 5th generation is different in a couple of ways:

• the keyboard is stiffer - you need to put more force into each keypress, and thus it’s a little noicier
• it’s faster - my gut based guess is some 20% for the type of work I do (software development, lots of work with and inside Docker containers & images)
• the battery lasts a lot longer - after a 3 hours Coding Dojo session (IntelliJ IDEA and HDMI, full screen brightness), I still have > 50% battery left
• it’s a few millimeters smaller
• speakers have moved to the front - the old setup on the side was better when the laptop sits in my lap, now the sound gets muted/muffled

Ubuntu 17.04

General and summary

Out of the box, I actually ran the Windows installer, used Windows for a few hours, getting Ubuntu Desktop 17.04 ISO and put it on a USB stick. Rebooted, pressed enter to abort normal boot, selected USB device (it said multicard reader), worked as expected from that point - except for the pointing device(s).

Summary

As of 2017-09-11:

Most stuff works out of the box (that I’ve tried), except for

• the trackpad - ie the touchpad and trackpoint (red dot thing between keys G, H and B). This device doesn’t show up under either fresh 16.04 LTS, nor 17.04.
• the webcam - with Cheese, I get 1 frame per second

My best current setup reduces the touchpad to single click and moving the pointer on the screen - no scrolling. This is done in grub: /etc/default/grub:GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="i8042.reset i8042.nomux psmouse.proto=imps quiet splash"

An excellent summary by ardevd of the current state of things:

The X1 Carbon comes with two different trackpoint hardware. The Synaptics/ALPS trackpoint seem to work just fine with Linux, especially with the latest patches to the trackpoint driver. However, the Elantech trackpoint does not and depending on what Linux distribution you’re running you’ll either have a trackpoint that doesnt work at all or you’ll have one that works poorly. On top of this there are seemingly cases of hardware defects as well.

My device is not ALPS.

Hardware Support and Features Tested

All of these are tested and works as expected:

• wifi - no issues even after numerous sleep/hibernate cycles (was an issue with my X1C3)
• built-in display (monitor)
• USB-C multi-adapter with HDMI
• USB-B ports
• built-in speakers - works well, but position has changed so sound is muffled when laptop is put in your lap (as in laptop)
• hdmi - numerous mobbing and pair programming sessions
• bluetooth - the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse works flawlessly, pairing etc: no issues
• all-in-one adapter - USB C to HDMI just works as expected
• headphone jack - works

Broken out of the box (with Ubuntu 17.04):

• webcam - takes 8 seconds to start a feed, and the feed is 1 frame per second
• touchpad - no two finger scrolling (may be hardware issue, not resolved yet)

Not yet tested:

• wan, gsm
• nfc

Changelog

2017-09-11

I had IBM here to replace my touchpad/trackpad, but again - they showed up with a device that was missing the “second cable”. This second cable connects the NFC chipset and antenna. So I’ll wait some more and see what happens.

I ran across Alex’s blog post which is very to the point.

2017-07-23

On the Lenovo Forum, the touchpad issues has been marked as solved for Windows users, with firmware(!) updates. The thread has been closed and moved to a Linux section of the forum.

Upgrading BIOS from Linux

The updater doesn’t require windows, you just need to boot the ISO from a USB stick. I managed to do this using sudo apt-get install genisoimage and geteltorito -o converted.img n1mur06w.iso which I then simply wrote directly to the USB device (dd if=converted.img of=/dev/sdX), reboot, Enter (abort normal boot), F12 (enter boot menu), selected top USB option.

Before doing the upgrade, you may want to run dmidecode and save the output to a file, and compare afterwards. This took me from

version: N1MET31W (1.16 )
date: 03/10/2017

to:

version: N1MET35W (1.20 )
date: 05/17/2017

Upgrading to 1.22 is currently failing. I download files from Lenovo PC Support page for 20HR (which is what I have).

Relevant posts in that thread

(u) = unconfirmed

afunk1

About completely useless, lot of dmesg errors. Have tried patched Linux kernel.

Not working: psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2a1, caps: 0xf003a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x0, board id: 3288, fw id: 2538625

MarkPash

Not working: psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2a1, caps: 0xf003a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x0, board id: 3288, fw id: 2538625

fredrik_wendt (me)

Not working, BIOS+fw updated: psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2a1, caps: 0xf003a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x0, board id: 3288, fw id: 2538625

maz3max

Has two machines, claims got it working after “power reset”. Reports this: psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2b1, caps: 0xf002a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x400000, board id: 3289, fw id: 2492434

schröter

Gets hickups every 10 minutes.

raqball

Working: psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2b1, caps: 0xf002a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x400000, board id: 3289, fw id: 2492434

Root cause

maz3max claims this:

Hey, I’m a linuxer too. After updating the firmware, my issues are gone. I do have unsmooth scrolling sometimes, but that could as well be a software issue.

The trackpoint seems to be the bad guy interfering here. If you want to get a replacement, replace that knob.

The touchpads are all identical models manufactured by Synaptics. The trackpoints are manufactured by ALPS or ELANTech and as far as I remember, only ALPS trackpoints received the update.

Andy_Lenovo writes “Trackpoint firmware which also fixes the touchpad freezing” and “The new firmware requires BIOS […] 1.20 in order to install”

I’m going to update the BIOS to yet another newer version, 1.22, later today and see where that gets me.

2017-07-08

The touchpad issue seems to still be unresolved over at Lenovo: I’m still getting “out of stock” e-mails from the customer service case I have open with them.

ceda@lx1carbon5:~$ grep -e "Using input driver " /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[     8.118] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Power Button'
[     8.145] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Video Bus'
[     8.181] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Sleep Button'
[     8.220] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Integrated Camera'
[     8.257] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'AT Translated Set 2 keyboard'
[     8.279] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'
[     8.381] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'ThinkPad Extra Buttons'
[     9.545] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Generic Mouse'
[    71.567] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Generic Mouse'
[    74.237] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'
[111612.831] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'
[111618.480] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Generic Mouse'
[111629.496] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Generic Mouse'
[111632.281] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'

and the kernel module logged errors

ceda@lx1carbon5:~$ dmesg | egrep 'psmouse|input'
[110020.449374] Modules linked in: xt_nat xt_tcpudp veth psmouse ipt_MASQUERADE nf_nat_masquerade_ipv4 nf_conntrack_netlink nfnetlink xfrm_user xfrm_algo iptable_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_nat_ipv4 xt_addrtype iptable_filter xt_conntrack nf_nat nf_conntrack libcrc32c br_netfilter bridge stp llc overlay ccm rfcomm cmac uhid bnep binfmt_misc snd_soc_skl snd_soc_skl_ipc snd_soc_sst_ipc snd_soc_sst_dsp snd_hda_ext_core snd_soc_sst_match i2c_designware_platform i2c_designware_core arc4 nls_iso8859_1 intel_rapl x86_pkg_temp_thermal intel_powerclamp coretemp kvm_intel kvm irqbypass crct10dif_pclmul crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel pcbc iwlmvm snd_hda_codec_hdmi mac80211 snd_seq_midi snd_hda_codec_conexant snd_hda_codec_generic snd_seq_midi_event aesni_intel snd_soc_core aes_x86_64 crypto_simd glue_helper
[110020.449426]  cryptd snd_compress ac97_bus snd_pcm_dmaengine cdc_mbim cdc_wdm iwlwifi snd_hda_intel input_leds cdc_ncm snd_hda_codec usbnet qcserial snd_hda_core joydev usb_wwan rtsx_pci_ms mii snd_hwdep uvcvideo snd_rawmidi serio_raw usbserial snd_pcm cfg80211 videobuf2_vmalloc videobuf2_memops videobuf2_v4l2 memstick videobuf2_core thinkpad_acpi videodev nvram media shpchp mei_me btusb mei btrtl intel_pch_thermal idma64 virt_dma intel_lpss_pci ucsi snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_timer snd hci_uart btbcm btqca soundcore btintel bluetooth intel_lpss_acpi intel_lpss mac_hid tpm_crb acpi_pad parport_pc ppdev lp parport ip_tables x_tables autofs4 rtsx_pci_sdmmc i915 i2c_algo_bit drm_kms_helper syscopyarea e1000e sysfillrect sysimgblt rtsx_pci fb_sys_fops drm ptp nvme pps_core nvme_core wmi i2c_hid pinctrl_sunrisepoint
[110020.449489]  pinctrl_intel hid video fjes [last unloaded: psmouse]
[111610.404357] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried max coordinates: x [..5678], y [..4758]
[111610.436861] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried min coordinates: x [1266..], y [1094..]
[111610.500660] psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 8.2, id: 0x1e2a1, caps: 0xf003a3/0x940300/0x12e800/0x0, board id: 3288, fw id: 2538625
[111610.500677] psmouse serio1: synaptics: serio: Synaptics pass-through port at isa0060/serio1/input0
[111610.543082] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input20
[111610.909226] psmouse serio3: Failed to reset mouse on synaptics-pt/serio0
[111616.201362] input: PS/2 Generic Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3/input/input21
[111616.469117] psmouse serio3: Failed to enable mouse on synaptics-pt/serio0
[111617.329663] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111617.331057] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111617.332415] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111617.342449] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111617.343726] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111617.343730] psmouse serio1: issuing reconnect request
[111618.074559] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried max coordinates: x [..5678], y [..4758]
[111618.107492] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried min coordinates: x [1266..], y [1094..]
[111620.679985] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111620.681160] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111620.682404] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111620.692277] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111620.693417] psmouse serio1: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[111620.693421] psmouse serio1: issuing reconnect request
[111621.419865] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried max coordinates: x [..5678], y [..4758]
[111621.452887] psmouse serio1: synaptics: queried min coordinates: x [1266..], y [1094..]
[111621.921291] psmouse serio3: Failed to reset mouse on synaptics-pt/serio0
[111627.201462] input: PS/2 Generic Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3/input/input23
[111627.469117] psmouse serio3: Failed to enable mouse on synaptics-pt/serio0
[111629.990804] input: PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input25

2017-06-28

Made a new run at getting a newer kernel. My approach to building (with Docker) is here: github/FredrikWendt/x1c5-touchpad-fix

No luck - same error messages logged to dmesg.

2017-06-06 (Sweden’s National Day)

Getting source ready

1. Uncomment all lines with deb-src in /etc/apt/sources.list
2. As a non-root user (there’s a APT bug), get the source apt-get source linux-image-extra-4.10.0-19-generic

Building the Debian package

sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts
apt-get source linux-image-extra-4.10.0-19-generic
sudo apt-get build-dep linux-image-extra-4.10.0-19-generic
dpatch-edit-patch 99_lenovo_x1_carbon_5th_gen_synaptics_fix
# in the shell launched, make the changes
exit
cat debian/patches/99_lenovo_x1_carbon_5th_gen_synaptics_fix.dpatch
# ...
echo 99_lenovo_x1_carbon_5th_gen_synaptics_fix >> debian/patches/00list
dch -n 
# Edit the changelog
debuild -b -uc -us -tc

2017-05-25

I’ve mostly used the laptop connected to a external (USB) mouse and keyboard. I’ve discovered I have almost twice the runtime with this battery, compared to doing the same work on the 3rd gen X1.

I just discovered there’s a looong thread about this on Lenovo forums. I just apt update and apt upgraded just now, so I’ll disabled boot params and see where this gets me. Then I’ll read up on that e-mail thread. (With no kernel args, “nothing” works and there’s issues reported in dmesg log.)

The Thread:

• On page 8 Frogybloop confirms that the replacement unit received, has no issues.
• On page 16, a forum Administrator provided a link to a beta driver. The post was later updated to an official driver release
• On page 17, I found a link to this page :-)
• On page 21, the same forum administrator provides a link to an official release of a new driver.
• On page 24, Andy the admin says engineers have been able to recreate the issue and are working on possible solution.

Following link to Reddit where shizonic got confirmation from a tech rep that this is a hardware issue.

2017-04-26

Added a line to 70-pointingstick.hwdb (after reading some thread on reddit, but it made no difference. xinput still doesn’t list the device:

ceda@lx1carbon5:~$ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera                         id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Changed BIOS to:

• disable Security » Secure Boot » Secure Boot
• enable Security » Virtualization » Intel (R) Virtualization Technology
• enable Security » Virtualization » Intel (R) VT-d Feature
• enable Config » USB » Always on USB » Charge in Battery Mode
• disable Config » Beep and Alarm » Keyboard Beep

Three ideas where posted on Launchpad a long time ago.

a) Tried modprobe psmouse resetafter=0 - just got worse.

b) Tried i8042.nomux=1 in /etd/default/grub setting GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT, and then running update-grub2. Reboot. This made it a little better, ie it works more often but still completely unusable and unreliable.

b, then a) xinput now shows the device as PS/2 Generic Mouse.

c) Kernel boot argument acpi_osi=Linux - no improvement over any of options above.

Another idea to try out was found on ubuntuforums.org: i8042.reset i8042.nomux as boot parameters to Linux kernel. This had the best result, where the mouse was useable every 5-6 seconds, for a duration of less than a second.

Someone else had issues and tried different protocols: modprobe psmouse proto=imps and the imps protocol works for simple things, but scrolling seems to not be supported - or at least working - using this protocol.

Other

apt install openssh-server
ssh -X 192.168.1.232 'x2x -east -to :0'