Lenovo Thinkpad T14 (AMD) Gen 1

Device	Working?
AMD graphics	Yes
Wireless	Yes
Webcam	Yes
TrackPoint	Yes
Touchpad	Yes
Fingerprint Reader	Yes
Mobile Broadband	Xmm7360-pci

This article covers the installation and configuration of Arch Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T14 (AMD) Gen 1 laptop. Everything seems to work pretty much out the box with kernel >=5.9.0. Yet untested: wwan, smartcard reader, bluetooth.

For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop.

Hardware

AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U Processor

Using kernel 5.9.14.

Product Name: Thinkpad T14 (AMD) Gen 1
SKU: 20UDCTO1WW
BIOS: 1.27 (R1BET58W)

lspci returns something like:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Root Complex
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir IOMMU
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:02.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.6 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.7 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Internal PCIe GPP Bridge to Bus
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 51)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Device 24: Function 7
01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix Device 1639
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0e)
02:00.1 Serial controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 816a (rev 0e)
02:00.2 Serial controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 816b (rev 0e)
02:00.3 IPMI Interface: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 816c (rev 0e)
02:00.4 USB controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 816d (rev 0e)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a)
04:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS522A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
06:00.0 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02)
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Renoir (rev d1)
07:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 1637
07:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor
07:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir USB 3.1
07:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir USB 3.1
07:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor (rev 01)
07:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) HD Audio Controller

lsusb returns something like:

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 003: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 06cb:00bd Synaptics, Inc. Prometheus MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 058f:9540 Alcor Micro Corp. AU9540 Smartcard Reader
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04f2:b6d0 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Integrated Camera
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Firmware

Secure boot

As of January 2021 deleting SecureBoot keys and installing your own keys (for example by using KeyTool) will brick the device. This is a problem that is similar to one which has been reported on some other Lenovo laptops and is likely due to a faulty firmware. If the device is stuck in a boot loop after replacing the SecureBoot keys, the only way to repair it is by replacing the mainboard of the device. Hopefully, the issue will get fixed with a firmware update in the future.

Battery issues

In an ongoing Lenovo forums thread there has been a discussion regarding battery drain issues in suspend states. Presumably laptops with AMD Renoir CPUs and relevant hardware are affected. As of now, BIOS firmware version 1.29 is suggested to use, as version 1.30 introduced significant battery drain, the battery loses up to 50% in 2-3 days while the laptop is in suspend mode.

There is also a suggestion that kernel updates could fix this behavior and that Lenovo and Canonical are working on it.

AMD Graphics

The opensource AMDGPU drivers work correctly with no special modification.

To enable Chromium hardware accelerated video decoding, install libva-mesa-driver, vulkan-radeon and mesa-vdpau, create a file ~/.config/chromium-flags.conf and paste the following:

--ignore-gpu-blocklist
--use-gl=desktop
--enable-gpu-rasterization
--enable-zero-copy
--ignore-gpu-blacklist
--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds
--enable-accelerated-video-decode

Restart Chromium and then verify chrome://gpu has the following output:

Canvas: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Out-of-process Rasterization: Disabled
OpenGL: Enabled
Hardware Protected Video Decode: Hardware accelerated
Rasterization: Hardware accelerated on all pages
Skia Renderer: Enabled
Video Decode: Hardware accelerated
Vulkan: Disabled
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated

Further down there should be a section with

Video Acceleration Information
Decode h264 baseline	16x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 main	16x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 high	16x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode vp9 profile0	16x16 to 8192x4352 pixels

For more infomation see Chromium#Force GPU acceleration and vaapi on linux.

Fingerprint Sensor

The fingerprint sensor works with some recent firmware and software updates.

Use fwupd to install the latest firmware for "Synaptics Prometheus Fingerprint Reader". The relevant firmwares are Prometheus Fingerprint Reader and Prometheus Fingerprint Reader Configuration.
fprintd ≥ 1.90.1 and libfprint ≥ 1.90.1 are required. Alternatively, use the latest Git master through fprintd-libfprint2^AUR and libfprint-git^AUR.

fprint has more details on how to setup the fingerprint, for PAM-based authentication for example.

If the fingerprint reader isn't detected by fwupd but is detected by lsusb you will need to reset the fingerprint reader in the Bios.

Backlight

Backlight works correctly by manipulating the values, between 0-255, inside /sys/class/backlight/amdgpu_bl0/brightness or using a backlight managing utility.

Before kernel 5.8.6, systemd-backlight@backlight:acpi_video0.service required masking as it failed on boot.

Suspend

S3 suspend works when setting Config -> Power -> Sleep to Linux in bios.

Smartcard Reader

Untested, see Lenovo Thinkpad T14s (AMD) Gen 1#Smartcard Reader

WWAN

Tested, works with xmm7360-pci (see Xmm7360-pci):

$ lspci | grep XMM
05:00.0 Wireless controller [0d40]: Intel Corporation XMM7360 LTE Advanced Modem (rev 01)

WiFi

The onboard wireless card is Intel AX200, and it may have microcode issues when used as-is. A possible fix for WiFi disconnects is turning on iwlwifi antenna agreggation on by creating a modprobe config

/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

options iwlwifi 11n_disable=8

and rebooting. Look in Network configuration/Wireless#iwlwifi for details.