Lenovo Thinkpad T14s (AMD) Gen 1
| Device | Status |
| AMD graphics | Yes |
| Wireless | Yes |
| ALSA | Yes |
| TrackPoint | Yes |
| Touchpad | Yes |
| Webcam | Yes |
| Fingerprint Reader | Yes |
| Mobile Broadband | No |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Smartcard Reader | Yes |
This article covers the installation and configuration of Arch Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T14s (AMD) Gen 1 laptop. Almost everything seems to work pretty much out the box with kernel >=5.8.0. Yet untested: wwan
For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop.
Contents
Hardware
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U Processor
Using kernel 5.8.0.
Release Date: 20202 Product Name: Thinkpad T14s (AMD) Gen 1 SKU Number: 20UH, 20UJ (20UHCTO1WW) BIOS: 1.05
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 00:02.7 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: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983 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 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02) 06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Renoir (rev d1) 06:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 1637 06:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor 06:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir USB 3.1 06:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir USB 3.1 06:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor (rev 01) 06:00.6 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 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 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
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 --ignore-gpu-blacklist --use-gl=egl --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds
Go to chrome://flags find Vulkan and enable it.
Restart Chromium and then verify chrome://gpu has the following output:
Graphics Feature Status Canvas: Hardware accelerated Flash: Hardware accelerated Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated Compositing: Hardware accelerated Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled Out-of-process Rasterization: Hardware accelerated OpenGL: Enabled Hardware Protected Video Decode: Hardware accelerated Rasterization: Hardware accelerated on all pages Skia Renderer: Enabled Video Decode: Hardware accelerated Vulkan: Enabled WebGL: Hardware accelerated WebGL2: Hardware accelerated
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 update might have to be done manually as the released firmware is in testing; or you could enable the testing remote in fwupd to allow automated upgrade. 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-libfprint2AUR and libfprint-gitAUR.
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.
Smartcard Reader
Seems to work and read cards. Following instructions from smartcards.
Updating Firmware
Updating the firmware using the fwupd utility works as long as all the relevant options are enabled in the Bios (Enable Windows Update UEFI Update). A BIOS update Bootable CD iso that is OS agnostic may be downloaded from Lenovo support[1].
A charged battery and connected ac power is required to run the update tool successfully. Avoid having any addons/docks plugged in when performing the BIOS update.
The bootable image needs to be extracted from the iso using geteltoritoAUR to create a bootable USB.
1. Use geteltorito to extract bootable image: geteltorito -o image_usb.img downloaded_bios_update.iso
2. Copy image to USB drive with dd: sudo dd if᐀image_usb.img of᐀/dev/sdX && sync
3. Reboot. Boot from USB drive.
4. Perform BIOS update following instructions on screen.
WWAN
The only supported WWAN card is the Fibocom L850-GL, a PCIe card without any Linux drivers (and most probably never will get any, it's an Apple owned chipset now.). All the existing WWAN workaround involve flashing a Sierra Wireless (Qualcomm) WWAN to escape the BIOS whitelist by enumerating slowly. This however doesn't work in the T14s, the card is entirely disabled and not even visible in lsusb. It is possible that the USB lanes are disabled on the M.2 port.
There exists an alpha-quality driver for the Fibocom L850-GL here. The L860 is not proposed in the T14s AMD but is in the T14s Intel and a linux mainline driver is being worked on by Lenovo for it.
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.