Thinkpad X13s

Page to keep track of Linux support development for Thinkpad X13s (SoC codename sc8280xp), the first Thinkpad with an Arm CPU.

Most of the following information comes from #aarch64-laptops on OFTC, #fedora-arm on Libera.chat and arm[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org. Upstream information changes daily, so this page may be outdated.

Bootable images

Fedora 40 GA works relatively well OOTB. The Workstation raw image can be used with the following additions:

• The kernel must be booted with arm64.nopauth clk_ignore_unused pd_ignore_unused rd.driver.blacklist=msm
• A recent firmware must be on the machine, and the linux/DT mode must be selected in the FW menus.
  • Recommend minimum version:
    • Minimum: Version: N3HET84W (1.56 )
    • Latest: Version: N3HET88W (1.60 )
• A 6.5 or newer device tree must be placed on the ESP of the internal NVMe disk and named sc8280xp-lenovo-thinkpad-x13s.dtb
  • ex: /boot/efi/sc8280xp-lenovo-thinkpad-x13s.dtb
  • As a workaround, add a devicetree line in grub to load the DTB until it can be put in place on the ESP
  • Debian has instructions on how to do this from windows
• To boot from USB, modprobe.blacklist=qcom_q6v5_pas must be added to the boot arguments. This keeps the USB from being reset and the storage device from being renamed mid-boot.

• Once the system is running, installing the x13s copr, will pull in the remaining dependencies and correct a few configuration items:

  • dnf copr enable jlinton/x13s; dnf install x13s

    • Reboot

• After major kernel updates, it is probably wise for the time being to run

  • cp /boot/dtb-`uname -r`/qcom/sc8280xp-lenovo-thinkpad-x13s.dtb /boot/efi 

Known Problems

• Audio works but is quiet
• TPM support is missing
• 5G Modem
  • Need to follow the documented steps to unlock the modem
• Virtualization is not available. The UEFI is not yet exposing the EL2 (exception level), which is required to run VMs
  • There has been some work done to unlock it with https://github.com/TravMurav/slbounce. YMMV
• The system does not suspend correctly so you need to poweroff if leaving unused
• Camera is not working. There are patches going upstream. You need to add cma=128M
• Bluetooth doesn't always work

Similar pages

• https://github.com/jhovold/linux/wiki/X13s
• https://github.com/ironrobin/archiso-x13s/wiki/Feature-Support
• https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X13s
• https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:ThinkpadX13s