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I see there is a certified T550 install, however did anybody try T560 or T460 yet? Can Ubuntu use an integrated GPU & sound card? And how about my Camera, Microphone, etc? If anyone has some insight, I would appreciate any feedback.

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Axonn
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a hrdware support issue. – Pilot6 Feb 29 '16 at 14:55
  • I asked if anybody tried this. I did not ask for support. If anybody tried this, they could post links and thus help other Ubuntu users. – Axonn Feb 29 '16 at 17:16
  • Best to just try live installer in live mode an see what works. Somewhat lower spec model: T540 works but UEFI settings critical or it may brick https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hFTArhNbmpmEBRkwRg0DMbEzLBCl43F1HXoXtJ8cm0k/edit?pli=1 – oldfred Feb 29 '16 at 19:02
  • Wow, that's a really good document. Thanks @oldfred! LOL @ "once the bug triggers, a chip fails and the motherboard needs to be replaced". I wonder if that's today's definition or security, or if it's today's definition of: do NOT try to deviate from the hole-ridden mess Windows is. – Axonn Feb 29 '16 at 21:39

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I installed Ubuntu 15.10 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T460, and then upgraded it to 16.04. I've been using it for a few weeks, and these are the only problems I've hit:

  • When I upgraded from 15.10 to 16.04, Ubuntu started hanging whenever I move my mouse cursor off the HDMI external monitor onto the primary display. If I permanently remove the external monitor, then it everything is fine. This bug can be fixed if you manually upgrade to a newer kernel. This isn't as scary as it sounds, just a bunch of wgets then a "dpgk -i": http://linuxdaddy.com/blog/install-kernel-4-4-on-ubuntu/. Be sure to follow the correct 32 or 64 bit instructions on that page! More about this bug here Laptop freezes after connecting external monitor, since 16.04 update and here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1559308.

  • The audio is sometimes slightly crackly, as if overloaded. It especially emits a crackle when the login screen displays and makes its quick bongo noise, as if the audio system has just been activated and isn't quite ready for business. I haven't noticed any problems while playing music though.

  • Twice in the month or so I've been using it, the wifi device has disappeared from Ubuntu's knowledge. Each time, after a few reboots, it reappeared again. Otherwise it's been rock solid. Who knows whether this is software or my hardware?

  • On 15.10, there was a bug which prevented long presses or drags when using the physical buttons of the trackpad. This has been fixed in the latest 16.04 updates (and maybe in 15.10 too, I don't know.)

  • Closing the lid would hang instead of suspend, but this problem has been fixed now.

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Jonathan Hartley
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  • Thank you for answering to this one! The lid thing is not such a big deal IF you can suspend manually BEFORE closing the lid. Can you? Another question: did you try running any graphically intense applications such as a game? I hope more people will pitch in with ideas about how to fix these issues. At least a fix for the trackpad should appear, since that's a big no-no for me. I don't use my laptop as a desktop replacement, I use it as a road warrior, so I don't carry peripherals with me. – Axonn Apr 14 '16 at 20:22
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    I have defined a keypress combo to suspend, which I do before closing the lid. This works well enough for me. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 15 '16 at 17:49
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    I haven't run any intensive games on it, only undemanding things like Nethack . I only have the Intel HD Graphics 520 Mobile, i5 6200U (it's a work computer). I understand there are better graphics options available. I ran glmark2 and the results were 516. This is less than half the value I got from my previous work laptop, an ASUS UX32A with accelerated graphics, plus my new high res built-in display has about four times the number of pixels, so I'm expecting graphics performance to be poor. If you have something in particular that I can install for free, I'll run it for you and let you know. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 15 '16 at 17:58
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    I added to the question the details of the keyboard shortcut I use to suspend before closing the lid. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 15 '16 at 18:06
  • Thanks for the info Jonathan :). Yes, I know we have only HD 520 but I was wondering if they have a decent driver for using it on Linux. I'm still currently on Windows until I'm sure the laptop is fully usable in Linux. I've run quite a few games I have from Steam and the integrated graphics handles them quite well. If the driver support is there, I'm confident it will be ok. I don't game much either, but I'd like to have the possibility when I want to :) – Axonn Apr 16 '16 at 10:46
  • Yep, totally understood. I'll see what looks most demanding in my Steam list - but there probably isn't anything very recent / hardcore in my library. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 16 '16 at 13:22
  • The Talos Principle, fresh install, default settings, 60 second benchmark achieves 26.2 frames per second. This is on the built-in display of 1920x1080. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 17 '16 at 22:59
  • The problem with closing lid on battery is already fixed for about a week ago, maybe 2 weeks (at least in Ubuntu GNOME 16.06). – Elin Y. Apr 22 '16 at 05:52
  • @ЕлинЙ. Encouraged by your comment, I upgraded from Ubuntu 15.10 to 16.04, to try out the fixed lid behaviour. Unfortunately this has made my T460 unusable, as it hangs and requires a hard reboot around ten seconds after logging in to the desktop. (My fault, not yours) Fingers crossed a fix for this comes pretty quickly. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 23 '16 at 15:46
  • I added some small details to my answer. The 'can't hold down a mouse button' problem only manifests with the trackpad buttons, not when left-clicking by pressing the body of the trackpad itself. To workaround the lid-close hanging, I redefined the behaviour of "lid-close" to "do nothing". – Jonathan Hartley Apr 23 '16 at 15:55
  • @JonathanHartley I'm sorry about your bad experience with upgrade. I am using this T460 with Ubuntu GNOME 16.06. Installed on 19th March as Beta. Both problems you described were there at the beginning, but for about a week this problems are fixed by the updates on my machine. I can set in Tweak Tool to suspend on lid close and system don't freeze. And the trackpad buttons (not touchpad) are working, too. For instance, I can click and drag to select text. – Elin Y. Apr 23 '16 at 20:11
  • @ЕлинЙ. No worries, I've realised it only happens with an external monitor connected, so I've just unplugged it until this gets figured out. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 24 '16 at 02:53
  • For more on the instability in 16.04: http://askubuntu.com/questions/762373/laptop-freezes-after-connecting-external-monitor-since-16-04-update – Jonathan Hartley Apr 25 '16 at 20:36
  • Confirmed: The lid close / suspend issue is fixed for me too. – Jonathan Hartley May 02 '16 at 03:51
  • @JonathanHartley Do you have tlp installed? I've just read about tlp causing multiple problems on newer hardware. I'll disable it and observe if the problems with second monitor and flickering display on battery are go away. Here's the link to the thread where I read about tlp as a root of those problems: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/solved-screen-flickering-only-when-on-battery-skylake-16-04/5201/21 – Elin Y. May 02 '16 at 05:33
  • @ЕлинЙ. Thanks, but it looks like I don't have 'tlp' installed. (no exe called 'tlp' on the path, and 'systemctl --all' doesn't list anything containing tlp.) – Jonathan Hartley May 02 '16 at 17:28
  • We have a fix for the external monitor crash! Amending the answer with it... – Jonathan Hartley May 02 '16 at 18:27
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I tried Lenovo T460 with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 15.10, and 16.04 Beta 2 and they all had two issues:

  1. Using an external monitor would freeze the system. (I tried many combinations, e.g. plug-in then turn on, plug-in at login screen, different cables, etc)
  2. Closing the lid would cause the system to freeze and not go to sleep.

After updating to linux kernel 4.5 you can attach an HDMI monitor, but mini Display Port (mDP) will still cause the system to freeze, and closing the lid still causes the system to freeze.

For more details, see my comment on the "Official T460s Ubuntu support" ticket.

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josephdpurcell
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  • I'm using Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 for over a month (installed as Beta 1), and the both problems were initially there but have already been fixed in the course of the time. – Elin Y. Apr 22 '16 at 05:55
  • As a workaround, you can redefine the "close lid" behaviour to "do nothing", and define a keyboard shortcut to suspend/sleep etc. See my answer. – Jonathan Hartley Apr 23 '16 at 15:49
  • Lid close problem is now fixed in 16.04, maybe in 15.10 too? – Jonathan Hartley May 02 '16 at 17:52
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I tried 16.04 on a T560.

Overall it's been good. Here are the irritants:

After some months, there came some video issues: screen capture tools snapped the wrong images, flicker on some video playback, that kind of thing. I "solved" the problem by converting from default propritary video drivers to open source drivers, but this has had the down side of halving the battery life and making the laptop run hot. I'm reverting.

The track pad has been vastly too sensitive. I've turned it off and switched to using the nub.

The middle mouse key stays clicked about 15 times a day, even when the button is released. This is probably a hardware problem specific to my machine, though.

Overall, it's a good machine, and I would buy it again.

Dave Morse
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