• Anyone here have experience of Debian on Thinkpad P series?

    From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, June 07, 2026 10:50:01
    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    Does anyone here have experience of installing Debian on one of these
    systems with Intel and Nvidia?

    Although in theory there should be Thinkpad P series with no Nvidia
    hardware (it is an option) I have yet to actually find one for sale.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From didier gaumet@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, June 07, 2026 11:50:01
    Le 07/06/2026 … 10:21, Chris Green a ‚critÿ:
    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    Does anyone here have experience of installing Debian on one of these
    systems with Intel and Nvidia?

    Although in theory there should be Thinkpad P series with no Nvidia
    hardware (it is an option) I have yet to actually find one for sale.

    Hello,

    The Linux Hardware Database website is handy to assess the level of
    Linux compatibility of a part or a computer.
    Here are the probes of installations of various distros on various
    Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen4: https://linux-hardware.org/?view=computers&vendor=Lenovo&model=ThinkPad+P1+Gen+4+%28All%29

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Me@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, June 07, 2026 11:50:02
    On 2026-06-07 10:21, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    Does anyone here have experience of installing Debian on one of these
    systems with Intel and Nvidia?

    Although in theory there should be Thinkpad P series with no Nvidia
    hardware (it is an option) I have yet to actually find one for sale.

    I have a P1 (20MD). There are only 2 "problems" with it: the fingerprint reader never worked reliably, which I don't mind. And, like you wrote,
    the display setup was weird. I never got any external display to work consistently with it. Not with the FOSS driver and not with the
    proprietary driver. One thing to note is that the wiring in my machine
    is such that you can only use the non-Intel hardware to drive external displays. The Intel hardware is just simply not connected to the port. I
    know others have been successful in getting external displays to work
    with newer P1's though. So, I would recommend looking for one that is a
    bit more modern than mine is (March 2019, if I remember correctly).
    Other than that I can tell you it is a great machine. I still love it,
    even though I have a P16 Gen 2 next to it now.

    Grx HdV

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, June 07, 2026 13:00:01
    didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> wrote:
    Le 07/06/2026 … 10:21, Chris Green a ‚critÿ:
    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    Does anyone here have experience of installing Debian on one of these systems with Intel and Nvidia?

    Although in theory there should be Thinkpad P series with no Nvidia hardware (it is an option) I have yet to actually find one for sale.

    Hello,

    The Linux Hardware Database website is handy to assess the level of
    Linux compatibility of a part or a computer.
    Here are the probes of installations of various distros on various
    Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen4: https://linux-hardware.org/?view=computers&vendor=Lenovo&model=ThinkPad+P1+Gen+4+%28All%29

    Thanks, that's of a bit of a maze to navigate but I guess once I have
    an exact model in mind then it will be useful.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Chris Green@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, June 07, 2026 13:20:01
    Me <me@nodatagrabbing.com> wrote:
    On 2026-06-07 10:21, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    Does anyone here have experience of installing Debian on one of these systems with Intel and Nvidia?

    Although in theory there should be Thinkpad P series with no Nvidia hardware (it is an option) I have yet to actually find one for sale.

    I have a P1 (20MD). There are only 2 "problems" with it: the fingerprint reader never worked reliably, which I don't mind. And, like you wrote,
    the display setup was weird. I never got any external display to work consistently with it. Not with the FOSS driver and not with the
    proprietary driver. One thing to note is that the wiring in my machine
    is such that you can only use the non-Intel hardware to drive external displays. The Intel hardware is just simply not connected to the port. I know others have been successful in getting external displays to work
    with newer P1's though. So, I would recommend looking for one that is a
    bit more modern than mine is (March 2019, if I remember correctly).
    Other than that I can tell you it is a great machine. I still love it,
    even though I have a P16 Gen 2 next to it now.

    Thanks, that's very useful.

    --
    Chris Green
    ú

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Michael Greenberg@3:633/10 to All on Monday, June 08, 2026 20:30:01
    On 2026-06-07 at 09:21:07 AM, Chris Green wrote:

    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    This is the computer I have (P1 Gen 4). Things are mostly fine, but of
    course the nvidia drivers break occasionally. Audio mostly fine, input
    fine. I never bothered to set up bluetooth, so I don't know if that
    works.

    7.0.4 panicked on my laptop, but I'm content running 6.19.14 on forky. https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1136379

    Cheers,
    Michael

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Me@3:633/10 to All on Monday, June 08, 2026 20:50:03
    On 2026-06-08 20:23, Michael Greenberg wrote:
    On 2026-06-07 at 09:21:07 AM, Chris Green wrote:

    I'm thinking of getting a refurbished Thinkpad P Series laptop to
    replace my existing Thinkpad T470. I want a larger screen as my eyes
    are getting older. Weight and size isn't a **huge** issue but I don't
    want anything a lot bigger.

    So, something like a P1 gen 4 would seem to fit my requirements but
    I'm a little wary of them nearly always having dual display hardware,
    Intel 'built-in' and Nvidia.

    This is the computer I have (P1 Gen 4). Things are mostly fine, but of
    course the nvidia drivers break occasionally. Audio mostly fine, input
    fine. I never bothered to set up bluetooth, so I don't know if that
    works.

    On my P1 Gen 1 Bluetooth works flawlessly. I would expect that to be the
    case with later generations as well.

    Grx HdV

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)