Lenovo ThinkPad X270

Scribner · Feb 13, 2019

I just ordered a Lenovo ThinkPad X270 20HN004VUS. I would like to make sure this model is fully compatible before opening, in case I need to return it. If it's fully compatible, I will go ahead with the FreeBSD installation on Friday, February 15, 2019.

Here are some relevant links:

ThinkPad,ThinkPad X270,Model:20HN004VUS

psref.lenovo.com

Laptops/Thinkpad_X270 - FreeBSD Wiki

Laptops - FreeBSD Wiki

This is an article from the March/April 2018 edition of the FreeBSD Journal that talks about four laptops compatible with FreeBSD. It was written on a ThinkPad X270 -- but I learned that laptops have different models/configurations, so I want to know if the 20HN004VUS will be fully compatible.

Thanks so much to all who can help!

twllnbrck · Feb 15, 2019

Has it already arrived?

Scribner · Feb 15, 2019

Not yet, but I'm getting it today. I'm currently reading my threads on this forum in addition to ones started by other members. I'm also reading the FreeBSD Handbook and the book Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition. I'm taking notes. I anticipate I'll run into problems, but I'm more than prepared for that. I will begin the installation process later today and continue into the night until I finish or give up. Installing FreeBSD, I must say, will be one of the most complex or technical things I've ever done.

Scribner · Feb 15, 2019

Several questions before I start the installation.

I see in the Notes on this page that "X11 works using Intel DRM driver at 1920x1080." On the main Laptops page, it says the X270's graphics work with drm-next. Could someone explain what, if anything, I'm supposed to do for this?

Another note says, "Supports both Trackpoint and Trackpad using libinput driver." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

In a similar vein, another note says, "intel_backlight from the graphics/intel_backlight port works just fine. The brightness keys work fine after loading acpi_video(4)." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

Finally, the last note says, "disabling Bluetooth in BIOS helps rebooting (might otherwise be stuck at BIOS logo)." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

charly44 · Feb 20, 2019

Scribner said:
Several questions before I start the installation.

I see in the Notes on this page that "X11 works using Intel DRM driver at 1920x1080." On the main Laptops page, it says the X270's graphics work with drm-next. Could someone explain what, if anything, I'm supposed to do for this?

Another note says, "Supports both Trackpoint and Trackpad using libinput driver." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

In a similar vein, another note says, "intel_backlight from the graphics/intel_backlight port works just fine. The brightness keys work fine after loading acpi_video(4)." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

Finally, the last note says, "disabling Bluetooth in BIOS helps rebooting (might otherwise be stuck at BIOS logo)." What, if anything, am I supposed to do for this?

Last week end, I installed FreeBSD 12 in a x250, broadwell, and almost all works out-of-the box, except for video (pkg install drm-kmod, next was in 11) , bright keys (kldload acpi_ibm.ko ) and 2-finger touchpad scroll, that needs some rc.conf. You will also need add an entry in GRUB, disable the TPM for suspend/resume and probably to disable composition in the WM. Bluetooth does not work for me for now. Fingerprint uses fprintd like in linux, but no tested yet. Once I found out all, it performs similar than linux or better, really surprised.

Deleted member 45312 · Feb 20, 2019

charly44 said:
Last week end, I installed FreeBSD 12 in a x250, broadwell, and almost all works out-of-the box, except for video (pkg install drm-kmod, next was in 11) , bright keys (kldload acpi_ibm.ko ) ...

I have a similar installation on a laptop HP-15 (Intel HD Graphics 5500) FreeBSD 12, Xfce DE. All is working but I get tearing on display mostly annoying when playing videos.
Did you noticed this with your configuration ?

charly44 · Feb 20, 2019

No for now, playing mp4 videos and youtube very pretty.
Here my conf files.

/boot/loader.conf

Code:

kern.vty=vt
hw.psm.synaptics_support="1"

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection


Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/misc/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "ShadowFB"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DefaultRefresh"         # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen"     # [<bool>]
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "intel"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

/etc/rc.conf

Code:

hostname="fbsd0001"
keymap="es.acc.kbd"
wlans_iwm0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
create_args_wlan0="country ES"
sshd_enable="YES"
# Set dumpdev to "AUTO" to enable crash dumps, "NO" to disable
dumpdev="AUTO"
dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"

#Enable slim
slim_enable="YES"
#lightdm_enable="YES"

kld_list="/boot/modules/i915kms.ko coretemp acpi_ibm snp"
powerdxx_enable="YES"

moused_enable="YES"
moused_flags="-VH"

bluetooth_enable="YES"

Yujiri · Jun 16, 2020

I'm also considering buying an X270. I'm a bit put off by the implication that it might require an xorg config. But still seems to beat any other option I've found. There are basically just two things needed to convince me to go for it:

Has anyone got all four types of recording (screen, camera, speaker, mic) to work? I need all four for making videos.
Can trackpad tapping be disabled?

Oh, also: the processor specs are quite impressive. Does anyone know how representative they are? My current (T480s) said something like "1.8GHz, up to 3.4GHz with TurboBoost", but I can only get 1.8GHz; I assume TurboBoost is only supported on Windows. Hoping to make sure that the processor specs given there aren't inflated by that.

Lenovo ThinkPad X270

Deleted member 45312

Guest