Lenovo Thinkpad X250

Resources

Hardware

Standard

Device	Make/model	Status	Bus ID	Kernel driver(s)	Kernel version	Notes
CPU	Core i3-5010U	Works	N/A	N/A	4.3	Broadwell
	Core i5-5200U	Not tested	N/A	N/A		Broadwell
	Core i5-5300U	Works	N/A	N/A		Broadwell
	Core i7-5600U	Works	N/A	N/A	5.4	Broadwell
Integrated Graphics	HD Graphics 5500	Works	0000:0002	i915	4.3	VIDEO_CARDS i965
Audio		Works	0000:0003	snd_hda_intel	4.3
USB 3.0		Works	0000:0014	xhci_hcd	4.3
Management Engine Interface		Not tested	0000:0016	mei_me	4.3
Ethernet		Works	0000:0019	e1000e	4.3
PCI		Works	0000:001c	pcieport	4.3
USB 2.0		Works	0000:001d	ehci-pci	4.3
ISA		Works	0000:001f	lpc_ich	4.3
SATA		Works	0000:001f.2	ahci	4.3
SMBus		Works	0000:001f.3	i801_smbus	4.3
WiFi	Intel 7265	Works	0003:0000	iwlwifi	4.3	MVM firmware
Bluetooth	Intel 7265	Works	0003:0000		4.3	Bluetooth 4.0
TPM	STM	Works	N/A	tpm_tis	4.3	TPM 1.2

Accessories

Device	Make/model	Status	Bus ID	Kernel driver(s)	Kernel version	Notes
Fingerprint Scanner		Works	N/A	N/A		Supported by fprint
Multi-touch screen		Not tested	N/A	N/A
Memory card reader		Works	0002:0000	rtsx_pci	4.3	SD, MMC, SDHC, SDXC
Smart card reader	Alcor Micro AU9540	Works	N/A	ehci-pci	4.3
Webcam		Works	N/A	uvcvideo	4.4	720p; usb 04ca:703c
Dock	ThinkPad Ultra Dock	Not tested	N/A	N/A
Dock	ThinkPad Pro Dock	Works	N/A	N/A		Tested: all ports (but not with more than one external display), (Un)Dock, Suspend-then-(un)dock
Dock	ThinkPad Basic Dock	Not tested	N/A	N/A

ACPI / Power Management

Function	Works	Notes
CPU frequency scaling	Yes	Driven by intel_pstate
GPU Powersaving (RC6)	Yes	Support PC8+ with i915.allow_pc8=1 kernel parameter
SATA Power Management (ALPM)	Yes
Suspend to RAM	Yes
Suspend to disk (hibernate)	Partial	At first seems frozen, but start to react normally after a few seconds
Backlight control	Yes	Driven by acpi_video.
Keyboard backlight control	Yes

Installation

Firmware

Intel Wireless 7265

See Detailled article.

Emerge

Special buttons

Battery thresholds

root #emerge --ask app-laptop/tpacpi-bat

Modify the init file in order to change the two batteries, else only one battery will be changed:

FILE /etc/init.d/tpacpi-bat

[...]
BATS="1 2"
[...]

Configuration

Portage

FILE /etc/portage/make.conf

CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=native"
CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"
MAKEOPTS="-j5 -l5"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965"

X.org

In order to have more readable screen and texts (particularly if you own a 1080p display), indicate to X.org physical size of the display:

FILE /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier             "<default monitor>"
    DisplaySize             276 156    # Physical display dimensions in millimeters
EndSection

On 1080p displays, you'll get a DPI resolution of 177x176 dots per inch (default is 96x96).

Troubleshooting

Suspend/resume

In order to resume properly, your need to have a working TPM:

KERNEL Enable TPM support

Device Drivers ->
  Character devices ->
    <*> TPM Hardware Support ->
      <*> TPM Interface Specification 1.2 Interface / TPM 2.0 FIFO Interface

Total Freeze Using Graphical Acceleration

If you except entire system freeze when using graphical acceleration, you should disable execlists in the kernel cmdline:

i915.enable_execlists=0

Or just disable VT-d processor feature in BIOS.

When booting directly from UEFI (eg. without Grub), set the following kernel variables:

KERNEL Disabling execlists

Processor type and features ->
  [*] Built-in kernel command line
  (root=/dev/sdaX i915.enable_execlists=0) Built-in kernel command string

External resources