Thinkpad X13s

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

Most of following informations come from #aarch64-laptops on OFTC, #fedora-arm on Libera.chat and arm[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org. Upstream infos change on daily basis, so this page may be outdated, therefore read it with pinch of salt / cum grano salis.

Bootable images

Fedora developers are aiming for it being supportable/usable in time for Fedora 38, at some point before that, some consumable images will be released for testing.

A Linaro's Debian image is available at this link. It provides a decent user experience, despite missing audio and suspension capabilities. Power usage not yet optimized, so expect high battery drain

Kernel development

Some of work on the kernel can be seen in https://github.com/jhovold/linux repository, branches wip/sc8280xp

GPU

GPU hardware acceleration not yet available

Sound

Kernel side implementation at this link Userland code still to be implemented

Virtualization

Virtualization is not yet available. The UEFI is not yet exposing the EL2 (exception level) which is required to run VMs

Webcam

Not working

Wi-Fi

Working

Rawhide hacking

As of the 6.5RC series, official rawhide will boot given the following changes:

Grub2 must have this patch applied https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/grub2/pull-request/27
The kernel must be booted with 'arm64.nopauth clk_ignore_unused pd_ignore_unused`
A recent firmware must be on the machine, and the linux/DT mode must be selected in the FW menus.
- Recommend minimum version:
  - Version: N3HET84W (1.56 )
  - Release Date: 06/26/2023
A 6.5 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
USB boot is possible if qcom/sc8280xp/LENOVO/21BX/qcadsp8280.mbn is removed from the USB boot image
- Otherwise leave it alone if booting from NVMe
Appropriate GPU firmware is placed in /lib/firmware/qcom/a660_sqe.fw, and /lib/firmware/qcom/a690_gmu.bin
Due to the mainline nature of this kernel the following things may not work correctly:
- Battery monitor in gnome
- Proper USB-C charging negotiation, will result in slow charging, or battery drain while plugged in.
  - Charging may not work at all though any number of USB-C hubs
- Keyboard rollover
- Bluetooth
- CPU cache size reporting
- Keyboard LEDs (depends on HW revision?, fn-f1 may enable the mute + capslock at which point both leds will be toggled by caps lock)
- Audio
- External Displays
- efi variables
All the above subject to change as patches are merged, this list is approximately correct as of the middle of August 2023

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