And of course I’m installing Linux on it. Install went well, even the fingerprint sensor built in to the laptop works.
Mostly this will be a school and DND machine but always nice to have a functional laptop for whatever else I may need it for.
Excellent OS choice - great for noobs and veterans alike.
Thinkpads are great. But how did you get the fingerprint scanner to work? Mine does not work.
I followed this guide, worked right out of the box:
https://github.com/SeniorMatt/How-to-enable-fingerprint-in-Linux-Mint-for-T480
I got 5 T420s (nice) from my boss last year. Now they’re all running Linux and loaded up with late 90s, early 2000s games to play over LAN
All the best! My SO runs a T480s, the elegant one, for years now, switched to Debian after U went super-slow on her.
I went all fancy-schmancy with a Yoga x390, debian too.
Both cheap secondhand, both issue-free (and both with touchscreen!). Whish the official batteries where still available tho.
480s has a touchscreen? I need to check mine…
This one does. I think certain IPS models got the feature. Tbh, not really much of a touchscreen guy for laptops but I wont say no
Not all of them, we were lucky I think. Yoga’s have it by their very 2-in-1 nature, nice little things, classy matte black like any Thinkpad should be.
Congrats on the Thinkpad. I look forward to your next post on /c/unixsocks.
INSTALL GENTOO
Hell yea! Welcome to the Thinkpad Owners Club.
I have a L440, I was not able to find a T440 on a decent status. Solid laptop, enjoy!
just recently i’ve installed cachyos (after a few months of mint) on my t420 and it works really well
for instance the partial battery charging works (on mint you need to install extra stuff and configure via file, on cachy it’s just part of the power settings)
but also generally i feel it’s a bit quicker and prettierWhat do you mean by partial battery charging? I noticed the battery readout isnt exactly accurate so far but I’m not sure if that’s what you mean.
You can limit your battery charging, so it doesn’t charge to 100% by default. It’s better for your battery life, because Li+ batteries lose more capacity when they’re fully charged and discharged. So keeping them somewhere between the 30-85% range will dramatically extend the life of the battery.
Ah OK that makes more sense.
sorry maybe i phrased it wrong
instead of charging to 100% you can limit it to max 80% and only charge it from below 60% for example, it supposedly helps with the battery lifeNah I’m just dumb lol. Idk why my brain didn’t clock that. Thank you for explaining
HELL yeah! I have an E16 and it plays Factorio and other simple games (plus emulators) so it’s perfect! And of course it’s running Mint. :D
(simple graphically. Factorio is not simple. lol.)
My Thinkpad (X201) can’t even play Terraria well but I love it. :)
Welcome to the cult :)
“Excuse me, are y’all with the cult?”
“We’re not a cult. We’re an organization that promotes open source”
“Yeah, this is it”
I am home, brother. :)
I feel like an old ThinkPad is like a right of passage on Linux. Just about everyone I know who uses Linux has had one at some point or another.
A T440p running Antergos got me through college. I regret selling it since that thing served me well 🫡
I love selling things that have served me well - it feels better knowing that they’re helping someone instead of sitting in a drawer, untouched.
Fair point! In this case, I sold it to my brother who got through a fair bit of university with it so it did help a lot of people.
I get sentimental about tech that I used for a while though so I kind of hoard it all now that I don’t need to sell the device to replace it
Still got an X201 somewhere. That thing learned me Linux, got me through school and found me a good job at a time when all I had was a backpack and that computer.
Some day I shall switch it on and update it.
Rocking an X260 myself. Picked it up for something like $100 on eBay a few years ago and it just keeps on ticking.
Nice choice, Thinkpads are amazing!
Right on! I’ve been using a refurbished t14s for years. Which one did you catch?
Edit: nvm, I see it’s a T480. Solid choice!
Enjoy your Linux journey! You’ll be glad to have done it.
Ive actually been using Linux for a few years now, but I needed a laptop so figured this would be a good choice. But I am enjoying Linux very much!
Good stuff. And no difference. I’m always learning something new about Linux. And that’s what makes it amazing. Truly a freedom operating system
Hell yeah. I somewhat recently bought a refurbished T490 and it’s one of my favorite computers I’ve ever owned.
Same!
I had bought it, installed Debian on it, and had been using it for more than a week before I discovered that it has a touchscreen :-D
Very nice laptop.
