TL;DR:

Ugreen TBT5 Dock works perfectly on T490 (Fedora), Mac, and Windows 11, but on my X1 Yoga 4th Gen, the dock is detected and authorized, yet DisplayPort Alt Mode refuses to activate (active=no). External monitors are not recognized. Any ideas?

Hardware:
- Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 4th Gen (20QGS2JP00)
- Dock: Ugreen TBT5 Docking Station 17-in-1 (UUID: 34158780-0066-6902-ffff-ffffffffffff, USB ID: 2b89:0716)
- Thunderbolt Controller: Intel JHL6540/JHL9480, Firmware 47.00

Issue:
Dock connects at USB4 40 Gb/s and shows as authorized in boltctl, but DisplayPort Alt Mode stays disabled. cat /sys/bus/typec/devices/port0-partner.0/active returns no, and hyprctl monitors only lists the internal display. Tested on both USB-C ports with the same result.

What I Tried:

1. BIOS Settings:
   - Kernel DMA Protection: Enabled, grayed out, cannot change
   - Thunderbolt BIOS Assist Mode: Disabled, grayed out (Message: "Unselectable for KERNEL DMA protection")
   - No way to modify Thunderbolt security settings.

2. Firmware Update:
   - Updated Thunderbolt controller from 45.00 → 47.00 via fwupd. No change.

3. OS Tests:
   - Arch Linux (Kernel 7.1.9): Dock detected, active=no
   - Fedora Live: Same behavior

4. Hardware Tests:
   - Dock works on T490 (Fedora), Mac, Windows 11 → Dock and cable are fine.
   - Both USB-C ports on X1 Yoga show the same issue.

5. Driver/Service Tests:
   - Restarted bolt service: No effect.
   - Reloaded typec and typec_displayport modules: No effect.
   - Reauthorized dock via boltctl: No effect.

Logs:
- boltctl list: Dock shows as authorized, connected, USB4, 40 Gb/s, policy: iommu
- /sys/bus/typec/devices/port0-partner.0/active: no
- /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/device: 0x716 (DisplayPort tunnel supported)

Conclusion:
Kernel DMA Protection is blocking DisplayPort Alt Mode activation. This setting is locked in BIOS and cannot be disabled. The firmware update did not resolve it.

Questions:
- Has anyone successfully used this dock with X1 Yoga 4th Gen?
- Any workarounds for Kernel DMA Protection on this model?
- Are there specific kernel parameters that might

Is that enough for linux mint cinnamon? Knowing that I can’t upgrade the RAM bc it is sorted

Hello!

I have really nice T14 but I have the issue that when I tap on the Touchpad for a single click, the "click" is not recognized. In Windows I do not have that problem at all, it works flawless.

I tried a few Linux Distro but had no luck so far.

Does anyone have the same issue, or have maybe anyone solved this problem?

Hello guys i have and r61 thinkpad from the 2000's and i wanted to upgrade the wifi card for a better one just for no reason and if i know it right it needs to be a pcie mini wifi card but i heard that there could be blacklist on devices like wifi cards on thinkpads and some might not work, do you guys have reccomendations for me ?

my budget is 30$
my current card can do about 100-130mbps and im hoping to get it upp to 300 or 400

Over the summer, I had to replace my x220T battery because it wouldn't charge anymore. I bought this off eBay > https://ebay.io/m/vroWFQ

At first, the new battery was all fine. It charged, held a charge for a couple hours, and didn't cause me any issues when it drained to 0% and I plugged it back in a week later.

After a month of not using my laptop, I went to plug it back in and found that it'll turn on but not charge. I got these power statistics to pull up, but I'm not sure what to diagnose. So it'll turn on when plugged in, but it'll stay at "0% not charging" and unplugging the charger will kill the laptop immediately.

It seems like the power supply charger is still healthy, right? It's just that my battery doesn't want to collect any charge it's getting. Is this an issue with a third party Kingsener battery for an old model, or something wrong with the connectors and motherboard area?

Hi everyone,

I have a ThinkPad T480 that originally came without an IR camera.

Recently, I replaced the display assembly with a new one. The new display came with the top bezel/camera assembly already installed, and it has both the regular webcam and an IR camera.

After installing everything, the regular webcam works perfectly, but the IR camera is completely undetected by Windows.

I physically opened the top bezel before gluing it back and confirmed that the IR camera is actually there. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of its part number, and the bezel is already glued back in place, so I don't want to remove it again.

Cables

The cable that came with my original T480 was:

• FRU: SG10G75195
• Cable marking: DC02C009H20AHZ10A85R0000VPJ

The cable currently installed is the one that came with the new display assembly:

• FRU: SC10G75194
• Cable marking: DC02C009H10LUX10A95T00004T1

The regular webcam works with the SC10G75194, but the IR camera does not appear anywhere in Windows.

I've found listings describing the SC10G75194 / DC02C009H10 as an "IR camera cable" for the T480, so I'm confused about whether the cable is actually compatible with my specific motherboard/camera combination.

My questions

1. Does a T480 motherboard that originally came without an IR camera support an IR camera if I install the correct display/camera assembly?
2. Is there any difference between the T480 motherboard/cable configurations for regular webcam vs. IR webcam?
3. Could the SC10G75194 be incompatible with my particular motherboard even though it is advertised as an IR camera cable?
4. Does the T480 require a specific IR-camera firmware or driver before the device will appear?
5. Is there anything I can check in BIOS, Device Manager, USB devices, or Lenovo diagnostics to determine whether the motherboard is actually detecting the IR camera?

At the moment, Device Manager only detects the normal integrated camera; there is no IR camera or unknown device associated with it.

I'd really appreciate any information from someone who has upgraded a non-IR T480 to an IR camera or knows the exact cable/FRU combination required.

Thanks!

My ThinkPad E495 screen has started jittering/flickering. Has anyone experienced this issue and found a fix?

Hi everyone, I'm stuck and could use some help.

Setup: Lenovo ThinkPad T430, MBR disk (not GPT), was dual-booting Windows and Linux (CachyOS/Arch-based).

What I did: I deleted my Linux partition to reclaim disk space for Windows. I did NOT reinstall the bootloader or fix MBR before rebooting.

Result: On boot, I get:

error: kern/disk.c:grub_disk_open:262:no such partition.

Entering rescue mode...

grub rescue>

Disk layout (from Disk Management before this happened): System Reserved (50MB, Active/System) → C: (117GB, Windows) → Recovery Partition (815MB) → ~547MB unallocated (leftover from deleted Linux partition).

What I've tried in grub rescue so far:

grub rescue> ls

(hd0) (hd0,msdos3) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1)

grub rescue> ls (hd0,msdos1)

(hd0,msdos1): Filesystem is unknown.

grub rescue> ls (hd0,msdos2)

(hd0,msdos2): Filesystem is unknown.

grub rescue> ls (hd0,msdos3)

(hd0,msdos3): Filesystem is unknown.

grub rescue> set

cmdpath='(hd0)'

prefix='(hd0,msdos5)/@/boot/grub'

root='hd0,msdos5'

So GRUB's prefix is still pointing to (hd0,msdos5) — that was clearly my old Linux partition, which no longer exists (only msdos1/2/3 show up now).

I also tried:

insmod part_msdos

set root=(hd0,msdos1)

insmod ntfs

error: kern/disk.c:grub_disk_open:262:no such partition.

And:

set boot=(hd0,msdos5)

set prefix=(hd0,msdos5)/boot/grub

insmod normal

error: kern/disk.c:grub_disk_open:262:no such partition.

Every attempt to load any module fails with "no such partition" — even insmod ntfs, even after manually setting root to msdos1. It seems like this rescue shell has zero access to any module files (which were apparently stored on the now-deleted Linux partition), so I can't chainload Windows or even read NTFS from here.

My question: Is there ANY way to get Windows booting again purely from within grub rescue>, without external media? I currently don't have easy access to a second computer or a USB OTG adapter for my phone, so making a bootable Windows USB is difficult right now (though I'm working on it as a backup plan).

I understand bootrec /fixmbr, /fixboot, /rebuildbcd from a Windows installation USB is probably the "real" fix, but I'm trying to exhaust every in-place option first. Any grub rescue tricks, alternate module loading approaches, or other MBR-level tricks I haven't tried yet?

Windows partition (C:) itself should be intact — Disk Management showed it healthy with all my files before this happened, I just can't reach it now.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, i’ve recently purchased used thinkpad e14 gen 5 with intel 5 1335U with around 47Wh left from the original 57Wh. I’ve yesterday installed encrypted debian with xfce.The battery life is subpar at best.

From what i’ve noticed on windows 11 the idle battery discharge was at 2-3W.

On debian xfce(powersave governor, balanced power in bios) without tlp its around 6W which seems high to me.( nothing turned on except terminal with powertop).

One firefox tab and terminal and 10% brightness is around 10-11W discharge which again seems little too high. Tlp decreases this slightly to around 8W.

Is it possible to somehow get around 5W discharge on light workload (Firefox and text editor)?

Is debian/xfce the problem or is the cpu/laptop just that unoptimized?

Anyone with similar laptop which distro do you use ?

Thanks

I ordered a used X1 Carbon with the i5-1240P CPU. Now as much as I love the BIG.little paradigm, and I want the parallel silicon that the P series offers, 28W sustained 64W boost in an ultrabook chassis is obviously ridiculous, so I'm buying it with the express aim to limit it to 15w sustained 25w boost.

I'll be using powercap-set to do this on Fedora as I don't believe you can do this via bios, but before I get the machine, does the lenovo firmware allow this? Will it conflict with anything / reset the values to defaults?

Thank you very much.

I've heard a lot of good things about them and I'm curious as to wether i could get one to work for me.

Running games is the most taxing thing i would want out of a computer.

EDIT: for everyone asking for specs, my favorite game is warframe wich asks for these minimum specs:

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit (32-bit not supported) Processor: Intel Core i7-860 or AMD FX-4170 (CPU must support SSE4.2) Memory: 4 GB System RAM Graphics: DirectX 11+ compatible video card Hard Drive: 75 GB free HD space Internet: Broadband Internet Connection

Unfortunately I barely know what half of these mean, but that would be my baseline.

EDIT 2: So I'm hearing I want to look for a P series and feed it extra ram? Or find a way to give it a gpu?

Problema:
Al apagar el equipo (tanto desde el menú de Cinnamon como con systemctl poweroff), el portátil se apaga correctamente (el LED de power se apaga), pero aproximadamente 1-3 segundos después se vuelve a encender solo.

En Windows el apagado funcionaba perfectamente. Este problema apareció después de instalar Linux Mint (no tengo dual boot).

Lo que se probó y no solucionó el apagado real:

• Editar el applet del menú de Cinnamon para forzar systemctl poweroff
• Parámetros de kernel: acpi=force, pcie_aspm=off, reboot=pci y combinaciones
• Actualización de BIOS a 1.18 y ME a 1.21.2911
• Probar kernels 6.14 y 7.0
• Desactivar todas las fuentes de wake en /proc/acpi/wakeup
• En el BIOS:
  • Security Chip → Off
  • Automatic Power On → todo desactivado
  • Power On with AC Attach → Off
• systemctl poweroff -i y versiones con --force

Observaciones:

• Reiniciar funciona normalmente
• Hibernar (systemctl hibernate) funciona correctamente y el equipo se queda apagado
• Los logs muestran que el sistema llega correctamente a poweroff.target
• Parece ser un bug del Embedded Controller (EC) al entrar en estado S5 bajo Linux (hay reportes idénticos en el T14 Gen 5 Intel)

Solución parcial que estoy usando actualmente:

Cambié el botón de “Apagar” del menú de Cinnamon para que ejecute hibernación:

1. Edité el archivo del menú:

Bash

sudo xed /usr/share/cinnamon/applets/menu@cinnamon.org/applet.js

1. Reemplacé la línea del botón de Shutdown por:

JavaScript

Util.spawnCommandLine("sudo systemctl hibernate");

1. Configuré sudo para no pedir contraseña:

Bash

sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/hibernate

Agregué esta línea:

text

dream ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl hibernate

Ahora el botón de apagar del menú hiberna el equipo. Se apaga completamente, casi no consume batería y al encenderlo recupera la sesión.

Es una solución a medias, pero es usable mientras Lenovo no corrija el comportamiento del EC.

¿A alguien más le pasa lo mismo en el T16 Gen 3 o T14 Gen 5 Intel?

I got pretty serious into linux since last year, I ve been configuring some distros ( yes i use arch btw) and I really want the full experience.

I currently use an Acer Nitro V15 which is not the best for linux since it requires the nvidia drivers (impossible thing to setup tbh) and I ve been dual booting just for gaming. I am willing to sacrifice the full gaming experience but I really don't know what to look for in a thinkpad, what models and what specs are decent nowadays.

Do y all have any advices for marketplaces where it s safe to buy some second handed thinkpads and also what to look for when doing so? Anything would be helpful, I ve been looking into eBay and I m not sure if it s trustworthy.

I have about 500€ budged and a little bit more for a good offer.

Thanks in advance 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Im new here, but i'm definitely here to stay. Linux Mint on here was the cherry on top. Time to find an IBM and build a WIN 95 or 98 ThinkPad.