Popular Guides
View more guides at Linux Wiki Guides
Welcome to LinLap - The Linux Laptop Wiki
Lenovo ThinkPad X230t
Introduction
This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Lenovo ThinkPad x230t convertible tablet laptop.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Lenovo ThinkPad X230t. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Lenovo ThinkPad X230t page on LapWik.
Editing This Page
If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.
Specifications
For full specifications see the Lenovo ThinkPad X230t specifications page.
| Name | Lenovo ThinkPad X230t |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3520M (2.90 GHz, 4MB L3, 1600MHz FSB) Intel Core i5-3320M (2.60 GHz, 3MB L3, 1600MHz FSB) |
| Screen | 12.5” 1366×768 Widescreen IPS |
| RAM | Up to 16GB |
| HDD | Up to 500GB (7mm height limit) |
| Optical Drive | None. The optional Ultrabase 3 contains an empty optical drive bay. |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet ThinkPad b/g/n Wireless (1×1 BGN) Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (2×2 BGN) Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2×2 AGN) |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Touch Screen | Yes | (Both pen and finger) |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Graphics Chip | Yes | Requires Linux 3.4 kernel or newer. Hard freezes on 3.3 or earlier. |
| VGA Out | Yes | |
| DisplayPort | Not Tested | |
| Sound | Yes | |
| Bulti-in Microphone | Yes | |
| Headphone Jack | Yes | |
| Microphone Jack | Not Tested | |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| mSATA | Yes | Difficult to install: must open up keyboard and palm rest. |
| WWAN | Yes | Uses same slot as mSATA, and so WWAN and mSATA are mutually exclusive. |
| Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested | |
| Webcam | Yes | |
| Smart Card Reader | Not Tested | |
| Docking Station | Yes | |
| Touch Pad | Yes | |
| Track Point | Yes | |
| Suspend/Resume | Yes |
Notes
Special Keys
Some of the fn-special buttons work out of the box and Xorg recognizes them. Screen brightness adjustments using these keys worked out of the box.
Other special buttons (such as the screen rotation buttons on the screen) can be configured using programs like gizmod or other similar utilities.
Touch Screen
Touch screen (with fingers) worked out of box for me, getting the Pen to work required installing the xf86-input-wacom drivers.
Installation / black screen with framebuffer
This is likely a driver issue that wont affect all distributions, but I had to add “ro nomodeset” to the kernel boot line from grub, otherwise I'd just get a black screen when the my installer tried to switch to framebuffer.
Once linux was installed however (with up to date drivers), framebuffer worked perfectly fine, so I imagine it was simply the driver that was shipped with my year-old install disk that was the problem.
Summary
All the core things, and a number of “fun” things, work great and out of the box on this laptop/tablet. Additionally, with a little configuration and elbow grease, it's been possible to get all the frills working too.
Discussion
Actually I've now seen the freezes, but it took a week of usage. I suspect this has to do with virtual machines, since this is the first time I have been running VirtualBox for a length of time.
Going to install a kernel higher than 3.4 now.
I've installed Slackware 14.0 vanilla on my x230t, this comes with kernel 3.2.29, and I have not seen yet the screen freezes mentioned here (2 days running already).
Thanks for the “ro nomodeset” tip! Saved my day.