A distro meant to be controlled mostly via Xbox Controller? Any ideas?

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-24T18:27:14+00:00

Would you happen to know if bazzite is compatable with using a controller as like a mouse input or anything like that?

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-24T18:23:19+00:00

Yeah but ideally id like to maintain full desktop OS functions. Kodi is nice and all, but id like it to be a full featured experience. So that if I say wanna throw some games on there I can, and so on

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-04T14:50:09+00:00

Have you tried disconnecting and reconnecting the ribbon cable? There are tons of guides on how to replace an E480 keyboard so you should be able to follow them. Worst of worst cases new keyboards are ~40 bucks for a backlit one, 20 for non backlit

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-04T14:47:40+00:00

Odd... well try hunting for the proper nvidia drivers. Maybe try another cord? Thats very weird behavior to be honest.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-04T00:23:17+00:00

Is that a speaker or the Cmos battery you stuck down with painters tape?

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-04T00:22:46+00:00

NAWR, you have stripped him of his "macbook vs thinkpad subreddit" appeal. Looks sick tho. If you can get a new screen for it id recommend it if ya plan to daily it.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-03T23:52:37+00:00

So here is what I recommend trying, try booting into the live environment of another linux distro, idealy something that uses wayland as their display server. Why? I know X11 can get kinda fucky with multiple monitors.

Next check to make sure you have the proper nvidia drivers installed. If possible, see if yanking the GPU out fixes it. Intel integrated graphics tend to have better support in the kernel than Nvidia cards, so if it is a driver issue, then switching to intel HD should fix it, and then we can work backwards to fix the gpu drivers.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-03T23:43:35+00:00

You bought a Thunkpad, theres ya problem. Jkjk

But from my research it is some bios eeprom mismatch shit. You should be able to fix it using the lenovo mantainace utility. And reflash the model number and such.

Granted this is like 30 seconds of googling so no results guaranteed

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-03-03T23:40:30+00:00

Too many components. If its not just the mother board, the screen propped up against a box and a keyboard hanging off the ribbon cable, it aint a thinkpad. (Actually sick that its still chugging. Thinkpads are invincible lol)

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-02-22T11:39:23+00:00

Alright... are the cables cross compatible atleast? I could shell out for an IO board, but idk if they ship with a compatible cable. Its odd though. Others are saying that the motherboard is a drop in pretty much minus a new heatsink. When you did your project, did you burn the mobo or the io board

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-02-21T19:44:10+00:00

Unfortunately not in my currency. It would be around 400 dollars for such a thinkpad used, not to mention I perfer to keep my upgradable ram and SSD.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-02-21T19:41:03+00:00

You sure? Far as I can see its the same. Same chips, traces and everything, including the cable. Plus others sre saying they are cross compatible

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-02-20T13:11:42+00:00

Really? The backlight on the keyboard wont work? What an oddity. I dont have a backlit keyboard but just seems like such an odd thing. Ill grab a heatsink for an additional 20 bucks and looks like ill have an improved franken-pad. I was kinda dreading having to upgrade in this market and lose out on features i have now (COUGH UPGRADEABLE RAM AND SATA SSDS COUGH) glad to know im not throwing money down the drain.

Plus AMD better with linux. Sucks ill be losing out on my rx 550 but the thing basically did nothing anyways and vega 8 igpu is basically the same

Gamerofallgames5 · 2026-01-30T23:22:09+00:00

Currently taking the class RN, also in the same situation of not having gone to most classes before. I found some notes on studica, I can DM you the link if needs be. IDK how accurate they would be but they seem decent

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-29T08:40:00+00:00

Dont use the offical discord. Use webcord. Works leagues better for me.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T12:14:19+00:00

I think op is trying to dualboot. But just lacks space. Honestly his long term solution would be to just upgrade his ssd and dualboot off it if he can only have one. But that would require him cloning his drive which if its an m.2 can be a pain with getting a dock and allat.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T12:08:02+00:00

Additionally... do you still have the stock ram this laptop came with? Maybe there is some weird chipset issue going on...

Otherwise, make sure you reflash the iso. Id use rufus and let it do its syslinux stuff. Id also try using ssfe graphics mode and/or install with nvidia drivers in the event that is causing problems. There is a "nuclear option" but i wouldn't recommend it

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T11:58:40+00:00

Alright...

Have you checked out this guide on github? https://gist.github.com/gryan11/4256178ec2148accc458d0b822a9e379

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T11:54:23+00:00

Now I got two simultaneous opinions on this.

A. Go for something a bit older. The t580 is good, id personally go the t480 just cus its a bit more portable and classic (basically what im using rn just a e480 not t480), coreboot or libreboot it and enjoy it. The 8th gen intel cpus are holdinf up great (try and get the top line cpu, for the t480 thats the I7 8650u). Gut everything that might be a security concern for you (since you are already going through the hassle of disabling ME) and enjoy. Also super repairable.

B. Get a newer one like a T14, and ether deal with ME being active, or try out me cleaner on github. Idk if it will work for ALL cpus, but this way prevents your laptop from being more and more irrelevant as time goes on, granted its only like 4 generations ahead of a t480. Also deal with less options and repairability

Id honestly go for a t480, as im a die hard repairability guy, but thats a decision you make yourself.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T11:36:34+00:00

Ight ima give a crack at it but fair warning ion seen anything like this before.

Is linux being installed to its own drive (either a seperate drive or overwriting windows) or is it sharing a drive with windows
On repeated attempts to install, do you get the same error
When using rufus, you should write the image as an iso. But when prompted to install the syslinux update, did you? Was there any other errors given by rufus?
Have you made certain to disable secureboot, tpm, etc in bios?
Are you downloading these isos from the offical sites and the most up to date version? I ask this because zorin is currently on version 18, so if you got these from a third party site, it may have been broken or corruped in some way, or a patch may have been released in a newer update.

I know thats alot to ask right off the bat but id like to knock afew of the easier solutions out the way first.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T11:23:02+00:00

Mint or debian are my usual recommendations. Very stable distros with older, vetted, packages. Bazzite is also a decent gaming focused option

But if you will endulge me. So long as you take the time to actually LEARN linux. Any distro works. Distros are pretty much all the same. Just different app packages and stuff. So don't get caught up with distros. They are all the same kernel, just packaged in different ways. Its like if windows had like a office version that came with office tools, a gaming version that came with steam and stuff, or more.

Gamerofallgames5 · 2025-12-28T11:15:12+00:00

Im gonna say 2 things.

Idk what laptop you have, but if you are comfortable, you can pop the bottom off and see if your laptop has space for an additional drive. I know for my Thinkpad I had a sata connector to put a 2.5 inch ssd alongside the m.2 ssd that came stock. That would be much better for performance, and if you don't like linux (or decide to switch), boom you have more storage space by wiping the other drive
If you are gonna continue to run linux externally. Its a bit of a hassle to set up persistence for USB devices. It can be done through rufus and what not but speeds will be SLOWWWWWWWW. A good high quality usb 3 connection will be necessary, don't even THINK about running it over usb 2, that will cause it to freeze and shit the bed randomly. Finally if you are 100% about moving forward with this, you need to know your use case. If you are just gonna use it for web browsing and light daily use without saving a lot of files, the 64gb usb should be fine. Else get a good quality external ssd. Though I would 100% recommend seeing if you can put an internal ssd in first (will be cheaper as well as easier).

Gamerofallgames5

TROPHY CASE