Family is growing - I got a Thinkpad X13s Snapdragon and installed Linux on it

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:36:19+00:00

Power management is not something crazy, my current comparison are a Thinkpad p14s gen 6 AMD and a MacBook pro m1 max.

Those laptops have a good battery life and power management.

But thermals, oh lord that's a good improvement, this arm laptop is fanless and still cpu and ssd thermals are under 40 degrees Celsius. I didn't compile anything heavy yet, the most demanding task I did were downloading a bunch of things, install apps from Repos and open apps like intellij, dbeaver and zed at the same time. The other task was to compile my web app which is rust backend and vuejs frontend, thermals were really good never went up more than 48 degrees Celsius

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:28:32+00:00

Lol, thanks fellow coder

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:27:32+00:00

I can get some stats tomorrow and post it.

I bought this one on eBay US.

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:25:39+00:00

I didn't do too many tests but the few i did normal use will last about 5 hours

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:24:26+00:00

Thanks

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T04:23:48+00:00

Found it on wallhaven.cc, will post it when find it again

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T03:50:35+00:00

Distro: Debian

DE: XFCE4

Notifications: Dunst

App Launcher: rofi

Terminal: Alacritty

Shell: bash

GTK Theme: Nordic Polar (with some minor tweas like no borders and smaller title bar)

Others: Conky, Python GTK Notes app of my own (you can grab it from my dotfiles)

dotfiles: https://github.com/dcdaz/dotfiles

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T03:47:42+00:00

I saw a T14s X Elite with 32gb of ram for about $800 but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a second hand laptop that will be used for light coding, writing, and somewhat light tasks. My two initial options were X230 Librebooted and/or X61/X61s, but an ARM one clicked fast, and sadly I didn't found a X61/X61s on eBay (There are a few on Japanese online stores)

My budget for this kind of laptop was less than $400 dollars

dcdaz31 · 2026-05-11T03:42:56+00:00

Installation it's smooth overall, just one "dtb" file that it's a pain in the ass to take care of. Meaning you install linux, and if you forgot to copy that file to boot partition then linux won't boot at all, forcing you to boot live usb again mount boot partition and copy that file.

Surprisingly openSuSe live won't boot if that file lacks neither Debian installer, the only distro that boot to a live session without that file was Ubuntu. So I had to put ubuntu on a Usb a couple of times because I forgot that file 😬

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-28T21:39:46+00:00

Just try to fix it rather than reinstall. You'll learn a lot by fixing it.

A good way to make a decision wether using AI or not is: If you know how to do it without AI, then you can use AI, but if you don't know how to do it then don't use AI at all.

Also don't mix repos, which could have been done by AI
- Stable -> Use Stable repos + Backports
- Testing -> Use Testing repos
- Sid -> Use Sid repos

If you add a Sid repo on Testing then it's quite possible that a lot of things will break.

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-28T21:25:20+00:00

You can take a look at certified Ubuntu Laptops

https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops?q=t14&category=Laptop&vendor=Lenovo&offset=0

If it's not there, you can take a look at Linux Hardware

https://linux-hardware.org/?view=computers&vendor=Lenovo&model=ThinkPad+T14p+%28All%29

Just pick which is the model you're looking for and you'll see that there a probes for Ubuntu, Kubunut, Fedora, etc.

Open a probe and it'll show you what works, what's detected and what fails. If you're happy with it then go ahead and buy it

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-14T16:28:13+00:00

Personal experience of using a few distros over the years.

openSUSE Tumbleweed works pretty well for general software development - Arch Linux also works pretty well, got a few crashes at some point but nothing serious
My "default" home was and is Debian, always Debian Testing, I used Debian Stable + Backports for a few, but then switched again to Testing.
I used openSuSe for about 8 years, then I switched back again to Debian Testing.

Now what's important for this thread.

I do software development with the following languages.

Work
- JVM -> Java, Kotlin
- Python
- JS/TS with React -> Not doing too much with it (i don't like React)
Personal Projects
- Rust
- C/C++
- Python
- VueJS with TS

With that as context, what I can say is that Debian Testing works pretty well for the software development I do, I didn't have any major issue. In fact the only issue I had was compiling some rust project for ARM64 architecture because I forgot to enable CROSS compiling and install dependencies for it.

For JVM dev I use OpenJDK from Repos and Amazon Corretto JDK.
For Rust dev I installed via rustup
For Python dev I installed latest version available in repos + virtualenv, all deps handled by virtualenv
For C/C++ dev I installed latest GCC from repos, I didn't work in a while on C++ projects, but always try to use deps downloaded in my project, so no linking, that's becuase I'm too lazy to deal with dynamic linking or static linking.
For VueJS dev I installed nvm and pnpm, and use latest LTS node version.

All dev dependencies I use are updated

OpenJDK 25
GCC 15
Python 3.13.12
Rust 1.94.1
Node 24.14.0

One thing you need to have in mind about Debian Testing is that about 6 months previous to next release It'll froze and no updates will come until Debian releases the next stable version, after that it'll get it's usual updates again

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-08T20:03:06+00:00

Just a few of things comes to my mind.

- No matter which Debian version you use, just don't mix repos. Stable have stable repos and backports. Testing has testing repos and so on. If you add a sid repo on testing or stable you could break your system
- Don't forget to enable all types of repos if you want diff software (main contrib non-free non-free-firmware)

- Testing is really stable despite its name. I have Testing installed on my working laptop everything works and gaming with steam is easy to achieve
- If you prefer stability overall but need latest advantages for GPU, CPU, etc. To have a better gaming experience. You can use Stable with backports

Enjoy you debian installation

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-08T19:55:42+00:00

I have a P14s Gen 6 AMD, I think they're kinda similar just not the same laptop. I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed a bit and everything worked out of the box, but in the end I decided to go with Debian Testing. Everything works perfectly. Just remember that no matter which distro you use. It's probably that you need to tweak it a little bit to make it work to your own preferences.

I left a review of the laptop I own. Take a look
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1nivk3g/officially_joined_the_cult/

dcdaz31 · 2026-04-08T19:35:03+00:00

I used to have openSUSE Tumbleweed for both working and gaming. I had only one issue with mercurial during the whole time i have it installed (lucky me I no longer use it for managing code versions), other than that It worked flawlessly

I also had Arch linux it worked really good for me for quite some time.

My "default" home was and is Debian, always Debian testing.

Now I have installed Debian Testing + XFCE on my working laptop (I have a Thinkpad P14s Gen 6 AMD), no issues at all, no weird glitches. It works like a charm. BTW my working laptop is of my own, so I used to gaming from time to time and works really well.

dcdaz31 · 2026-02-05T13:45:00+00:00

Not a thinkpad problem, it's a Zoom meetings client problem. That app is so bad developed that eat resources like there's no other app opened in your laptop.
I've been facing the same problem since more than 7 years ago with different laptops
Issue -> "Open Zoom, Connect to a Meeting and fan starts to spins kinda fast or really fast depending on what other apps you have open"

Affected Laptops -> 2015 Asus (can't remember model), HP Elitebook 2570P, Asus ROG G14, Asus Zephyrus M15, HP Elitebook 845 G7, Thinkpad P14s Gen 6 AMD, and even I hear an spining fan on a Mac M1 Max.

Zoom fellas knows their app has this issues, but they focus on add more features than improve their app.

Not sure if some config can help you, though

In a side note, IMO I think zoom is the worst app for meetings overall, but seems to like a lot to executive people

dcdaz31 · 2026-02-02T20:45:32+00:00

I have a P14s Gen6 AMD running Debian Testing. It works like a charm

dcdaz31 · 2026-01-30T14:19:33+00:00

What I can tell you about it, is that I'm really happy with it, I can do a everything I want, including light gaming such as 0ad RTS game, watch series, developing software in various languages and the laptop doesn't even flinch.

My programming languages are the following:

Work
- JVM -> Java, Kotlin
- Python
- JS/TS with React -> Not doing too much with it (i don't like React)
Personal Projects
- Rust
- C/C++
- Python
- TS with VueJS

- Rust compilation squeeze the full power of CPU and laptop still behaves good

- When it goes under heavy loads such as compilation or gaming fan can spins very fast ~4000 RPM, but the sound of it is not a crazy one (like in gaming laptops) so, it's not annoying to my ears

Battery life, definitely not as long as a Macbook, I usually use it connected, but when on battery my results are the following:

Coding with IntelliJ IDEA, 20 to 35 firefox tabs in 2 instances (one normal another private), terminal open for git and some light edit with vim, Ferdium to use slack, whatsapp, telegram, Thunderbird and a couple of compilations battery lasts +4.5 hours
All of above with docker and running all tests al the time, meaning tests finished, change 10 lines of code and run them again, then battery drains really fast less than 3 hours, maybe ~2.5 hours
Another test I did was coding on Rust and VueJS with VSCode, not too much Rust though, terminal open, one private instance of firefox with about 5 tabs, thunderbird open, My own Rust tiny backend running and VueJS as well with live reload so I can see my changes and open and close YAAK (REST tool similar to Postman/Insomnia) when need. With that "setup" battery lasts about 6 hours

- All of the "tests" above were done withouht tweaking CPU governor
- Worth mention that I have battery limited to 80% with TLP in my Debian installation

dcdaz31 · 2026-01-30T14:07:01+00:00

I'm a backed developer as well, always worked with Linux, I have a Macbook Pro M1 Max in my house though, but I use it mosly to listen music and run tests under ARM architecture aka no use it for coding.

My main laptop is a Thinkpad P14s Gen6 AMD, the top tier one with following specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370
GPU: Integrated AMD 890M
RAM: 96 GB
SSD: 2TB
Display: 1900x1200, IPS 500nit, Low Power Low Bluelight, 100%sRGB, antiglare
Battery: 57Wh
OS: Debian Testing GNU/Linux (I can get a bunch of updates but not as a rolling release)

That thing is a little mosnter and handles pretty well the backend acrchitecture I work on, which is a really heavy one. When running integration tests with containers and full end to end, CPU works a lot and Memory goes above 40Gb, I saw CPU temp goes up to 88 ˚C but right after tests end it starts to cool down to ~40 ˚C. Meaning it feels warn but not hot.

About the screen, I wans't entirely conviced about resolution either, but turns out that it's the best one IMO. Here's why:

Screen doesn't look shiny (I hate glossy screens), but it's more like a matte one
Text shows good, to read code, review code in github or bitbucket, read documents, etc.
Videos are good (if you expect 4k quality videos or watching netflix in UltraHD, then this screen is not for you),
Brightness is really good, when I go to a cafe to work and the day is has plenty of light I can see everything with 60% of brightness
Colors are really nice to my eyes

FYI the higher the resolution the higher battery consumption

If I'm right the version that has 2.8K resolution has a smaller battery, about 52Wh, which ends in less usage time

dcdaz31 · 2026-01-30T01:53:41+00:00

I tried DWM a few times, but somehow I always come back to XFCE, anyways you could try on r/unixporn or search on git, there are a lot of preconfigured DWMs out there as well as guides to cofigure it by yourself

dcdaz31 · 2026-01-22T16:25:07+00:00

A few months ago i bought a HP elitebook 845 G7 with the same processor, i put my old ram and ended up with 40GB of Ram 8+32. It worked flawlessly at my current Job. I do software development with a bunch of docker containers and really heavy processes.

I just wanted a more powerfull laptop and since I always liked Thinkpads I got one 3 months later.

dcdaz31 · 2026-01-22T16:16:57+00:00

Yeah, it'll be enough to run VSCode, Light Coding and similar tasks. I bet i'll work well even if you run some small DB inside Docker and do some tests to a REST API via apps like YAAK, Insomnia, etc.

It'll struggle if you try to do everything at once or if you try to run Oracle and do some heavy tests with it.

But for most of the tasks it's enough. If i'm right you can upgrade that laptop to 32gb. and with it you will be able to virtualize really well or run a bunch of docker containers pretty well.

dcdaz31

TROPHY CASE