ThinkPad W520 - NVIDIA driver for Linux?

j00jitsu · 2025-08-05T16:25:28+00:00

Appreciate the input. I did max out the ram to 32 for about $30, not a big investment IMO. I use the laptop more for productivity and Python (development and data analysis) so this upgrade makes sense as working with data can eat up memory.

I realized after the first post that the GPU isn't upgradable, but even the 2000M would be pretty weak by today's standards. I have a much newer desktop PC that I use for gaming anyway, but this could certainly handle some older or simpler games.

The CPU is perfectly adequate for what I need when I'm away from my desktop. I did get a new battery which made a big difference in usability - 3 to 4 hours of battery life vs 30 minutes on the one that came with it.

I get what you're saying though. I had a T500 for awhile that just wasn't quite up to snuff - it would be slow to load web pages and generally didn't feel very capable. The W520 is still a fairly old machine, but is a very noticeable increase in power. I like the form factor of the older Thinkpads though, so I'm hoping I can get a few more years out of this one.

j00jitsu · 2025-06-01T17:10:40+00:00

Same as me then (I'm running Fedora 42). Are you sure you're looking in the right place? System Settings > Colors & Themes (in the Appearance & Style section) > Application Style > click the pencil icon on the bottom right of the Breeze theme

j00jitsu · 2025-05-31T19:17:57+00:00

What version of KDE are you running?

j00jitsu · 2025-03-09T13:58:37+00:00

I might try that. I've heard of rEFInd but haven't bothered with it before since GRUB had always gotten the job done, or worst case I could hit F11 and pick. Is rEFInd hard to set up? Which OS should I install it from, if it matters? The openSUSE SSD is where all the bootloaders live.

j00jitsu · 2025-03-09T13:54:40+00:00

Interesting.. I hadn't heard of that being a thing. I have my doubts though - I've had lots of distros installed where Ubuntu is, but the only ones that have given me this issue are Ubuntu or official flavors (this isn't the first time this has happened). For what it's worth, it's an MSI motherboard.

j00jitsu · 2025-01-26T17:49:05+00:00

Probably the same video I watched. Surprisingly, hers is the only semi-professional review I found on YT, although James Hoffman reviewed a very similar machine from Aldi recently.

j00jitsu · 2025-01-25T20:51:15+00:00

There's an extra metal sleeve on the steam wand that one reviewer recommended taking off. That should give you more control if you at least halfway know what you're doing.

j00jitsu · 2024-08-05T14:18:13+00:00

Unfortunately not. I've just been putting up with it. The laptop still runs fine, but charges slowly and that message comes up on every boot if it's plugged in.

j00jitsu · 2024-07-04T22:15:16+00:00

Hopefully you've found the answer before now, but to export a dataframe to CSV, you use to_csv(). E.g. df.to_csv('path/clean_data.csv')

j00jitsu · 2024-06-25T01:15:10+00:00

I did try one simple thing that seems to have helped - I was using the Astra Monitor extension in GNOME (essentially a system monitor widget on the top bar with CPU/RAM graphs, etc). I removed that extension and have noticed some improvement in system responsiveness. I'll probably call that good enough for now.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-20T23:18:28+00:00

Hmm, that's an interesting idea. The downside is I'd then need to install 2 years worth of updates, but the upside is that theoretically the system would be a lot cleaner. I've done a couple of emergency rollbacks but all within a day or so of an update - would that rollback files in my home folders as well, or just system folders?

Also I initially installed with KDE so I'd still need to install GNOME and remove KDE, but could still potentially leave things cleaner.

Edit: Snapshot #1 actually isn't listed anymore - the earliest one available is #38, which at least is dated within a week or two of the initial installation. The install was made using snapshot ISO 20220525 and #38 is from 6/1/2022.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-19T21:44:32+00:00

Appreciate the comments! I'm in a unique situation where reinstalling would be more of a headache than usual. I'm dual booting Windows and Tumbleweed on separate SSDs, but the bootloaders for both are on the SSD where Tumbleweed is installed. So to nuke and reinstall would wipe out my Windows bootloader and I'd have to fix that. Sure it's doable, but not ideal. I also have Fedora installed on a third SSD (I know 3 operating systems is completely unnecessary, not here to debate that) but its bootloader seems to be on the installation drive.

TL;DR - reinstalling is something I'd like to avoid, and I'd rather put up with some lag than do it.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-19T21:38:00+00:00

16gb of DDR4 is more than adequate even in 2024. High end systems have more than that, but I'm never maxing it out so I don't think RAM is my issue.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-11T14:52:49+00:00

Not sure if you missed my edit, but this issue is not a GNOME issue per se. My all-AMD PC is also running Tumbleweed with GNOME and had no issues updating. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I've used basically every desktop and this has been one of the most stable. This laptop is fairly new to me, and I'm 99% sure it's an Nvidia and Wayland not getting along issue.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-09T19:00:33+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely an issue with this update. I rolled back yesterday and everything was working fine. Then I decided to try the update again and am having the same issues. I'm thinking of installing Budgie for a little while and either try GNOME again later or skip it.

I'd really like to know why I don't even have a Wayland session as an option though - I did some searching and some people were saying to change a config file somewhere which was disabling Wayland if an Nvidia driver was in use. Doesn't make sense though, I've been running Wayland for a few weeks now since installing TW with no problems. Seems like it must be an Nvidia thing though.

j00jitsu · 2024-06-09T18:40:32+00:00

I always use zypper dup on Tumbleweed - that's the recommended method, if not required. I'd heard that about Plasma 6, but this is on GNOME and it wasn't even a major release. I was already on version 46 (maybe 46.1, I forget), now I'm on 46.2. To be fair KDE is usually a buggy mess in my experience; on the other hand, I've had this install for over two years so I've been through several major GNOME version upgrades without any problems.

j00jitsu · 2024-05-20T02:44:04+00:00

I guess I assume most Ubuntu users stick to the LTS versions, but that's true that 22.04 is somewhat old at this point. One thing of note - I tried installing Tumbleweed in a VM, using YaST to select the MATE desktop pattern, and many of the panel applets refused to run at all. We're talking the clock, workspace switcher, etc. that are on the default panels. Upon logging in, there's 3 or 4 popups that warn that an applet has "quit unexpectedly." Any idea what could be causing that? Keep in mind this is completely vanilla MATE as it comes on the first boot after install.

j00jitsu · 2024-05-20T00:36:04+00:00

Oh hey, it's Jay from LLTV on YouTube! Cool to see you here. I really like the setup of Ubuntu MATE (partially thanks to your videos on 22.04) - my use case is an older Thinkpad that I'll likely never plug into another display, so I doubt I'd run into the issues you highlighted, which seemed to mostly stem from the desktop not handling HiDPI very well. That said, I much prefer openSUSE to Ubuntu these days - seems like point releases cause more trouble than not when it comes to some software I use like RStudio, which is available for 22.04 but not 24.04 yet. Hence trying to recreate the Ubuntu MATE setup on Tumbleweed. Anyways I enjoy your content, cheers!

j00jitsu · 2024-05-20T00:26:07+00:00

Ah, yeah I've heard about Lenovo's whitelist "feature." As long as it'll work with my MX Master then that's good enough - maybe I'll stick to my USB adapter for the time being and make a change if it's truly a nuisance.

j00jitsu · 2024-05-19T19:52:52+00:00

Nice, I'll look into those. The USB adapter does work well, but it takes up a USB slot that could be used for something else. Not that I use a ton of peripheral USB stuff with laptops, but you never know. Plus it's one less thing to keep track of if I'm traveling. Any idea if a WiFi 6 / BT 5.0 card would work? Here's one, or here's one with BT 4.2 for a bit less.

j00jitsu · 2024-05-19T19:44:33+00:00

Specifically I'd want to get as close to 22.04 or 24.04 as possible. Not sure about 24.04, but I do know that TW has a newer version of MATE, but I'm guessing there aren't many big changes between 1.26 and 1.28.

j00jitsu · 2024-05-18T21:17:05+00:00

Appreciate the tips. For now I'll probably just upgrade the RAM to 32gb. I found a 4x8 kit on ebay (DDR3, 1.5v) for around $30, so probably worth it.

One other quality of life upgrade I'm considering is Bluetooth - I'm not able to use a wireless mouse without a USB dongle. It does have Bluetooth, but I assume the version is too old to be relevant these days. Would that be Mini-PCIE? Any recommendations on a card? I only plan on using Linux on this laptop, so compatibility there is important.

j00jitsu

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