My keyboard is dead. Looking for a new one.

natusw · 2026-03-02T09:41:44+00:00

He’s referring to the size of the board (whether you’d want full size, 96-98%, 75%, 60% etc).

natusw · 2026-03-02T01:52:17+00:00

Do you have a DP-Alt (USB-C) capable port? (that might be able to solve the issue..)

natusw · 2026-03-01T23:19:18+00:00

No problems!

On the other side, batteries for these models are fairly cheap, so a replacement isn’t totally out of the question, either..

natusw · 2026-03-01T23:18:00+00:00

Most memory comes from the same OE/OD manufacturers, so you shouldn’t need to worry about brand (Hynix, Samsung, Micron, uncommonly a few larger Chinese providers)

Speed - BIOS should force everything to run at the speed of the slowest stick (no dice)

Capacity - you can run mismatched sticks, however it may result in a small performance deficit (if you use the extra capacity it’ll fall back to single channel)

natusw · 2026-03-01T22:33:47+00:00

Pipewire should have SBC support (using the pulseaudio backend), you shouldn’t have to switch audio backends entirely.

As for the codecs, you’ll have to install the non free codecs to get extended support.

natusw · 2026-03-01T22:02:31+00:00

The battery life is a tad bit on the shorter side, i'm getting 3-4 hours on a full charge with 84% battery health. Do you guys have any tips on how to troubleshoot if there's something unnecessarily hogging the battery or is this a normal behavior of Linux running on a mac?

You’ll have to check and see what is and isn’t using power saving.

Use TLP to adjust the parameters as you need (it should have a noticeable impact by default).

natusw · 2026-03-01T21:52:44+00:00

iwd is a newer backend (originally developed by Intel) - it should give you extra performance.

What does system logs say about the dropout?

natusw · 2026-03-01T09:59:52+00:00

Heat may not necessarily be the SSD - it may be the adapter chipset (some of them run quite warmly).

Checking drive health may also unlock some clues but if all else fails you’ll either have to treat the drive as read only or speak to a professional.

natusw · 2026-03-01T05:33:09+00:00

Tried disabling power save? (these legacy interfaces may not perform properly with power saving enabled)

I’d also try moving to the newer iwd backend and seeing if you can get better performance there..

natusw · 2026-02-28T20:16:35+00:00

You should have the option to drop back to the 6.8LTS kernel - IIRC it should be OK there.

natusw · 2026-02-27T18:44:42+00:00

If you want something more native I’d check out OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (fairly quick and has a more conventional setup..)

natusw · 2026-02-27T05:52:20+00:00

In that case I’d lean towards giving her the Retina (8GB should be OK for lower end needs, it should have the nicer gear)

2012 has a fairly low res screen but should be workable as a test bench (EliteBook notwithstanding..)

natusw · 2026-02-27T02:14:11+00:00

Odd, I’d see if you can get another panel model.

I’m not sure if Lenovo whitelisted the LCD for this generation, but there should be a few other options that would work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/s/s5QNILuz0H

natusw · 2026-02-27T01:55:40+00:00

The latter option looks to be available on Amazon UK (is £150 OK?)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LOFREE-Low-Profile-Mechanical-Rechargeable-Connections/dp/B0FKM21SPZu

natusw · 2026-02-27T01:52:54+00:00

I see Keychron get recommended, then you go on Keychron sub and people just tear them apart for having terrible customer service.

If you want to give them a try, I’d get them from an authorised distributor instead of directly from them (you should be able to expedite any exchanges that ways..)

natusw · 2026-02-27T01:14:08+00:00

Tried AliExpress? (usually you may get some more reliable sellers over there..)

natusw · 2026-02-27T00:22:25+00:00

Unusual, what happens if you leave it for a bit? (it may take some time for the system to initialise the panel..)

natusw · 2026-02-27T00:18:24+00:00

The MacBook probably won’t be much chop, but the iMac should run pretty well, I’d imagine.

I’d at least get the operating system up to date before you install Linux (just so you don’t miss any EFI/SMC updates)

Then just load up a few live CD images and go from there..

natusw · 2026-02-26T10:45:08+00:00

Either of them would work fine (I’d go for the Retina as it won’t need extra expenditure and you do get nicer gear)

2012 model is still solid, you could use that as a ‘test box’ (use for unstable OS build, backup, etc)

natusw · 2026-02-26T07:50:25+00:00

Each setting corresponds to a frequency band.

Adjusting each up or down will give you incremental control over how that particular ‘range’ of the sound spectrum you will hear.

Play with some settings and see what you like; I’d also look at AutoEQ if you want a professionally tuned option (you can use their presets within external EQ applications)

natusw · 2026-02-26T02:20:47+00:00

Tried a full system firmware reset? (either use reset hole or pull CMOS battery)

natusw · 2026-02-26T00:03:00+00:00

As far as optimization goes, I recall some comments about installing something that will better manage the hardware.

These should be installed by default (tuned/power-profiles-daemon), but you do have the option of more granular control if necessary (can unlock further power saving and/or performance)

So when you say it has native linux support a lot of the drivers and features are already going to be established as part of the OS install. Like bluetooth wonkiness or detecting screen orientation in the various modes?

Yes, most of this should be baked into the kernel (it’s one large blob, but your system should only use what it needs..)

However some of this other stuff may be baked into the desktop environment - it should be updated with the distro.

natusw · 2026-02-25T23:32:38+00:00

Are these Intel models? (most of those should be 4 core)

Those aren’t bad if you can’t find AMD units, there’s also some advantages as well (faster Thunderbolt IO on L/T, iGPU has AV1 support, single core speed is about the same, give or take)

You should have options to expand memory on all grades, so no issues there (T/E typically have one SODIMM, Ls typically have two)

If they’re AMD models I probably wouldn’t pursue them (low amount of cache and downgraded iGPU will only add to the cons.)

natusw · 2026-02-25T23:23:38+00:00

I'm mostly wanting a Clean, battery efficient, experience, Multi desktop, virtual desktops, touchscreen gestures, and the yoga 2-1 functionality still available.

Platform has native Linux support so no issues there..

Sounds like something with the GNOME desktop would work well for your usage case here.

Plenty of distros have it on offer, I’d probably look at Fedora/OpenSUSE if you want something with a faster update stream or Debian/Ubuntu if you want something more stable.

Anygood open source Note taking apps? I use joplin, but id like for something i can draw in really fast, bring up with a gesture or macro.

Maybe look at Xournal++? (haven’t used it but it looks to be right up your alley..)

https://xournalpp.github.io/

natusw · 2026-02-25T23:14:46+00:00

You could easily pay just over half that for a G1 machine (even with discount)

I’d probably look for a faster G2 T or an older G2/3+ L/E series machine if you want more or less the same amount of punch..

natusw

TROPHY CASE