Laptop Recommendations?

[DoYouKubuntu]

This missing button thing is annoying!

[vinnywright]

This missing button thing is annoying!

yes ,,,,,yes it is.

VINNY

[Qqmike]

Now then, isn't that precious .... ;-)

[MoonRise]

Yep everyone there after whoever was last has no Reply With Quote and those that didn't previous now do. Now that is really a selective bug there!

[Chopstick]

I was the one who started the multi- vs. single-partition debate; I wasn't sure whom the original post was directed at, but I had no idea that System76 also uses single partition setups.

Anyway, I've now mostly set up kubuntu on my new Thinkpad; I've detailed my experience in this post (new thread):
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...836#post358836
The main problem was the encrypted LVM, as there seems to be a bug in the kubuntu installer that makes this impossible on UEFI systems.
The touchpad (integrated with the trackpoint) really sucks, but otherwise I am quite happy with the machine.

[Chopstick]

Btw. Teunis, the HDD caddy I got is pretty much exactly the same you got, and it works great. However, I have to say that removing the bezel from the optical drive was not that easy: required a lot of wiggling and quite a bit of force (and knife for prying it off). But it cam off in the end, with only minimal damage, and it perfectly fits on the caddy front. Now you can't even see that I swapped out the optical drive for a HDD.

[Chopstick]

Unfortunately it appears as if my wireless is no working. The thernet is working, but I did have some problems with it initially (not sure if that is related).
Basically with the WLAN, I can see networks and I can attemt to connect, but then it just keeps prompting me for a password, eventhough I already entered the password and it is correct. My old laptop (same OS) has absolutely no problem connecting.
Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea what could be wrong here and how to fix it.
I tried installing the WICD network manager, but that one just hangs when I try to connect to a wireless network.

marc07 what was you experience with the wireless?

[marco07]

I have no issues with wireless at all. It connected OTB and it works fine.
Have you checked your security settings? I thought if your wireless network is detected and tries to connect to no avail, it may be a matter of security settings conflict. In my laptop all is working fine, except a random freezing of the track point pointer, which I have already posted else where in this forum. Also, it seems Lenovo made a big mistake by abandonnig the 2 buttons touchpad and coming up with the new no button clicking one. However, if you pay attention to touchpad settings and play with its configuration, life becomes somewhat easier.

[Chopstick]

Thanks, Marc. But I realize I may actually have a different wireless card than you: I got the dual band one - I don't remember what you got.
My card is an Intel 7260.
Anyway, I got it fixed now - it was a firmware problem.
The current driver for the card (for kernel version 3.13) seems to be buggy, so I downgraded to the previous version, and it works now!
Btw. the way I did the "downgrade" was by removing the current version of the firmware from /lib/firmware (and the previous version was already there).
Would there be a better way to do it?

[marco07]

Here is mine. I copied it from detailed specs as is listed in posting #32 on page 4 of this thread.
Networking
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth Combo

[Chopstick]

Thanks - that's the same I have. What firmware do you have installed?
You can see your installed harware with the command

lspci

Can you also post the output of

dmesg | grep iwlwifi

That should list everything related to loading the wifi drivers, including the firmware version (iwlwifi is the Intel wifi firmware). My firmware version is 22.1.7.0; the more recent 22.24.8.0 doesn't work for me.

[Chopstick]

Also, it seems Lenovo made a big mistake by abandonnig the 2 buttons touchpad and coming up with the new no button clicking one. However, if you pay attention to touchpad settings and play with its configuration, life becomes somewhat easier.

I fully agree! What touchpad options/settings did you choose? Maybe I can benefit from your wisdom.

[marco07]

Here you go:

marco@t540p:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev d4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM87 Express LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] (rev a1)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5227 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 83)
marco@t540p:~$


marco@t540p:~$ dmesg | grep iwlwifi
[ 8.620198] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 9.108959] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: loaded firmware version 22.24.8.0 op_mode iwlmvm
[ 9.896613] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 7260, REV=0x144
[ 9.896686] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[ 9.896926] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[ 20.299526] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[ 20.299778] iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
marco@t540p:~$

[Chopstick]

OK... thanks, Marco. That's very interesting... you have the current firmware and the same card as I have... and your wireless works without problems?

Somehow I have a feeling that something is messed up in my network components... can anyone advise me how to best reinstall these components?

I've opened a new thread for my network problems: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...n-new-Thinkpad

[marco07]

 I fully agree! What touchpad options/settings did you choose? Maybe I can benefit from your wisdom.

I configured the speed of the pointer movement and accelaration to my liking. Also, set the two finger tap for right click. The latter helped alot because original settings (corners) as right click was very difficult to use. Almost did not function.