Problem Installing Kubuntu on Thinkpad X201 (kernel panic)
I just wanted to leave it out there for anyone affected. There are some answers on the web but after reading them I was still not clear if I could use the laptop.
When trying to install any recent KDE/Plasma distro on X201 (Kubuntu or Manjaro), the laptop will start acting dead within a few minutes.
Strange, because I was still able to use it with Kubuntu 24.10 before a messy 25.04 update finally broke it.
But my X201 was upgraded to 24.10, not installed with 24.10. This upgrade path makes a huge difference, because I have been upgrading it since a clean install of 20.04 LTS, which came with kernel version 5.15.
Turns out, 5.x is the last kernel version that this laptop will actually work with. Kernel 6.x added features/regressions that 100% cause the kernel to panic on X201. I thought that the laptop had some hardware failure, but it's still working great.
I ended installing 20.04 LTS first. When I saw that the hardware was OK, I did the 22.04 LTS upgrade, which went fine until the first reboot, followed by kernel panic.
I then used the GRUB menu to go to Advanced options, which allowed me to pick kernel 5.15 from the list (the upgrade kept it in place). 22.04 works with that (unsupported) kernel without problems. I changed the 5.15 kernel installation status from Automatic to Manual (in Aptitude) to prevent accidental removal and completely deleted kernel 6.x, so GRUB doesn't always try to boot into it.
What's interesting is that the live USB will sometimes successfully boot in safe graphics mode, which does not cause the immediate kernel panic. Someone on Ask Ubuntu suggested that you can use that mode to download and manually install the 5.x kernel, before booting 22.04 (or possibly even 24.04) with it. I have not tried that.
Whether I would recommend installing a Plasma6 distro on X201 is a different question. 24.10 was very choppy. I was always happy with 22.04, which is supported until April 2027 with standard LTS, and then with Extended support until 2032. By then X201 will be a fully functional paperweight
So there you have it. X201 (and its siblings) is aging, but still good to use. It's design and keyboard are legendary... everything else, not so much (LCD screen, CPU overheating).
When trying to install any recent KDE/Plasma distro on X201 (Kubuntu or Manjaro), the laptop will start acting dead within a few minutes.
Strange, because I was still able to use it with Kubuntu 24.10 before a messy 25.04 update finally broke it.
But my X201 was upgraded to 24.10, not installed with 24.10. This upgrade path makes a huge difference, because I have been upgrading it since a clean install of 20.04 LTS, which came with kernel version 5.15.
Turns out, 5.x is the last kernel version that this laptop will actually work with. Kernel 6.x added features/regressions that 100% cause the kernel to panic on X201. I thought that the laptop had some hardware failure, but it's still working great.
I ended installing 20.04 LTS first. When I saw that the hardware was OK, I did the 22.04 LTS upgrade, which went fine until the first reboot, followed by kernel panic.
I then used the GRUB menu to go to Advanced options, which allowed me to pick kernel 5.15 from the list (the upgrade kept it in place). 22.04 works with that (unsupported) kernel without problems. I changed the 5.15 kernel installation status from Automatic to Manual (in Aptitude) to prevent accidental removal and completely deleted kernel 6.x, so GRUB doesn't always try to boot into it.
What's interesting is that the live USB will sometimes successfully boot in safe graphics mode, which does not cause the immediate kernel panic. Someone on Ask Ubuntu suggested that you can use that mode to download and manually install the 5.x kernel, before booting 22.04 (or possibly even 24.04) with it. I have not tried that.
Whether I would recommend installing a Plasma6 distro on X201 is a different question. 24.10 was very choppy. I was always happy with 22.04, which is supported until April 2027 with standard LTS, and then with Extended support until 2032. By then X201 will be a fully functional paperweight
So there you have it. X201 (and its siblings) is aging, but still good to use. It's design and keyboard are legendary... everything else, not so much (LCD screen, CPU overheating).