Lenovo ThinkPad P43s

Related articles

• Lenovo ThinkPad T490s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T490
• Lenovo ThinkPad T480
• Lenovo ThinkPad T480s
• Lenovo ThinkPad T470

Graphics

This laptop has its external display ports directly wired to the NVIDIA chip. In loose terms this means that the dedicated GPU must be enabled in order for external displays to be used. Luckily, it is possible to do dynamic switching between the integrated and dedicated graphics, but this is only possible by using the Intel DDX driver as opposed to modesetting.

The laptop can be used in one of two modes: Hybrid Graphics, or Dedicated Graphics only.

In order to use the integrated Intel UHD 630 GPU (as part of Hybrid Graphics) you need to add the module to your by adding it as a module in your mkinitcpio. This is done by setting the following on :

Failure to add the above will leave you stuck when trying to load the and your system will not be able to boot.

It might be possible to make do without the module above by using the only (this can be done by changing the setting in UEFI).

Proprietary driver with bumblebee

With this setup the integrated GPU is used by default but some applications can be rendered on the discrete GPU with the optirun or launchers. See Bumblebee for detailed instructions. The lack of proper v-sync support means that with this method applications rendered on the discrete GPU exhibit tearing. There is also some overhead introduced as a result of moving data inefficiently between the discrete and integrated GPUs, but the Nvidia GPU performs much better than it does with Nouveau.

To get this working you will need , , nvidia and .

Then set the following configuration files.

You probably already have one of these so adjust/add as needed - the dummy device at the end is essential:

At this stage, restart your machine. Then you should be able to run applications on the GPU as you normally would with optirun, e.g., . If you want to use the external displays you need to keep your GPU on by running a task on optirun and then running intel-virtual-output -f (this will stay running and binds the external display ports to virtual outputs that you can use). At this stage you should be able to see and use the external ports.

Function keys

Most FN keys should work out of the box, but if it does not, bind mentioned keys to below commands:

• F1 button: .
• F2 button: .
• F3 button: .
• F4 button: .

Touchpad

Touchpad is problematic. By default, if you hold the thumb over the button area, the pointer will not move. Once the system is installed, the problem disappears when using KDE, while GNOME still exhibits the issue. In GNOME, use the following to fix the problem:

$ xinput set-prop 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad' 'libinput Click Method Enabled' 1 0

Even after doing this, the mouse pointer still jumps around when clicking the button sometimes.

Fingerprint sensor

The fingerprint sensor works with some recent firmware and software updates (2019-12-15). Driver development info: .

1. Use fwupd to install the latest firmware for "Synaptics Prometheus Fingerprint Reader". The update might have to be done manually as the released firmware is in testing; or you could enable the testing remote in fwupd to allow automated upgrade. The relevant firmwares are Prometheus Fingerprint Reader and Prometheus Fingerprint Reader Configuration.
2. Latest fprintd and libfprint are required. and can be useful here.
3. fprint has more details on how to setup the fingerprint for PAM authentication for example.

Known issues

CPU throttling issue

With the BIOS Version 1.52 (this problem is known to occur on 1.52, it might still happen on other versions too), the CPU tends to throttle down to 400 MHz earlier than it should. In particular, this can be seen when using Bumblebee.

After installing BIOS Version 1.54, this problem is fixed.

Speaker noise issue

The speaker on the Lenovo Thinkpad T490 may have a high static hissing noise, which does not change if you lower the volume, but stops if you mute the speaker or use the headphone jack. This problem cannot be fixed completely as of now. Updating to the most current BIOS version will make the speaker silent while it's not playing anything without you having to mute it all the time. But as soon as the user is playing sound, the noise will be back, clearly audible in the background.

Check the Lenovo Support Website for the newest BIOS Version.

MicroSD card reader issue

The MicroSD card reader works with the arch kernel 5.3.11-arch1-1. There have been issues with previous kernel versions.

Bluetooth

Works well with wireless headphones: no issues pairing or connecting with Blueman and PulseAudio.

Slow wakeup after suspend

After suspend the laptop takes a few second until it becomes responsive. Disallowing the access to the WWAN device in the BIOS solves this issue.

ACPI

The default /etc/acpi/handler.sh script has a check for the device that looks like this:

This will not work, since the T490 device is called which is not matched by the above check. The instructions in Acpid does mention a pattern that does work and it is recommended to use this instead.

See Also

• Lenovo Forums: A throttling fix is being investigated by Lenovo.