Arch Linux

X1C7

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 1

Configuring BIOS and Firmware on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (7th Gen)

I just got a second hand X1 Carbon (7th Gen) with an i5-8365U. I'd like to get some advice to set up the BIOS and firmware. This question isn't truly about ArchLinux, but I'm unsure where else to ask.

About the BIOS, which options should I set to improve my experience? Some of the information on the ArchWiki conflicts with other info I find on the Internet. I suspect the wiki might be outdated since it's a 5 year old laptop?

1. What's the preferred option for `Config -> Power -> Sleep State` nowadays? Windows?

2. The ArchWiki suggests enabling `Config > Thunderbolt BIOS Assist Mode`. But other sources say it's dangerous to enable it, while yet somewhere else I read that it's no longer useful with recent kernels. Who's right and what should I do?

3. Are there any other important options I should check or tweak in order to improve things?

And then about the firmware...

4. I read that the older versions of this laptop's firmware were affected by a critical vulnerability which burns the EEPROM. How can I check if my firmware has already been updated? I can't tell by using fwupdmgr or dmidecode: I'm not exactly sure what to look for.

5. fwupdmgr shows that a number of updates are available for my model: they primarily fix vilnerabilities. Should I update them all? Somewhere I read that updating the Intel ME firmware might brick the laptop. What's the best way to update the firmware safely?

6. Somewhere else I read that some updates are not available through LVFS: I should instead download the .cab files from the Lenovo website and install them manually with fwupdmgr. Which cab files am I recommended to install this way?

6. There's a project named `throttled` (formerly `lenovo_fix`) which tries to improve some Intel throttling issues for my CPU/firmware. Is it important to use it, even when running a recent kernel and firmware?

ReDress

Member

From: Nairobi

Registered: 2024-11-30

Posts: 245

Re: Configuring BIOS and Firmware on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon (7th Gen)

I just got a second hand X1 Carbon (7th Gen) with an i5-8365U. I'd like to get some advice to set up the BIOS and firmware. This question isn't truly about ArchLinux, but I'm unsure where else to ask.

About the BIOS, which options should I set to improve my experience? Some of the information on the ArchWiki conflicts with other info I find on the Internet. I suspect the wiki might be outdated since it's a 5 year old laptop?

Maybe thank goodness that the BIOS didn't come password-locked. It seems like quite a few companies password-lock their laptop BIOS and some resellers never bother reconfiguring the BIOS.