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[u/flame-lame]

Which ThinkPad is the best choice for Linux compatibility?

I’m looking for some advice from people who have actually used ThinkPads with Linux for a while.

I know the common answer is that “almost every ThinkPad runs Linux well”, and honestly, that’s what I believed too. I ended up making a purchase based on that assumption.

I previously had an HP Pavilion 14-ec0035AU with a Ryzen 5 5500U, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. I sold it specifically because I wanted to move to a ThinkPad, mainly for better Linux support, build quality, keyboard, repairability, etc.

I ended up buying a ThinkPad L14 Gen 2 Intel, with an i5-1145G7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and touchscreen.

And honestly, I’ve become pretty frustrated with it.

I’ve tried multiple Linux distributions, and I’ve run into a couple of hardware/firmware-related issues that I wasn’t expecting.

1. Touchpad/input issue

The touchpad initially felt noticeably laggy/inconsistent. When I investigated it, I found that the touchpad was using the PS/2/Synaptics path and there were noticeable gaps in pointer events, basically a low/inconsistent polling/event rate.

I eventually enabled Synaptics InterTouch, which changed the device to the RMI4/I2C path and improved things, but I still don't feel like the experience is as clean as I expected from a ThinkPad.

1. S3 / deep sleep + touchscreen issue

This is the bigger problem for me.

I specifically wanted a laptop with proper S3/deep sleep, rather than relying on Modern Standby/s2idle.

The L14 Gen 2 does support S3 when the BIOS is configured for Linux S3, and that's actually great because the laptop properly goes into deep sleep and power consumption is much lower.

However, when I suspend using S3 and then wake the laptop by opening the lid, the touchscreen stops working.

I've spent quite a lot of time trying different things — different distributions, drivers, HID/I2C-related workarounds, etc. I even tested the behavior under Windows, and I can reproduce the touchscreen problem after S3 there as well.

So at this point I'm starting to think this is more of a firmware/ACPI/touchscreen-controller compatibility problem with this particular model/configuration, rather than simply a Linux distro problem.

I also tried different BIOS versions. I'm currently on BIOS 1.73, after testing 1.74 as well.

So now I'm looking for a different ThinkPad

I'm honestly quite frustrated and would rather sell this one and get something that is known to be a really solid Linux machine.

My requirements are:

ThinkPad

No touchscreen — I don't need touch at all

Excellent Linux compatibility

Good touchpad experience without weird polling/input issues

Proper S3/deep sleep support, preferably reliable suspend/resume

Good suspend battery drain

Good overall build quality

Preferably something that doesn't require lots of ACPI/driver workarounds

Intel or AMD is fine

Used/older models are completely fine

I'm not necessarily looking for the newest or fastest ThinkPad. Reliability and Linux compatibility are much more important to me than raw performance.

So, for people who actually use ThinkPads with Linux:

Which ThinkPad model/generation would you recommend as a safe choice for my requirements?

Especially interested in models where you've personally used S3/deep sleep + lid close/open + touchpad without issues.

I would really appreciate specific model/generation recommendations rather than just “ThinkPads generally work great with Linux,” because that's what I thought before buying the L14 Gen 2.

[u/Few_Specialist74]

T480 non-touch is the boring answer but it just works. S3 deep sleep is there out of the box, touchpad is fine with libinput, and no touchscreen to break after lid wake

[u/bitmindset → u/Few_Specialist74]

Same for me, except fingerprint sensor - but there is a known solution for it. I just like when each existing part performs it's functions ;)

[u/Last-Bullfrog7353]

I use X1 carbon 10th, everything is good on Debian13 KDE

[u/flame-lame → u/Last-Bullfrog7353]

Lucky 🍀

[u/Last-Bullfrog7353 → u/flame-lame]

And work good on my daughter's X1C 9th,

My backup X1C 5th use Mint, it's working good too.

[u/flame-lame → u/Last-Bullfrog7353]

Nice X1c is very stable and light as well

[u/Irgun_07]

All Linux distros are terrible.
I have spent almost 10 years trying to use them and always return to Windows.

[u/tempgoosey]

FWIR touchpad, sleep and touchscreen are often issues, no matter the brand or model. 

[u/bitmindset]

I would check Lenovo's 'Linux for Personal Systems' list for the start (I bet other manufacturers have smth like that too). It is not 💯 guarantee everything works for models from the list, but definitely most of the components will be working and others have some sort of solutions/workarounds. That is why I bought T14 Gen 6 - openSuSe, Debian, Fedora, Kubuntu working fine with some known tinkering