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lenovo x395 install fails

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oida
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lenovo x395 install fails

#1 Post by oida »

Hi,

im just a bit frustrated. I have a brandnew Lenovo Thinkpad X395 (AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 3500U) with 16Gb Ram and 512 gb SSD. I installed Debian Buster without any problems (UEFI Bios), Gnome, and after the finish of the installation the system restarts as usual, brings a lot of info and then the scren goes blank and the curser blinks in the topleft corner. End of Game. After that i tried the Deb 10 unoficial with firmware as well as Bullseye with the firmware-iwlwifi-9260, and install finishes succesfully but still ends up with same behavior.

I would hate to go back to windows so hopefully you have any hints for me to get Debian running.

Thank you very much for any help

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

You'll need newer amdgpu firmware for that than is available in Debian atm, grab it from upstream: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... ree/amdgpu

Also add the latest µcode and rebuild the initramfs afterwards. And the backported kernel might be a good idea but I have heard from other Ryzen 3000 users that buster's kernel will work.

And you do know the new Ryzen 4000-based X13 is out this week, right? https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press ... able-soon/ :mrgreen:

EDIT: add 4 (or 2 or 3) as a kernel command line parameter from the boot menu to stop the graphical desktop from loading (or load a live image and chroot in to the system, Arch is good for that).
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oida
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#3 Post by oida »

Thank you for your info.

Well, i am just a , lets say, not so advanced user so i am not sure how to implement the amdgpu during the install and howto rebuild initramfs. I have tried Ubuntu 20.04 and most of the things work out of the box with exception of the fingerprint reader and some flaws with wifi energysaving.

I changed from Windows to Debian because of its unproblematic behavior and on my 6yrs old hp mobileworkstation it runs like a charm. I am not a skilled technician, i am a professional photographer working with darktable, gimp, scribus and inkscape. And yes, that's all great software and possible you can give me the directions i can run deb again.

I have also tried bullseye which claims to support the ryzen 5 pro 3500u with the radeon vega, but as mentioned before, the same behavior. Bios is latest. Since Ubunt 20.04 is based on Debian testing i am confused why Debian is not working of the box.

About the new ryzen. Well, i do not play any games just need a lightweight everyday working horse so i decided that the ryzen 5 in combination with 16gig is enough for me and also the price for the x395 was right in my budget :wink:

Thank you for your patience, hope you can help me out.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:You'll need newer amdgpu firmware for that than is available in Debian atm, grab it from upstream: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... ree/amdgpu

Also add the latest µcode and rebuild the initramfs afterwards. And the backported kernel might be a good idea but I have heard from other Ryzen 3000 users that buster's kernel will work.

And you do know the new Ryzen 4000-based X13 is out this week, right? https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press ... able-soon/ :mrgreen:

EDIT: add 4 (or 2 or 3) as a kernel command line parameter from the boot menu to stop the graphical desktop from loading (or load a live image and chroot in to the system, Arch is good for that).

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

First add 4 as a kernel parameter from the GRUB (boot) menu: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke ... eters#GRUB

Log in at the console screen and run these commands (the "#" symbol indicates the command should be run with root privileges):

Code: Select all

# apt install git
mkdir ~/git ; cd ~/git
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
# cp -r linux-firmware/amd{gpu,-ucode} /lib/firmware
# tee -a /etc/modules <<<'amdgpu'
# update-initramfs -u -k all
Then reboot.

For a newer kernel see http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=139003

EDIT: or try the buster-backports ISO image linked in my signature, that already has the latest firmware and the backported kernel.
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#5 Post by oida »

Thank you again for help.

I have done a fresh install of Debian Buster 10.4 with firmware included and then executed all the steps you mentioned. But still the screen hangs with the cursor in topleft corner. The only change to your code i've done was to change the path for initramfs : #export PATH:/sbin:$PATH
During the execution no errors seen.

Is there anything else i can do ?

Thank you again for help

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#6 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Did you try installing using my custom buster-backports ISO image?

Boot to a console again and check the output of

Code: Select all

lspci -k | grep -A3 VGA
The video card should have this line:

Code: Select all

        Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
If it doesn't then install the newer kernel from the buster-backports repository (which would already be installed if you had used my image).

EDIT: for your PATH issue see http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=142973
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#7 Post by oida »

Hello again,

thank you a lot for help. I still have not really a working debian system. In the meantime i tried ubuntu, which seems to be a debian based distro. I have it up and running, but still with a lot of problems. The radio Card (fibocom l850 - gl 4g lte cat9)is not working, also the fingerprint reader. And the biggest problem is that the system has some problems after removing it from the docking station (i am using the ultra dock). After power down and removing it from the dock i had to reboot several times to have the system up and running. Since i neede a working system for my work i installed now Windows and leave half of the ssd free for linux.

SO i will try it with the image you provided but i am confused. Clicking the link in your sighnature i can't find a iso file to download ?

At the moment i had to finish some work for customers but after that i will try debian again. To get rid of working problems i have backed up the finished windows install with clonezilla so i can restore the whole system in minutes.

Again thank you for your time and help.

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

oida wrote:SO i will try it with the image you provided but i am confused. Clicking the link in your sighnature i can't find a iso file to download ?
Yeah, you actually have to read the information I supplied on that page to find where the images are. Sorry about that.

Hint: it's on the last line...
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#9 Post by awesomemachine »

In grub, edit the 'kernel' line to include 'nomodeset' or 'modeset=0'.
What was truth is truth now, and it always will be truth! There is one truth! Everything else is wrong!

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#10 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

^ AMD graphics cards require KMS so that will prevent the graphical desktop from loading.
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oida
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#11 Post by oida »

OMG, it seems that im going blind. Yes, the images are there and thank you to help a blind out! I think that i am so confused about searching and reading and trying to learn.

Well, i will try the install in a couple of weeks after finishing my urgent work. In the meantime i have seen that there is a solution for lte card so fingers crossed hopefully i can switch back to Debian in summer.

I am so glad to have such a helping hand i can't put it into words.

Thank you very much and all the best

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails - solved

#12 Post by oida »

Hello,

after reading,learning and trying a with the outstanding help of @head_on_a_stick i finally have a working Debian system on my Lenovo X395. The exceptions are the Fingerprint Reader and the Fibocom 850 LTE module. For the Fibocom there seems to be a solution in progress,

So, probably for someone helpful my solution:

I installed Debian Buster from unofficially with firmware included and gnome as gui. After booting the first time gnome Gui hangs as expected due to amdgpu. In a second terminal i logged in, changed the user to a sudoer and then changed following:

add buster-backports to sources.list and do a update
search for linux headers and image (in my case is 5.5.0-0.bpo.2-amd64)
install linux-headers and image
reboot

And thats it. Running smooth, no problems with energy savings or wlan.

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Re: lenovo x395 install fails - solved

#13 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

oida wrote:The exceptions are the Fingerprint Reader
Have you tried fprintd? See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fprint
oida wrote:search for linux headers and image (in my case is 5.5.0-0.bpo.2-amd64)
install linux-headers and image
You don't need the headers and you should also install the linux-image-amd64 metapackage to keep the kernel version updated.
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Re: lenovo x395 install fails

#14 Post by oida »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
oida wrote:The exceptions are the Fingerprint Reader
Have you tried fprintd? See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fprint
Yes, but does not work. The Fingerprint Reader is a Synaptics UWP WBDI and seem not to be supported at the moment. I tried fprintd and it says no device detected, But for now i can live without the fingerprint reader.
oida wrote:search for linux headers and image (in my case is 5.5.0-0.bpo.2-amd64)
install linux-headers and image
You don't need the headers and you should also install the linux-image-amd64 metapackage to keep the kernel version updated.
Yes, was automatically installed.

Probably of interest for others maybe info about the Fibocom L850-GL or Intel XMM7360. I found the driver info here : https://github.com/xmm7360/xmm7360-pci , but still under heavy development. My workaround is a Huawei Mobile Router, which supports 4G and works like a charm. If i have been aware of the lack of drivers i would have ordered my X395 without th Fibocom module, but it is as it is.

Generally i see that that the x395 with the Ryzen 5 pro 3500u performs much better under Debian than under Windows with the applications i have used (gimp, darktable, scribus, inkscape and libreoffice.). Beside of this and after the installation quirks the X395 handling feels not only faster but also the feeling is to have a very stable system. And as a side effect i learned a lot about Debian and thats also a great experience which i would never have without the help of the community.

Thanks @head_on_a_stick for your time and your patience.

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