Lenovo ThinkPad X220

From ArchWiki
Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad Yes
TrackPoint Yes
Keyboard Yes
Video 8086:0126 Yes
Webcam 04f2:b217 Yes
Ethernet 8086:1502 Yes
Bluetooth Untested
SD-card reader 1180:e823 Yes
Audio 8086:1c20 Yes
Wireless 8086:0085 Yes
Fingerprint Reader 147e:2016 Yes

Installation

The X220 can not boot from a GPT disk in Legacy BIOS mode, it is necessary to either switch to UEFI booting or create a MBR Partition Table.

Firmware

fwupd does not support this device yet.

To update the firmware on the device, get the latest bootable CD and follow the steps in Flashing BIOS from Linux#Bootable optical disk emulation.

Power management

After waking up the device from suspend, the device might get stuck in a reboot loop. This can be caused by the EFI storage getting too full. Run the following commands as root to free up some space.

 # First clear the pstore
 mkdir -p /dev/pstore
 mount -t pstore pstore /dev/pstore
 ls /dev/pstore # <- Nothing important should be here, but check first anyway
 rm /dev/pstore/*
 # Next some EFI variables. These are used/created by pstore, but I have had them even though 
 #I deleted the pstore data using the above commands. YMMV.
 rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-type0-*

Microphone

The internal microphone can generate a lot of static or hissing, the workaround is to mute the right mic input channel.

Tip: Noise cancellation is preferred: it also mutes the internal fans. See the pulseaudio documentation for more information.

Touchpad

If the touchpad is jumpy/imprecise, copy the two lines below into a new file:

/etc/udev/hwdb.d/90-libinput-x220-touchpad-fw81.hwdb
touchpad:i8042:*
 LIBINPUT_MODEL_LENOVO_X220_TOUCHPAD_FW81=1

then run udevadm hwdb --update && udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger

See Fedora bug #1264453 for more details.

Function keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
ThinkVantage Yes Yes KEY_PROG1
Audio mute Yes Yes KEY_MUTE
Mic mute Yes Yes KEY_F20
Volume down Yes Yes KEY_VOLUMEDOWN
Volume up Yes Yes KEY_VOLUMEUP
Fn+F1 Yes No KEY_FN_F1
Fn+F2 Yes Yes KEY_COFFEE
Fn+F3 Yes Yes KEY_BATTERY
Fn+F4 Yes Yes KEY_SLEEP
Fn+F5 Yes Yes KEY_WLAN
Fn+F6 Yes Yes KEY_CAMERA
Fn+F7 Yes Yes KEY_SWITCHVIDEOMODE
Fn+F8 Yes Yes KEY_F21
Fn+F12 Yes Yes KEY_SUSPEND
Fn+Home Yes Yes KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP
Fn+End Yes Yes KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN
Fn+Space Yes Yes KEY_FULL_SCREEN
Fn+Left Yes Yes KEY_PREVIOUSSONG
Fn+Right Yes Yes KEY_NEXTSONG
Fn+Up Yes Yes KEY_STOPCD
Fn+Down Yes Yes KEY_PLAYPAUSE
  1. The key is visible to xev and similar tools
  2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function

See also