[HN Gopher] First Impressions: Lenovo T14s with Qualcomm Snapdra...
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       First Impressions: Lenovo T14s with Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM64 CPU
       (Phk)
        
       Author : cnst
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2024-11-15 20:57 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lists.freebsd.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lists.freebsd.org)
        
       | galkk wrote:
       | I love it(in context of FreeBSD):
       | 
       | ----------
       | 
       | What does not work: Keyboard, mouse, TB & USB-C ports,
       | thermal/freq mgt.
       | 
       | Conclusion: Highly recommended
        
         | Muromec wrote:
         | I mean it's a fun computer to write drivers for. You will be
         | _that dude_ if you make it all work and share with community
        
         | cnst wrote:
         | That was a bit ironic, indeed, but at least the USB-A works!
         | 
         | For what it's worth, the majority of mechanical RGB keyboards
         | and mice are USB-A anyways, so, if you're fine with a very
         | powerful machine that wouldn't have an internal keyboard
         | support for a few weeks, sounds like a good advice anyways!
        
       | raegis wrote:
       | Ubuntu has an experimental installation image for this laptop at
       | https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-24-10-concept-snapdrag... .
       | Everything works except for audio and screen brightness control
       | (I saw a patch for audio upcoming on LKML. I don't know about the
       | brightness control, but it is stuck on high. Nevertheless, it
       | still reports 12+ hours of battery with a bright screen.). It is
       | a nice laptop, if you like the Lenovo T series.
        
       | wslh wrote:
       | I always ask about battery consumption... Apple seems to be on
       | another galaxy right now. I decided to stop waiting and installed
       | Parallels to run Ubuntu there... I really wish the best for Asahi
       | Linux.
        
         | winocm wrote:
         | The M3 Max laptops can cross-build FreeBSD at a fraction of the
         | time of the ThinkPad, being at around 791 seconds for `make
         | -j17` versus the T14s being at 3210 seconds (with `make -j12`)
         | according to the post above.
         | 
         | No idea about power consumptions.
         | 
         | It still scares me.
        
           | redundantly wrote:
           | Do you have more details or a source on this? I'd like to
           | learn more about the build process and timings.
        
             | winocm wrote:
             | Sure.
             | 
             | I basically did the following on trunk:                 $
             | CPP=/usr/bin/clang MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX=/private/var/tmp/obj
             | ./tools/build/make.py  TARGET=arm64 TARGET_ARCH=aarch64
             | --host-compiler-type clang --debug -j17 --clean buildworld
             | 
             | You probably can follow build(5) from FreeBSD hosts
             | instead.
             | 
             | NetBSD is similar, but you need to edit
             | `tools/llvm/Makefile` and make sure that you use the
             | following target for `support-modules` instead:
             | support-modules: module-test.cpp Makefile       -       if
             | ${HOST_CXX} -stdlib=libc++ -c -fmodules -fcxx-modules
             | -fmodules-cache-path=./module.cache \       -
             | ${.CURDIR}/module-test.cpp  3> /dev/null 2>&1; then \
             | -               echo HOST_SUPPORTS_MODULES=yes >
             | ${.TARGET}; \       -       else \       -
             | echo HOST_SUPPORTS_MODULES=no > ${.TARGET}; \       -
             | fi       +       # Just don't use modules pre for C++20
             | targets. Some compilers cannot support them.       +
             | echo HOST_SUPPORTS_MODULES=no > ${.TARGET};
             | 
             | You can further speed up NetBSD builds by editing
             | `share/mk/bsd.sys.mk` and removing the workaround for
             | SunPro's cc. The repeated invocation of /bin/mv for each
             | object file really does add up.
             | 
             | I have not tried cross builds of OpenBSD from other
             | operating systems.
        
               | winocm wrote:
               | Word of warning, I ended up getting a lot of strange
               | compiler segfaults within xgcc when using when using
               | `MKGCC=yes` instead `MKLLVM=yes` with NetBSD,
               | specifically with floating point heavy code. I never did
               | end up finding out why that happens.
        
           | Sardtok wrote:
           | One is $1000 and the other is around $3000. So performance
           | per dollar looks about right.
        
         | neveroddoreven wrote:
         | Any issues or things you wish you had known with your current
         | Parallels/Ubuntu set up? Asking since I've been considering
         | doing the same thing
        
           | cnst wrote:
           | I'm actually thinking of switching from a Mac back to the PC,
           | since everything is done in a browser anyways, regardless of
           | the system, but the lack of the fanless laptops in the PC
           | world isn't promising.
           | 
           | ThinkPad X13s Snapdragon was fanless, but it's a bit old now,
           | plus, only 2x USB-C, without any USB-A ports, and a screen
           | that doesn't open 180deg, unlike any other ThinkPad, meh.
        
           | wslh wrote:
           | So far, I've had a very good user experience, but I haven't
           | yet tried using it exclusively for an extended period to
           | compare its battery life with that of a bare Apple Silicon
           | macOS. Mapping shortcuts now...
        
         | madars wrote:
         | I have an M3 but the battery life is not that great -- because
         | you still want to run a Linux VM for actual engineering.
        
         | raegis wrote:
         | Using the Ubuntu experimental image on the T14s Gen 6, the
         | screen brightness is not adjustable, so for me it is stuck on
         | high. Nevertheless, Gnome claims 12+ hours remaining when near
         | 100%. In Windows where I can adjust the brightness, the battery
         | lasts longer. Battery life is much better than any other x86
         | Thinkpad I've ever owned.
         | 
         | The CPU is pretty fast as well. I did no real benchmarks, but
         | C++ std::sort() on the Snapdragon runs just 10-20% slower than
         | on my 4 year old Ryzen 5 5600X desktop. Also, the base model
         | T14s comes with 32G of memory, which is very nice.
         | 
         | On the other hand, I dropped mine in the street, damaging the
         | upper right corner of the display (physically intact, but dead
         | pixels in the corner). Even though the case material is nice,
         | the laptop seems to be more fragile than older Thinkpads. (I've
         | dropped my T480 and T450 numerous times, and never had issues
         | other than cosmetic.) So the $35 accidental damage protection
         | was worth it.
        
       | brynet wrote:
       | OpenBSD has support for a number of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
       | machines.
       | 
       | A bit more works on the T14s Gen 6 too, such as the keyboard! ;-)
       | 
       | https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=172925590407875&w=2
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-15 23:00 UTC)