Lenovo Ideapad: What is it and can it run Debian?
hint: it’s also not mine.
The Lenovo Ideapad is a “notebook-tablet” (a very slim notebook that pretends to be a tablet (it has a touch screen!) 🙂
can it Debian?
Yes it can pretty fast actually.
What is not working (yet) are the front- and back-webcams (tried with cheese, can not find any cams)
btw the privacy enhancing lense cover does not come per default but needs to bought seperately at ebay
the specs:
- Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz
- Display: 12.2″, FHD (1920 x 1200), IPS
- users might find it a bit small, but bigger screens = even more battery power needed
- 4GB of RAM
- GNU Linux Debian hardware review – Lenovo Ideapad MIIX 510 12ISK_1_hardware_detection_script_output
- GNU Linux Debian 11 hardware review – Lenovo Ideapad MIIX 510 12ISK_dmesg.txt
/scripts/bench/bench_harddisk.sh; # https://dwaves.de/scripts/bench/bench_harddisk.sh === harddisk sequential write and read bench v1 === starting test on the device that holds the current directory the user is in no need to run it as root ========== writing 3GB of zeroes ========== 0+1 records in 0+1 records out 2147479552 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 14.152 s, 152 MB/s real 0m14.163s user 0m0.000s sys 0m5.685s ========== reading 6GB of zeroes ========== 0+1 records in 0+1 records out 2147479552 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 3.407 s, 630 MB/s real 0m3.434s user 0m0.000s sys 0m1.270s ========== tidy up remove testfile ==========
how to get started:
- power on: hold the power button 2sec on the right top corner of the device
- keep hitting F7 to enter bios
- boot from Debian 10 based ideal-linux usb stick (it is still Debian 10 based so apply the wifi fix mentioned below or: re-attach to a PC where LAN is working and pre-install rfkill then move stick to ideapad)
- to boot from usb-stick, right after power on, hit F12 multiple times, until boot device selection screen appears, select “usb”, hit enter
what is good:
- the speed (i5 CPU & NVMe (!) harddisk) are pretty speedy good for a device that small 🙂
- ok the speed is largely also attributed to GNU Linux Debian being very resource efficient 🙂
- the touchscreen works very nicely and is usefull e.g. for selecting text:
- what about on screen keyboard?
- close the lid, open the lid, resume from standby works perfectly 🙂 (well done all involved!)
- they keyboard is also the cover, it could be a bit more “sturdy” (metal?) but it’s okay
- the touchpad is small but usable (a little bit too small for two finger scroll (which works in GNU Linux Debian MATE out of the box 🙂
- is it noisy?
- no. most of the time it sits quiet. when in bios longer time, the fan can be heared. but it’s not bad.
what could be better:
- only one USB port?
- this user managed to connect more stuff + external monitor via “Belkin USB display dock as desktop” (UNTESTED!)
- ok not correct:
- 1x USB-A “standard” USB port
- 1x USB-C port (hopefully the standard for the next 100 years, because, frankly USB has made a mess of plug formats)
- prefer the less reflective screens (matte)
- can it sit on a lap? like a laptop-notebook?
- well… not really, the ideapad metal “legs” will rest on the user’s legs = not very comfy X-D
- the cams not working
- keyboard: backlighting would have been AWESOME!
- HINT: page up/down keys are “hidden” inside the cursor keys: hold SHIFT + PageUp/PageDown to scroll through that terminal output…
- “sticky” Fn function keys:
- was unable to disable the permanent “sticky” Fn function keys (it seems to be a bios-firmware problem, flashing needed via this windows program? (https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/fi/en/products/Tablets/Miix-Series/miix-510-12-isk/80U1/downloads/DS119750) UNTESTED!)
- it is supposed to work like: Fn + ESC or Fn + Capslock,
- but none of these worked (Alt+F2 is a convenient way in GNU Linux Debian MATE desktop to access run program window, so that could not made work (yet)
- battery might not last very long
Debian 10: how to fix the wifi not working
“guess a hard block can be caused by multiple modules and/or firmware trying to use the same device” (creditz: https://access.redhat.com/discussions/3081141)
Debian 11 wifi works out of the box, in Debian 10, it is required to blacklist some kernel module drivers.
open a terminal and run this:
su - root apt update apt install rfkill while true; do rfkill list all; sleep 1; clear; done;
what this will do is output the status of all possibly hard or soft blocked devices.
now hit F7 or Fn+F7 (enable/disable flight mode = enable/disable wifi)
there should be changes visible in the terminal… still not wifi?
ok next step:
echo "blacklist ideapad_laptop" >> /etc/modprobe.de/blacklist.conf echo "blacklist acer_wmi" >> /etc/modprobe.de/blacklist.conf # then: reboot
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