X1 Extreme Gen 3 - Migrating to Wayland

I got a new laptop, so this felt like the right time to migrate to Wayland.

Delta Link to heading

see also the i3 -> sway migration guide.

:CUSTOM_ID: hardware

BIOS Link to heading

I made the following BIOS changes for the X1 Extreme Gen 3 (X1E3):

• swap Fn and Ctrl -> on
• Make F1-F12 primary function
• Set sleep mode to linux preference
• keyboard beep -> off
• turn off security->secure boot; otherwise arch installation usb wont boot https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/X1-6gen-won-t-boot-from-USB/m-p/4230171?page=1#4230185
• [optional] move usb up in the bios->startup->boot order menu

windows Link to heading

In order to keep the existing Windows installation with dual boot, we need to finish its installation and shrink the partition.

• Use airplane mode (F8) to skip signing in to a microsoft account.
• Install chromium and delete Edge.
• Disable hibernation.
• Disable virtual memory (i.e. swap) to save some disk space.
• Shrink the C volume in device memory.
• Update drivers/bios using lenovo vantage.

Install Arch Link to heading

• Download the ISO: https://archlinux.org/download/
• Create a flash USB: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_flash_installation_medium
• Follow the installation guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide
• I’m using a single ext4 partition for the entire OS
• Using noatime and lazytime options in fstab.
• Disable systemd-udev-settle to potentially save on boot time (check systemd-analyze critical-chain first): systemctl mask systemd-udev-settle
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Extreme_(Gen_3) and gen2 and carbon 6/7/8 are also usefull
• fwupd for firmware updates
• tlp for battery stats
• cpupower for setting cpu governor
  • powersave is a bit slow/unresponsive at times
  • performance gets hot and always has fans on

efistub Link to heading

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFISTUB

• Mount existing efi partition to /boot
• May have to (re)install the kernel to make sure vmlinuz-linux is written to the mounted efi partition at /boot
• install intel-ucode
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Microcode
• run efibootmgr command as explained, but add in the microcode part

Network Link to heading

• systemd-networkd
• systemd-resolved
• iwd for adding/changing wireless connections using iwctl.

Bluetooth Link to heading

• start blueman-applet from sway
• enable bluetooth.service

Spotify Link to heading

• spotifyd-full-git, spotify-tui

  • Note: spotifyd itself doesn’t currently support playerctl, needed for waybar module updates: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/dp9czu/spotifyd_with_playerctl/

• password_cmd = "pass spotify.com | head -1"

• TODO: fix waybar module coredumping every minute

Audio: pipewire Link to heading

I have been using pipewire as my audio backend, and so far it has been working without problems. Installing it together with pipewire-alsa, pipewire-jack, pipewire-pulse and pavucontrol gives everything I need.

Wayland Link to heading

See this post.

SWAY Link to heading

See this post.

Environment variables: environment.d Link to heading

I’m using environment.d to set my environment variables. This post has the details.

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# Color schemes
GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark

# Editor
EDITOR="emacsclient -c"
VISUAL="emacsclient -c"

# Make weeks start on Monday
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"

Homedir cleanup Link to heading

Have a look at XDG Base directory to keep your homedir tidy.

Emacs Link to heading

See this post.