Lenovo ThinkPad E585 - Ryzen 2500U/Vega 8 - Review, Impressions, Linux, etc

Okay, did a fresh install of Kubuntu 18.04 on my SSD. Running the SSD via USB3.

Everything appears to be working okay except no sound.

Graphics seem good, refresh rate and blurring are perfectly acceptable. Seems better than Windows(?) , could be just my imagination though.

Will have to investigate the sound problem another day, way too tired now.

EDIT: I did interrupt the installation process, was stuck at 90% for ages. Maybe that caused the sound not to be detected?

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Just wondering, how did you get Kubuntu to install to yours? Everytime I try to start Kubuntu via live USB, it ends in a black screen.

You need to append “ivrs_ioapic[32]=00:14.0” to the grub command, as helpfully suggested in the first post.

Here is some help if you are not sure how to do it:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/19486/how-do-i-add-a-kernel-boot-parameter

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I’m currently split between getting this or a Ryzen 7 2800H based system, but I only have a $1000CAD budget before tax. Just afraid that 2800H laptops will go without the iGPU and go straight for a GTX 1050, which means I have to deal with Nouveau.

Considering the 2800H is the mobile 2400G, I want to use the internal Vega GPU on that, just worried about price/configurations.

Another issue with this laptop are the upper track pad buttons. They are unresponsive, half the time I click them and nothing happens - very annoying.

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Also having problems with the Crucial SSD connected via USB 3 using a UGreen enclosure. Sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Same symptoms as when connected internally, long POST, drive not recognized.

During my last boot of Linux (KDENeon) with the Crucial SSD via USB 3. I got a much of errors and the boot failed. Stuff like:

Error Transfer Event … for unknown stream ring slot 1 ep 6
Buffer I/O error … lost async_page_write
fsck exited with status code 4
root filesystem requires manual fsck

Connecting the drive to another computer running WIndows 10 causes the access light on the enclosure to flash continuously. The same thing happens to a FAT32 formatted USB stick (containg a live KDE Neon) that used to work fine but which now doesn’t boot on the spare computer (but does boot on the E585). It only started doing this after using it on the E585.

Going to reinstall KDE Neon (was using Kubuntu previously) on the Crucial SSD but I will use the spare computer to perform this and then do some diagnostics on the drive just to eliminate the possibility there is a problem with the drive. I don’t think there is, I think the E585 is screwing up the drive.

EDIT: Because I’m not allowed to make another post.

Hopefully some of my ramblings are of use to someone.

I reformatted the partition on the Crucial SSD drive, ran fsck on it and all is well with it. I then reinstalled the latest KDE Neon.

Have decided to try using the USB 2 port (the one on the right hand side of the laptop) instead of a USB 3 port. So far, fingers crossed, there are no problems with the drive being recognised or any corruption.

I’ve upgraded the kernel to 4.18.12 and MESA using the padoka PPA as suggested by beer . Unfortunately have been experiencing the following two problems:

  1. Random lock ups. Not sure how to diagnose this will do some more investigating.
  2. Screen is dim (wasn’t like this when I first installed, but happened later for no apparent reason). Checked screen brightness, it is 100% - but is dim in Linux. Probably something to do with the limited support for the Vega graphics. Any ideas? Do the mesa drivers need to be compiled / integrated into the kernel or something?

Many thanks.

EDIT: Fixed the screen brightness just by using F6 :flushed: :slightly_smiling_face: Weird how Linux said brightness was 100%. I guess that is independent from setting it on the laptop.

Will see how the hard locks go.

EDIT: I flashed the firmware on the Crucial m4 SSD to the latest version and that seems to have fixed the problems I was experiencing. It was a bit flakey over USB 2 as well (I think that what was causing the locks). But now it is recognised and solid (fingers crossed) even when connected internally via SATA. I know it was the obvious thing to try but I was a bit wary about trashing the SSD, but all went well. Plus I’ve been really stressed and irritable lately.

I had to add the extra commands to the kernel boot parameters as described in the blog beer linked to otherwise I was getting a black screen on boot. Initially it worked okay with just the first boot parameter but something must have changed and I had to add the others. In summary I am using the following additional boot parameters:

ivrs_ioapic[32]=00:14.0 ivrs_ioapic[33]=00:00.1 spec_store_bypass_disable=seccomp

Not sure which of the second two parameters did the trick, or if both are required.

I still stand by my comments regarding the screen (backlight bleed) and touchpad buttons (poor response), they are not up to standard.

EDIT: Still experiencing hard locks :frowning:

Here is the log using journalctl:

Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e00000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e04000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e02000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e00000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e02000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e04000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e01000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00301031
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e02000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00000000
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e04000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00000000
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:3 pasid:32768
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0:   at page 0x0000000101e00000 from 27
Oct 09 14:48:42 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00000000
Oct 09 14:48:52 kernel: [drm:amdgpu_job_timedout [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring gfx timeout, last signaled seq=59
Oct 09 14:48:52 kernel: [drm] GPU recovery disabled.

Looks like amdgpu driver / kernel issue.

Got another hard lock, but this time cause is different:

Oct 12 14:46:49 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:00:01.0
Oct 12 14:46:49 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Transmitter ID)
Oct 12 14:46:49 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: device [1022:15d3] error status/mask=00001000/00006000
Oct 12 14:46:49 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: [12] Replay Timer Timeout
Oct 12 14:47:02 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:00:01.0
Oct 12 14:47:02 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Transmitter ID)
Oct 12 14:47:02 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: device [1022:15d3] error status/mask=00001000/00006000
Oct 12 14:47:02 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: [12] Replay Timer Timeout
Oct 12 14:47:38 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:00:01.0
Oct 12 14:47:38 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Transmitter ID)
Oct 12 14:47:38 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: device [1022:15d3] error status/mask=00001000/00006000
Oct 12 14:47:38 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: [12] Replay Timer Timeout
Oct 12 14:48:21 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:00:01.0
Oct 12 14:48:21 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Transmitter ID)
Oct 12 14:48:21 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: device [1022:15d3] error status/mask=00001000/00006000
Oct 12 14:48:21 kernel: pcieport 0000:00:01.6: [12] Replay Timer Timeout

Looks like I’m not the only person to experience the problem:

https://forum.antergos.com/topic/10372/hard-freeze-due-to-pcie-bus-error

and here:

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/ryzen-vega-laptop-pcie-bus-error/124661/60

Going to try the processor.max_cstate=1 boot option.

EDIT: No more hard locks. But getting scary disk errors on the Crucial m4 SSD:

Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x8000000 SErr 0x280100 action 0x6 frozen
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1.00: irq_stat 0x08000000, interface fatal error
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1: SError: { UnrecovData 10B8B BadCRC }
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1.00: cmd 60/00:d8:00:5f:b8/01:00:04:00:00/40 tag 27 ncq dma 131072 in
res 40/00:dc:00:5f:b8/00:00:04:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 15 13:33:17 kernel: ata1: hard resetting link
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1: EH complete
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x3800000 SErr 0x280100 action 0x6 frozen
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: irq_stat 0x08000000, interface fatal error
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1: SError: { UnrecovData 10B8B BadCRC }
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: cmd 60/a8:b8:a0:15:67/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 23 ncq dma 86016 in
res 40/00:c4:38:58:d1/00:00:03:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: cmd 60/78:c0:38:58:d1/00:00:03:00:00/40 tag 24 ncq dma 61440 in
res 40/00:c4:38:58:d1/00:00:03:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: cmd 60/00:c8:40:7b:76/01:00:00:00:00/40 tag 25 ncq dma 131072 in
res 40/00:c4:38:58:d1/00:00:03:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 15 13:33:18 kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }

SMART report is looking scary also, especially Reallocated_Sector_Ct:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 12288 (0 2)

9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 25185
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 2641
170 Grown_Failing_Block_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 35
171 Program_Fail_Count 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 52
172 Erase_Fail_Count 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 0
173 Wear_Leveling_Count 0x0033 098 098 010 Pre-fail Always - 71
174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 8
181 Non4k_Aligned_Access 0x0022 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 141 7 133
183 SATA_Iface_Downshift 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 1
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 0
189 Factory_Bad_Block_Ct 0x000e 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 81
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 36

196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 35

197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 001 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 8
202 Perc_Rated_Life_Used 0x0018 098 098 001 Old_age Offline - 2
206 Write_Error_Rate 0x000e 100 100 001 Old_age Always - 52

Errors could be due to a faulty cable or maybe a probem with comaptibility between the kernel and the SATA controller:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/133946/are-these-sata-errors-dangerous

I know the drive was in perfect condition until it was placed in this laptop.

EDIT: Spoke too soon, just got another hard lock (am using kernel 4.18.14):

Oct 15 17:59:10 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: [gfxhub] VMC page fault (src_id:0 ring:24 vmid:4 pasid:32771)
Oct 15 17:59:10 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: at page 0x0000000105400000 from 27
Oct 15 17:59:10 kernel: amdgpu 0000:05:00.0: VM_L2_PROTECTION_FAULT_STATUS:0x00401031

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Reviving this thread because I want to know something… Would an Anker USB-C power bank work with the E585? If so, that could solve the bad internal battery life.

I would assume so

I have an issue booting with the grub from Debian.

Doesn’t Gnome require systemd?

How about changes to Grub that might correct my issue? I need some packages from sid, so I’m a little uneasy needing to run a debian derivative and mixing ubuntu’s grub with debian is likely to end badly.

For booting read this article (and comments tell more): https://evilazrael.de/node/401

As far as I know Devuan have its own mirror of Debian packages, and nowadays only have minimum changes to avoid Systemd.

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My issue was that I didn’t know to disable secure boot.

I guess this is the best AMD laptop to buy for now…

Damn, that’s worse than my 55Wh battery. BUT this laptop seems to handle power management much better on Linux than my HP laptop so it get’s better battery life anyways since I hardly even get past 3.5 hours. But seriously though I am that desperate to maintain stability.

In short, AMD and OEMs failed to deliver on the software side of things on Linux with Raven Ridge. I shouldn’t have issues with it 11 Months later.

i am a totally newb into the linux thing as i have been using windows10
seeing how MS has borked out on the software updates, im feeling a little adventurous and try out linux mint 19 on my E585
Initial questions

  1. i am aware of the linux firmware issue, but do i need to do anything to boot mint 19? im on the latest 1.45 firmware
  2. driver updates?how do i go about it? lenovo support page only caters to win10. how do i ensure i get the latest drivers on mint 19?
  1. I don’t think there’s anything special you’ll need to do to get Mint up and running other than the firmware issue.

  2. On linux, most drivers are built into the kernel so you don’t have to worry about drivers for pretty much anything. Your audio/networking/etc will all work right away. One neat side effect of that is you can transplant your hard drive into a different computer and everything will work just the same (exception with Nvidia sometimes). AMD’s graphics drivers are already built in, but you do want to add a third-party repository (PPA) for more up-to-date drivers. You can follow Valve’s guide for Steamplay/Proton for this. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Requirements

Just make sure you update your kernel, because these Raven Ridge CPUs are so new, there’s a lot of improvements and changes happening. You can either use the tool “Ukuu”, which should be available from Mint’s software center, or you can do it manually. You want 4.18 at least, but you might as well grab 4.19.1

If you don’t want to use Ukuu, you can download the kernel files manually from Ubuntu’s kernel PPA:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.19.1/

Download these 4 files into a directory of their own:

Then in the terminal, cd into that folder and run sudo dpkg -i *.deb, and reboot. You can delete those files after install.

You generally only ever need to reboot linux for graphics drivers and kernel updates to take effect. Otherwise you almost never need to reboot for anything

Good luck, have fun with it

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how is it possible theres no need to update drivers on linux. on win10 theres always a need to look for new drivers to update

Received my E585 from China and all is well. I bought the base 2500U with 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, +1080P IPS matte screen for a bargain $522 directly from Lenovo with an AARP discount. The order did get messed up in their system so I had to call them a week later for them to open a case to make sure it went through.

Tossed in a 256GB 970 Evo SSD ($90) and 16GB of Gskill 2400 RAM ($131), and setup dual boot with Linux Mint 19. When removing the back cover I highly recommend using a thin but somewhat soft card to gently pry it open (I used my driver’s license), I’m sure a credit card would work but they tend to be thicker/harder. It’s convenient when removing the cover that the screws stay in and don’t actually need to come out.

Had to add both these two to grub to bypass the black screen issue:
ivrs_ioapic[32]=00:14.0 spec_store_bypass_disable=prctl
If you’re a linux newb, just follow this guide here:

And wifi didn’t work out of the box on linux, but disabling UEFI secure boot in the bios was all I had to do to make it work.

By the way, if you’re looking to buy one with 8GB of RAM, don’t pay an extra $51 for 4 extra gigs… They’re shipping with the below Samsung RAM which goes for $30 New on ebay.

For a grand total of $743, this thing is a beast. The only thing left to buy will be a power bank… But that can wait.

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Any display with a glossy finish needs to get thrown in the fire lol

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@DarthGW Driver updates come through as normal kernel updates… there’s nothing you have to do. If there’s a driver update you absolutely need for whatever reason, you just update the kernel manually. Otherwise everything should be stable and read-to-go after fresh install of your OS. It works the same way with OSX i’m pretty sure. Microsoft has a really crappy way of managing drivers, a legacy that goes way back to the original DOS days. Microsoft is starting to include more drivers in Windows Update but it’s still not very good, and Windows drivers still usually require reboots due to the way Windows puts exclusive locks on open files.

The only drivers you ever really have to mess with are graphics drivers and some printer drivers. Most printers work out of the box with open source kernel drivers, occasionally you need to download manufacturer printer drivers.

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