Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 4 w/ AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U Running Nicely On Linux

[ozzyozzy]

I own a very similar laptop, a Lenovo T14s Gen 4 (AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U). For the most part, this is a fine laptop. What I like most about it is that, when configured properly, this is a silent laptop for most of the work I do (no fan spinning at all) while still having enough oomph for youtube and my daily work (mostly Firefox and console work) and the battery can sustain my workflow for many hours (at least 6, more towards 8, depending on screen brightness). I'm very sensitive regarding noise and I'm not able to replicate this with any of the older Thinkpads without a quite heavy impact on responsiveness e.g. for nomal tasks on the web.

The issues I have with the T14s G4 AMD are all related to hibernation. These seem to be unfixable currently:
1. Wifi doesn't come back up after hibernate (however it works with suspend when I disable wifi before suspending as recommended in the Archwiki for the AMD Gen 3 version)
2. After hibernate, I need to plug in an external monitor for the laptop to respond again. The kernel parameter as mentioned in the Archwiki for the AMD Gen 3 doesn't change that.

2. isn't that terrible, but I'm used to hibernation to just work™ from my other Thinkpads and this has been my workflow for the past decade (X230, X220, X200). So I'm looking forward to someone fixing this soon.

For 1. I would prefer to just unsolder this terrible ath11k chip and replace it with something more standard, like an Intel 6e wifi adapter (afaik these work well with Linux with the required driver blobs). If I only would know someone who had the appropriate soldering skills...

Suspend doesn't cut it for my use-case; I have sensitive information on my device and use disk encryption. When I'm on the road, I don't want that someone can unlock my laptop when stolen etc. which would happen with suspend. Hibernation would be much more secure and the thieve(s) would have to crack my dm-crypt password which would be very hard. So shutting the laptop down is what I currently do to work around these security implications, but obviously it is nicer to pick everything up where I left work before.

If anyone has something to add to this I'd appreciate it.

[Anux]

2. isn't that terrible, but I'm used to hibernation to just work™ from my other Thinkpads and this has been my workflow for the past decade (X230, X220, X200). So I'm looking forward to someone fixing this soon.

Sadly modern "Thinkpads" have nothing to do with those old ones, they just use the name because many still think that implies a good device. Those are just cheap/crappy asian consumer laptops like million others today.

For 1. I would prefer to just unsolder this terrible ath11k chip and replace it with something more standard, like an Intel 6e wifi adapter (afaik these work well with Linux with the required driver blobs). If I only would know someone who had the appropriate soldering skills...

Even if that would be possible (you don't want to pay the hours needed to do it), there are probably blacklists in the firmware to prevent the usage of other hardware. It was already the case in older Thinkpads but could be circumvented with BIOS mods there.

Your best bet is to wait for a firmware update or try different rolling release distros. Even better if you can return the electronic wast and get your money back.

Edit: TLP has the ability to unload modules before standby if my memory serves me well, maybe that could help.

I have sensitive information on my device and use disk encryption. When I'm on the road, I don't want that someone can unlock my laptop when stolen etc. which would happen with suspend.

Why don't you use a screen locker? Then the only attack vector would be to freeze the ram and read it out on another computer, nothing that a average thief or even hacker would be able to do.