Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 1

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
Touchpad		Yes
Trackpoint		Yes
Keyboard		Yes
GPU (NVIDIA)	10de:1fb9	Yes
GPU (Intel)	8086:9bc4	Yes
Webcam	04f2:b6be, 13d3:56ff	Yes
Ethernet	8086:06f0	Yes
Bluetooth	8087:0026	Yes
SD-card reader	10ec:525a	Yes
Audio	8086:06c8	Yes
Wi-Fi	8086:06f0	Yes
Fingerprint reader	06cb:00bd	Yes

Discrete GPU

This model uses PRIME for combining the integrated and the dedicated GPU. As the external graphic ports are wired to the discrete GPU, drivers for the discrete GPU need to be present in order to use them. However, no special X.org configuration should be necessary, as xrandr should detect the ports automatically. If not, follow the instructions in PRIME#Reverse PRIME.

Note Disabling the built-in screen can lead to severely degraded graphics performance on external screens (around 2 FPS). This is probably caused by the NVIDIA GPU shutting down, though not further investigated. A workaround that produces the desired result is to set the screen brightness to 0%, or if increased power usage is not a concern, disabling hybrid graphics in the BIOS.

Disabling discrete GPU

The built in GPU can be disable and re-enabled on the fly. This can significantly reduce power consumption and increase battery life up to a factor of 5.

Using bbswitch

Note that with this method, nouveau module must be completely unloaded to use bbswitch to disable the GPU. So it doesn't really allow for on the fly enable/disable when using a GUI.

First, in the UEFI settings, ensure the iGPU is enabled, in case you have disabled it earlier.

Then, boot Linux. Uninstall the nvidia and nvidia-open drivers. Reboot into nouveau. Next, if you have setup kms hook in mkinitcpio, remove that so that nouveau module isn't loaded early. Then, blacklist nouveau, and reboot the laptop. Then use bbswitch to disable the dGPU.

Using acpi_call

This method is not recommended since it results in a hard freeze of the system which needs to be forcefully powered off using the power button. Use bbswitch method instead which does work reliably.

See Hybrid graphics#Using acpi_call, the specific ACPI call for this device is \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._OFF.

GPU power consumption

With the nvidia proprietary drivers, the laptop's idle power consumption is pretty high at 16-17W.

With the nouveau drivers, the laptop idle power consumption drops all the way to 5W, or even less, resulting in significantly better battery life.

If you don't need to use the NVIDIA dGPU, using nouveau may be the better option.

Note that the HDMI port and Thunderbolt port display output will only work through the NVIDIA dGPU.

Fan control

The default operation of fans is noisy, as they are basically at medium power all the time. The thinkfan^AUR program can be used to create a quieter operation, while retaining reasonable temperatures.

Here is an example /etc/thinkfan.conf configuration:

/etc/thinkfan.conf

sensors:
  # NVIDIA GPU
  - nvml: 01:00.0

  # acpitz
  # crit = 128°C
  - hwmon: /sys/class/hwmon
    name: acpitz
    indices: [1]
    correction: [0]

  # pch_cometlake
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone7
    name: pch_cometlake
    indices: [1]
    correction: [0]

  # nvme
  # high = 85°C
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/0000:02:00.0/hwmon
    name: nvme
    indices: [2, 3]
    correction: [0, 0]

  # nvme
  # high = 85°C
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/0000:55:00.0/hwmon
    name: nvme
    indices: [2, 3]
    correction: [0, 0]

  # coretemp
  # high = 100°C, crit = 100°C.
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon
    name: coretemp
    indices: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
    correction: [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

  # thinkpad
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon
    name: thinkpad
    indices: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
    correction: [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

  # thinkpad
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon
    name: thinkpad
    indices: [7]
    correction: [0]

  # thinkpad
  - hwmon: /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon
    name: thinkpad
    optional: true
    indices: [8]
    correction: [0]

  # iwlwifi_1
  - hwmon: /sys/class/hwmon
    name: iwlwifi_1
    optional: true
    indices: [1]
    correction: [0]

fans:
  - tpacpi: /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

levels:
  - [0, 0, 60]
  - [2, 60, 65]
  - [3, 65, 70]
  - [5, 70, 75]
  - [6, 75, 80]
  - [7, 80, 85]
  - ["level disengaged", 85, 255]

Enabling Turbo boost

By default, the CPU power governor does not allow CPU frequencies to reach turbo boost speeds. This can be fixed via, for instance, cpupower-gui^AUR.

This can be changed by modifying the file /etc/cpupower_gui.conf:

/etc/cpupower_gui.conf

[Profile]
#This setting was: profile = Balanced
profile = Performance

Then start/enable cpupower-gui.service.

Firmware

This Device has fwupd support.

Problems with s2idle/S0ix sleep mode

While s2idle/S0ix is supported by the hardware, it seems to assume that the laptop is only suspended by closing the lid. If you suspend using "systemctl suspend" or through a GUI menu, the laptop can't be woken up again using the keyboard, power button etc. and only closing and opening the lid wakes it up.

It is unclear if this is a Linux kernel/userspace bug, or a bug in the laptop firmware. Either way, it is buggy behaviour. It's recommended to use S3 suspend for now for more predictable behaviour.