I have Ubuntu with my X1 (less than a year old but not carbon). While it works great from a drivers standpoint, the trackpad is extremely messed up. My only dislike for the laptop is the poor trackpad. Other than that it's solid.
Can you be more specific than "messed up"? I'm actually looking at this very device as my next Linux laptop. Do you mean it performs badly? That the hardware is bad? That the drivers don't support something you want to do?
I have a Thinkpad X220. First thing I did when I got the machine was load Ubuntu onto it. There were a number of annoyances: the machine got really hot, the fan stayed on constantly, the battery drained way quicker than in Windows.
But the most annoying problem was definitely the damn trackpad. The main problem is that it's horribly jumpy and unpredictable. No matter how I tweaked the options for the device, it would hop erratically. Most annoyingly, the act of lifting my finger away from the trackpad would cause the cursor to move. So, for example, I would move the cursor over a 'close window' icon, lift my finger to do something else (e.g. press a button/whatever) and the cursor would no longer be over the icon. I'd then have to reposition the cursor. So frustrating that I just gave up on the trackpad for a while and started using the trackpoint (which, I tend to call "the nipple").
Eventually, due to all of the problems taken together, I just started using Windows 7 (which, to my surprise, I actually like) with Ubuntu running in VirtualBox. All problems seem to be gone. Trackpad is totally fine in the VM.
Are you running ubuntu with all the graphical niceties ? And is the laptop heating up more when you are running a vm ? Are fans louder when running ubuntu in a VIM ?
Thank you. I am looking for a quiet laptop (currently using a VAIO) to run linux and I came to the conclusion that I better run it in a VM if I want to minimize fan noise.
Used a trackpoint for a long time. Big glass touchpad is way more efficient. You move your fingers more, but because you have more control over the larger range of movement than you do over the smaller range of movement, you can jack up the tracking speed a lot higher.
I just increased the sensitivity of the TrackPoint. When I use a MacBook (supposedly the pinnacle of trackpad technology), I feel like the cursor is moving in slow motion.
That's what I thought. Though the TrackPoint on my T410 has worn out after a couple of years and is almost unusable now. Ought to get a replacement for it…
Doesn't the trackpad differ between the original X1 and the Carbon?
From his wording, it sounds like the drivers work well, but the physical trackpad is the limitation.
I am also looking for a Linux laptop with a good trackpad.
Dude, we must have been separated at birth. I have that exact trackball on my desk. It's upside down (trying to unlearn muscle memory of going to track ball vs using nipple) but for some extended "mousing" it's the bees knees.
The GUI tools provided only allow a small amount of adjustment for sensitivity and acceleration. To make large adjustments requires writing to something in a non-obvious part of /sys. It's not really tricky, but it's not very discoverable.
How well does multitouch work? Does two finger scrolling work properly? I have my mac set up to have a three finger swipe go back/forward in the browser history - would that sort of thing work properly?
I'm trying to keep in touch with the ultrabook scene, as I'd quite like my next computer to run linux. The trackpad not working super-well has been one of the things holding me back, as that's one of my favourite features on the mac.
Two-finger scrolling works great, but I've never had any success configuring three-finger gestures under X11 (on this laptop or any other). I used to be an aggressive user of those same gestures when I used OSX, but frankly around the Lion timeframe they started getting in my way more often than not.
Yeah, I'm still holding out on snow leopard. I don't really have a replacement option that I'd be completely comfortable with yet, although the linux ultrabooks seem to be getting pretty close these days.
My wife's got a Lenovo (can't remember the model) and this is her one complaint too.
The thing feels unbelievably cheap (which, given the fact that her previous machine was a bargain basement eMachine that had a far better trackpad), is far too touch-sensitive and the texture on it makes it uncomfortable to drag stuff around.
Have you used a thinkpad trackpad before? I am asking because I'd like to know if your comment is compared to other thinkpads or a general comment on the thinkpad trackpad.
damn,
If the Carbon has the same trackpad problems then I'll be sorely disappointed. I've been researching potential ultrabooks for a Linux/Windows setup and so far nothing really stands out.
I've said this before in another thread but I think it bears repeating here: You'll be happy to hear that the X1 Carbon has a new trackpad, which has been described by Notebookreview as "Oh my! Best touchpad surface ... ever!". The gizmodo reviewer: "Using the trackpad, was the first time I've ever done multitouch gestures on Windows and liked it."
As both a Linux and Mac user, I'm happy a PC manufacturer finally seems to be getting it right.
Would MacBook Air help you? I'm really happy with how well windows runs and integrates on my MacBook Pro. Might be an option for you as they're nice machines.
Perhaps, but unlikely. From what I gather, Linux doesn't yet play nice on the MBA, which is a shame. If that story changes significantly in the near future I would certainly consider getting one. (My current machine is a white C2D Macbook, triple-booting OSX, Windows and Ubuntu)
EDIT: actually, checking the documentation here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2
paints a much more rosy picture than I remember, maybe it would be a viable option.
I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 on a MacBook Air [1] right now - much to the consternation of my IT department - and it works mostly-fine. The install was a bit fiddly and installing kernel updates breaks it, but both of those are due to needing to patch the kernel, which apparently is no longer needed for Ubuntu 12.04.
Day to day, the battery life isn't as good as it is in OSX, but other than that, it pretty much just works.
[1] (4,2 I think, but I can't remember how to check.)
It was kind of a pain to install Ubuntu on a MBA, but I found everything except the trackpad drivers worked pretty well. And this was a year ago -- I'd assume the situation has improved.
