Red Hat Enterprise Linux Setup Guide

For ThinkPad P53, P73

***Official support of RHEL 8.0 and later.

2

Section 1 – BIOS Setup and Pre-Installation Steps

The first step before installing Linux is to make sure the system BIOS is setup correctly.

• Boot into BIOS by pressing the function F1 key at the “Lenovo” splash screen.

• Tab over to the ‘Restart’ menu tab and set “OS Optimized Defaults” to “Disabled”.

3

• Switching the “OS Optimized Defaults” settings may give a warning message. Select “Yes” to continue to disable OS Optimized Defaults.

• Tab over to the “Startup” menu tab.

4

• Pressing F9 function key will allow Legacy and UEFI bootable devices by setting “UEFI/Legacy Boot” to “Both”; otherwise, it will be an unchangeable setting to “UEFI only”.

• Press function F10 key to save and exit BIOS setup.

5

Section 2 – Discrete vs Hybrid Graphics

The Thinkpad P53 and P73 offer both Nvidia and Intel graphics. To run exclusively Nvidia graphics, use the discrete graphics mode highlighted below.

• Boot into BIOS, tab over to the “Config” menu option, and select the “Display” option.

• By default, the “Graphics Device” will likely be set to “Hybrid Graphics”. To run exclusively Nvidia graphics, set the “Graphics Device” to “Discrete Graphics”.

6

Section 3 – Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Please refer to the following instructions and screenshots on how to install RHEL 8 on the Lenovo Thinkpad P53 and P73.

• Insert the RHEL 8 installation media (either through USB or CD/DVD).

• Power on the system and press the F12 function key whenever the following Lenovo splash screen appears.

• Select the Linux bootable installation media from the F12 boot menu list.

7

• Highlight “Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x” from the GRUB boot menu and press ‘e’.

• Add the following line, “psmouse.elantech_smbus=0”, to the end of the boot kernel parameter and press ‘CTRL + X’ to boot the modified kernel parameter.

8

• The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Welcome Screen should appear. Select the appropriate language and “Continue”.

• Adjust the “Keyboard”, “Language Support”, and “Time & Date” accordingly by selecting each one.

9

• Select “SOFTWARE SELECTION” and choose the type of software to install.

• Select the type of “Base Environment” as well as each “Add-Ons” to install. In this example, “Workstation” was selected for the “Base Environment” and all “Add-Ons” were selected.

10

• Select “Installation Destination”.

• Select the device on where to install the operating system and “Done” in the upper left.

11

• For storage devices with previous partitions created, select “Reclaim space”.

• Select “Delete all” to delete all the previously created partitions or select each partition to delete and select the “Delete” option. When done, select “Reclaim space” at the bottom.

12

• Select “Begin Installation” in the bottom right.

• Select “Root Password”.

13

• Enter a root password in both of the boxes below and select “Done” in the upper left.

• Select “User Creation”.

14

• Fill in the appropriate boxes below and select “Done” in the upper left.

• Once the installation completes, select “Reboot” at the bottom right.

15

• During a system reboot, select the top-most line in the grub boot menu and press ‘e’ to edit the kernel parameter.

• Add the following line, “psmouse.elantech_smbus=0”, to the end of the boot kernel parameter and press ‘CTRL + X’ to boot the modified kernel parameter.

16

• Select “License Information”.

• Check the box at the bottom left and “Done” at the upper left.

17

• Select “FINISH CONFIGURATION”.

• Log in to the Linux Desktop using the login credentials created above.

18

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x Desktop screen.

19

Section 4 – Trackpoint and Touchpad Workaround for P53 & P73

The trackpint and touchpad driver isn’t native to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 kernel. Therefore, the trackpoint and touchpad will not work during RHEL 8.0 installation by default. However, here’s a workaround to get the trackpoint and touchpad working on the Thinkpad P53 and P73 during RHEL 8.0 installation.

***Note: The driver has been updated in test kernel-4.18.0-108.el8. This will likely be available in RHEL 8.1 release.

Step 1: As superuser (root), add the following line “psmouse.elantech_smbus=0” before the word quiet in the following file: /etc/default/grub.

Step 2: As superuser, update the grub list with the change made above by running the following command:

# grub2-mkconfig > /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg

Step 3: Reboot the system and the trackpoint and touchpad should work as expected.

20

Section 5 – Wireless Network Driver

The wireless network driver isn’t native to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 kernel. Therefore, the wireless device will not work following the RHEL 8.0 installation by default. However, here’s a driver update package to get the wireless network working on the Thinkpad P53 and P73.

***Note: The driver update package (DUP) will likely be integrated in to RHEL 8.1.

dd-iwlwifi-4.18.0_107_dup8.0-3-btusb-0.8_4.18.0_80.23_dup8.0-2.el8.iso

Step 1: Download the attached ISO and extract it to the desktop.

Step 2: As superuser (root), browse to the /rpms/x86_64 from the extracted ISO and install the following rpms:

# rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod-redhat-btusb-0.8_4.18.0_80.23_dup8.0-2.el8_0.x86_64.rpm # rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod-redhat-btusb-firmware-21.10.0.6_dup8.0-2.el8_0.x86_64.rpm # rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod-redhat-iwlwifi-4.18.0_107_dup8.0-3.el8_0.x86_64.rpm # rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod-redhat-iwlwifi-devel-4.18.0_107_dup8.0-3.el8_0.x86_64.rpm # rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod-redhat-iwlwifi-firmware-20190516_dup8.0-3.el8_0.x86_64.rpm Step 3: Reboot the system.

21

Section 6 – Installing the Nvidia Graphics Driver

In order to get optimal performance out of the Nvidia GPU, it’s a good idea to install the Nvidia graphics driver.

Before install the latest Nvidia graphics driver, it’ll be a good idea to update the Linux Plymouth driver to version 0.9.4.1.

- Install the Plymouth 0.9.4.1 package from the following site:

https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/plymouth/0.9.4/1.fc29/x86_64/plymouth-0.9.4-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm

# rpm -ivh -f pymouth-0.9.4-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm

- Rebuild initramfs. # dracut -f

- Reboot # reboot

22

To install the latest Nvidia graphics driver, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Download the latest Nvidia graphics driver for the appropriate Nvidia GPU from nvidia.com/drivers.

Step 2: Install all the prerequisites using the following commands.

# dnf groupinstall “Development Tools” # dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel Note: If you don’t have a valid RHEL subscription, install the packages above from the installation media. This will require manual intervention steps to modify the yum repository. Here’s how to manually update the yum repository to use the RHEL installation media: ***Yellow highlighted text signifies directory path to installation media.

- Copy “media.repo” from the installation source to /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory. # cp -v /run/media/lenovo/RHEL-8-0-0-/media.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel8.repo

- Set permission levels accordingly.

# chmod 644 /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel8.repo

- Edit the rhel8.repo file to look something like this: [InstallMedia-BaseOS] name=Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 – BaseOS metadata_expire=-1 gpgcheck=1 enabled=1 baseurl=file:///run/media/lenovo/RHEL-8-0-0-/BaseOS/ gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release [InstallMedia-AppStream] name=Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 – BaseOS metadata_expire=-1 gpgcheck=1 enabled=1 baseurl=file:///run/media/lenovo/RHEL-8-0-0-/AppStream/ gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

- Update yum.

# yum update

23

Step 3: Open a terminal window and stop x-windows by using the following command.

# init 3

Step 3: Login as root and browse to the directory location to where the Nvidia driver installer is.

24

Step 4: Make the Nvidia installer an executable by using the following command.

# chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-64-*

Step 5: Run the Nvidia driver executable by using the following command.

# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*

25

Step 6: Follow the Nvidia driver installation steps.

Step 7: Optional: Choose whether to install the 32-bit compatibility libraries.

26

Step 8: Nvidia driver installing progress bar may appear.

Step 9: Select “Yes” to update the X-configuration file to use the Nvidia X driver.

27

Step 10: Select “OK” to acknowledge the driver installation is complete.

Step 11: Execute the following command to verify the Nvidia driver is loaded.

# nvidia-smi

Step 12: Reboot the system.

28

Section 7 – Revision History

Version Date Author Changes/Updates

1.0 10/21/2019 Jason Moebs Initial launch release