Thinkpads Forum

Hey everyone,
I'm thinking about buying an x260 soon, but I've mostly heard negative things about running linux on the skylake processor. I was wondering if anyone here was running any distro one one, and if they had any problems that haven't been solved yet.
It sounds like updating kernel 4.4+ is a must, and after that it 'works', but I'm particularly concerned about battery consumption(it would be a shame if the skylake processor used more power than my current ivy bridge). I'd love to hear that someone has gotten it under control using the obvious methods(TLP, Thinkfan, Powertop, etc.).
Thanks

I use Korora on a Skylake machine. It runs very well and battery life is slightly better than with Windows 10. I use the 4.6 Kernel.

There are problems with Skylake and Linux wrt Power Management, see ink below. Also the P-state governor for Sandybridge and newer CPUs is still broken.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... ncerns-MJG

Dekks wrote:There are problems with Skylake and Linux wrt Power Management, see ink below. Also the P-state governor for Sandybridge and newer CPUs is still broken.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... ncerns-MJG

This article is from early April, and while I hadn't read it I was aware that it had problems. It sounds like Linux Kernel 4.6 was released in May, so I was trying to see if it solved said issues.

600X wrote:I use Korora on a Skylake machine. It runs very well and battery life is slightly better than with Windows 10. I use the 4.6 Kernel.

Good to hear, I think I'll buy that computer after all.

opaque_forest wrote:

Dekks wrote:There are problems with Skylake and Linux wrt Power Management, see ink below. Also the P-state governor for Sandybridge and newer CPUs is still broken.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... ncerns-MJG

This article is from early April, and while I hadn't read it I was aware that it had problems. It sounds like Linux Kernel 4.6 was released in May, so I was trying to see if it solved said issues.

4.7 is your best bet, fixes still rolling in apparently for Skylake. The P-state issue is still up in the air.

An update for anyone that's waiting to buy because of this, it all works quite well with Linux Kernel 4.6(at least in Debian Testing). Battery is discharging between 6-8 W, which is as good as I ever got on my X230.