Ubuntu sleep problem on Thinkpad with the Nvidia graphics card
Ubuntu on the Thinkpad is known for issues with the Nvidia graphics card. Tearing, Sleep/resume problems, browser video graphics, etc. There were various attempts to upgrade the user experience using mentioned setup. Nvidia drivers got better over time, the Xorg server got a lot of upgrades, and replacement started to show up: Wayland.
Recently I've installed clean Ubuntu 22.04 and Nvidia drivers version 515. The problem showed up when Ubuntu tried to suspend and resume. On the resume, GUI displaying login would show up but the machine was unresponsive. The screen was going black/GUI alternatively - spending 3-4 seconds on each state.
I've tried almost every fix found on the internet:
- Trying all Nvidia drivers: 470, 515, and 520.
- Switching between Wayland and Xorg.
- Upgrading kernel.
- Switching between S2Idle and S3 sleep states in BIOS.
All these actions gave no results. I've also tried to not install any Nvidia driver and use the integrated Intel GPU. The first sleep/resume cycle happened without a problem but a new problem showed up. The touchpad was laggy after resuming and the reboot stopped working.
After Investigating Thinkpad forums - I've found out that the issues are well-known and affected a lot of users. As a matter of fact, it was an issue in the Thinkpad firmware and an update of firmware was needed to solve the issue. Thinkpad responded to the issues and an update of firmware is already available for installation.
Am I facing the same issue?
The target version should be N3BET48W, or higher. To check the current version of BIOS just run the command below.
➜ ~ sudo cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/bios_version
N3BET50W (1.28)Check the BIOS version.
If the version is lower than N3BET48W, an update of firmware should solve the issues. Otherwise, try the solutions provided in the bullet list above.
Solution to the sleep problem
If you face the same issue you can update firmware using Ubuntu Software under the tab Updates.
An alternative way is to use fwupdmgr, to update firmware only.
sudo apt install fwupd
fwupdmgr updateUpdate firmware using fwupdmgr.
You can follow the instructions on the official Lenovo support for updating software.
Lenovo official documentation on updating the software.
The forum thread is found at the next link.
If you are interested in the latest firmware available you can follow this link (Lenovo (ThinkPad) ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 / P14s Gen 3 / T16 Gen 1 / P16s Gen 1). The changelogs are also available. You can check what issues are solved with the release and maybe fix another type of issue.