1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
|
[[!meta title="First few months with my Librem 13"]]
[[!img back.jpg ]]
I ordered a Librem 13, all the way back at the end of June (2017), and
it was shipped at the end of October.
Prior to getting my Librem 13, I've been using a Lenovo T431s which is
a great little laptop. The hardware worked ok with Debian, although
the Intel Wi-Fi card required some non-free software (iwlwifi), and I
never tried the fingerprint reader. The hardware is also a little
limiting, as there isn't any support for M.2 SSDs, and it can only
support 12GB of RAM.
The Librem 13 however supports up to 16GB of RAM, as well as a M.2
SSD. Rather than using Debian, I've been transitioning to use GNU Guix
for a couple of years now, so this is what I installed on my new
Librem 13, hence the stickers I added!
I brought the laptop with a M.2 SSD in it, but then put a SATA SSD in
as well. This required a bit of fiddling as one of the internal cables
was in the space for the SSD, so I had to move it a bit.
[[!img inside.jpg ]]
I was planning to put the Guix store on the bigger SATA SSD, while
keeping the root partition on the M.2 SSD, with both disks using Btrfs
on top of dm-crypt.
Unfortunately I had some issues setting this up. The partitioning
scheme I had in mind isn't quite supported by GuixSD yet, as if I
remember correctly, the Grub configuration generated is incorrect. For
now, I just have the store on the M.2 SSD.
[[!img front.jpg ]]
As for using it, the main issue I've had is the webcam initially not
working, which is a bit of a non-issue, as I don't have much use for
the webcam. I've been in contact with Purism support, and I could
return it for a replacement, but at the moment I'm fine with the one
I've got. However, today the webcam sprang in to life for a few
minutes, which is pretty exciting.
The other minor gripe I have is not being able to tell if it's off or
suspended without opening it up. The T431s has a little red LED on the
top, which will pulsate if it's suspended, which is reassuring that
it's actually suspended when you close the lid.
As for the rest of the hardware, it's pretty awesome. The case feels
very tough and sturdy, and the keyboard and trackpad work well. All in
all, I think it's a great bit of hardware, and I really like Purism's
emphasis on user freedoms through free software.
|