Laptop setup notes
I’ve been using a Lenovo T14 Gen 6 AMD laptop running Debian for a while now. This is where I collect notes on my setup. Some are specific to this type, others are more generic.
Obligatory fastfetch output
1 _,met$$$$$gg. jochem@meridian
2 ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P. ---------------
3 ,g$$P"" """Y$$.". OS: Debian GNU/Linux forky/sid (forky) x86_64
4 ,$$P' `$$$. Host: 21QJ005EMH (ThinkPad T14 Gen 6)
5',$$P ,ggs. `$$b: Kernel: Linux 7.0.9+deb14-amd64
6`d$$' ,$P"' . $$$ Uptime: 6 days, 1 hour, 44 mins
7 $$P d$' , $$P Packages: 1884 (dpkg), 14 (flatpak)
8 $$: $$. - ,d$$' Shell: bash 5.3.9
9 $$; Y$b._ _,d$P' Display (LEN403A): 1920x1200 @ 1.25x in 14", 60 Hz [Built-in]
10 Y$$. `.`"Y$$$$P"' DE: GNOME 49.5
11 `$$b "-.__ WM: Mutter (Wayland)
12 `Y$$b WM Theme: Adwaita
13 `Y$$. Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3/4]
14 `$$b. Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3/4]
15 `Y$$b. Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
16 `"Y$b._ Cursor: Adwaita (24px)
17 `"""" Terminal: kitty 0.47.0
18 Terminal Font: HackNF-Regular (14pt)
19 CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (16) @ 5.09 GHz
20 GPU: AMD Radeon 860M Graphics [Integrated]
21 Memory: 5.11 GiB / 27.05 GiB (19%)
22 Swap: 0 B / 32.00 GiB (0%)
23 Disk (/): 24.85 GiB / 720.92 GiB (3%) - btrfs
24 Local IP (wlp194s0): 192.168.2.44/24
25 Battery (5B11M90125): 90% [Discharging]
26 Locale: en_US.UTF-8
T14 Gen 6 specific: audio quality improvement
Audio quality from the speakers sucks by default. Thankfully, with some configuration, you can improve that big time.
You need to install calf plugins, and Easy Effects.
For Debian:
Download the preset file: thinkpad-t14-gen6.json.
Open Easy Effects, click Presets, click the Import preset file button and import the downloaded file.
Click the preset to enable it.
Enjoy your improved sound!
Credits go to ‘OunceOfShag’ on reddit. I found this preset in his post for the Thinkpad P14s Gen 6. The t14 json file linked above is a copy of that.
If you’d like more in depth knowledge, the good folks behind Easy Effects have an extensive guide.
Caps-Lock as Ctrl and accented characters on TTY
Two customizations for the prize of one.
I never ever use Caps-Lock. But it is in the perfect position for use by my pinky. And I use Ctrl very often. So I reconfigure Caps-Lock to be Ctrl.
For writing in dutch, I often need special characters and accented characters like ë. Also, I like to be able to use the TTY (as in, no graphical environment).
For that I set the compose key to the right-alt key (which I never use for
anything else anyway). Now I can press the compose key, then an accent, then
the char to get the accented character.
To get both these options, edit /etc/default/keyboard and set XKBOPTIONS accordingly:
1XKBOPTIONS="ctrl:nocaps,compose:ralt"
After that, to activate the changes (and to select your desired console font):
1doas dpkg-reconfigure console-setup
(I use doas instead of sudo)
nvi
The following settings:
1" automatic indentation
2set autoindent
3
4" enable file name completion on <TAB>
5set filec=\
6
7" command editor opens on :<TAB>
8set cedit=\
9
10" incremental search
11set searchincr
12
13" insert current date
14map \dd :r !date +"\%Y-\%m-\%d \%a"
15
16" press \dt in command mode to insert current date and time
17map \dt :r !date +"\%Y-\%m-\%d \%a, \%H:\%M"
18
19" press \dT in command mode to insert day of week, full date, time and offset
20map \dT :r !date +"\%a, \%d \%b \%Y \%H:\%M:\%S \%z"
Or download the file and save it as .nexrc in your home folder.