<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">Couple of ideas.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">1. I've used Linux Mint instead of Ubuntu. Mint is based on or similar to Ubuntu, but apparently has better support. <a href="https://www.linuxmint.com/">https://www.linuxmint.com/</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"> Current version is 22.3, but you can also access older versions from the site. But first, consider Idea #2:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">2. This is in the "wow, this is really neat" category: Ventoy. <a href="https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html">https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">"Ventoy is an open source tool to create a bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files." </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">In short, if you want to try a version/flavor or three of Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Fedora, Sparky, etc, using Ventoy is an excellent way to go as you can try one or the other (to make sure it works as you want) without needing to do a full install on your machine. Then when you make your choice, you install it.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">Here are the steps:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">2a. Find a USB drive you can erase. Size doesn't matter, but a larger size will allow more distros. (I have a 32GB Ventoy disk with 10 Distros and 9GB unused space.)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">2b. Go to the Ventoy page and follow the instructions to install the program onto this USB drive.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">2c. Visit various Linux pages and download the ISOs for the versions you want to try. Copy to this USB. (Repeat till you're tired or the USB drive is full!)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"> This URL has a list with descriptions for 25 distributions and offers help choosing. <a href="https://linuxlap.com/linux-tips/the-25-most-popular-linux-distributions-of-2025-a-complete-guide/">https://linuxlap.com/linux-tips/the-25-most-popular-linux-distributions-of-2025-a-complete-guide/</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">2d. Armed with your bloated USB drive, insert it into your target machine and boot to it. Select a Distro from those you loaded, and try it out.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"> If you like it, you can install it.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"> If you don't like it, reboot your target machine and select another Distro to try.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">Good luck and have fun!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">-steve</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">PS: The Lexington Computer and Technology Group (<a href="https://LCTG.us">https://LCTG.us</a>) held a meeting on doing just this, back on December 29, 2021</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><table class="gmail-inline" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-collapse:collapse;empty-cells:show;border-spacing:0px;border:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);min-width:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;width:1118.38px"><tbody><tr class="gmail-row53"><td class="gmail-col1" style="padding:0.3em 0.5em;vertical-align:top;border:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);background-color:rgb(238,238,238)">The Useful Information Meeting (Bob Primak):<br>» What do you do with an older PC? (paperweight alternatives)<br>» Windows 11 Upgrade Notification<br>» Installing Linux Mint on an old laptop (it's easy)<br>Notes from the presentation:<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydy2lDoLHDM" class="gmail-urlextern" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydy2lDoLHDM" rel="ugc nofollow" style="outline:none;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183);background-size:1.2em;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:0px center;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;background-image:url("/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/../../images/external-link.svg")">video of Linux installation</a> <a href="https://wiki.toku.us/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=lctg:20211229_mint_install_video_notes.pdf" class="gmail-media gmail-mediafile gmail-mf_pdf" title="lctg:20211229_mint_install_video_notes.pdf (33.7 KB)" style="outline:none;background:url("/lib/images/fileicons/svg/pdf.svg") 0px center/1.2em no-repeat transparent;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183)">notes for video</a><br><a href="https://wiki.toku.us/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=lctg:20211229_mint_install.pdf" class="gmail-media gmail-mediafile gmail-mf_pdf" title="lctg:20211229_mint_install.pdf (172.9 KB)" style="outline:none;background:url("/lib/images/fileicons/svg/pdf.svg") 0px center/1.2em no-repeat transparent;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183)">Mint Linux install</a><br><a href="https://wiki.toku.us/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=lctg:20211229_lextech_win_11_upgrade_icon_20211207.pdf" class="gmail-media gmail-mediafile gmail-mf_pdf" title="lctg:20211229_lextech_win_11_upgrade_icon_20211207.pdf (196.1 KB)" style="outline:none;background:url("/lib/images/fileicons/svg/pdf.svg") 0px center/1.2em no-repeat transparent;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183)">Win 11 upgrade icon</a><br><a href="https://wiki.toku.us/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=lctg:20211229_lextech_things_to_do_old_pc_20211223.pdf" class="gmail-media gmail-mediafile gmail-mf_pdf" title="lctg:20211229_lextech_things_to_do_old_pc_20211223.pdf (719.7 KB)" style="outline:none;background:url("/lib/images/fileicons/svg/pdf.svg") 0px center/1.2em no-repeat transparent;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183)">What to do with an old PC</a></td><td class="gmail-col2" style="padding:0.3em 0.5em;vertical-align:top;border:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);background-color:rgb(238,238,238)"><a href="https://youtu.be/58dhcYtjI3g" class="gmail-urlextern" title="https://youtu.be/58dhcYtjI3g" rel="ugc nofollow" style="outline:none;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(43,115,183);background-size:1.2em;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:0px center;padding:0px 0px 0px 1.4em;background-image:url("/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/../../images/external-link.svg")">Watch the presentation</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">You can access the list of 2021 meetings info so you can scroll down to Dec 29, at: <a href="https://wiki.toku.us/doku.php?id=lctg2021">https://wiki.toku.us/doku.php?id=lctg2021</a></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 1:22 PM Ryan Mack via LCTG <<a href="mailto:lctg@lists.toku.us">lctg@lists.toku.us</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Usually Ubuntu has a few different kernel options. I would recommend googling "ubuntu hwe kernel" where HWE stands for "HardWare Enablement". Usually that will give you a newer kernel that has more recent drivers. Might fix your issue. If that doesn't, then I would suggest googling the specific device names as well, you can usually get that from running "lspci" or "cat /proc/devices".</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 1:15 PM Shaun Keller via LCTG <<a href="mailto:lctg@lists.toku.us" target="_blank">lctg@lists.toku.us</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Nelson,</div><div><br></div><div>I can't debug your problem directly. I would google "lenovo thinkpad x1 yoga g4 linux bluetooth not working". </div><div><br></div><div>My experience shows that different Linux distributions can behave differently. Because it is not difficult to install Linux, you might try one of two other distros. Slackware sometimes works for me when other options don't. You could also look here <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1bfgery/which_linux_distro/" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1bfgery/which_linux_distro/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Shaun Keller</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 1:01 PM Nelson Caldwell via LCTG <<a href="mailto:lctg@lists.toku.us" target="_blank">lctg@lists.toku.us</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi Folks,<br>
I'm wondering if anyone can comment on a particular problem I am having <br>
installing Ubuntu on a used Thinkpad. Because this is pretty specific, <br>
I'm going to leave some blank spaces here so that non-interested parties <br>
can quickly delete this message without any further reading.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Here's the story. I haven't used Linux at home for a while, so I'm a bit <br>
rusty but am otherwise familiar with the linux operating system and <br>
setups. I bought a used Thinkpad from BackMarket, really from "Deluxe <br>
PCs." Here are the specs:<br>
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga G4 14-inch (2019) - Core I7-8665U - 16 GB - SSD 1 TB<br>
so a moderate powered laptop with a large disk - pretty vanilla. It's in <br>
good shape as far as appearance goes.<br>
<br>
I made a new Ubuntu installation USB stick, and installation was mostly <br>
ok. The issue is that Bluetooth does not work. What happens is that when <br>
I enable bluetooth either with F10 or the setting menu, the video goes <br>
haywire, with the screen flashing on and off and noisy, making the <br>
computer useless. Sometimes bluetooth is automatically disabled, <br>
sometimes I have to disable it (F10). I have had excellent help from <br>
Deluxe Pcs, but he is convinced the problem is software (missing drivers <br>
or other). while I think it's hardware.<br>
<br>
If I try to attach a bluetooth mouse while bluetooth is enabled, I can <br>
see that indeed the cursor can be moved by the mouse (in between <br>
flashing screens), so that's also weird.<br>
<br>
Perhaps unrelated, but the audio is pretty bad, compared to say a <br>
Macbook, but that may be typical for all I know.<br>
<br>
So does anyone have any comments, or can recommend a path to <br>
resolution? I've been ready to ship the thing back but haven't <br>
convinced the vendor yet to accept it.<br>
<br>
thanks a million!<br>
Nelson Caldwell<br>
2 Aerial St<br>
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