[wplug] Is anyone out there using Linux on a Lenovo IdeaPad 100S?

[Pat Barron]

This particular IdeaPad is actually much closer to a tablet than an 
actual laptop - in particular, it has no hard drive.  Mass storage is 
entirely eMMC flash (which I still haven't determined if it can be 
expanded), there's no place to put a "real" hard drive.  I still haven't 
figured out if the 32GB eMMC flash drive can be replaced/upgraded - some 
of the reading I've done indicates that eMMC flash drives are typically 
soldered directly to the system board.

The plus side is, it's really tiny, and it's really light.  It's tiny 
and light enough that I could literally carry this around anywhere I go, 
without much hassle, just like I carry my Nexus 7 tablet most places 
with me.  And no heavy power adapter to carry around with it, because it 
charges from USB (and I carry a USB power adapter with me anyway).  And 
it's cheap, in comparison to a full-function laptop.

On the other hand ... I definitely hear you about the workmanship of 
Lenovo's consumer-oriented products.  And even though it's cheap, it's 
still expensive enough ($179+tax on Cyber Monday sale, direct from 
Lenovo) that I'm not really enthusiastic about saying, "Well, I'll try 
it, and if it breaks in the first 3 months, oh well - just chalk it up 
as a failed experiment....".  It's also sort of a bummer that it maxes 
out at 2 GB RAM.  But it would be enough to run Firefox, Thunderbird, 
and an IRC client, and that's about all I would want such a machine 
for.  The fact that all of the usual Linux functionality would be 
available too would be a great bonus, though I probably wouldn't want to 
try to use LibreOffice or Eclipse on it....

I'm still hesitant, especially after doing a bit more research. Reports 
seem to be that Linux can be installed, but that doing so is ... well, a 
bit of a process.  Like this:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/684041/ubuntu-debian-on-a-lenovo-ideapad-100s-linux-has-issues-with-this-laptop

It also appears that Linux - or, at least, Ubuntu - doesn't have drivers 
for the Lenovo proprietary wireless adapter in the machine, so you end 
up having to add a separate USB wireless dongle.  And, various things 
related to power management don't work right.

I'm still on the fence about it.  I guess I have the rest of the day to 
decide, at least for the sale price.  Which is, admittedly, only about 
$20 cheaper than the regular price, so even if I were to get it later 
the price difference is negligible.



On 11/29/2015 9:48 PM, John Lewis wrote:
> I haven't had that exact model, but I had the Lenovo IdeaPad Z565 and it
> barely worked after a year. The hinges broke in under a year and I think
> the motherboard started to fry.
>
> Maybe you will have better luck than I did, but I say away from consumer
> models, especially if they are not in the 11.6 inch form factor because
> of durability issues. This one is 14 inches so it is on the high end of
> the sweet zone, I wouldn't go any bigger.
>
> Linux would probably work fine in it, but swapping wireless network card
> could be a pain because of bios white lists Lenovo likes to do. I
> recommend buying an sshd hard drive such as this one
> http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Laptop-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST500LM000/dp/B00B99JU5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448850960&sr=8-1&keywords=sshd+laptop+hard+drive,
> and taking the slow default one out and storing it in a safe place until
> the unit comes out of warranty and then reuse the hard drive, unless
> things go bad. It is probably less work than going through the motions
> of cloning the hard drive with ddrescue.
>
> Right now my main laptop is the Thinkpad x140e 2500. It is durable and
> supports my workload, and has 8 hours of battery life, but runs some
> graphically intense programs slow. I see the Lenovo Thinkpad 11e going
> for less than 300 USD on Amazon you may want to take a look at.
> http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X140e-inches-Notebook/dp/B00JI9IPAQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448850947&sr=8-2&keywords=Lenovo+thinkpad+x140e
>
>
>
> On 11/29/2015 08:16 PM, Pat Barron wrote:
>> I'm considering picking one of these up on Cyber Monday sale.  It
>> ships with Windows.  Of course, if I were to get one, I'd want to
>> change that, if possible...  ;-)
>>
>> Can anyone share any experiences using any Linux distro on the IdeaPad
>> 100S?  I'm particularly interested in feedback on ease of use, ease of
>> installation (of Linux), and ability to easily go back to the
>> originally shipped Windows version of necessary (e.g., in case there's
>> some kind of BIOS/firmware update in the future that must be installed
>> from Windows).  I'm also wondering what the feasibility is of swapping
>> out the flash drive that is included (which is, as I understand it,
>> 32GB eMMC) with something larger.
>>
>> I'm not expecting to do any kind of serious development or anything on
>> such a machine.  I'm mainly interested in something like this for
>> situations where I would like something a bit more sophisticated than
>> a tablet, but don't want or need to lug a full-blown laptop around.
>> And of course, the price, size, and (especially) the very light weight
>> of this particular product make it very interesting for this kind of
>> purpose.
>>
>> So, if you have experience using Linux on this hardware - or, really,
>> any kind of cheap, lightweight, "just a bit more than a tablet"
>> computers that have an actual keyboard - I'd be very interested to
>> hear about it....
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