Fedora x Thinkpad Z13 (Gen1)

[redwheelbarrow (Ben W.)]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the Community and wanted to share my experience with Fedora on a Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 (Gen1) laptop as my daily driver:

x Excellent hardware support “out-of-the-box”; 100%; OLED IPS touch panel, Bluetooth, wireless, keyboard backlight / all secondary key functions, suspend/resume, fingerprint scanner, 3D acceleration, and on, and on - EVERYTHING!

x Excellent hardware security support; the Z13 (Gen1) comes with a plethora of unique hardware security features, all of which are recognized and supported by Fedora. This can be confirmed easily within the Gnome control panel under Privacy & Security. Secure Boot, Pluton, dTPM2, etc, etc - the 6860Z is an interesting chip! Please, see Lenovo’s documentation for an exhaustive list. I am also not interested in any political discussions about Pluton

x Simplicity; I am IN LOVE with the simplicity and minimalism of Gnome x Fedora. The experience is buttery smooth, lightning fast, and incredibly rewarding on this Laptop. It is truly a joy to use.

x Updates; Fedora does updates right; restart before installation of system updates, restart after install - ugh, I could kiss the Devs! Speaking of updates: the software support balance between stable and bleeding edge for the latest and greatest (not to mention “Vanilla” Gnome!) has been incredible!

I plan on using Fedora as my daily driver for years to come. I have used primarily Debian-based systems during my Linux journey, so I’m excited to learn more about the RPM ecosystem and what makes system administration on these devices unique (outside the obvious package management implementations, of course!).

Thanks for reading my blurb,

RWB

[lruzicka (Lukáš Růžička)]

Glad to hear it and welcome to Fedora.

[redwheelbarrow (Ben W.)]

Update:

All,

I felt the need to include some additional details to better support discussion and specificity around my experience.

My Laptop configuration is as follows:

Ryzen 6860Z 8C/16T, 32 GB LPDDR5 6400, USB4, 2.8K OLED touch.

device security, technical report (FC41, Gnome CP):

Device Security Report

Report details
Date generated: 2025-04-01 08:15:12
fwupd version: 1.9.29

System details
Hardware model: LENOVO 21D2CTO1WW
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6860Z with Radeon Graphics
OS: Fedora Linux 41 (Workstation Edition)
Security level: HSI:4 (v1.9.29)

HSI-1 Tests
UEFI Bootservice Variables: Pass (Locked)
UEFI Platform Key: Pass (Valid)
TPM v2.0: Pass (Found)
UEFI Secure Boot: Pass (Enabled)
BIOS Firmware Updates: Pass (Enabled)
Fused Platform: Pass (Locked)
TPM Platform Configuration: Pass (Valid)

HSI-2 Tests
AMD Firmware Write Protection: Pass (Enabled)
TPM Reconstruction: Pass (Valid)
IOMMU Protection: Pass (Enabled)
BIOS Rollback Protection: Pass (Enabled)
Platform Debugging: Pass (Locked)

HSI-3 Tests
Suspend To RAM: Pass (Not Enabled)
Pre-boot DMA Protection: Pass (Enabled)
AMD Firmware Replay Protection: Pass (Enabled)
Control-flow Enforcement Technology: Pass (Supported)
Suspend To Idle: Pass (Enabled)

HSI-4 Tests
Encrypted RAM: Pass (Encrypted)
Supervisor Mode Access Prevention: Pass (Enabled)
AMD Secure Processor Rollback Protection: Pass (Enabled)

Runtime Tests
Linux Kernel Verification: Pass (Not Tainted)
Firmware Updater Verification: Pass (Not Tainted)
Linux Swap: Pass (Encrypted)
Linux Kernel Lockdown: Pass (Enabled)
Control-flow Enforcement Technology: Pass (Supported)

Host security events

For information on the contents of this report, see Redirecting to https://fwupd.github.io/libfwupdplugin/hsi.html

Happy Tuesday,

[d3xt3r]

Glad to see another fellow Z13 user! So far you’re the only other person I’ve seen (online or IRL) who uses a Z13 with Linux! It’s a pity that no one talks about this machine, IMO it provides a MacBook-like premium build quality, whilst providing a first-class Linux experience, which makes it the perfect laptop (at least for me).

I’ve been using my Z13 for 3 years now and have had literally ZERO issues - even after multiple updates and upgrades. Even the big KDE 6 upgrade went flawlessly.

I know there are other native-Linux machines which provide a hassle-free experience like the Slimbook, System76 etc, as well as Linux-compatible ones like Framework, but all of them have had reports of build/quality issues, and you can’t call them as having a MacBook-like build quality. The Dell XPS 13 would probably match the closest to the MacBook in terms of premium build, but I don’t believe all it’s firmware bits are upgradable via LVFS.

Anyway, for me the key takeaway points of the Z13 are:

• All firmware bits are upgradable via LVFS/fwupd. This means there’s zero reasons to keep Windows around.
• There are zero warnings or error messages when booting the machine: proof that everything works.
• The BIOS and SSD supports Opal2 encryption, which means I can have free (no performance impact), hassle-free full disk encryption, without having to muck around with LUKS - and even if I dual-boot (I’ve got a couple of other distros and BSD too for testing), all their partitions are encrypted, and I don’t need to worry about doing any special configuration.

It’s a shame that Lenovo discontinued the Z13 line. None of the other existing ThinkPads really catch my eye like the Z13 did.

[redwheelbarrow (Ben W.)]

Wow! I learned quite a bit from your post - thank you for sharing your experience! I will come back to this in the coming days and give a proper reply the time it deserves!

PS Yes, we are a rare breed

PS PS Love the Fedora badge! Where are those available for purchase?

[d3xt3r]

Thanks, I got mine from Etsy! Just search for “Fedora Linux sticker”, you’ll see a lot of options with different styles.

[deepspace9 (stephane l)]

Wanted to buy one but it’s hard to find and in the end bought a Lenovo Thinkpad E14 Gen6. It’s heavier but will also work fine with Fedora. Now waiting for Fedora 42 for a fresh install.
Concerning Z13 gen1 pros/cons : https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Z13-G1-OLED-Review-Business-Laptop-with-an-AMD-Ryzen-7-Pro-6860Z.665205.0.html

[Willtech (Damian A. Williamson)]

Thanks Fedora for being the greatest. -HRjJ

Fedora Linux

[Willtech (Damian A. Williamson)]

ASUS ZenBook ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ZenBook 15 UX533FD

[lightonflux]

Out of interest, what are the BIOS options regarding keyboard behaviour and shared VRAM? Same as the other ThinkPads?

[jcas0058 (Juan Carlos Araujo)]

I agree… I was in love with the all-AMD Z16 with discrete GPU.