Unable to install Ubuntu on Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th Generation
General Goal
I've spend about 2 full days on this issue by now. And my goal sounds fairly simple: I want to install Ubuntu on my new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th Generation.
Problem
After booting from the USB stick with Ubuntu 14.04 or 15.10 I get a black screen after selecting install from the menu. The only response is a blinking cursor int he upper left corner. Settings like nomodeset etc. do not solve this problem.
Just to check if there is a fundamental error with my hardware I installed Windows 10, which was successful.
Starting the Ubuntu installation with the grub verbose setting, I saw that the installation stops at the line:
intel_pstate: HWP enabled
Searching the internet on this, I stumbled upon a Reddit thread which seems to match my problem.
Does anybody have an idea, how to solve this?
These are my Hardware Specifications:
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th Generation
- Processor Clock Speed: 2.6 GHz
- Turbo Boost: 3.4 GHz
- Processor Family: Intel Core i7
- Processor Model: i7-6600U
- CPU Cores: 2
- Cache: 2 × 256 KB L2, 4 MB L3
- Motherboard Chipset: Integrated with CPU
- Intel vPro Technology: yes
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM): yes
- Installed RAM: 16 GB
- Video Card: Intel HD 520
Solution
So the very problem was that for some reason, intel_pstate is not supported. As explained in the Reddit thread. The solution was to deactivate intel_pstate in the kernel boot parameters.
What I did not get, was how to modify the boot parameters manually for the Ubuntu Startup-USB. This is done by entering the F6 menu and exit the menu right away. Now there is a new line visible on the screen. This line can be edited by pressing e add the command intel_pstate=no_hwp (for example after quiet). Now you can install Ubuntu. To be able to reboot after the installation, you need to alter the kernel boot parameters via grub explained here.
Once you logged into Ubuntu you can now alter this setting permanently also explained here.
Good luck!