LG Gram 17 Linux Tips

Config tips for installing and using Linux on LG Gram 17 (my model is 17Z90P, most of these will probably apply to other models as well)

Accessing BIOS Advanced Settings:

Hold F10 while starting to access the boot selector, press TAB to access the BIOS.

Enable Advanced Settings with CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F7

Boot Problems: Can load GRUB but can't load a Linux distro

See references [1] [2] [3].

This happened to me while installing Kubuntu 20.0.4 LTS: GRUB loads fine but when attempting to launch an actual distro it sistematically fails. This seems to be related to Thunderbolt issues. Proposed solutions include adding the pci=nommconf boot option in GRUB, but the only thing that actually worked for me was disabling temporarily Thunderbolt functionality.

Repo [2] tells you how to do it but probably references an old BIOS version. On T2ZF03060 you need to access BIOS, enable advanced settings with CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F7, select Advanced tab, then

Intel Advanced Menu / Platform Settings / TCSS Platform Setting / Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration.

You can disable Thunderbolt entirely by setting Integrated Thunderbolt(TM) Support to Disabled.

The live distro should boot normally now.

Newer kernel versions (namely 5.13/5.15) don't seem to be affected by this problem: after installing the OS and updating the kernel you can re-enable Thunderbolt support.

EDIT: When attempting to install Kubuntu 22.04 and kernel 5.18 new ACPI-related problems seem to emerge rendering the system unbootable again. Stick to 20.04 for now.

Enabling Battery Care Limit

See ref [5] [6] The lg-laptop kernel module exposes additional functionality for the LG Gram series, but most of them seem to work only under kernel version 5.15. You need to first update the kernel to update the kernel to 5.15 (see below).

Source [5] seems to be inaccurate: the battery care limit functionality in my case was not exposed under /sys/class/power_supply/CMB0/charge_control_end_threshold but under /sys/devices/platform/lg-platform/battery_care_limit

You can just write 80 there to stop charging when 80% is reached.

echo '80' | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/lg-laptop/battery_care_limit

This value is reset at every reboot: it's advisable to write a custom service to handle setting at every restart. My own is included in this repo and you can copy it under /etc/systemd/system/setbatterycarelimit.service

then enable and start it

systemctl start setbatterycarelimit
systemctl enable setbatterycarelimit

Updating Kernel to 5.15 in Ubuntu

At the time of writing 5.15 is in testing and not available to install from Ubuntu's main PPAs. In the meantime you can install it from the Ubuntu Proposed PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-kernel-team/proposed

then update your repository list with sudo apt-get update.

You can install low-latency or generic

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.15.*-*-generic linux-image-5.15.*-*-generic
OR
sudo apt install linux-headers-5.15.*-*-generic* linux-image-5.15.*-*-lowlatency

lastly sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Installing a second SSD:

The 17Z90P has an unpopulated M.2 NVMe slot, you can easily access it by removing the 5 rubber pads and 4 plastic pads, removing the screws and just lifting the back plastic shell.

References

• [1] Ubuntu Forum thread on LG Gram 17 boot problems - Italian
• [2] https://github.com/crazyluv/solve-lg-gram-17-linux-boot-error
• [3] https://github.com/dhedlund/kernel-patch-lg-gram-17
• [4] Upgrade Kernel to 5.15
• [5] LG Gram Laptop Extra Kernel Features
• [6] Limiting Battery Charge on LG Gram in Linux

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