Lenovo ThinkPad P53, ThinkPad P73 Debian 10 Linux Setup Guide [en, ar, bg, cs, da, de, el, es, fi, fr, he, hr, hu, id, it, ja, ko, nb, nl, pl, pt, pt, ro, ru, sh, sk, sl, sv, th, tr, uk, zc, zh]

Debian GNU/Linux Setup Guide

For ThinkPad P53, P73
***Official support of Debian 10.0 and later.

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Section 1 – BIOS Setup and Pre-Installation Steps

The first step before installing Linux is to make sure the system BIOS is setup correctly.

• Boot into BIOS by pressing the function F1 key at the “Lenovo” splash screen.

• Tab over to the ‘Restart’ menu tab and set “OS Optimized Defaults” to “Disabled”.

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• Switching the “OS Optimized Defaults” settings may give a warning message. Select
“Yes” to continue to disable OS Optimized Defaults.

• Tab over to the “Startup” menu tab.

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• Pressing F9 function key will allow Legacy and UEFI bootable devices by setting
“UEFI/Legacy Boot” to “Both”; otherwise, it will be an unchangeable setting to “UEFI only”.

• Press function F10 key to save and exit BIOS setup.

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Section 2 – Discrete vs Hybrid Graphics

The Thinkpad P53 and P73 offer both Nvidia and Intel graphics. To run exclusively Nvidia
graphics, use the discrete graphics mode highlighted below.

• Boot into BIOS, tab over to the “Config” menu option, and select the “Display” option.

• By default, the “Graphics Device” will likely be set to “Hybrid Graphics”. To run exclusively

Nvidia graphics, set the “Graphics Device” to “Discrete Graphics”.

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Section 3 – Installing Debian 10.x

Please refer to the following instructions and screenshots on how to install Debian 10 on the
Lenovo Thinkpad P53 and P73.

• Insert the Debian 10 installation media (either through USB or CD/DVD).

• Power on the system and press the F12 function key whenever the following Lenovo

splash screen appears.

• Select the Linux bootable installation media from the F12 boot menu list.

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• Highlight “Graphical install” from the Debian boot menu and press ‘E’ to edit.

• Add the following line, “psmouse.elantech_smbus=0” before “quiet”, then press “Ctrl+x”.

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• Select the appropriate language and “Continue”.

• Continue to personalize options.

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• Set the desired root password