Red Hat Enterprise Linux Setup Guide
For ThinkPad P53, P73
***Official support of RHEL 8.0 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Please refer to the following instructions and screenshots on how to install RHEL 8 on the Lenovo
Thinkpad P53 and P73.
• Insert the RHEL 8 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 “Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x” from the GRUB boot menu and press ‘e’.
• Add the following line, “psmouse.elantech_smbus=0”, to the end of the boot kernel
parameter and press ‘CTRL + X’ to boot the modified kernel parameter.
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• The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Welcome Screen should appear. Select the appropriate
language and “Continue”.
• Adjust the “Keyboard”, “Language Support”, and “Time & Date” accordingly by selecting
each one.
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• Select “SOFTWARE SELECTION” and choose the type of software to install.
• Select the type of “Base Environment” as well as each “Add-Ons” to install. In this
example, “Workstation” was selected for the “Base Environment” and all “Add-Ons” were
selected.