Sounds like fun! One minor remark on the keyboard. You could also learn how to touch-type if you don't mind the Enter and Shift buttons (they are UK-style, not ANSI). I'm writing because besides the Enter and Shift buttons, the keyboard actually looks quite standard, so touch-typing fully alleviates any problems in that regard. (It only does so by creating a new problem of having to learn it and potentially research an optimized layout such as Colemak first xDDD) But it all does sound fun in any case!
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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I'm sorry to inform you, the rabbit hole gets only deeper from here. wait till you get into tiling WMs and everything cli... no end of tinkering in sight. :D
No clue what's WMs but please do share my guy. My mood disorder monster is begging to be fed
WM = window manager. Plasma is KDE's (KDE is a (desktop environment) DE, and has basic tiling baked in and more advanced versions that can be added). Things like Sway are lightweight super configurable tiling WMs / compositors.
OP is right, super rabbit hole, I advise leaving it for later and focusing on getting your workflow / DAW sorted first. KDE or Gnome will work fine, that's actually quite a competent 4 core CPU and plenty of RAM.
I have a similar T440p. Fun upgrades are replacing the clunkpad and that horrible display panel, though you have to consider that against just saving for a T480/580, but they're great to work on, laptop equivalent of Lego (Framework has it beat though).
Framework beats it yeah but they are also sooooo expensive for what they offer fiuuuu. And as much as I encourage more brands to do the same I've seen a lot of ppl complaining about the sturdiness.
Now do yourself a favour and get a Tx50 seried trackpad, it'll get you usable trackpoint buttons
It's on the list I figured it was an issue PRETTY FAST
I certainly wouldn't consider the i7-4810MQ to be a potato. It has similar performance to the i5-8350U that's used in the Thinkpad T480. It just uses a lot more power since it's 4 generations older.
was thinking "it's a popato" because I'm pretty sure it would not handle 20 tracks of vital :')
If this is the cable you want, I'm sure you can get it in EU.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5452
Are you sure though that the T440p doesn't use the thick style barrel plug? You might have to hack up an old charging cable to get the connector.
Azerty keyboard: https://www.ebay.com/itm/233363394422
Swapping keyboards is pretty easy. There is sometimes a little trick where the screen has to be partway open or something. Just look on youtube for how to do it for your model.
IDK what DAW software is out there other than Audicity. I'd be interested to hear what you choose, FOSS only of course.
“Slim tip” is what they call the power connector Lenovo used from like 2013 to like 2016, or today on high power devices
Slim tip adapters are plentiful and cheap on Amazon, eBay, and aliexpress. Just make sure your power bank is good at delivering 100w. I had an 88w 26k mah battery bank, but returned it for a 140w 24k mah battery and I get twice the power out of it despite it outputting more power which should be less efficient. If they make a 65w tip id get that instead.
Yeah I got that, 100 watt is what I was aiming for. I was just hoping to find a 20cm cable without any more removable part but hey. Would love to fully wrap that mf in mat pink but I'd rather not order online, shipping centers and chinese factory are basically slavery and it goes again my DIY\upcycling creed
I prefer no/little cable so that way if 90% of the cable gets damaged it’s just another USB C cable. Vs having to repair the existing cable which won’t be pleasant. Plus you can just unplug the adapter and now it’s a USB C for your phone or whatever else.
Good luck finding something as obtuse as this used/locally. It’s an EXTREMELY niche item.
I was talking about figuring out a way to wrap I'm 100% gonna have to buy the adapter
Tbh if you don't mind the weight (i.e. transportable but not so portable) I'd get an LFP power station or similar.
might be a bit overkill lmao I also have an x230 for ultraportability waiting to be fixed. I figure a classic 100w poyerbank is enough. Could still use solar pannels with the power bank if needed for the meme
yeah I see how to do it thre is a sliding platform, I just need to get a keybord but I try not to order it and rather save machines from becoming ewaste so local used market mostly. Gonna have to order the cable though. That's the one but I'd like to find a shorter one if possible, so it's more portable without a dangling cable yk but yeah tysm.
For the DAW I was told about ardour, gonna be tough to leave my syeat reaper behind. gonna need to find some light synth too, I loved vital so much
EDIT : I forgot one of my friend told me about librazik a french FOSS DAW currently under development but it seems testable
I can vouch for Ardour, I used it to make an album a while back and I still use it for small demos with my current band. It's great!
Pretty sure there's an existing battery pack for the CD slot, or maybe it was a hack, which, if you have multiple batteries gets you a lot of up time because you can hotswap batteries like a T480. You can also cram 3 drives into it instead. Extras in the CD slot and the WLAN slot (which has a PCIe lane and is faster than SATA). Makes a great distro hopper.
battery for CD slot exist but there is natively nothing to plug it in in the t440p motherboard from my understanding
Yeah, sounds right, go for SSD 2.
I don't really understand the trend with thinkpads, but it sounds like a great adventure! Have fun with the DAWs!
It's cheap, solid and easy to fix and tinker that's mostly it
Okay, so it's a tinkerer kink! Something like the current Cyberdeck trend?
you could say that exept Cyberdecks usually works around buyind new tech, the mandatory rasberry pi, those influencers seems to work around a pile of amazon boxes, meanwhile old thinkpads are big tanks people use on construction sites, somes times ago the military or in fucking SPACE (they use them is the ISS). Cyberdecks have qualities : they bring back fun design in tech that severly lacks it nowadays and is in my eyes important, whereas old thinkpads are - yes - very funny to use, have a fun community, is built for linux compatibility, are VERY easy to fix for cheap using second hand pieces that flood the market for cheap, and they just work. They are big fucking bricks that can withold a building collapse (true story) and run your shit and it's really usable everyday. (it's not necessary my POV rn I just got into it, I'm just giving you the general community perspective).
Does not mean Cyberdecks sucks but in my opinion the trend tends to rely on consumerism and highly unethical sellers, like "buy this list on components from AliExpress" which is kinda sad. But that's not all cyberdecks users. It's nice so see a majority of women in a tech trend also.
I am myself considering building a mini notebook on a bracelet. could use a used smartphone but they sadly don't boot on linux and instead rely on emulate linux, but android and google would still hard spy on me sooo