Lenovo X1 Extreme, NVIDIA, dock & sedutil

I've been using the self encrypting features of storage for some time now.

I've been using the sedutil - The Drive Trust Alliance Self Encrypting Drive Utility - since probably owning the Samsung 850 EVO and happy Lenovo X220 days.

I've been using laptops with docks as workstations thus rarely opened them since probably owning the Compaq Armada M700.

This caught me as a surprise when migrating from an NVIDIA-enhanced Lenovo T480 to an NVIDIA-enchanced X1 Extreme Gen3. You just can't have both your boot screen on an external monitor and decent battery life at the same time with the latter. Sorry. With the so-called hybrid graphics mode enabled, you get no POST messages on either the dock or HDMI. And you do need hybrid mode, as using the dedicated mode with the NVIDIA card alone will cut your battery runtime roughly in half.

The difference comes down mainly to the way video outputs are physically connected to screens. In case of the beloved T480, the NVIDIA GPU sits behind Intel's integrated, power-friendly GPU. The outputs are connected to Intel. You can just power down the dedicated card (bbswitch), ignore the questionable NVIDIA proprietary / open source drivers, and go about your day. Running an alternative mainstream operating system to do some gaming from time to time is still an option.

This is not the case with X1 Extreme series. To get any video output on external screens (including those connected to USB-C / Thunderbolt docking stations) you need to get the NVIDIA GPU up and running. This is because the outputs are physically connected to it. For the sake of lower delays / less lag when gaming and advanced output features, so I heard.

I keep my laptop hibernated most of the time, so after powering up and restoring, I do get screen output through the NVIDIA card eventually. But in order to boot, I have to enter a password to access the drive(s). Entering the password blindly without any feedback (or to soon) annoyed me as much as having to open the lid every time just to power on the machine.

My first thought was to add a small OLED USB screen and stick it into one of the USB ports on my keyboard. Luckily, the USB ports are very close to the Num/Caps/Scroll Lock LEDs and the rest is history - I just repurposed them instead. :-) Now the Scroll-Lock invites me to enter the password, and a light pattern informs me whether I succeeded.

This is how it looks like in action (youtube.com)

GitHub fork of Drive-Trust-Alliance/sedutil (github.com)