Thinkpad Specific

Battery Threshold
In Windows use lenovo Vantage to set maximum battery at 80% to preserve battery life. In Linux write to /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_stop_threshold and /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_start_threshold Can also use TLP with the tp-smapi kernel module (tp-smapi-dkms package in debian, for example)
You can let tlp take care of that for you like so: 
~ ❯❯❯ egrep "BAT[0,1]" /etc/tlp.conf
# auto = mid on BAT, high on AC.
START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=75
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT0=80
START_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT1=75
STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT1=80

~ ❯❯❯ sudo systemctl restart tlp
   egrep "BAT[0,1]" /etc/tlp.conf
Works like a charm. I put the TLP config in /etc/tlp.d instead though.
Thinkpad Trackpoint

Edit the file 

/etc/tmpfiles.d/tpoint.conf

Add the lines:

w /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/speed - - - - 255
w /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/sensitivity - - - - 255
w /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/inertia - - - - 6
w /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/press_to_select - - - - 0

May need to use 

/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2
instead

To make changes take effect before next reboot:

sudo systemd-tmpfiles --prefix=/sys --create