Laptops which run Arch

cyrus · 2013-11-17 07:04:24

System76 Bonobo Extreme ( bonx6 )
17.3" ( 1920 x 1080 )
nVidia GeForce GTX 670MX with 3 GB GDDR5 Memory and 960 CUDA Cores
Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor
16 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 8 GB
750 GB 7200 RPM SATA II
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth

Linux arch 3.12.0-1-ARCH x86_64 GNU/Linux KDE

rgomes · 2013-11-23 19:07:20

I will post my adventures getting arch to work on my Razer Blade 14", as well as what's still being worked on/doesn't fully work.
First, the Blade 14" is one great machine:

Intel Core i7 4702HQ Processor
8GB DDR3L-1600MHz RAM
Intel HD4600 and nvidia GeForce 765M graphics
14.0" 16:9 1600x900 display
128/256/512GB SSD storage (I have the 256GB option)
Killer Wireless-N 1202

Here's what works:

Wireless
Switchable graphics
Bluetooth
Keyboard light (HW controlled)
UEFI boot

Here's what kind of works, but needs fixing:

Touchpad
Setting the screen brightness with keyboard FN keys
Suspend/Sleep by closing the lid

Here's roughly how to get it to work:

Installing with UEFI boot
Installing it goes as standard, except for one step: installing the boot loader. It is a UEFI boot loader, so it requires some extra steps. I like the UEFI booting though, because it relieves grub from having to deal with Windows.
Most of the steps are as described in:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … _systems_2
But when you do grub-install, make sure you do it from the live system, and not from the chroot system. For some reason, efivars are not loading correctly on the chroot system. But installing on the live system works perfectly well, as long as you run grub-mkconfig in the chroot system. Note: you basically need to mount /dev/sda2 (the efi system partition) on $CHROOT$/boot/efi and then install. Then you go to the chroot system and run grub-mkconfig as described in the wiki.

Switchable Graphics
Note for this section: I'm using the proprietary graphics drivers and haven't really tried using nouveau.

When you reboot, you'll notice that you don't have any graphics switching capabilities. If you don't really want to use your nvidia graphics card, it is sufficient to install the bbswitch module (bbswitch-dkms is probably recommended because it will survive kernel updates/installs). The latest kernel allows us to turn off the graphics card.
However, if you do want to use it, you have to also get bumblebee. But this is not sufficient, since if you try to run a program with optirun, you will get an error like: RmInitAdapter failed.
This issue is being followed in an nvidia dev thread:
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topi … ver-crash/
There is no solution, but there is a workaround: install linux-ck and boot with: rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=2 (you can set this in /etc/default/grub, by putting it on the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameter).
Note that the thread actually advises using rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=1 I tried that for a while, but found that it caused random kernel panics (the error messages were related to timing, so I guessed it was related to that). The default value is actually 4, so I tried increasing it until it no longer worked. 2 seems to be the magical number: no kernel panics so far and graphics work.

I did some work on bisecting the kernel and it seems like a commit that changed RCU caused the bug we have now. I posted it on the nvidia thread, if anyone is interested:
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topi … 1/#4022571

Bluetooth
Bluetooth works out of the box. Just make sure to install the bluetooth daemon and turn it on.

Keyboard backlight
Works out of the box. Seems to actually be hardware controlled.

Wireless
Works out of the box. Uses ath9k driver.

Touchpad
Recognized as an HID mouse. I've been investigating the touchpad with the user fxChip, who developed a driver for the bigger Razer Blade. It seems like this one is very different. It seems to require a command to activate it and have it send multitouch/etc. data. But even then, it seems like its output is actually not that of a synaptics touchpad, so it might need a custom driver to interpret it (we have been looking at windows logs, so we actually don't even know what the command is yet). Any help in developing a driver would be much appreciated I'll give you any logs you need.

Setting the screen brightness with keyboard FN keys
The FN+F8/F9 keys should set screen brightness but don't seem to do anything. This seems to be an issue with many new Windows 8 laptops, and the wiki talks about it. But trying all the suggested steps in the wiki didn't work. Maybe it needs a specific Razer driver? (I'm using SUPER+F8/F9 to set the brightness so it is not too bad)
I am following this issue in the post:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=173281

Suspend/Sleep by closing the lid
This one is a very strange issue: when first booting the computer, the lid is reported as open, as it should. When I first close it, it gets reported as closed, as it should and it suspends. After this, the lid is always reported as closed, no matter how many times I open/close it. So suspend is no longer triggered by closing the lid. There seems to also be an issue where suspend doesn't happen successfully and the system just hangs, needing a hard reboot to be back up. This seems to be an old issue with the linux-ck kernels, but I'm not sure whether it should have been solved or not by now. I will test with the core kernels when I have the time, the problem is it is just very erratic - I might get no successful suspend, or I might get 10 or more.
I'm following this issue here:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=173280

My final comment: this is a great laptop and it works well with linux on it. Almost everything works well. The only big drawback is the touchpad, which unfortunately has very proprietary drivers It can also be very annoying when you're typing and accidentally tap the touchpad (it is quite large). Hopefully this will get fixed soon

Another guide to getting it to work, with an older kernel (you get the same issues as here though): http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p … 93#p762793

Last edited by rgomes (2013-11-23 19:08:50)

skip · 2013-11-27 11:13:44

Dell XPS 14
Intel i5 CPU
Intel GPU

Everything works out the box

brownbean · 2013-11-27 12:44:01

Running a HP ProBook 6450b. Everything was working out of the box. Have not tested Bluetooth or the fingerprint reader yet, but had no problems with Bluetooth in either Fedora, Slackware or Gentoo, so guess it's working in Arch. Bluetooth is disabled from BIOS now since I have no use of it. Never got the fingerprint reader to work in Linux but all hardware in the computer should work fine in SuSE acording to HP, but who needs a fingerprint reader.

cgaspard · 2013-12-06 20:40:15

Just wondering if you've made any progress on the touchpad? I'm considering one of these, and although the touchpad is not something I use regularly, it would e nice to know if there is a working solution.

Also, since you say the touchpad is somewhat working, can you describe the problem in more detail? Is it too sensative, jumpy? I had a similar issue with my Dell XPS, but with tweaking the sensativity settings, I've been able to get it reasonable.

rgomes · 2013-12-07 04:59:27

cgaspard wrote:

Just wondering if you've made any progress on the touchpad? I'm considering one of these, and although the touchpad is not something I use regularly, it would e nice to know if there is a working solution.
Also, since you say the touchpad is somewhat working, can you describe the problem in more detail? Is it too sensative, jumpy? I had a similar issue with my Dell XPS, but with tweaking the sensativity settings, I've been able to get it reasonable.

Haven't made much progress on the touchpad. It's hard because it seems to be using some closed protocol
The problem isn't related to sensitivity, etc. It works. But it works as a mouse. That means no multitouch or scrolling or pinch to zoom etc. It also doesn't allow you to disable it while typing (which for the size of that touchpad would actually be useful).
It's not jumpy or too sensitive, that works well at least, I would just like it to have at least scrolling/turn off while typing.

stkts · 2013-12-08 23:05:19

Sony Vaio S13 (SVS13A1C5E):, everything is working good so far but the battery does not last so much.. I'm still doing some tests to improve the battery life.
HP Mini 110: I got only some (not severe) issues with the wireless adapter (Broadcom) but Arch is running quite good.

chilebiker · 2013-12-10 20:24:01

HP Envy 15
i7
Intel/Nvidia

It took me some time to set it up properly, a lot of things have changed since I last installed Arch.

pyarch · 2013-12-11 03:46:05

chilebiker wrote:

HP Envy 15
i7
Intel/Nvidia
It took me some time to set it up properly, a lot of things have changed since I last installed Arch.

I am planning on getting a HP envy 15 , can you please tell me if you have any heating issues ? if so how did you negate it ? also how is the battery life ?

Jojonintendo · 2013-12-11 07:33:54

Samsung NP305-V5A

AMD quad-core CPU, dual graphics (AMD too). Everything working out of the box. It's even faster now I put an SSD in it

agahnim · 2013-12-11 17:40:21

I am thinking about purchasing a gaming laptop from MSI, and I would like to know if anyone has any experiance running arch on one of those. I am going to be purchasing one of the newer models with the haswell chips and the Nividia 765 cards (I do not know the full model name, only that it is their most current dedicated mobile offering, differentiated by multiples of 5: 760, 765, 770 ect..) I believe it should work fine out of the box with arch, since the hardware is almost identical to the hardware found in the bonobo extreme that is currently being offered by system 76, and I am pretty sure that the function keys are hardware based, and I know that backlight is hardware based, as I have a friend that owns one of the 15 inch models, while I am going to be getting one of the higher end models for about 1200. I am going to have him test linux on it, but I would like to hear from some fellow archers about any issues that they may have run into with battery life or heating or the like. I really like this machine and it is actually within my price range, unlike the bonobo. I do not want to spend 1200 dollars and wind up not being able to run arch on it. Any input will be nice.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Series-GE70-2 … B00CU9GKU8

This is a good overview of the machine, and I will mostlikely make the purchase through them anyway. I cannot tell anything from the specs or hardware that is given, since it is pretty much identical in that regard to everything else that is currently on the market for me. The only issue being little personal things and perhaps obscurities that are not brought to light through this. I am currently running on a samsung with a duel core AMD A4 vision with integrated graphics and 4 gigs of ram. I will be needing a machine for college, and I badly need an upgrade to be able to work effectivly in my decided major, and I also would like to have something portable that is still good for lesiure, but I cannot quite afford to buy the only system 76 that has a decent graphics card. But, for my laptop, everything is working silky smooth, except for suspend or sleep.

thiagowfx · 2013-12-13 14:54:05

Lenovo Ideapad S400U works pretty well out-of-the-box. It has an Intel core i5 CPU with an Intel Graphics HD 4000 integrated GPU. UEFI here can be a little annoying, but I can guarantee MBR is reliable here. Oh, 32 GB SSD and 500GB HDD. I did a little benchmarking a while ago on my blog.

Last edited by thiagowfx (2013-12-13 14:54:40)

dr.dissector · 2014-01-03 05:51:38

Greetings,

I am runing Arch on Lenovo X230 tablet. This particular machine has no camera, no fingerprint reader (which I understand a lot of them have) and is configured with 250Gb standard HD (not SSD).

I disabled UEFI, and Arch is the only system running on this unit.

Everything seems to be OK at the moment.

jdahlum · 2014-01-14 21:44:24

Just installed Arch on an Acer S7-392. I had some UEFI issues so I simply changed to legacy mode and things installed just fine. So far everything seems to be working out of the box. I love this setup!!!

esko997 · 2014-01-15 04:47:35

thiagowfx wrote:

Lenovo Ideapad S400U works pretty well out-of-the-box. It has an Intel core i5 CPU with an Intel Graphics HD 4000 integrated GPU. UEFI here can be a little annoying, but I can guarantee MBR is reliable here. Oh, 32 GB SSD and 500GB HDD. I did a little benchmarking a while ago on my blog.

Have also installed on this laptop -- using it right now. Install was seamless and everything works perfectly -- including touch screen.

Cheers,

Esko

thiagowfx · 2014-01-15 18:51:14

esko997 wrote:

Have also installed on this laptop -- using it right now. Install was seamless and everything works perfectly -- including touch screen.
Cheers,
Esko

My model doesn't have a touch screen, I think yours is a 'Ideapad S400 Touch.' So, have UEFI worked okay for you? I'm using MBR right now, but if I ever reinstall Arch (which I think I won't need...) I would try UEFI again, maybe with more luck (knowledge!) next time.

esko997 · 2014-01-15 19:44:01

thiagowfx wrote:

esko997 wrote:
Have also installed on this laptop -- using it right now. Install was seamless and everything works perfectly -- including touch screen.
Cheers,
Esko
My model doesn't have a touch screen, I think yours is a 'Ideapad S400 Touch.' So, have UEFI worked okay for you? I'm using MBR right now, but if I ever reinstall Arch (which I think I won't need...) I would try UEFI again, maybe with more luck (knowledge!) next time.

UEFI did actually work fine for me, I cant remember exactly what I did, I'll have to look at my laptop when I get home, but yeah it just took a few minutes during the install to configure it properly.

EscapedNull · 2014-01-17 03:14:14

Sony Vaio VPCEH3HFX here. Released October 2012, Intel i3-2350M 2.3Ghz x4, 6GB PC3 RAM, 500GB HDD.

Happily running Arch. I'm still working out some kinks, but it runs pretty well as of now. I'm definitely happy with the performance (but admittedly it doesn't take much to please me, considering my last computer). Lots of Linux (and open source) friendly hardware.

Working:
Integrated (on-CPU) Graphics: Requires xf86-video-intel and works to my satisfaction. I haven't tested 2D/3D acceleration or anything like that. Probably the most lacking factor of this laptop, but luckily I'm not much of a gamer.
Alps PS/2 DualPoint touchpad: Requires xf86-input-synaptics and works with basic functionality (no scrolling, can't disable tap-to-click. Probably fixable.)
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak]: Works flawlessly out of the box. Open source drivers and good performance.
Ethernet works fine, but that should come as no surprise.
Intel Series 6/C200 Family High Definition Audio Controller: Works out of the box with alsa. Headphone jack works fine too.
SD card and Memory Stick slots: work fine out of the box.*
Lid switch: works fine out of the box.
Suspend, Hibernate, Hybrid: all work fine out of the box through systemd.
Sony media keys (sleep, suspend, volume, touchpad, VGA, brightness, etc). Some configuration had to be done to make them work. See the wiki.
Webcam (Suyin Corp) works out of the box.
Battery (APCI) works out of the box.

Not tested:
External VGA port
HDMI port

*SD card and Memory Stick slots not working as of kernel 3.12.7-1 and 3.12.8-1.

Last edited by EscapedNull (2014-02-16 03:22:55)

Linoman · 2014-01-17 08:53:21

Hi, I have the same laptop. Have been running in different troubles so far.

Did audio worked out of the box?
What bluetooth daemon are you using? Bluez?

Good luck with the brightness and the touchpad, I miss scrolling.

rgomes · 2014-01-17 17:46:40

Linoman wrote:

Hi, I have the same laptop. Have been running in different troubles so far.
Did audio worked out of the box?
What bluetooth daemon are you using? Bluez?
Good luck with the brightness and the touchpad, I miss scrolling.

Audio worked out of the box, and I am using bluez.
What desktop environment are you using? I am using gnome, and it tends to do an annoying thing: if I unplug the headphones or reboot, it switches to analog output, rather than speakers, so I get no sound in that case and need to manually switch to speakers.

jjshinobi · 2014-01-19 06:35:08

Gigabyte u2442DCF-1

CPU 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M Processor (2.6GHz-3.2GHz)
Display 14" HD+ 1600x900 LCD
System Memory 8GB DDRIII
Chipset Mobile Intel® HM77 Express Chipset
Video Graphics Intel® HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 730M 2GB
NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology

Product page: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc … id=4449#sp

Linoman · 2014-01-19 13:15:28

rgomes wrote:

Audio worked out of the box, and I am using bluez.
What desktop environment are you using? I am using gnome, and it tends to do an annoying thing: if I unplug the headphones or reboot, it switches to analog output, rather than speakers, so I get no sound in that case and need to manually switch to speakers.

Trying to use enlightenment, no luck. So far I'm using KDE. but I get no sound in chrome. I was about to install steam the other day but it gave me options

1) lib32-mesa-libgl  2) lib32-nvidia-304xx-utils  3) lib32-nvidia-libgl

And can you explain what are the switchable graphics and how to test them?

Linoman · 2014-01-20 09:23:40

Got enlightment to work, just needed the enlightenment-git from AUR, and econnman-git.

BBoy · 2014-01-20 14:42:56

DELL Latitude E5400

Works everything out of the box!

raghunadnanr · 2014-01-20 15:29:54

I have been using Razer blade 14" with Arch+xfce for 4 months now. I use it for work and the single biggest annoyance is touchpad not being disabled while tying. The touchpad is super sensitive and the input goes to random areas of the screen.
While a fully functional touchpad is ideal, for now if I can just disable the touchpad while typing it will be great.

If anyone finds a solution please share it

Arch Linux

#1476 2013-11-17 07:04:24

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1477 2013-11-23 19:07:20

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1478 2013-11-27 11:13:44

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1479 2013-11-27 12:44:01

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1480 2013-12-06 20:40:15

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1481 2013-12-07 04:59:27

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1482 2013-12-08 23:05:19

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1483 2013-12-10 20:24:01

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1484 2013-12-11 03:46:05

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1485 2013-12-11 07:33:54

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1486 2013-12-11 17:40:21

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1487 2013-12-13 14:54:05

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1488 2014-01-03 05:51:38

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1489 2014-01-14 21:44:24

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1490 2014-01-15 04:47:35

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1491 2014-01-15 18:51:14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1492 2014-01-15 19:44:01

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1493 2014-01-17 03:14:14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1494 2014-01-17 08:53:21

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1495 2014-01-17 17:46:40

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1496 2014-01-19 06:35:08

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1497 2014-01-19 13:15:28

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1498 2014-01-20 09:23:40

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1499 2014-01-20 14:42:56

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1500 2014-01-20 15:29:54

Re: Laptops which run Arch

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