Arch Linux

DaMadOne

Member

Registered: 2014-07-30

Posts: 15

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Arch runs on my Sager NP8278 (Clevo PM170S-A)

A few issues though. Fingerscanner is not supported, webcam doesn't work, and nouveau module crashes on boot so no nvidia working. I'm compiling a custom kernel in hopes that the issue is fixed. Kinda new to this though, There are so many different things I can add. I disabled a good chunk of stuff, but I'm not sure what I should keep lol. Half the stuff I haven't heard of lol.

blacklist nouveau and use nvidia's driver? Nouveau even casuses problems with my old gtx580.. I can't use it if I wanted to.

if using grub, press 'e' and not 'enter' with your arch install selected. Add 'modprobe.blacklist=nouveau' to the end of the kernel commands. It will not load nouveau module but It will still boot.. then 'pacman -S nvidia', reboot, profit?

tzoi516

Member

Registered: 2014-05-02

Posts: 76

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Arch runs great on my Toshiba Satellite S55-A5169. However, Nouveau runs my Nvidia better than the driver with Bumblebee - text looks scrunched in X.

mjj55409

Member

Registered: 2014-08-22

Posts: 2

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Arch runs on my Sager NP8278 (Clevo PM170S-A)

A few issues though. Fingerscanner is not supported, webcam doesn't work, and nouveau module crashes on boot so no nvidia working. I'm compiling a custom kernel in hopes that the issue is fixed. Kinda new to this though, There are so many different things I can add. I disabled a good chunk of stuff, but I'm not sure what I should keep lol. Half the stuff I haven't heard of lol.

I just installed on my Sager NP9150/Clevo P150EM. I ran into the same nouveau issue. What I found was that it seemed to be heat related. That is, I would only get the nouveau crash if the laptop had been up and running for a while. I let it cool down and quickly did a base install. Prioritized getting the intel and nvidia drivers installed, and it's been running fine since. Actually, with Arch, this is the best this laptop has ever run.

Painguy

Member

Registered: 2014-08-20

Posts: 15

Re: Laptops which run Arch

blacklist nouveau and use nvidia's driver? Nouveau even casuses problems with my old gtx580.. I can't use it if I wanted to.

if using grub, press 'e' and not 'enter' with your arch install selected. Add 'modprobe.blacklist=nouveau' to the end of the kernel commands. It will not load nouveau module but It will still boot.. then 'pacman -S nvidia', reboot, profit?

I just installed on my Sager NP9150/Clevo P150EM. I ran into the same nouveau issue. What I found was that it seemed to be heat related. That is, I would only get the nouveau crash if the laptop had been up and running for a while. I let it cool down and quickly did a base install. Prioritized getting the intel and nvidia drivers installed, and it's been running fine since. Actually, with Arch, this is the best this laptop has ever run.

Hmmmm thank's guys. I'll give it a shot. I'm assuming you guys are using bumblebee then? I was hoping to use nouveau because I heard the performance with PRIME is better than using Bumblebee and the VirtualGL bridge. At this point I can't complain though. I'll give it a try.

Last edited by Painguy (2014-08-23 09:53:20)

Ran

Member

Registered: 2014-08-23

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I just got one of these amazing laptops myself -- and decided to try Arch. Thanks for all the hard work on getting this touchpad to work!

I tried downgrading but ended up with an unresponsive touchpad; I had better luck staying on 3.16 but replacing the new hid-rmi.ko module with the one from the git repo. (In fact, I'm using it right now.) It looks like when the new module is compiled, it's being put under "extra" and the one under "kernel/drivers/hid" takes precedence.

Doubless not the best way to do this, but I did: "gzip hid-rmi.ko" then "cp hid-rmi.ko.gz /usr/lib/modules/3.16.1-1-ARCH/kernel/drivers/hid/" after the make install step.

rgomes

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 43

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Ran: thank you! That worked very well It's nice to have trackpad functionality again.
On more good news: 3.16 has fixed the backlight keys! You might need to change your grub boot options, but it works.
My current one is:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=2 video.use_native_backlight=1'

rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=2 was needed for optimus with the ck kernel, haven't tried without it yet.

Unforunately, suspend doesn't seem to work (I/O seems to block on resume). Does it work for anyone?

Last edited by rgomes (2014-08-23 23:17:44)

Ran

Member

Registered: 2014-08-23

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Glad it worked! Your earlier posts were a huge help to me so I'm glad I was able to give back a little. Great news about the backlight keys; I think you are right about needing the kernel arguments, as mine don't adjust. (Haven't changed the setting and rebooted to test.)

I ran into the issue where on reboot the trackpad doesn't work occasionally; I think it is timing based, since running "depmod -a" until it showed up with hid_rmi for the Pointer [Razer Razer Blade] in dmesg worked. *Edit* It didn't when I ran into it again, though grepping dmesg for razer then rmi will only return a line if it worked. Ended up rebooting until it "took".

Suspend worked for me out of the box (not with the lid closing, but I always dislike and disable that); I did *not* do the custom kernel or rcutree flag for Optimus. I used the nvidia-beta AUR after one of the threads you linked suggested it might be fixed in the latest nvidia driver.  primusrun works for me for glxspheres64 but not 32; optirun works for both, which is good enough for me.

Last edited by Ran (2014-08-25 00:09:42)

rgomes

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 43

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Ran: you seem to be having the same issue with the touchpad that I'm having. Reloading usbhid seems to work for me, just run the following command:
sudo modprobe -r usbhid; sudo modprobe usbhid
As for the 32 bit glxspheres, there is actually a primusrun 32 bit version that should get that to work I had to install it to get steam working.
I tried running without the option, and it worked - I'll try running the normal kernel, and seeing if bumblebee works.
Are you using the newer RB14 (2014 version), or the 2013 version?

Ran

Member

Registered: 2014-08-23

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Thanks! I'll give that a try next time I reboot.  Can't believe I missed that there was a 32 bit primusrun -- no wonder it didn't work. And now it's amazingly even faster. The screen backlight and keyboard backlight keys work too -- just about perfect.   I thought I found some webcam issues, but requesting the camera data as mjpeg makes it all work and look better than any webcam I've had before.

I'm on the 2014 version with the amazing screen -- my whole reason for picking this over yet another thinkpad, actually. (I'm a long-time fan, and miss the trackstick... but Lenovo seems obsessed with poor screens lately.)

kjell

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2012-03-26

Posts: 99

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I've yet to own or install (arch) linux on a laptop, that didn't work (atleast after 1995 or so..).

bleach

Member

Registered: 2013-07-26

Posts: 264

Re: Laptops which run Arch

^true enough but its good to know if there are issues with some weird hard ware or what have ya. So when people looking for a lappy/desky these ones work well or work but with buts.

Last edited by bleach (2014-09-01 09:27:14)

binarypie

Member

Registered: 2013-01-11

Posts: 3

Website

Re: Laptops which run Arch

So I also have this computer and am friends / work with Ran.

I have yet to get the touchpad working consistently with the kernel hack.

It'll work the first time I restart but never again after that.

Any thoughts on where I should start looking at the problem?

Xabre

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 755

Re: Laptops which run Arch

HP ProBook 450 G1 (E9Y33EA)

Arch + KDE setup went like a dream, ath9k and bluetooth module sometimes are messy (but it does work), haven't played with discrete Radeon and Catalyst yet, but generally so far I'm more than just pleased.

As a side note: I hope one day all manufacturers and all models will have BIOS/EFI/ACPI as good as this one. I got do used to extra kernel parameters and complications, and here everything just works, without even a single tweak.
Well. there's that issue with BT but I'm sure it's fixable, will look into it.

So far, so good.

faiz

Member

Registered: 2014-07-06

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I've not had too many issues with the touchpad on this machine (using external usb mouse), but I have had problems in various other areas. I'm still debugging the bumblebee/optimus situation tenatively, but my current setup is to load X using intel drivers (off integrated GPU) and then running apps using bumblebee/primus. Sometimes this crashes Xorg, which sucks, so I'm thinking if I ever want to game on the machine (using it for work mostly) I"ll have to open another Xorg context and sandbox it from my work stuff.

Other problems:
webcam does not work right (crashes cheese, skype, guvcview etc.) for native apps, but webapps are OK
lid detection for suspend not working (workaround using pm-suspend)

faiz

Member

Registered: 2014-07-06

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Also, Ran, how did you force the webcam to output in MJPG? I seem to have constant, breaking issues with the webcam in various native apps.

EDIT: Need to add that I am also having difficulties detecting the three fans with lm_sensors, I assume this is a drivers issue but can't confirm. ACPI seems to detect 3 of them, but without any pwm controls, making fan control terribly difficult (and coincidentally, quite a problem for heavy-duty apps)

Last edited by faiz (2014-09-08 03:04:52)

jsbennett86

Member

Registered: 2014-09-08

Posts: 4

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Lenovo Yoga 2 13 (NOT PRO)  (this one Specifically -> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-yoga … &cp=1&lp=2

I have a Yoga 2 11 (also not pro). Tried your instructions and was ripping my hair out because nothing seemed to work. Fortunately, I found the broadcom-wl-dkms package. Worked like a charm! Though I have yet to test for some of the problems folks were mentioning in the comments, I can actually connect to the internet, so I'm not complaining.

Ran

Member

Registered: 2014-08-23

Posts: 7

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I haven't had primus crash Xorg on me yet, though I'm using the git version from the AUR; I have had it get in a weird state where it wouldn't work before, but only once. I disabled lid suspend because it started rapidly suspending-resuming-suspending after the first suspend, but I normally turn it off anyway.

The way I force it to use MJPEG is VERY hacky; I installed these packages:
  gst-v4l2loopback v4l2loopback-dkms gstreamer0.10 gstreamer0.10-good-plugins

Then I run these commands when I need it:
  sudo modprobe v4l2loopback video_nr=9 card_label="Loopback"
  sudo gst-launch-0.10 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! 'image/jpeg,width=(int)640, height=(int)480,framerate=(fraction)30/1' ! jpegdec ! v4l2sink device=/dev/video9

That creates a new virtual webcam device that works in Chromium or guvcview; using Chrome instead of Chromium didn't need that workaround, though. (Very inefficient.)

mrabe89

Member

Registered: 2014-09-11

Posts: 3

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I installed arch on my MacBook Pro 4 days ago and everything works pretty neat so far. :3
The only problem I have, is concerning the nvidia driver.

GSF1200S

Member

Registered: 2008-12-24

Posts: 474

Re: Laptops which run Arch

I installed arch on my MacBook Pro 4 days ago and everything works pretty neat so far. :3
The only problem I have, is concerning the nvidia driver.

I dont have a Macbook Pro and prefer Thinkpads, but I think it would help other users if you edited your post to include what version of Macbook Pro it is. I know they release new models constantly with different hardware and thus it might help to know which model yours exactly is. Just IMO..

aduggan

Member

Registered: 2014-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Hi All,

As mentioned in eariler messages, the hid-rmi driver was upstreamed into the 3.16 kernel. However, some uniqueness about how the touchpad in the Razer Blade 14 means that that version of the driver does not work with the rb14. I have a patch which I think is ready to be upstreamed, but without hardware I haven't been able to test it. Does anyone want to volunteer to test the patch? It relies on the some patches which are in the 3.17-rc1 kernel and should cleanly apply to the latest kernel code. Otherwise, some additional patches would need to be applied to the 3.16 kernel. I am particularly interested in if the touchpad buttons work correctly.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tw1d490fsr78g … patch?dl=0

Richjn

Member

From: Perth (Australia)

Registered: 2004-03-22

Posts: 33

Re: Laptops which run Arch

If no one beats me to it I can try this tomorrow and will report back here.

Richard

Richjn

Member

From: Perth (Australia)

Registered: 2004-03-22

Posts: 33

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Decided I had time before I went out;

Used linked patch against 3.17-RC4 source which applied cleanly then built the kernel with the std Arch 3.16.x config which includes hid_rmi as a module.

Kernel loaded fine and hid_rmi appears in the output of lsmod, however, dmesg shows the mouse as a PS/2 device with the current behaviour observed i.e. buttons work but no two finger scrolling etc.
I have not applied any udev rules or anything else, do I need to ?

Must go now before the wife kills me, will check back here tomorrow.

Richard

aduggan

Member

Registered: 2014-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Hi Richard,

Can you attach or send me the dmesg output? Having the touchpad show up as a PS/2 device on the Razer Blade 14 sounds bizarre.

Andrew

Richjn

Member

From: Perth (Australia)

Registered: 2004-03-22

Posts: 33

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Hi Andrew
Sorry but in my haste last night I had a bit of brain fade the device does show up as a usb device.

filtered dmesg outputs below.

#dmesg |grep USB
[    1.873277] ACPI: bus type USB registered
[    1.876823] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    1.877744] ehci-pci 0000:00:1a.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    1.890031] ehci-pci 0000:00:1a.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    1.890204] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.890443] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    1.903365] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    1.903552] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.903819] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
[    1.904353] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.906227] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
[    1.906331] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.196737] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[    2.320969] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.426758] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[    2.550833] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.713382] usb 3-5: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[    3.046793] usb 3-13: new full-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[    3.380097] usb 3-14: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[    3.684381] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    3.686958] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0001: input,hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Pointer [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input0
[    3.687802] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input1
[    3.688032] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input2
[    3.699821] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)

#dmesg |grep 1532
[    0.015320] Last level iTLB entries: 4KB 1024, 2MB 1024, 4MB 1024
[    3.686605] hid-rmi 0003:1532:011D.0004: device does not have expected input report
[    3.686787] input: Razer Razer Blade as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-5/3-5:1.0/0003:1532:011D.0001/input/input14
[    3.686958] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0001: input,hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Pointer [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input0
[    3.687700] input: Razer Razer Blade as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-5/3-5:1.1/0003:1532:011D.0002/input/input15
[    3.687802] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input1
[    3.687940] input: Razer Razer Blade as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-5/3-5:1.2/0003:1532:011D.0003/input/input16
[    3.688032] hid-generic 0003:1532:011D.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Razer Razer Blade] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input2

Let me know if you need anything else.

Richard

aduggan

Member

Registered: 2014-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Oh, it is binding to the wrong interface. Oddly, the device which advertises itself a a mouse is not actually the touchpad! Thanks for the dmesg output. I'll have to figure something else out.