Laptops which run Arch

paulstelian97 · 2016-06-20 15:59:35

Acer Aspire 5732z. I have a quite significant amount of packages and quite a few AUR ones. Using GDM and trying to replace it with LightDM.
Intel Pentium T4400. No problem. i915: Plymouth works fine in initramfs if i915 is also in initramfs. RAM: 3GB (I use 64-bit and have no real trouble). Swap: *A lot*. HDD: 320GB, with a partition of more than 240GB for Arch (/home is not separate).
WiFi and wired: Wired works, WiFi might be hardware-broken. Touchpad works fine (within the single-tap constraints). Thermal? I need better cooling (I typically run at around 80C, once got to 100C due to launching hollywood[AUR])
Wine works enough for my purposes. Virtual machines work through VMWare Arch Linux modules (vmware-modules-dkms[AUR], vmware-patch[AUR]) or through Virtualbox (virtualbox-host-modules-arch)
Packages and apps installed? Many as hell. The essentials work well.
Getting back to drivers, let's get to the essentials. Disk? Working, obviously (simple SATA). GPU? i915 ought to be good enough. CPU microcode? Well, I don't see effects but there is the initramfs additional image so... Networking? Both wired and WiFi (though the signal is not optimal). USB? I only use a USB Optical Mouse, which works just fine. SD card reader? Just fine. Audio? Goes well, pulseaudio works as launched by cinnamon. CDRom? I don't know whether the drive is physically able to read CDs, let alone attempt to write them.

zappathustra · 2016-06-25 07:22:39

Laptop assembled via online vendor, namely, https://www.pclinuxfr.com/portable/pclf-w550su1.html, with Intel Core I-5, 16Gb of RAM, a SSD of 128Gb plus an HDD of 1Tb.

It works like a charm. I'd thought about SSD's for quite some time, and now I'm very happy to have one. Especially when I launch Gimp, Scribus, LibreOffice, Audacity, and a few others for good measure... all at once.

Starfish · 2016-06-28 15:58:35

Lenovo Thinkpad x260 with Intel i5-6200U, 2.30GHz, runs smoothly.

Last edited by Starfish (2016-06-28 15:58:53)

firasuke · 2016-07-05 19:57:05

Toshiba Satellite L50A-664 (Optimus Enabled using bumblebee+primus)
4th Gen Intel Core i7 4700MQ (2.4GHz to 3.4GHz with turbo boost)
Integrated GPU (Intel HD 4600)
Discrete GPU (NVIDIA GT740M)
8 Gigs of RAM
Nothing too fancy ....

Runs archlinux perfectly! (in CSM/MBR Combo only - UEFI/GPT works but the laptop displays a weird message of it not finding any boot media for like 5 seconds then starts to work normally which sucks if you were after a sub "10" boot time).

Everything works from camera to speakers to all buttons on keyboard .

* Idles at 45-50C and when gaming 60-80C (which is good for an optimus enabled laptop on Linux and in Summer ! )
* Battery is almost 2 hours (3 hrs roughly when in saving mode ; I would get more if i tried archlinux the moment i got my laptop since it's 2 years old now)

Arch + CSM/MBR + EXT4 + X.org + Openbox + bumblebee + primus + wine = A HAPPY LIFE

Last edited by firasuke (2021-10-15 21:08:20)

Fateh · 2016-07-11 13:17:36

Acer Aspire E 15 E5-511G-P2BJ
Intel quad core N3540
4 GB DDR3
Intel HD graphics + NVIDIA 810M
Still having trouble using nvidia card (system freezes when running optirun or primusrun)

adomol · 2016-07-11 18:15:37

Gateway P-6860 FX
1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550
4GB DDR2
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS

Everything runs extremely smooth with the nouveau driver. As I am not much of a gamer, I don't miss having the nvidia driver at all. Although I did try countless methods for getting the proprietary driver running, with no luck. It always ended the same way, boot up would be fine but after just a few seconds I would get a back screen. To be fair though, exact same thing would happen if I let ubuntu or mint install the driver, I had to try that to satisfy my curiosity.

m00nman · 2016-07-22 09:10:16

Sony VAIO Z690C
Core 2 Duo P8700 2.5Ghz
8GB DDR3 1066 MHz - Upgraded from stock 4 GB
Hybrid graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS / Intel GMA 4500MHD - nvidia is pretty much useless
Intel SSD 240 GB - Upgraded from stoc 160GB 5400rpm
WiFi Intel 5100 a/b/g/n - upgraded from stock b/g/n

Saft23 · 2016-07-22 14:03:35

Lenovo T460

Works:
Arch installed without any problems
Mousepad works
Wifi works
Double battery works
Bluetooth works
Backlight on keyboard works

Not tested:
Smartcardreader
Cam

Problems:
None so far

R00KIE · 2016-07-22 15:02:54

Lenovo Thinkpad E560 - upgraded to 16GB of ram, hard disk changed to an SSD (transplanted from an older laptop that broke down)

What works:
Sound
Webcam
Wireless
Bluetooth
Trackpad/Trackpoint
Card reader
DVD drive
Integrated GPU
Hardware Video acceleration
Automatic power off of discrete GPU
VGA/HDMI Out
USB3 Ports
Brightness Keys

What does not work:
Discrete GPU currently hangs when booting with radeon.dynpm=1 (default) and trying to change frequencies to get higher performance
Fingerprint reader (seems to work with linux-lts, haven't had the time to submit bug report upstream)
Card reader driver does not seem to support (yet?) MMC ERASE commands (or hardware does not support that).

Not tested:
Docking port and consequently functionality of docking station ports
TPM
Secure boot

Tips and tricks:
You want to make sure you have bios/firmware version 1.17 or later as a weird keyboard issue has been solved with version 1.17.
CPU can only get into deeper package c-states (more power savings) if sata alpm is enabled and the bluetooth usb card is allowed to autosuspend, however this seems to cause sporadic screen flickering.
Graphics work well with xorg's modesetting driver, there is no need to install xf86-video-{intel,ati}.

Edit/Update:
Discrete GPU now works fine with radeon driver. I've been trying the amdgpu driver once in a while but so far still not luck.
The driver for the card reader now supports MMC ERASE, using trim or issuing blkdiscard will now work as expected.
Fingerprint reader now works but seems a bit finicky about the speed and orientation of the finger when trying to match a fingerprint.
Enabling all the power saving tweaks recommended by powertop does not seem to have any bad effects such as data loss.

Last edited by R00KIE (2017-07-22 20:22:14)

clownfish · 2016-07-26 22:38:52

Can anyone recommend an up-to-date netbook or convertible which is Arch friendly and with a price tag in the 300-500$ range?

moose jaw · 2016-07-27 17:15:03

Lenovo Thinkpad 11e:

Celeron N2940 (quad-core), 1.83GHz
Bay Trail graphics
4GB RAM
500GB hard drive
Intel wireless-AC 7260

Hardware working fine: trackpad, webcam, wifi, suspend/resume.
Bluetooth is recognized but I've only been able to test audio, which has some independently known problems

Nice compact laptop, netbook-ish but usable. Incredibly affordable for what it is: generally lists for <$300.

bsdice · 2016-08-07 00:44:47

Needed a Linux laptop for tests and gave Arch a shot on this machine that I had lying about in the basement:

AOpen 1557-G (MS2141) made by Wistron in early 2004.

First I had problems with reboot (would hang, workaround with reboot=pci kernel parameter successful) and shutdown (would not power off) on recent kernels. You should use linux-lts (4.4.16) and that will be fixed. I did not investigate this regression further. Battery is sadly dead on this machine, but acpi -b in principle works. Suspend to RAM and suspend to disk both work.

# inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: snickers Kernel: 4.4.16-1-lts i686 (32 bit gcc: 6.1.1) Console: tty 0 Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:   Mobo: N/A model: N/A v: Rev.A Bios: Phoenix v: R01-C1L date: 03/25/2005
Battery    BAT0: charge: 0.0 Wh 0.0% condition: 44.0/44.0 Wh (100%) model: SANYO BAT0 status: Charging
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (sse sse2) bmips: 2990 speed: 1500 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV350/M10 / RV360/M11 [Mobility Radeon 9600 (PRO) / 9700]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.org 1.18.4 driver: radeon tty size: 131x45 Advanced Data: N/A for root out of X
Audio:     Card Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: 1c00 18c0 bus-ID: 00:1f.5
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.16-1-lts
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401 100Base-T driver: b44 v: 2.0 bus-ID: 02:05.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR5212/5213/2414 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath5k bus-ID: 07:00.0
           IF: wlp7s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (10.4% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: HTS548080M9AT00 size: 80.0GB temp: 40C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 74G used: 7.8G (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0C mobo: 41.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 88 Uptime: 1:40 Memory: 191.3/1004.4MB Init: systemd Gcc sys: 6.1.1
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.3.0

To get IRDA infrared going, ttyS1 (COM2) needs to be freed first. I ripped this from a Gentoo forum post by user Josuke:

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/irda.conf
# IrCOMM module
alias char-major-161 ircomm-tty
alias char-major-60 ircomm_tty
# DevFS autoload for IrCOMM
alias /dev/ircomm0 ircomm-tty0
alias /dev/ircomm1 ircomm-tty
# IrLAN, but currently the IrLAN protocol is no longer maintained by the Linux/IrDA core team
alias irlan0 irlan
# To use the FIR driver. This applies only to the specific device
alias irda0 nsc-ircc
install nsc-ircc /bin/setserial /dev/ttyS1 uart none; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install nsc-ircc; echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/irda/discovery; ifconfig irda0 up
remove nsc-ircc /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove nsc-ircc; /sbin/modprobe -r ircomm_tty ircomm irda
# IrNET module
alias char-major-10-187 irnet

The Pentium-M is a Banias core and a such needs some optimizations to make Chromium on Gnome 3.20 bearable. Note I did not use tmpfiles.d here, because all the /sys entries would not stick during boot. I suspect /sys is not mounted yet so I used the rc.local service to enable rc.local

# cat /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service 
[Unit]
Description=/etc/rc.local compatibility

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/etc/rc.local
TimeoutSec=0
#StandardOutput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes
SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# cat /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/bash

sysctl -qw vm.swappiness=1
sysctl -qw vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

echo -n "1"    > /sys/module/snd_ac97_codec/parameters/power_save
echo -n "30"   > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold
echo -n "10"   > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/ondemand/sampling_down_factor
echo -n "1500" > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
echo -n "0"    > /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog

for i in /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/power/autosuspend; do echo 5 > $i; done

In addition I added resume

HOOKS="base udev resume autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck"

to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. This requires

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=/dev/sda1 resume_offset=333824"

in /boot/grub/grub.cfg of course (see Wiki how to determine resume_offset if you use a swap file like me).

Finally installing Package intel-ucode is recommended if your BIOS does not have the latest microcode revision.

To get the five buttons on the left side working, load the wistron_btns module through /etc/modules-load.d:

# cat wistron_btns.conf
wistron_btns

Set options in /etc/modprobe.d:

# cat wistron_btns.conf
options wistron_btns force=1 keymap=1557/MS2141

The wifi button will enable airplane mode and turn off wifi, but a double press will not bring wifi back, although Gnome will show the OSD that it should be re-enabled. Rfkill also shows the device still as soft blocked, so I'd say only one more Gnome 3.20 bug.

Last edited by bsdice (2016-08-07 01:41:44)

mazhar · 2016-08-08 12:52:33

ASUS ROG G501JW - every single thing works perfectly due to SSD installation partition boots in 8 sec (grub time changed to 0) WIFI is great, GEFORCE GTX 960M works smoothly, intel CORE i7: CPU usage desktop idle = 1% normal usage(firefox-moc-vim together) = 8%
laptop temp on windows 10: ~59 C
on arch: ~48 C
RAM 16 GB: running Xfce: never filled 2GB since my arch installation (even with games such as Mafia2)

Last edited by mazhar (2016-08-08 12:53:53)

jmp186 · 2016-08-14 19:46:55

HP Pavilion 15-n233ca

TL:DR : RT3290 bluetooth don't work, wifi highly unstable, UEFI implementation of HP on my laptop is baaaad.
(end of the story : I manage to make things work)

- UEFI implementation from HP on this laptop is a mess. no matter what I try to do things the clean way it didn't work :
I wanted a dualboot with 2 windows systems and arch as my main system, and exept some random problems with wifi (more on that later) It work flawlessly.
I choose to use systemd to manage the bootloading process, but no matter what I did with bootctl and efibootmgr, if the bios find Bootmgr.efi in EFI/Microsoft/Boot, he boot on it, well done HP ..
what I did is I booted on my default windows sytem, mounted the efi partition, changed the name of the efi file and updated windows accordingly with bcdedit. it won't do much if you don't tweak efibootmgr too. at this point it still booted automaticly to my new renamed windows efi file
The trick, better than deleting the automatic windows entry to efibootmgr is simply to DESACTIVATE IT and set arch/sytemd to boot second after the desactivated automatic sh*t. The result :

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0000
Boot0000* ArchLinux
Boot0002  Windows Boot Manager

not the cleanest but can't do magic

- About the wifi, my pc ship with a RT3290 mini pci-e combo card w/ bluetooth.
bluetooth just don't work, I didn't care myself but worth mentioning.
the RT3290 card is supposed to work with rt2800pci drivers, but the support is experimental, and the card juste rendomly shutdown.. I had to reboot to windows each time for my card to work again on linux (wtf?). I tried the RT3290sta module on AUR without success. At the end I juste replace the card with an intel one (took it from another laptop running on windows only) and my wireless connection works now like a charm

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-08-14 20:41:10

jmp186 wrote:

no matter what I did with bootctl and efibootmgr, if the bios find Bootmgr.efi in EFI/Microsoft/Boot, he boot on it

Have you tried https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … boot_order?

jmp186 · 2016-08-16 16:05:21

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

jmp186 wrote:
no matter what I did with bootctl and efibootmgr, if the bios find Bootmgr.efi in EFI/Microsoft/Boot, he boot on it
Have you tried https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … boot_order?

I tried a lot of things, but as said for Packard Bell it just automaticly booted on windows

Last edited by jmp186 (2016-08-16 16:06:36)

nashod · 2016-08-21 20:13:50

So I'm looking for a 13.3' or a 15.6' laptop to run arch at as my current laptop suffered a lot of structural damage and I'm not really sure if it"ll last long, the lenovo Ideapad 710s caught my eye but it seems like it has some problems with the bios that prevent the installation of linux systems, so is anyone aware of some comparable laptops in the same price range ( or even better, if the bios issues were solved?)

Awebb · 2016-08-22 09:30:47

nashod wrote:

So I'm looking for a 13.3' or a 15.6' laptop to run arch at as my current laptop suffered a lot of structural damage and I'm not really sure if it"ll last long, the lenovo Ideapad 710s caught my eye but it seems like it has some problems with the bios that prevent the installation of linux systems, so is anyone aware of some comparable laptops in the same price range ( or even better, if the bios issues were solved?)

This is a thread, where people post their experiences with Laptops, the more data the better. If you want advice, search the thread, but please keep the S/N down.

LexHimself · 2016-08-28 13:02:18

Toshiba Satellite P70-A-11N.

- Intel Core i7-4700MQ
- Intel HD4600/Nvidia Geforce GT 745M (Optimus enabled using Bumblebee)
- 16GB DDR3
- 1x 1.5 TB HDD, 1x 2TB HDD (7200 RPM), ODD replaced with a 320GB HDD which Arch Linux is installed on.

I recently reinstalled Arch on a dedicated HDD, since the system would hang from time to time when copying data (known bug). The touchpad still needs configuring, but works with the xf86-input-synaptics.
Controlling brightness with the FN keys works to a certain point. When the brightness goes down all the way, somethimes it will jump to full brightness.

Everything else works OOB. The system has some issues with overheating, but in general runs cooler than with Windows or OSx86.

jeppybro · 2016-08-29 00:32:14

Asus ZenBook Pro UX501VW

- 15.6-inch, 3840 x 2160 IPS Touchscreen Display
- Intel Core i7-4720HQ
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
- 16GB DDR3L (1600MHz)
- 512GB SSD

I've installed Arch on almost every computer I've had, and this is the first one where everything worked flawlessly post-installation including the touchscreen.

pyarch · 2016-08-31 16:28:32

Returning to Archlinux forums after quiet sometime. I am thinking of getting a portable laptop and want to know which is the one which has perfect support for Archlinux.
Laptops I am looking at right now are:
Dell XPS 13 and the new razer 12 inch laptop.
Has anyone tried installing archlinux on these laptops?
One of things I really want working properly is the battery life. I want to get atleast 8 hours of battery life. Previously on lenovo and hp 15 inch laptops(forget the model) I got 8-12 hours on windows but on arch used to get only a meager 3-4hours.
Thanks

stellarestuary · 2016-09-02 05:01:31

My Laptop:
HP G72-b66us Notebook PC running on Arch Linux KDE Plasma 5 Desktop User Interface

Specifications:
Processor - 2.40GHz Intel Core i3-370M Processor
Cache - 3MB L3 Cache
Memory - 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) (Maximum 8GB)
Graphics - Intel HD Graphics
Video Memory - Up to 1696MB
Hard Drive - 500GB (5400RPM)
Display - 17.3” diagonal High Definition+ HP BrightView LED Display (1600 x 900)

For more Information: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02503091

Other Information:
I was given this Notebook as a present last Christmas 2010. It originally came with a Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit copy, which was removed approximately two weeks prior to this post due to circumstances related to Microsoft disabling Windows Updates on Windows 7 and 8 operating systems. Windows 7's extended support however ends in three years, thus warranting the search for an upgrade. Windows 10 was not chosen I was concerned about their data mining and consumer spying activities, as well as other technical issues occurring after its final release, an example being their Anniversary update which broke many third party web cameras. Wanting to also have control over what updates are being installed on my laptop, I transitioned to Linux, and jumped distributions starting with Ubuntu (which I tried before months prior to installing it) until settling with Arch Linux.

Last edited by stellarestuary (2016-09-02 05:01:47)

jmp186 · 2016-09-02 05:30:41

stellarestuary wrote:

My Laptop:
HP G72-b66us Notebook PC running on Arch Linux KDE Plasma 5 Desktop User Interface

Hi, Do you use UEFI ? with dual boot ?

blufinney · 2016-09-03 17:15:23

Starfish wrote:

Lenovo Thinkpad x260 with Intel i5-6200U, 2.30GHz, runs smoothly.

same here, w/ i7 setup. coming from x230 and miss physical radio switch, but not much else, cool laptop

jmp186 · 2016-09-03 17:48:18

blufinney wrote:

Starfish wrote:
Lenovo Thinkpad x260 with Intel i5-6200U, 2.30GHz, runs smoothly.
same here, w/ i7 setup. coming from x230 and miss physical radio switch, but not much else, cool laptop

you guys got the bluetooth setup too ?

Arch Linux

#1926 2016-06-20 15:59:35

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1927 2016-06-25 07:22:39

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1928 2016-06-28 15:58:35

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1929 2016-07-05 19:57:05

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1930 2016-07-11 13:17:36

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1931 2016-07-11 18:15:37

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1932 2016-07-22 09:10:16

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1933 2016-07-22 14:03:35

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1934 2016-07-22 15:02:54

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1935 2016-07-26 22:38:52

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1936 2016-07-27 17:15:03

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1937 2016-08-07 00:44:47

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1938 2016-08-08 12:52:33

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1939 2016-08-14 19:46:55

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1940 2016-08-14 20:41:10

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1941 2016-08-16 16:05:21

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1942 2016-08-21 20:13:50

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1943 2016-08-22 09:30:47

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1944 2016-08-28 13:02:18

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1945 2016-08-29 00:32:14

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1946 2016-08-31 16:28:32

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1947 2016-09-02 05:01:31

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1948 2016-09-02 05:30:41

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1949 2016-09-03 17:15:23

Re: Laptops which run Arch

#1950 2016-09-03 17:48:18

Re: Laptops which run Arch

Board footer