Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

spikeroot · 2021-01-21 05:21:10

Hello.

I've installed Arch on my new Razer Book 13, and am experiencing problems with random lags on the keyboard. The lags are fairly short, and random. If I type fast, I'll notice that two or three characters fall behind, maybe a few times per minute. In addition, there is a general 'feeling' of slowness with the keyboard that definitely goes away when on AC power.

The same problem happens on an external BT keyboard.
This happens in any application when I'm running GNOME. Terminal emulator, text editor, browser, etc.
This does not happen in a TTY
This does not happen in my Debian install on this same machine.
This happens on Wayland or Xorg

I'm dumbfounded, and just have no idea where to look for a solution. Nothing in the journal or dmesg stands out to me, and no events are logged when the glitches happen.

Can anybody suggest a possible cause or where to start looking for a solution?

Thanks.

$ uname -a
Linux razerarch 5.10.9-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue, 19 Jan 2021 22:06:06 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ neofetch
                   -`                    mrmikeroot@razerarch 
                  .o+`                   -------------------- 
                 `ooo/                   OS: Arch Linux x86_64 
                `+oooo:                  Host: Book 13 - RZ09-0357 0.04 
               `+oooooo:                 Kernel: 5.10.9-arch1-1 
               -+oooooo+:                Uptime: 18 mins 
             `/:-:++oooo+:               Packages: 831 (pacman) 
            `/++++/+++++++:              Shell: bash 5.1.4 
           `/++++++++++++++:             Resolution: 3840x2160 
          `/+++ooooooooooooo/`           DE: GNOME 3.38.3 
         ./ooosssso++osssssso+`          WM: Mutter 
        .oossssso-````/ossssss+`         WM Theme: Adwaita 
       -osssssso.      :ssssssso.        Theme: Adwaita-dark [GTK2/3] 
      :osssssss/        osssso+++.       Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
     /ossssssss/        +ssssooo/-       Terminal: konsole 
   `/ossssso+/:-        -:/+osssso+-     CPU: 11th Gen Intel i7-1165G7 (8) @ 4.700GHz 
  `+sso+:-`                 `.-/+oso:    GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 
 `++:.                           `-/+/   Memory: 2513MiB / 15770MiB

crypticuser · 2021-01-21 20:02:27

have you tried reinstalling the correct keyboard drivers...

spikeroot · 2021-01-22 04:51:34

crypticuser wrote:

have you tried reinstalling the correct keyboard drivers...

Do you mean reinstall the usbhid module? I tried that, and it made no difference.

Or do you mean that I don't have the correct keyboard drivers?

V1del · 2021-01-22 08:06:26

Try disabling USB autosuspend: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Po … utosuspend

Assuming it really is the keyboard, could also be graphics driver hiccups, I'd usually recommend to remove xf86-video-intel but that shouldn't hold on Wayland. Maybe check for kernel regression by testing linux-lts (though that might be too old for the HW in general) Do you use any power management daemon?

spikeroot · 2021-01-23 05:19:30

V1del wrote:

Try disabling USB autosuspend: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Po … utosuspend
Assuming it really is the keyboard, could also be graphics driver hiccups, I'd usually recommend to remove xf86-video-intel but that shouldn't hold on Wayland. Maybe check for kernel regression by testing linux-lts (though that might be too old for the HW in general) Do you use any power management daemon?

Tried disabling autosuspend for all USB devices, but didn't see any difference.

Installed the lts kernel, and I no longer see the lag. Although my touchpad stops working on that kernel, so that may not be a permanent solution.

I haven't installed any power management packages like tlp or powertop. AFAIK, arch doesn't include any by default, so it seems very strange that this only happens on battery power.

gnunn · 2021-01-25 20:20:40

@spikeroot I'm looking at the Razer Book 13 as it has better port selection then the XPS 13, curious if you got this problem sorted out and how your experience has been so far.

I'm assuming firmware updates would still need to have Windows available?

spikeroot · 2021-01-25 21:34:11

gnunn wrote:

@spikeroot I'm looking at the Razer Book 13 as it has better port selection then the XPS 13, curious if you got this problem sorted out and how your experience has been so far.
I'm assuming firmware updates would still need to have Windows available?

I haven't gotten it sorted out, and it's driving me kind of nuts. But the fact that I don't get the problem on Debian is encouraging. At least it's not purely a HW issue. And I'm becoming more of the opinion that this is not a keyboard issue. There are little visual glitches here and there (but not on Debian) that indicate that it's a bigger problem, perhaps video drivers.

I am, however, getting some random system freezes on both Debian and Arch. It seems like this might be an issue with kernel 5.10+, as there are lots of posts about it right now. Next move is to downgrade my kernel and try that. Just as soon as I figure out how (kind of a n00b.)

For FW updates, I'm not sure if Windows is necessary or if fwupd would do it. I checked before I formatted over Windows, and it didn't appear that there were any updates. It's unclear to me whether fwupd will work correctly when there are updates. Again, kind of a n00b.

But it is a beautiful machine. My old laptop (which I'm holding onto until I solve these issues) is an XPS13 7390, and the Razer's build quality is much more impressive.

gnunn · 2021-01-25 21:53:48

Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it. My understanding of fwupd is that vendors need to support it and Razor is pretty notorious for not giving a flying fig about Linux. It could be possible to manage it yourself by repackaging the firmware but it would be nicer if the vendor supported it obviously. If I buy one I'd replace the 256 GB SSD with a 1 TB and just leave Windows on a small partition to handle this.

For the graphical issues, you could try disabling PSR to see if that helps as I see on another thread where a Dell 9310 owner is having an issue with flickering (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=262812). To disable PSR, you need to add a boot parameter as per here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/in … flickering

Can't help much on the system freezes, but if reverting the kernel works I'd love to hear to about it.

spikeroot · 2021-01-26 03:06:08

gnunn wrote:

For the graphical issues, you could try disabling PSR.

YES. That did it, thanks for the suggestion! I'm so exited to be rid of that damn lag.

Now that that issue seems to be resolved, I'm gonna keep rocking kernel 5.10.10 and see if I get any more freezes. Will update with results.

It's funny, at first I thought I didn't like the Razer's keyboard, but it was really the slight lag that made typing on it really hard.

gnunn · 2021-01-26 03:24:30

Did you fix the typing lag, your last comment there makes it sound like you did?

BTW I started a thread on linux for the Razer Book 13 in the reddit Razer forum, feel free to check it out to see if anything pops up. One guy booted his with a live Manjaro stick and it seems to be working well for him other then no sound.

https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments … ok_13_yet/

Arch Linux

#1 2021-01-21 05:21:10

Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#2 2021-01-21 20:02:27

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#3 2021-01-22 04:51:34

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#4 2021-01-22 08:06:26

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#5 2021-01-23 05:19:30

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#6 2021-01-25 20:20:40

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#7 2021-01-25 21:34:11

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#8 2021-01-25 21:53:48

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#9 2021-01-26 03:06:08

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

#10 2021-01-26 03:24:30

Re: Keyboard lag on Razer Book 13

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