At the beginning of this month my trusty Compal NBLB2 laptop completed five years of heavy use. The HDD was almost full (mostly with my work files) and the laptop’s size and weight were starting to become troublesome on my frequent work trips. So I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop. As Compal is an OEM and I was able to specify various components when buying the NBLB2, I decided to buy an OEM laptop again this time. In the end I decided on the Clevo W230SS, which I ordered from pcspecialist. The configuration I specified is listed below:
- 13.3″ matte full HD LED IPS widescreen (1920×1080).
- Intel Core i7 quad-core mobile processor i7-4810MQ (2.80GHz) 6MB.
- 16GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB).
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M – 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA cores.
- 750GB WD Scorpio Black WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB cache (7200 rpm).
- 8x Samsung slim USB 2.0 external DVD-RW.
- Integrated 6-in-1 memory card reader (SD/MiniSD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC/RSMMC).
- Arctic MX-4 Extreme thermal conductivity compound.
- Intel 2-channel High Definition Audio + mic & headphone jacks.
- Gigabit LAN & Wireless Intel AC-7260 HMC (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + Bluetooth.
- 3 USB 3.0 ports + 1 USB 2.0 port.
- Backlit UK keyboard.
- 2-button touchpad.
- 2.0 megapixel Webcam.
- 6-cell lithium ion battery (62.16WH).
- Power lead & 120W AC adaptor.
- 3-year warranty (1 year collect & return; 1 year parts; 3 years labour).
- 1-year dead pixel guarantee inc. labour & carriage.
- No operating system required.
The laptop has both a VGA port and an HDMI port. The VGA port is important to me because I need to connect to various models of legacy monitors and projectors in the various offices where I work.
The time from ordering the laptop to its delivery was nine days, and I was impressed with the service by pcspecialist; I received e-mails at each stage of building, testing and delivery (including the option to change the delivery date), and was informed of the name of the courier company, the time of delivery and even the name of the van driver!
My two previous laptops were configured to dual-boot Linux and Windows, but this time I decided not to bother with Windows and install only Gentoo Linux. I virtually never use Windows on the Compal anyway, opting instead to run Microsoft Office 2007 with WINE in Linux, so I decided to save some money this time. I followed the Gentoo AMD64 Handbook to install the operating system and, with one exception which I will mention further on, the Handbook is a very accurate guide.
I have the Testing branch of Gentoo (‘~amd64’) installed on the Compal, but decided to install the Stable branch of Gentoo (‘amd64’) on the Clevo. Since several of the packages I wanted to install are in the Testing branch, I would declare them in /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/ in order to be able to install them regardless.
Below are some rough notes on what I did, in case they are of any interest to others contemplating installing Gentoo on a laptop with a similar specification. I have to say I like the Clevo W230SS very much so far, although I find the NVIDIA Optimus hardware and driver more complicated to configure than the AMD ATI GPUs on my previous two laptops, and the NVIDIA driver does not work as well with the xrandr command as does the AMD FGLRX driver for ATI GPUs.
When I pressed F2 at boot to check the configuration of the American Megatrends BIOS, I found that UEFI was turned off, and I left it that way. The HDD was apparently MBR not GPT. I was happy to use PC BIOS and MBR rather than UEFI and GPT as that meant I would not have to fiddle with new technology with which I am unfamiliar, and GPT is not necessary as the HDD capacity is less than 2 TiB.
I then booted the HDD for the first time to check if pcspecialist had left anything on it after testing, and the Windows 7 Home Premium ‘Setup is preparing your computer for first use’ screen was displayed. As I had not ordered Windows and therefore had no Microsoft key, and as I did not want Windows on the laptop in any case, I used GParted on a SystemRescueCD Live pen drive to repartition and format the HDD.
I followed the Gentoo AMD64 Handbook but used SystemRescueCd rather than a Gentoo LiveCD or LiveDVD, and therefore I did not have to perform the installation procedure from the very beginning of the Handbook. After downloading the latest SystemRescueCd ISO and installing it to a pen drive (see the instructions on the SystemRescueCd Web site), I booted SystemRescueCd from the pen drive and connected the SystemRescueCd Xfce Live environment to the Web via WiFi. I did not bother to connect an Ethernet cable to the laptop and performed the entire installation of Gentoo to the HDD under WiFi.
I did not need to use the method given in the Gentoo Handbook for creating partitions; I used GParted on SystemRescueCD instead of fdisk or parted on the command line. I was therefore able to ignore the first few pages and started following the Handbook in earnest from Activating the swap partition onwards.
The Handbook recommends creating a ‘BIOS boot partition’ as well as a ‘boot partition’. This is really only necessary for UEFI machines or if the GRUB Embedding Area on the HDD is too small (the GNU Grub Manual 2.00 says the space reserved for the GRUB Embedding Area has to be at least 31 KiB). I did not need to create a ‘BIOS boot partition’, as GParted would only let me create the first partition starting 1 MiB from the beginning of the HDD. Actually, GParted will not let you create /dev/sda1 right at the beginning of the disk; it always seems to want the partition to start 1 MiB from the beginning of the HDD, so I don’t understand why the Handbook wants you to create a ‘BIOS boot partition’ before the Boot partition in the case of MBR HDDs, as there would still be 1 MiB of empty space before the ‘BIOS boot partition’, rendering the latter a waste of space and effort. (As I understand it, the situation is different in the case of GPT because the EFI boot partition must be FAT32, so you have no choice but to create a ‘BIOS boot partition’ if you’re using a GPT HDD.) Perhaps if you are using fdisk or parted on the command line then the situation is different and those commands do allow you to put the first partition right at the beginning of the HDD. So I created the following partitions by using GParted:
/dev/sda1 /boot (Primary Partition)
/dev/sda2 swap (Primary Partition)
/dev/sda3 (Extended Partition)
/dev/sda5 / (Logical Partition)
/dev/sda6 /home (Logical Partition)
/dev/sda7 NTFS partition (Logical Partition)
I specified the ext2 file system for /boot, and ext4 for / and /home. I have used these file systems for many years on previous laptops, and they are very reliable. I decided to add an NTFS partition to store my work files separately from my home files, and in case I ever want to access the laptop using Windows from e.g. a bootable external USB drive or whatever.
When creating the logical partitions sda5, sda6 and sda7, GParted always left 1 MiB unallocated before each logical partition. And I don’t know why GParted would not create a partition named /dev/sda4.
The precise partition configuration is listed below:
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 698.7 GiB, 750156374016 bytes, 1465149168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x291ba0e7
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 264191 262144 128M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 264192 33822719 33558528 16G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 33822720 1465147391 1431324672 682.5G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 33824768 302260223 268435456 128G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 302262272 839133183 536870912 256G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 839135232 1465147391 626012160 298.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
# blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="BOOT" UUID="f6ffc085-66fe-4bbe-b080-cec355749f85" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="291ba0e7-01"
/dev/sda2: UUID="c49e011a-bb8b-4ade-8fda-6c11ca53d660" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="291ba0e7-02"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="ROOT" UUID="525a90f1-8ad2-44a3-ade3-20f18a0a9595" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="291ba0e7-05"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="HOME" UUID="5b60d470-a92a-45b3-9607-3ff3ab483b97" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="291ba0e7-06"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="NTFS" UUID="16F4D9B04A85A7E5" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="291ba0e7-07"
The output from the lspci command in SystemRescueCd was as follows:
# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 05)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM87 Express LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 860M] (rev a2)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb)
04:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5287 (rev 01)
04:00.1 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
The output from the lsusb command in SystemRescueCd was as follows:
# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 5986:055c Acer, Inc <-- The Webcam!
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp.
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0dd8:17c0 Netac Technology Co., Ltd
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 090c:3261 Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corp.)
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
The output from the lsmod command in SystemRescueCd was as follows:
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
nilfs2 117674 0
ccm 16515 2
arc4 12390 2
iwlmvm 149978 0
mac80211 421465 1 iwlmvm
btusb 24725 0
iwlwifi 88602 1 iwlmvm
bluetooth 258391 2 btusb
cfg80211 320349 3 iwlwifi,mac80211,iwlmvm
x86_pkg_temp_thermal 12390 0
6lowpan_iphc 16649 1 bluetooth
coretemp 12390 0
iTCO_wdt 12390 0
mei_me 12576 0
iTCO_vendor_support 12938 1 iTCO_wdt
crct10dif_pclmul 12479 0
crc32_pclmul 12483 0
crc32c_intel 16568 0
i2c_i801 16533 0
ghash_clmulni_intel 12523 0
mei 58244 1 mei_me
tpm_infineon 12437 0
joydev 16535 0
tpm_tis 16533 0
rfkill 18094 3 cfg80211,bluetooth
serio_raw 12439 0
tpm 26448 2 tpm_tis,tpm_infineon
lpc_ich 20629 0
shpchp 29571 0
microcode 41719 0
raid10 37123 0
raid456 57671 0
async_raid6_recov 12621 1 raid456
async_pq 12640 2 raid456,async_raid6_recov
async_xor 12573 3 async_pq,raid456,async_raid6_recov
async_memcpy 12464 2 raid456,async_raid6_recov
async_tx 12840 5 async_pq,raid456,async_xor,async_memcpy,async_raid6_recov
raid1 28900 0
raid0 16515 0
multipath 12390 0
linear 12390 0
usb_storage 52365 2
nouveau 793903 0
i915 586099 2
ttm 66567 1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper 37632 2 i915,nouveau
drm 216971 5 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 12633 2 i915,nouveau
i2c_core 28421 6 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,nouveau
rtsx_pci_sdmmc 16538 0
mmc_core 80530 1 rtsx_pci_sdmmc
rtsx_pci_ms 12442 0
memstick 13784 1 rtsx_pci_ms
mxm_wmi 12672 1 nouveau
r8169 49390 0
rtsx_pci 35470 2 rtsx_pci_ms,rtsx_pci_sdmmc
mii 13085 1 r8169
mfd_core 12807 2 lpc_ich,rtsx_pci
wmi 13114 2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
video 16832 2 i915,nouveau
The output from the SystemRescueCd lsmod command told me that the nouveau driver works with this laptop, that the iwlwifi driver works too, and that the r8169 driver was the likely driver I would need for the wired Ethernet connection (I did not bother to connect an Ethernet cable whilst using SystemRescueCd).
The output from the SystemRescueCd ifconfig command told me the new names of the eth0 and wlan0 interfaces: enp4s0f1 and wlp3s0. I force udev/eudev to use interface names eth0 and wlan0 on my Compal laptop (by adding the parameter net.ifnames=0 to the kernel boot line and by using the command ‘ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules‘). However, although I dislike freedesktop.org’s so-called ‘predictable network interface names‘, I decided to stick with the new interface naming scheme on the Clevo.
As shown in the Handbook, make sure you cd into the directory /mnt/gentoo/ before downloading the Gentoo Stage 3 tarball, otherwise you will end up with the tarball in the wrong directory.
I stuck with the CPU FLAGS specified in the default make.conf file to start with, then, as soon as it was possible during the installation process, I installed app-portage/cpuinfo2cpuflags, ran it to obtain the correct CPU flags and modified /etc/portage/make.conf accordingly (I duplicated the CPU flags in USE="..." and CPU_FLAGS_X86="..." as recommended in Gentoo news item 2015-01-28-cpu_flags_x86-introduction).
I found configuring make.conf for USE flags confusing (see Configuring the USE variable). Although the KDE profile I eselected already contained quite a few of the global USE flags I thought I wanted/needed, I ended up duplicating several of them in make.conf rather than going through the output from the emerge --info command to see which USE flags are already included. I will clean up make.conf sometime in the future. The way to check which USE flags are provided by the profile is to temporarily comment out the USE variable lines in make.conf (and presumably any in /etc/portage/package.use/*) then run the emerge --info command. Anyway, here is what make.conf looked like after I had edited it:
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1,--as-needed"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
MY_CPUFLAGS="aes avx avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"
CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"
UNWANTED="-apm -branding -eds -evo -kerberos -gnome -gtk -libav -mono -nepomuk -oss -qt5 -systemd"
MY_MEDIA="alsa audiofile cdda cddb cdr dri dvb dvd dvdr dvdread jack ipod musicbrainz pulseaudio sdl v4l wmf xine"
MY_CODECS="a52 aac dts dv ffmpeg flac gsm lame matroska mp3 musepack ogg openal speex theora x264 xvid"
MY_SYSTEM="acl acpi avahi bash-completion bidi bluetooth bzip2 cjk dbus gcj gnutls icu lm_sensors lzo networkmanager nptl pam policykit udev unicode usb wifi xcb zeroconf"
MY_FILESYS="inotify"
MY_PRINT="cups foomaticdb gimp ppds scanner"
MY_XSYS="cairo dga gphoto2 gtk openexr opengl png qt4 svg tiff X xinerama"
MY_DESKTOP="gmp kde libnotify pda rdesktop semantic-desktop startup-notification"
MY_BROWSER="nsplugin"
MY_COMMS="aim icq imap jabber mbox msn rss slp yahoo"
USE="${USE} ${UNWANTED} ${MY_MEDIA} ${MY_CODECS} ${MY_SYSTEM} ${MY_FILESYS} ${MY_PRINT} ${MY_XSYS} ${MY_DESKTOP} ${MY_BROWSER} ${MY_COMMS} ${MY_CPUFLAGS}"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
DISTDIR="${PORTDIR}/distfiles"
PKGDIR="${PORTDIR}/packages"
# The following line is for Layman:
source /var/lib/layman/make.conf
# The following line is for my local overlay:
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage ${PORTDIR_OVERLAY}"
LINGUAS="en en_GB pt_BR es_ES"
GRUB_PLATFORMS="pc"
MAKEOPTS="-j9"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="intel modesetting nvidia"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="rsync://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/gentoo/ http://mirror.qubenet.net/mirror/gentoo/ rsync://rsync.mirrorservice.org/distfiles.gentoo.org/"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.uk.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
I don’t have the ‘source’ line and ‘SYNC’ line in my ~amd64 installation on the Compal because they are running later versions of Portage and Layman, for which the method has changed.
When following the Gentoo Handbook and merging some packages, sometimes messages about required USE flags were displayed. In some of those cases, after studying the messages carefully I repeated the merge command but included the --autounmask-write option, then used the etc-update command to apply the edits to the /etc/portage/package.use/* files, then repeated the merge command. In some cases, e.g. if only one or two USE flag changes needed, I created the new file /etc/portage/package.use/* and performed the edit manually. For example, /etc/portage/package.use/networkmanager containing:
net-misc/networkmanager nss -dhclient dhcpcd -gnutls modemmanager
I am not sure which modules to declare in /etc/conf.d/modules, since the only ones I have to declare in that file in my Compal laptop installation are VirtualBox modules and other modules are loaded automatically. Anyway, I added the r8169, nvidia and fuse modules to that file to start with. Later I added some more and it currently looks like this:
modules="r8169 nvidia fuse agpgart bnep rfcomm hidp mmc_block uvcvideo cifs"
I added ‘agpgart‘ because of what user Arthanis wrote in his post in the Gentoo Forums thread [SOLVED] Optimus and Nvidia but there is no module named agpgart in my installation, so I am not sure to what he was referring.
The modules loaded so far are listed below:
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
cifs 438492 0
mmc_block 25911 0
mmc_core 85695 1 mmc_block
hidp 14125 0
rfcomm 32181 12
bnep 10116 2
fuse 76386 2
nvidia 8385213 33
ecb 1921 1
iwlmvm 143855 0
r8169 67544 0
btusb 22292 0
bluetooth 281605 33 bnep,hidp,btusb,rfcomm
uvcvideo 71061 0
videobuf2_vmalloc 2800 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops 1799 1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core 34587 1 uvcvideo
mii 3875 1 r8169
iwlwifi 75755 1 iwlmvm
x86_pkg_temp_thermal 4567 0
The rest of the drivers are in-kernel.
Version 216 of sys-fs/udev was installed, which predates the change in udev to stop loading firmware (see the Gentoo Forums thread udev-217 stalls booting) so I may have trouble with loading CPU microcode and WiFi firmware (and video firmware? — see further on) in future when sys-fs/udev-217 becomes stable in the Gentoo Portage tree.
I configured netifrc for enp4s0f1 only (I didn’t bother with WiFi) for DHCP, as per Gentoo Handbook section Configuring the system, as I only wanted to be sure of a network connection after rebooting until I could get NetworkManager working, at which I point I would ditch the netifrc stuff completely. As I have to travel frequently because of my work, I find NetworkManager more convenient.
Apart from configuring the kernel (I lost count of how many times I had to rebuild it), the only problem was when I installed GRUB 2 (Gentoo Handbook section Configuring the bootloader). There appears to be an error in the Gentoo Handbook; see Gentoo Forums thread grub2 install for the fix.
X Windows and NVIDIA Optimus
However, getting X Windows working was a major hassle. First I followed the Gentoo Wiki article X server to install the packages xorg-server and xorg-drivers, then I followed the Gentoo Wiki article NVIDIA Driver with Optimus Laptops to try and get the closed-source NVIDIA driver working, but X Windows could not find a screen. (I have no idea what sys-apps/qingy is or whether it is needed, but, as the Wiki article mentions it, I installed it anyway but did not add the xrandr commands to the end of the /etc/X11/Sessions/KDE-4 file, but I did add the xrandr commands to the /usr/share/config/kdm/Xsetup file.) Then I followed Gentoo user Arthanis‘ Gentoo Forums post [SOLVED] Optimus and Nvidia (changing the edid_firmware name to suit). I was confused by his reference to rcu_idle_delay, by which he meant CONFIG_RCU_FAST_NO_HZ (see Understanding RCU when Configuring the Linux Kernel). Thank goodness for his post, though, as I would never have worked it out myself. All my main laptops since 2000 have had ATI GPUs, and they were easier to set up than this NVIDIA Optimus stuff. Although the laptop has both Intel and NVIDIA graphics hardware, I think the laptop is muxless (i.e. does not have hybrid graphics/NVIDIA HybridPower), so I left CONFIG_VGASWITCHERROO=n in the kernel, but I have no idea if that is correct. This whole dual GPU/IGP switching thing confuses me.
After I followed Arthanis‘ post and rebooted, the KDM screen consisted of tiled ‘mini-screens’, with the KDM log-in window in the top left mini-screen. I solved this by adding a Virtual command in xorg.conf — see the Gentoo Forums post XOrg refusing to start after a fresh build by user qweb.ric.
Below are the current contents of xorg.conf:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "nvidia" 0 0
Inactive "intel"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
#Section "Files"
#EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "modesetting"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "nvidia"
Device "nvidia"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
# Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
Virtual 1920 1080
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "intel"
Device "intel"
Monitor "Monitor0"
EndSection
To get tapping to work on the touchpad I had to create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf as usual:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "0"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "40"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"
Option "CoastingSpeed" "0"
Option "FingerLow" "35"
Option "FingerHigh" "40"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad ignore duplicates"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/mouse*"
Option "Ignore" "on"
And I also created the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-keyboard.conf:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "keyboard"
# See /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst for Options.
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb,us,br,es"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbVariant" ""
Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection
and the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
#Section "InputClass"
# Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
# MatchIsTouchpad "on"
# MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
# Driver "evdev"
#EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"
MatchIsTablet "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
EndSection
(See my post about xorg.conf for a later version (not Stable in the Portage tree yet) of X Windows on the Compal, Fixing unperceived errors in my X Windows configuration.)
I forgot to do the following:
# rc-update add dbus default
# rc-update add consolekit default
See the Gentoo Forums thread [ConsoleKit session] Failed to connect to socket (resolved) for the error message I was getting when the KDE Desktop appeared. In addition to the aforementioned error message, a window with a KDE Daemon crash message popped-up at log-in and KDE Plasma would crash when I dragged the System Tray widget to the Panel. Once the dbus and consolekit services were added to the default runlevel, all was good.
NetworkManager
After I merged NetworkManager I forgot to do:
# rc-update add NetworkManager default
but once I did that and the following:
# rc-update del net.enp4s0f1 default
then NetworkManager worked.
There was no /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, so I created that manually:
[main]
plugins=keyfile
dhcp=dhcpcd
no-auto-default=*
[keyfile]
hostname=clevow230ss
KDE plasma-nm crashes most times I try to create or edit a connection, so sometimes I have to edit the file /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/* using nano. The current Stable version of plasma-nm in Gentoo is 0.9.3.4 and I believe the latest version of plasma-nm has fixed this bug, so eventually it should work correctly.
Audio
I followed Gentoo Wiki article ALSA and compiled ALSA into the kernel rather than modules. Card 0 is HDMI and Card 1 is HDA (the opposite to what is usually expected). KDE Multimedia settings worked when I selected Analogue Audio, but I had to install pavucontrol in order to be able to switch off HDMI and get audio in the Web browser etc. to be played via the laptop speakers/headphones. Later I will try the Gentoo Wiki ALSA article’s suggestion of adding snd-hda-intel.index=1,0 to the kernel boot line to switch the order of the cards.
Although I set what I think are the relevant MMC parameters in the kernel configration, the Memory Card slot does not work. Perhaps some kernel configuration settings remain to be set. I will have a look later. Gentoo Forums thread SD card under Gentoo Linux may help.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is working after I made some kernel configuration settings and loaded the modules bnep, rfcomm and hidp via /etc/conf.d/modules (lsmod showed that btusb and bluetooth were already loaded automatically, but I added them anyway to /etc/conf.d/modules). I also had to do:
# rc-update bluetooth add default
The external portable USB portable CD/DVD writer (Samsung SE-208GB/RSBD) I bought from pcspecialist works well. I have tried it so far with an Audio CD, a data DVD and burning data to a CD-R.
Webcam
The built-in Webcam does not work. Update (April 29, 2015): I discovered today that the Webcam works fine; the problem was a bug in the version of the guvcview application I tried. So all is good. According to lsusb the Webcam is:
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 5986:055c Acer, Inc
The lsmod command shows the uvcvideo module is loaded. When I ‘rmmod uvcvideo‘ then ‘modprobe uvcvideo‘ the dmesg command shows the following:
[ 6508.624505] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device BisonCam, NB Pro (5986:055c)
[ 6508.627349] input: BisonCam, NB Pro as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/input/input43
[ 6508.627425] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 6508.627427] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)
The application guvcview displays a black window, and the Konsole from which guvcview was launched displays repeated ‘Ignoring empty buffer ...‘ messages:
$ guvcview
guvcview 1.6.1
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/pcm/pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
video device: /dev/video0
Init. BisonCam, NB Pro (location: usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4)
{ pixelformat = 'MJPG', description = 'MJPEG' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ pixelformat = 'YUYV', description = 'YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/10,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/5,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/5,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ pixelformat = 'RGB3', description = 'RGB3' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ pixelformat = 'BGR3', description = 'BGR3' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ pixelformat = 'YU12', description = 'YU12' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ pixelformat = 'YV12', description = 'YV12' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 360 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30, 1/15,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 1024 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 1920, height = 1080 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
vid:5986
pid:055c
driver:uvcvideo
checking format: 1196444237
VIDIOC_G_COMP:: Inappropriate ioctl for device
fps is set to 1/30
drawing controls
fps is set to 1/30
Checking video mode 640x480@32bpp : OK
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
Ignoring empty buffer ...
< Here I pressed Ctrl-C >
write /home/fitzcarraldo/.guvcviewrc OK
free controls
cleaned allocations - 100%
Closing portaudio ...OK
Closing GTK... OK
I tried all the available uvcvideo quirks (see Linux UVC driver and tools – FAQ: What are quirks and how do I use them?) but the result was always the same.
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000200
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000100
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000080
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000020
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000010
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000008
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000004
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000002
# rmmod uvcvideo
# modprobe uvcvideo quirks=0x00000001
There is possibly a bug in the uvcvideo driver (see [Kernel-packages] [Bug 1362358] Re: uvcvideo doesn’t work with USB webcam with linux 3.16), so I will have to try a later kernel at some point.
Update (April 29, 2015): I discovered today that nothing is wrong with the uvcvideo driver or the Webcam. The problem I described above was caused by a bug in the guvcview application itself. The Gentoo Stable version is guvcview-1.6.1, so I specified Gentoo Testing version guvcview-2.0.1 in /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/guvcview and installed it, and now guvcview displays the Webcam output perfectly.
Transferring Thunderbird account settings and e-mails
My Compal laptop dual-boots Gentoo and Windows 7. Thunderbird is installed in both OSs, and both Windows Thunderbird and Linux Thunderbird use the same Mail folder on the NTFS Windows partition, but with different prefs.js files (i.e. Windows Thunderbird uses a prefs.js file on the Windows partition, and Linux Thunderbird uses a prefs.js file in the /home partition). In order to port my Thunderbird e-mails from the Windows partition on the Compal to the /home partition on the Clevo, I did the following:
- Installed Thunderbird on the Clevo.
- Launched Thunderbird and cancelled the Thunderbird wizard for creating a new account.
- Closed Thunderbird.
- Copied the Mail folder from the Compal’s Windows Thunderbird folder into the new Linux Thunderbird profile folder on the Clevo.
- Copied the
prefs.js file from the Windows Thunderbird folder into the new Linux Thunderbird profile folder on the Clevo.
- Edited the
prefs.js file to change all the Windows paths to Linux paths.
I also copied the three Address Book files abook.mab, history.mab and impab.mab across, but the first e-mail address in the Address Book differed between the two laptops so I exported the address books from Thunderbird in Linux (‘Address Book’ > ‘Tools’ > ‘Export…’ to create .ldif files) on the Compal and imported them into Thunderbird on the Clevo, but the result was no different to copying the .mab files, so it looks correct (the number of entries in the address books on each laptop was the same). Looking at a fresh installation of Thunderbird, I notice there is no impab.mab file, only the other two, and also the impab.mab file on the Compal has a 2011 date whereas the abook.mab and history.mab have current dates, so I wonder if the impab.mab file is redundant in the latest versions of Thunderbird.
A few panics (mine and the kernel’s!)
I had a couple of panic moments when rebooting after making changes to the kernel: if I had left a USB pen drive or a USB HDD plugged into the Clevo when I rebooted, the kernel would oops during boot-up. I initially thought these kernel panics were due to my mis-configuration of the kernel, but finally realised what was causing the oops when one of the error messages referred to a partition sdc1 on a pen drive. Actually, I had enabled too many kernel options in my first kernel build so it was probably better that I restarted the Gentoo installation anyway (I only restarted the installation from scratch once). The Compal boots normally if it has USB storage devices plugged in when it boots, so I’m not sure why it happens on the Clevo. Both laptops have the HDD first in the boot order, so I don’t know why the Clevo complains.
External monitor
I used xrandr commands to get my external monitor (an Acer AL1916W with a max resolution of 1440×900) to display the Clevo’s desktop correctly. I used the following command to view the available monitors and modes:
$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 282mm x 165mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 40.00
1400x1050 59.98
1280x1024 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1024x768 60.04 60.00
960x720 60.00
928x696 60.05
896x672 60.01
800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25
700x525 59.98
640x512 60.02
640x480 60.00 59.94
512x384 60.00
400x300 60.32 56.34
320x240 60.05
VGA-1-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DisplayPort-1-0 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1920x1080 60.00 + 40.00
HDMI-1-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
I don’t know why the connected AL1916W monitor is shown as having only one display mode, and why that mode is 1920×1080. The AL1916W supports several modes up to 1440×900, and these are all displayed by the xrandr command on the Compal. It seems the NVIDIA driver is unable to read the external monitor’s EDID whereas the AMD ATI FGLRX driver is able to do so. Anyway I did the following to force the NVIDIA driver to display the Desktop correctly, which I later automated in a Bash script launched from a Desktop Configuration File:
$ xrandr --output DisplayPort-1-0 --off
$ xrandr --newmode "1440x900" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync # Only need to add new mode once per X session.
$ xrandr --addmode DisplayPort-1-0 1440x900
$ xrandr --output eDP-1-0 --off && xrandr --output DisplayPort-1-0 --mode 1440x900
I pressed the AL1916W monitor’s MENU button and selected AUTO to make sure the monitor’s display is as sharp as possible.
Scanners
I have an HP ScanJet 3400C scanner and my Canon PIXMA MP560 MFP also has a scanner. I had to install hplip in order to be able to use XSane, gscan2pdf and Simple Scan with the HP ScanJet 3400C scanner. I also found that the HP ScanJet 3400C must be switched off in order to be able to use the Canon MP560 scanner, whereas I don’t need to switch off the Canon MP560 in order to be able to use the HP ScanJet 3400C!
Skype and PulseAudio
As Qt 4.8.5 has not yet been marked stable in Gentoo, and therefore there is not a stable version of Qt with the abi_x86_32 USE flag, I installed Skype using the hack given by Gentoo user pablo_supertux in his Gentoo Forums post [SOLVED] Skype and the new multilib, which works well.
The laptop’s volume settings jumped to 100% periodically, and this is another of PulseAudio’s irritating quirks. To stop this happening I edited the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf and changed:
; flat-volumes = yes
to:
flat-volumes = no
i.e. I uncommented the line and changed ‘yes‘ to ‘no‘.
I had disabled Skype from automatically adjusting audio settings. If I still find that PulseAudio is causing volume levels to change at start-up (see my earlier posts), I will create a script in /etc/local.d/ to set them automatically for me.
Things left for me to do:
- Get the Webcam working. Update (April 29, 2015): Done! It turned out there was nothing wrong with the uvcvideo driver or the hardware; the guvcview application had a bug. I installed a newer version of guvcview and it works correctly. So all is good.
- Get the Memory Card slot working. Boot SystemRescueCd and see if SDHC and/or SDXC memory cards are accessible. Update (April 28, 2015): Done! See my next post Realtek 5287 PCIe controller for memory card reader for the changes I made to the kernel configuration.
- Check the Bash backup scripts I created for the Compal and edit them if necessary so that they work on the Clevo. Update (April 29, 2015): Done!
- When Qt 4.8.6 is made Stable in the Portage tree, install Skype using Portage. Update (May 16, 2015): Done!
- Check which other applications and utilities I installed on the Compal need to be installed on the Clevo. Update (April 29, 2015): Done!
- Install the Samsung Unified Printer driver and get it working with the Samsung printers in the office. Update (April 29, 2015): Done!
- Investigate why the Clevo cannot print to my Canon PIXMA MP560 via WiFi. Update (May 15, 2015): Done! The problem was with the printer, not the Clevo. The printer was not always connecting to my home WiFi network.
- Install UFW and either a) the KDE KControl Module for UFW or b) UFW Frontends, and add firewall rules for Samba/CIFS and KDE Connect. Update (June 30, 2015): Done! Finally got around to doing it. ufw was giving an error message for IPv6, though, but I fixed that by rebuilding the kernel with some more parameters selected: CONFIG_NETFILTER_XT_TARGET_HL=m, CONFIG_IP6_NF_MATCH_RT=m and CONFIG_IP6_NF_TARGET_HL=m.
- Investigate why Samba cannot access the family Acer Aspire XC600 running Windows 8.1. The Samba service is running on the Clevo, and both Samba 3 and Samba 4 on the Compal can access shares on the Aspire XC600 and on the Clevo, so something must be wrong with the installation on the Clevo. Update (May 17, 2015): Done! The problem was that I had not merged
kde-base/kdebase-kioslaves with the samba USE flag. Once I did that, Dolphin could browse Samba shares on the family PC running Windows 8.1.
- Find out the manual commands for switching between the Intel IGP and NVIDIA GPU that Gentoo user Arthanis mentioned in his post [SOLVED] Optimus and Nvidia. Update (June 30, 2015): Done! See the latest post in the aformentioned Gentoo Forums thread. Sometime in the next month or so I’ll post in this blog the full details of my solution.
- Investigate why the KDE Network widget plasma-nm is crashing when I add/edit connections (see a recent KDE blog post Plasma-nm 0.9.3.6 release about the last update to plasma-nm-4.* which fixes some bugs). I suppose I need to wait for plasma-nm-0.9.3.5 to become stable in the Portage main tree. Update (April 30, 2015): Done! I got fed up with the buggy ‘Stable’ plasma-nm-0.9.3.4 so I added plasma-nm-0.9.3.5 to /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/plasma-nm and Version 0.9.3.5 is no longer crashing.
- Get
qr-tools (QR Code application) working on the Clevo. Update (April 29, 2015): Done!
Update (September 24, 2016): I upgraded xorg-server from 1.17.4 to 1.18.4 today and had to change the following line in
Screen 0 "nvidia" 0 0
to:
Screen 1 "nvidia" 0 0
See the Gentoo Forums post What’s up with xorg-server 1.18 and Optimus? for further details
Fitzcarraldo's Blog 