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Alienware M18 R1 AMD & Linux

Alienware M18 R1 AMD & Linux

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I recently got the Alienware M18 R1 AMD gaming ‘laptop’. I got this computer because AMD GPUs are supposed to be better supported in Linux than NVIDIA ones. Of course, I have almost always used NVIDIA before, so it actually seems a little tougher at the moment!

Anyway, I’m just going to list some things that I’ve been figuring out…

In order for GPU switching to actually work, I need to add a boot time kernel parameter. My original source used two… I’m not sure if the pcie one is necessary, but I included it.

amdgpu.runpm=0
pcie_aspm=off

The parameters can be added to /etc/default/grub.conf. In Fedora Workstation, you can add them in one command:

grubby --args="amdgpu.runpm=0 pcie_aspm=off" --update-kernel=ALL

In Fedora Silverblue, the parameters can be added using the following commands:

rpm-ostree kargs --append=amdgpu.runpm=0
rpm-ostree kargs --append=pcie_aspm=off

The Steam client doesn’t like to work using the dedicated graphics card. That’s okay, because the games will. To make Steam start using the integrated GPU by default, copy the steam .desktop file from /usr/share/applications (or /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/ if you use flatpak) to ~/.local/share/applications/, then edit it to change these lines from true to false:

PrefersNonDefaultGPU=false
X-KDE-RunOnDiscreteGpu=false

Also, for Steam, the download speeds are super slow unless you apply the following fix:
Edit the file ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg.
Add the following line:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
You can also add the following line to increase the number of servers that the client connects to, though it can sometimes actually slow the downloads down: @fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

Onlyoffice and Portainer Docker Install

Onlyoffice and Portainer Docker Install

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It’s all fun and games, until someone gets hurt… here is how I setup OnlyOffice and Portainer using Docker. I am using a vps running Debian 10.

OnlyOffice –

docker run -i -t -d -p 32769:443 --restart=always \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/logs:/var/log/onlyoffice \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/data:/var/www/onlyoffice/Data \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/lib:/var/lib/onlyoffice \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/rabbitmq:/var/lib/rabbitmq \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/redis:/var/lib/redis \
-v /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/db:/var/lib/postgresql onlyoffice/documentserver

Once the container is up and running, copy your ssl security information. I copy my user ssl.crt and ssl.ca into a single file: tls.crt, which should be installed at /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/data/certs/.

Next, copy the ssl.key to /app/onlyoffice/DocumentServer/data/certs/tls.key. Make it read-only by doing chmod 400 tls.key.

Restart the docker container, and you’re good to go. You can access the status page at https://yourwebsite:32769.

Portainer –

First, I create the directory: /app/portainer/local-certs.

Next, I copy the ssl certificates to the directory I just created. They are are same as the onlyoffice ones, except I rename them portainer.crt and portainer.key.

docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9000:9000 -p 9443:9443 --name=portainer --restart=always --pull=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data -v /app/portainer/local-certs:/certs portainer/portainer-ee:latest --sslcert /certs/portainer.crt --sslkey /certs/portainer.key

Portainer can be accessed at https://yourwebsite:9443.

Fedora Boot Hang/Timeout

Fedora Boot Hang/Timeout

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When I boot Fedora 31 on my Alienware Laptop, it hangs for about three minutes with the message “A start job is running for udev Wait for Complete Device Initialization”

Here’s one way to fix it:
sudo systemctl mask systemd-udev-settle

Solus Linux Installation Issue

Solus Linux Installation Issue

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Whenever I first install Solus Linux, the installer never adds Solus to the UEFI Boot Menu. Here are the steps to fix that issue:

Boot from your live CD/USB. Connect to the internet, and do the following:

Install efibootmgr: sudo eopkg it efibootmgr

(This paragraph probably isn’t necessary, but I am including it to remember how to clean up the UEFI Boot Menu 🙂 )
Run efibootmgr with no arguments. You should see an entry for Linux Boot Manager, which for some reason doesn’t show up in your actual boot menu but does here. There’s a number listed for that entry. Delete it with sudo efibootmgr -b [num] -B

Now you can recreate it. If your EFI partition is /dev/sda1 then do this: sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -l "\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi" -L "Linux Boot Manager"

Fix KDE on NVIDIA Driver

Fix KDE on NVIDIA Driver

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For KDE font/gui size issues after switching to NVIDIA driver, I found the following post:

It’s a nvidia thing lol I had the same issue and never even noticed it until one day I gave the free noveau drivers a try and everything looked way better and smaller. For some reason nvidia sets/forces my DPI to I believe 120, anyways it’s really easy to solve.

Open the nvidia.conf file in your text editor

sudoedit /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf

Then edit or add the option DPI under the screen display sub section and disable UseEdidDpi.

To make things easier here is what I have under my “Screen” section which now forces the use of 96 for dpi scaling.

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Option "UseEdidDpi" "False"
        Option "DPI" "96x96"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I hope this helps you as it did for me.

No Kernel Panic on Shutdown

No Kernel Panic on Shutdown

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Okay, so my new computer likes to fail to shutdown in Linux with a kernel panic. Here’s the solution to fix it.

If using Grub:
Add initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver to the kernel command line.

Run in the terminal: sudo nano -w /etc/default/grub
Append blacklist string to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="… initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver"
Save the file.
For Debian:  sudo update-grub
For Fedora:  grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg
For Arch: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot and test!

If using goofiboot (Solus):
sudo nano -w /etc/kernel/cmdline
Insert the following line: initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver
Save the file.
sudo clr-boot-manager update
Reboot and test!

If using systemd-boot (Pop_OS):
sudo nano -w /etc/kernelstub/configuration
Insert the following line: "initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver", Unless it is the final item in the list, do not miss the trailing comma!
Save the file.
sudo kernelstub
Reboot and test!

Ubuntu 12.10 Launched!

Ubuntu 12.10 Launched!

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Ubuntu is so lucky… It has a birthday every six months!  Happy 12.10 birthday Ubuntu!  I’ve got it installed and running on my computer, but I really haven’t gotten much chance to play around with it as I’ve been at work or grocery shopping.  I have managed to find a nice, little bug in the proprietary nvidia graphics driver installer.  Other than that, I haven’t really done a whole lot with it.  Patience, patience…

Ubuntu 12.10 & Windows 8

Ubuntu 12.10 & Windows 8

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Later this month, both of the operating systems that I use will release upgraded versions.  I use both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 right now.  Windows 8 will be coming out on October 26th, and Ubuntu 12.10 is scheduled to come out October 18th.  I’m getting excited.  I’m looking forward to Ubuntu 12.10, though I’m a little leary about Windows 8.  I’m not sure I’m going to like it, but I have been playing with Windows Server 2012 in a Virtual Machine.  So far, it seems okay.  Maybe I’ll download the Windows 8 evaluation to use in a VM as well…