Defiance VII, Vyper and Recoil IV linux compatibility

[ZMZM]

Hi,

I'm planning on buying a 17.3" Defiance VII, a 17.3" Vyper or a 17.3" Recoil IV laptop and I wan to install ubuntu 20.04 on it (dual-boot with windows 10).
Does anyone have any experience with these setups? How easy it is to install a linux on these laptops and how well it will work with the hardware?

 

[Charlas]

Most modern hardware is pretty friendly to Debian flavours, not had an issue in years with anything really.

What specifically you want to do on ubuntu? The only thing that's sometimes a little work is getting power management to play nicely, but doubt anything you have listed will be troublesome, even iGPU/dGPU switching works pretty well nowadays.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

 

[ZMZM]

Most modern hardware is pretty friendly to Debian flavours, not had an issue in years with anything really.

What specifically you want to do on ubuntu? The only thing that's sometimes a little work is getting power management to play nicely, but doubt anything you have listed will be troublesome, even iGPU/dGPU switching works pretty well nowadays.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

Thanks for the quick answer.
I want to do gaming and coding. I'm not familiar with custom laptops so I don't know if it's common to have linux drivers for all hardware components.

 

[Charlas]

Thanks for the quick answer.
I want to do gaming and coding. I'm not familiar with custom laptops so I don't know if it's common to have linux drivers for all hardware components.

All the hardware is pretty standard, RealTek AC97 audio, Intel/AMD Chipset, Intel/Realtek Wifi. Nothing that would throw it for a loop really.

 

[Dave147]

Hi @ZMZM ,

Interesting. I'm in exactly the same boat. Have you ordered your m/c or even received it yet? Curious to know how you get on. My only concern is the Nvidia card. I know Nvida and Linux are "awkward". @Charlas, do you know if the motherboard in the laptops ZMZM mentions have integrated Intel graphics? I couldn't find details on the motherboards.

Cheers.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi @ZMZM ,

Interesting. I'm in exactly the same boat. Have you ordered your m/c or even received it yet? Curious to know how you get on. My only concern is the Nvidia card. I know Nvida and Linux are "awkward". @Charlas, do you know if the motherboard in the laptops ZMZM mentions have integrated Intel graphics? I couldn't find details on the motherboards.

Cheers.

Integrated graphics are part of the CPU and present on all Intel CPU's on these.

 

[Dave147]

Integrated graphics are part of the CPU and present on all Intel CPU's on these.

Thanks. Much appreciated.

 

[faraway030]

Just got the 15“ Recoil IV but cant get the keyboard backlight running. With Windows it works well, but everytime I boot Ubuntu, just the arrowkeys and wasd lights up. The avell control center seems not to work for this model. Bios settings also wont affect lighting when booting linux.

Any suggestions?

 

[Charlas]

Probably need to enable the acpi setting for it, so

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Linux (in grub config)

Then something like https://github.com/dariost/clevo-xsm-wmi should be able to enable / change stuff, my best guess anyhow.

 

[faraway030]

Solved it by changing the product id in main.py of avell controll center. The keyboard of Recoil IV has an other id so aucc cant find it. After changing it to 0x6004 it works like a charm.

 

[Dave147]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd say I took delivery of my 17.3" Defiance VII on Wednesday (now Fri). Linux up and running. I'm running Fedora 32 as I've been using Fedora for many years. Installed the Nvidia driver from RPM fusion earlier today so I'm no longer using the Intel integrated graphics. Spec'd the machine with two NVMe drives: a "slow" one for Windows and the quicker one for Fedora. Installed Fedora on the 2nd, faster drive with no problems. The Fedora installer happily detected the two separate NVMe's and, once I'd completed the install, I had a dual boot setup for free as the installation had detected Windows on the other NVMe and configured grub appropriately. I've had virtually nothing to do.

The only minor "complaint" I have is that the placement of the ethernet port isn't great; half way down the right side of the laptop. Right where the mouse is if you're right-handed.

But that's a reasonably minor thing and I'm one happy customer.

Don't be afraid to buy the Defiance if you're a Linux user.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[ubuysa]

The only minor "complaint" I have is that the placement of the ethernet port isn't great; half way down the right side of the laptop. Right where the mouse is if you're right-handed.

Would something like this help?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tripp-Lite...ht+angle+ethernet+cable&qid=1596264582&sr=8-4

 

[Dave147]

Would something like this help?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tripp-Lite...ht+angle+ethernet+cable&qid=1596264582&sr=8-4

Would something like this help?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tripp-Lite...ht+angle+ethernet+cable&qid=1596264582&sr=8-4

Yes. Thanks @ubuysa . Was thinking along the same lines. Will probably give something like this a go. There's also 90 degree male to female adapters you can buy.

Cheers,
Dave