Linux on Recoil ll

[jr.rodrigo]

Is it possible to install Ubuntu or some other distro on the Recoil ll laptop ?
1. Is Linux bootable from m.2 SSDs ?
2. Is the keyboard backlight software compatible with Linux ?
3. Can i order a unit with a linux distro pre-installed ?
4. Are there any other issues that i might encounter while attempting this?

 

[Stephen M]

I cannot answer specifically for the Recoil but have installed various Linux distros on four PCS laptops, Octane, Defiance, Optimus and Voyager and there is no reason why it should not be possible on the Recoil.

Linux is fine from m2 SSDs but you cannot order with Linux pre-installed. The backlights are unlikely to work out of the box but there are work arounds. For other issues, there have been some GPU driver issues but that seemed to be with only one older card.

 

[rhybot]

I received my Recoil II just over a week ago now, first thing I did was install Ubuntu 18.04 on it:

1. m.2 SSDs work fine.
2. I haven't found any software on Linux that can control the RGB Keyboard yet...
2.b Only partially related but as an FYI when on Windows, I would recommend closing the control centre app after configuring the keyboard to how you want, it seems to cause my fans to spin a bit faster/louder than I'd like and the keyboard config stays once the app is closed.
3. Nope, PCS don't officially support Linux distros
4a. Firstly I had some stability issues relating to graphics. Easily fixed by installing the nvidia-390 or ubuntu-396 drivers via apt-get from the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa repository. After that I just used prime-select to switch back to Intel graphics (I won't be using Ubuntu for gaming, I dual boot Windows for that) and voila, nice and stable.
4b. I've found no way of getting the touchpad to work. The kernel doesn't even seem to recognise it as an input device. If the touchpad is a must on Linux, you may be out of luck, at least for now. That's fine to me though, I use a USB mouse anyway.

Overall I really love this laptop, build quality is great.
I quite like the fan-boost button, not all that useful for me but nice to be able to have a panic button if it gets too hot.
I remember someone saying the screen is a bit "meh" but I love it; sharp, bright, colourful.
The keyboard is quite clicky, but I like that anyway.

Any questions about it just ask!

 

[Stephen M]

Not sure where but somewhere on the Linux threads there is stuff about work arounds to get keyboard lights working. Touchpad is a surprise, not seen that problem with Linux and PCS machines before.

 

[stez]

I received my Recoil II just over a week ago now, first thing I did was install Ubuntu 18.04 on it:

1. m.2 SSDs work fine.
2. I haven't found any software on Linux that can control the RGB Keyboard yet...
2.b Only partially related but as an FYI when on Windows, I would recommend closing the control centre app after configuring the keyboard to how you want, it seems to cause my fans to spin a bit faster/louder than I'd like and the keyboard config stays once the app is closed.
3. Nope, PCS don't officially support Linux distros
4a. Firstly I had some stability issues relating to graphics. Easily fixed by installing the nvidia-390 or ubuntu-396 drivers via apt-get from the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa repository. After that I just used prime-select to switch back to Intel graphics (I won't be using Ubuntu for gaming, I dual boot Windows for that) and voila, nice and stable.
4b. I've found no way of getting the touchpad to work. The kernel doesn't even seem to recognise it as an input device. If the touchpad is a must on Linux, you may be out of luck, at least for now. That's fine to me though, I use a USB mouse anyway.

Overall I really love this laptop, build quality is great.
I quite like the fan-boost button, not all that useful for me but nice to be able to have a panic button if it gets too hot.
I remember someone saying the screen is a bit "meh" but I love it; sharp, bright, colourful.
The keyboard is quite clicky, but I like that anyway.

Any questions about it just ask!

Hello,

I'm thinking to buy the Recoil but I'm concerned on two main things: linux installation and power management related to BIOS update that some user resolved with a 180W power supply.

About Linux, did you find some solutions for the trackpad issue?

Thank you

 

[lausul]

Hello,

About backlit issue. I wrote a guide to install Ubuntu on Optimus (https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...-Beaver-installaation-on-Optimus-IX-15-6-quot). Within, you can read the way to add backlit control to Ubuntu (point i) ; but I think it might work too for other distros.

I think all the keyboards delivered with Clevo laptops are based on the same components, so this could work for you too. It's worth trying.

With your laptop, you should be careful for the part "Modify the file clevo-xsm-wmi.c". There, you certainly have to change "N8xEJEK" with the reference found after "Product name:" when executing "sudo dmidecode | grep -A10 'PC Specialist LTD' | grep 'Product Name:'" on a terminal.

Regards

 

[Oussebon]

The Recoil is a Tong Fang chassis rather than Clevo, not sure if it may make a difference

 

[gh2k]

Does anyone have the fans working on this? Booting from an Ubuntu 18.04 live CD and they're not coming on. I've tried installing fancontrol and nbfc but neither work. Any tips?

 

[Oussebon]

Do they work under Windows with drivers etc installed? I'm not saying you should go with Windows, just that if the fans don't come on under max load under either OS then there's probably an issue unrelated to Linux going on

 

[gh2k]

Do they work under Windows with drivers etc installed? I'm not saying you should go with Windows, just that if the fans don't come on under max load under either OS then there's probably an issue unrelated to Linux going on

Yeah, they were working with the trial Windows install that came with the laptop. It's definitely a Linuxy thing.

 

[sonik14]

1) For me keyboard lights work with a default blue color, which I cannot neither modify nor turn off.
2) Touchpad does not work and it is not recognized as much hard as I ve tried to make it work
3) Fans work automatically (depending on load) pretty well in Linux, but I haven't tried any manager for their speed. The turbo button works fine also.
4) MAJOR ISSUE: PLEASE HELP ME
The screen is occasionally flickering so much that I cannot even work (some time is fine some not, but I havent figured out a pattern yet when it happens).
- I have tried all available refresh rates
- I have tried both intel and nvidia graphics
- It flickers with acpi=off also (to be able to install ubuntu you need to use that option)
I use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and my laptop has the 144Hz.
It is not a hardware issue since on Windows it works perfectly, as well as the external screens.

On Ubuntu 16.04 LTS I cannot find Wifi driver and even though graphics drivers seem to be installed I can use only very low resolutions (but the flickering problem does not appear)
On lower resolutions on Ubuntu 18.04 the flickering also occurs.

 

[Tony1044]

1) For me keyboard lights work with a default blue color, which I cannot neither modify nor turn off.
2) Touchpad does not work and it is not recognized as much hard as I ve tried to make it work
3) Fans work automatically (depending on load) pretty well in Linux, but I haven't tried any manager for their speed. The turbo button works fine also.
4) MAJOR ISSUE: PLEASE HELP ME
The screen is occasionally flickering so much that I cannot even work (some time is fine some not, but I havent figured out a pattern yet when it happens).
- I have tried all available refresh rates
- I have tried both intel and nvidia graphics
- It flickers with acpi=off also (to be able to install ubuntu you need to use that option)
I use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and my laptop has the 144Hz.
It is not a hardware issue since on Windows it works perfectly, as well as the external screens.

On Ubuntu 16.04 LTS I cannot find Wifi driver and even though graphics drivers seem to be installed I can use only very low resolutions (but the flickering problem does not appear)
On lower resolutions on Ubuntu 18.04 the flickering also occurs.

I'd suggest doing a Windows install with the latest graphics card drivers - if you still get the flickering then you know it's a hardware issue. If not, likely it's a driver issue of some kind

 

[sonik14]

As I ve already mentioned
It is not a hardware issue since on Windows it works perfectly, as well as the external screens.

So I just search for a solution if anyone knows or had the same problem.

Thank you.

 

[Tony1044]

As I ve already mentioned
It is not a hardware issue since on Windows it works perfectly, as well as the external screens.

So I just search for a solution if anyone knows or had the same problem.

Thank you.

I apologise - for some reason I missed that line!

 

[gh2k]

Do they work under Windows with drivers etc installed? I'm not saying you should go with Windows, just that if the fans don't come on under max load under either OS then there's probably an issue unrelated to Linux going on

Yeah, they were working with the trial Windows install that came with the laptop. It's definitely a Linuxy thing.

3) Fans work automatically (depending on load) pretty well in Linux, but I haven't tried any manager for their speed. The turbo button works fine also.

So, I'm not sure that my hardware is working properly in that case. I reinstalled Windows, and the fans did not work under normal operation. They come on while the BIOS is displayed, but turn off when the computer boots... Running Prime95 for several minutes does not cause the fan speed to increase.

I *can* control the fans using the Game Center, but the physical turbo button on the laptop does *not* work. Looks like ACPI doesn't want to talk to the fans at all.

Weird.

 

[gh2k]

4) MAJOR ISSUE: PLEASE HELP ME
The screen is occasionally flickering so much that I cannot even work (some time is fine some not, but I havent figured out a pattern yet when it happens).
- I have tried all available refresh rates
- I have tried both intel and nvidia graphics
- It flickers with acpi=off also (to be able to install ubuntu you need to use that option)
I use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and my laptop has the 144Hz.
It is not a hardware issue since on Windows it works perfectly, as well as the external screens.

Graphics are fine on my 60Hz model with 18.04... However, I *did* have to boot the live CD with 'nouveau.modeset=0' in order to get it to boot, but I didn't have to turn acpi off.

Are you saying that an external screen works under Linux? If so:

* On my old mac which had switching graphics, external displays were always hooked up to the discrete Nvidia card and bypassed the onboard Intel. It's possible that the issue is with the intel driver. Can you try disabling the intel graphics completely and just running with nvidia?
* By default, Ubuntu uses the open-source nouveau driver for the nvidia graphics. Have you tried installing the proprietary driver instead?
* Are any of your external screens 144Hz? It might be worth trying one.

I would suspect that using the proprietary driver would fix your problem if you haven't tried that yet.

 

[sonik14]

Thanks for your response.

Regarding fans, I guess something is not going fine, if you have installed the drivers correctly.

Yes I have installed propriety tested drivers (specifically nvidia-driver-390).
I have not checked xserver-xorg-video-nouveau though.
I have checked with nvidia only, but nothing changes.

I boot with nouveau.runpm=0.

Unfortunetely, I do not have any external 144Hz to check.

Let's say that events trigger the problem.
For example when computer goes to lock screen and I log in again, then the flickering reappears for a while.
Or if I run a script that updates terminal too often.
There were cases when I pressed the turbo button, the flickering stopped after a while. (maybe coinsidence)

These are all the info I have noticed
If anyone has an idea, please share.

For the record:

I was not able to boot with nouveau.modeset=0 (to install ubuntu). It was freezing on loading.
I was also not able to install ubuntu with USB3 (the installation was throwing errors in different parts of installation each time, saying that the live cd is not configured correctly)

PS: If you find any way to enable touchpad, or a power manager that sets limits to battery charge and manages fans, please post it here.

 

[gh2k]

Can you try running lsmod to make sure that the nvidia driver is loaded and that nouveau isn't?

If that's the case, I'd try the nouveau driver as you suggest to see if that works any better.

I didn't have any problem booting from a USB3 key. I don't think anyone has written a driver for the touchpad yet, or the keyboard backlight, according to my hunting around. I haven't looked into any power management solutions on Linux as I ended up having to put Windows on it to diagnose the fans issue.

Are there any errors or warnings (search for 'EE' and 'WW') in /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
Anything in 'dmesg' that looks suspicious?

 

[sonik14]

Nouveau didnt change anything either.

Is there a way to check if USB works normally and its volt and speed is fine?

No EE in xorg
All the WW arE:

[ 6.097] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
[ 6.097] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 6.097] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/" does not exist.
[ 6.097] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 6.097] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/" does not exist.
[ 6.097] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 6.097] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi" does not exist.
[ 6.097] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 6.097] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi" does not exist.
[ 6.097] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 6.133] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 6.133] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
[ 6.133] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa
[ 6.533] (WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "PrimaryGPU" is not used
[ 204.883] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: KDSETMODE failed: Input/output error
[ 204.883] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_GETMODE failed: Input/output error
[ 204.883] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_ACTIVATE failed: Input/output error

dmesg the most suspicious message is this (but I cannot understand it):

[ 0.058587] ACPI Error: [_SB_.PCI0.RP05.PXSX] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/dswload2-191)
[ 0.058597] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [PXSX]
[ 0.058598] No Arguments are initialized for method [PXSX]
[ 0.058599] ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20170831/psobject-252)
[ 0.058603] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB.PCI0.RP04.PXSX, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
[ 0.060441] ACPI Error: [_SB_.PCI0.RP09.PXSX] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/dswload2-191)
[ 0.060447] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [PXSX]
[ 0.060448] No Arguments are initialized for method [PXSX]
[ 0.060449] ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20170831/psobject-252)
[ 0.060452] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB.PCI0.RP08.PXSX, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
[ 0.062284] ACPI Error: [_SB_.PCI0.RP13.PXSX] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/dswload2-191)
[ 0.062289] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [PXSX]
[ 0.062291] No Arguments are initialized for method [PXSX]
[ 0.062292] ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20170831/psobject-252)
[ 0.062295] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB.PCI0.RP12.PXSX, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
[ 0.070369] ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.RP05.PXSX.WIST] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
[ 0.070369] No Local Variables are initialized for Method [CNDP]
[ 0.070369] No Arguments are initialized for method [CNDP]
[ 0.070369] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \CNDP, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
[ 0.070369] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)

 

[gh2k]

Looks a bit like it's having trouble mode-setting, but it's difficult to see without the rest of the logs. Everywhere I've seen "KDSETMODE failed: Input/output error" it's been associated with Xorg not working at all.

It's not clear what those ACPI errors are either, but they're happening right near boot so I don't suspect that they'll be affecting the display in the way you're describing.

Could you try setting your refresh rate to 60Hz manually using "xrandr" to see if that helps? - see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution

Could you attach your full Xorg log? Also, when the screen flickers is it the whole screen that flickers, or just a window. For example, if your run "glxgears" on it, does it make the whole screen flicker, does the window flicker, or neither? If you run glxgears from the console, do you see any warnings in the console output?

Could you also show your "lsmod" output to see what video drivers you have loaded?

When you say you've tried running on just the Intel and just the NVidia devices, what mechanism did you use to disable the other device?
I think this is the thing that's supposed to make it easy to do (from 16.04): http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/04/switch-intel-nvidia-graphics-ubuntu-16-04/

I don't have the laptop with me right now as I've just returned it to PCS for them to look at my fans issue, so I can't look into this too deeply just now unfortunately.