Setup

Display

Fractional scaling

On gnome 3.32 fractional scaling settings under wayland looked fuzzy in some programs - notably chrome and firefox. Seems to be a common problem. Monitor handling seemed good though. Under X11, see https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/04/how-to-enable-hidpi-fractional-scaling.html. Basically, just set gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['x11-randr-fractional-scaling']" and the menu options should appear in display. I set 175% and it looks pretty good. Monitor handling is not bad as well, but sometimes you need to re-check (not necessarily change) display settings when you plug/unplug.

Note that if you change from X to wayland on login you'll have to reset this stuff.

Font size in console

Run sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup (yes you have a framebuffer)

Washed out colors

This seems to fix washed out colors on external monitor (haven't tested locally yet):

xrandr --output HDMI2 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Full"

Added to ~/.xinitrc, but that didn't seem to work. So I tried /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ and added a file (originally 99... but that didn't work so I changed it to 45... and that worked). Note that updates changed the output name (from HDMI-2 to HDMI2), will need to keep an eye on that.

The above only works on X11. For wayland, you can follow this blog post. In my case I had to add the line ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/proptest -M i915 -D /dev/dri/card0 236 connector 238 1 to /lib/systemd/system/gdm.service. (Admittedly this was on a different system).

Crappy wifi

edit /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf and change

wifi.powersave = 3

to

wifi.powersave = 2

 

Bluetooth

Seems to stop computer from sleeping, or takes enough power when asleep that it burns down the battery. To keep it off across reboots, add

DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="bluetooth"

to /etc/default/tlp

Software

installed via apt...

• neovim
• git
• r-base-core
• python-pip

chrome

google.com/chrome

libinput-gestures

see https://github.com/bulletmark/libinput-gestures Note that xdotool based gestures do not work on wayland (see /etc/libinput.conf)

GDAL etc

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdal-bin qgis

google-cloud-sdk

Installation via apt was limited, so I downloaded the official sdk from here, put in /opt (changing permissions to 777), then ran the install.sh script as each user.

Power Management

Powerstat

Monitor/poll power usage sudo apt-get install powerstat sudo powerstat

TLP power management

Supposed to be plug and play

sudo apt install tlp
and maybe also
sudo apt isntall acpi-call-dkms

Settings are in /etc/default/tlp. One thing I've changed to help with audio performance is uncommenting the CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR... options and setting powersave for battery and performance for AC. Note that I do not know at this time if other programs will interfere with this setting.

Note that there's also some options for turbo boost. I left them alone but ubuntu studio GUI notes that turbo boost should be off for audio work. Not sure why, haven't read it elsewhere, will have to read up. But even so, we might want to just change it manually if it becomes a problem, since I could see benefitting from this feature for modeling and such.

System-monitor

Not gnome system monitor. Requires GNOME Shell integration extension for chrome (or ff, if you even use that). So install the extensions, then run sudo apt-get install chrome-gnome-shell

Also need (jeez louise) sudo apt-get install gir1.2-gtop-2.0 gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0 gir1.2-clutter-1.0

s-tui

Command line stress tester. Needs stress program to test. Was getting some errors from apt install, so I recommend direct clone of repo and manual install. To witness faulty throttling, simply stress test and note how core frequencies drop as soon as the core temps reach 80c.

throttled

sudo apt install git build-essential python3-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgirepository1.0-dev libcairo2-dev python3-venv python3-wheel

git clone https://github.com/erpalma/lenovo-throttling-fix.git sudo ./lenovo-throttling-fix/install.sh

Configuration is in /etc/lenovo_fix.conf. Status can be checked with systemctl status lenovo_fix and more directly with ./lenovo_fix.py --monitor

Note that even with the undervolting values set at zero trip temp for throttling is raised to 95c and the allowed wattage is raised. Undervolting values can be set in the conf file (followed by a corresponding systemctl restart...) and effects can be monitored using s-tui and lenovo_fix.

Could undervolt to -110 on AC but nothing above -90 on battery seems to be stable. So rn I've got the core settings at -95 for AC and -90 for battery. Will monitor and perhaps reduce the AC but I'm ?not sure how quick the new settings take effect?. In lenovo_fix.py it notes switch to battery right away though.

Note that thermald can also be disabled (doesn't look like it is needed since throttling is controlled at the bios level).

Also see: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/X1C6-T480s-low-cTDP-and-trip-temperature-in-Linux/td-p/4028489/page/28

Things fixed by themselves (via upgrades)

• 3 finger swipe to go back in browser (works in ermine, might depend on gestures??)
• Way to just scale Reaper (Now fixed in version 6 [as yet untested though])

Audio

I intended to use this machine for recording, but ultimately it wasn't dependable enough compared to my seven year old Macbook. I think this is mostly a linux issue and not related to this hardware. What follows below was my best shot.

A lot of this is repeated under the Alesis stuff, but basically, to get high quality audio transport:

1. Install low latency kernel (see above).
2. When installing jackd, select realtime audio, make audio group, and set appropriate stuff in the conf file.

BUT this does not (in disco dingo) set the correct memory locking capabilities (or ??priority?? need to check). This appears to be a bug. See

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=243648 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/366352/etc-security-limits-conf-not-applied?newreg=1e0c8f6c19284546b3ca201c03032628 https://superuser.com/questions/1200539/cannot-increase-open-file-limit-past-4096-ubuntu/1200818#=

There's a long discussion here too: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1364332

I tried the .config stuff and that seemed to work for qjackctl, but not in gnome-terminal. Haven't checked reaper yet (cause how do I start reaper from the GUI and monitor the output?)

And if you fix it, answer here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1142943/ulimit-unlimited-cannot-set

For now it seems if you sudo yourself it's actually fixed. If you want to know if it's actually working, start reaper in the terminal (you'll have to do this if you sudo yourself) and watch for memlock errors, or just open the performance monitor in reaper and watch the memory.

3. Errors about inability to write to /dev/cpu_dma_latency

This appears to have something to do with the cpu sleeping or something like that. When monitoring reaper output from the command line it looks like this may be responsible for some nasty xruns (which result in serious lost frames when recording). One way to evaluate this may be to see if these errors occur at set intervals (like approx. 2:20 after starting to record). For now, I'm trying to follow these rules to see if it fixes this. Oh yeah, the monitoring is in reaper CL messages.

Low latency kernel (for realtime audio help)

sudo apt install linux-lowlatency

Midi

If using qjackctl, install a2jmidid and run adjmidid -e.

Reaper

Download from reaper.fm. Need to remember how many ins / outs the Alesis mixer has. Icons are too small on scaled screen but look fine on big monitor. For now, assuming we'll usually use big monitor when recording (since the mixer is right by it), but will look for better alternatives. One option is to find a doubled icon set. I will also note several freezes to the UI itself, will have to see if it persists...

Note on wayland that it scales fuzzily a'la the mac (but more fuzzy b/c wayland)

Kontakt

• Install winehq-staging (or at least winehq v4.10 or so.
• Follow instructions somewhere to install native access
• Try to install Kontakt Factory Selection, then see these directions:

(https://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?t=16620&start=15)

"Native Access crashes or stops because it tries to start a Wine incompatible iso mounter (after downloading the iso file) for the downloaded iso and maybe also tries to start something for zip files.

Anyway, Wine can't handle it but the iso or zip file actually downloads and then needs to be installed manually.

Native Access downloads the file ok in ~/.wine/drive_c/users/user/Downloads (user is your username)

The file can be a iso or zip file.

If the downloaded iso file is manually mounted in Linux and installed then when Native Access is run again it will say that it's installed, same goes for a downloaded zip file.

The iso file needs to be mounted as a udf with a unhide option because the iso is Windows/Mac and the Windows part needs the unhide option.

sudo mount -t udf ~/.wine/drive_c/users/user/Downloads/isoname.iso -o unhide /mnt

cd /mnt and then install.

To unmount the iso change to a drirectory away from /mnt and then sudo umount /mnt"

To get plugins working in reaper, do linvst and also set the vst direction to include the Kontakt installation path in ~/.wine/c_drive/Program Files/Native Instruments/

Alesis Multimix Firewire 8 (old mixer I have)

from https://getsat