Terence EdenNew laptop day! Go on, Fedifriends, which #Linux distro should I put on it?
I usually use Pop / Ubuntu / Debian - but happy to try anything modern and supported.
(Chuwi Minibook X N150 if it makes a difference.)
Gonna give Windows 11 a spin first. Mostly because a separate gadget has a firmware update which is packaged as an .exe.
Haven't connected it to the Internet get, but so far Windows is just as I remembered it from a couple of years ago. Unexciting.
Linux Mint Debian Edition is go!
Automatic screen rotation works once booted (grub and LUKS in portrait mode). Touchscreen works as does WiFi. Sound works, as do the function keys.
Haven't tested anything else yet.
Affiliate link if you want one - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3wSKUbd
OK Linux Mint is a no-go. Touchscreen doesn't work properly with Wayland.
https://github.com/linuxmint/wayland/issues/190
Time to try a new distro!
This mini laptop literally fits in my jeans' pocket. Just about 😄
Trackpad is a bit crap, but other than that it is a cute and useful device.
Man, the #NixOS people really love editing their text files, huh?
I've managed to get fractional scaling (by adding to a text file) and screen rotation (by adding weird magic to a text file).
Like, you know GUIs exist, right? You can have checkboxes, toggles, and drop down lists. Then save that to whatever text serialisation you'd like.
This reminds me of playing with Linux in the 1990s (derogatory).
A month ago, I ragequit #NixOS.
Now slowly trying it again but this time taking copious notes.
I can see the theoretical advantages, but disappointing to see so much basic information scattered around a hundred different forums and blogs. Even the official post-install guide assumes a hell of a lot of knowledge.
Let's see if I can get it working this time.
Any #NixOS friends understand what these errors are and how to fix them?
They show up just before I type in my disk encryption password.
They show up just before I type in my disk encryption password.
Tris
Tom Hughes@Edent Not really anything NixOS specific - either a kernel issue or (probably more likely) a BIOS bug in which case the best you might be able to do is persuade the kernel developers to suppress the messages or otherwise work around it
mahadevank@Edent must be power management related, i think it can be ignored - power management in linux is always flakey
Paul Bowsher@Edent those aren’t NixOS errors, they’re Linux errors. You just wouldn’t normally see them on a distro that uses Plymouth or similar as they’d be hidden away.
I don’t have any clues for you, just helping direct your search away from NixOS to the kernel.
@boffbowsh Any idea how I use Plymouth - or just hide them? Ta!
@Edent I’m afraid I don’t use it myself, my boot sequence isn’t long enough to need the pretty before the greeter loads
davidak@Edent it should be
boot.plymouth.enable = true;
you find it with the option search: https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=25.11&query=Plymouth&show=boot.plymouth.enable
but it does not successfully hide all messages
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/32556
i reported that in 2017, but it's one of those user experience issues that no one works on
i would also argue that it should be enabled by default on a desktop system
The Incredible Laser@Edent the trap some people fall into with NixOS is that they think configuration.nix is a static configuration with a format that could be easily managed with a GUI; however, that file is just a single module in a full programming language, and in that fact lies a lot of the power that Nix and NixOS can offer. It's not just a fancy rc.conf.
But, and this is what I did, you can treat it as such when you start out, and then move your way up over time.
samir, a terminally deprecated method@Edent It’s a total mess, but worth it IMO. Shout if you have a question and I’ll do my best to help.
@samir how do I get the onscreen keyboard to appear on Firefox and other apps?
I'm using Gnome. I have it set on in the accessibility menu. It appears on the desktop search bar. But disappears when I launch FF. So I can't type a URl on my touch screen.
@Edent And just like that, you hit my limits! I’m afraid I use Sway.
Offer’s still open if you have configuration questions but I don’t think I can help with anything GNOME-related.
@samir how do I get autorotation working (MinibookX)?
I can't see a way to boost the font on the grub boot menu - nor rotate it.
How do I get it to remember my multiscreen positions? I can set them up fine, but they revert randomly.
I can't see a way to boost the font on the grub boot menu - nor rotate it.
How do I get it to remember my multiscreen positions? I can set them up fine, but they revert randomly.
milas@Edent @samir For grub rotation, look at https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/blob/master/chuwi/minibook-x/default.nix
The referenced hidpi.nix in that same repo gives an example of pulling in a better (larger) console font
(Not sure about auto-rotation / screen positions getting reset)
@milas @Edent Unfortunately I believe that with Wayland, the rotation and screen position stuff is quite dependent on the window manager / display environment, so again, you’d have to rely on GNOME settings.
With Sway, I would add a call to wlr-randr in the config to be run on startup, but I don’t think you can do this with GNOME.
raboof@raboof I do. And the sensors show it rotating. But the screen doesn't rotate.
I can install a Gnome extension which seems to work - but that seems a bit janky.
@Edent @samir for the grub font size, https://search.nixos.org/options?query=grub shows a fontSize option. Looks like you'll also have to select an otf/ttf font for that to work. Not sure about the rotation.
@Edent @samir https://hackaday.io/project/203272/instructions suggests you may be able to add 'GRUB_FB_ROTATION=90' somewhere, but I'm not sure where - maybe 'boot.loader.grub.extraConfig'?
@raboof I have a LUKS encrypted disk. How can I install a font that will be seen before decryption?
Sinjo
지지 ᚠᚱᛖᛃᚨ Daniel 黄法官 CyReVolt@Edent You could map the entire Nix config language to a GUI, just generate the forms. Totally doable! :)
Alvan 🇵🇸 
@Edent LOL. I had exactly the same reaction, and probably that was the reason why I gave up on nix.
But GUI comes with its own challenges. It takes time to get right, choose a toolkit, provide accessibility, all the dropdowns, quite dynamic settings, handle file read/writes, serialization, handle crashes. List probably goes on.
I guess for nix use-case, text is just the fastest UI.
@alvan i think the technical implementation is the easy part. there where multiple projects over the years
the hard part is designing the UI and UX, so it makes it actually easier to use. for that, we don't need programmers, we need designers
Pol Dellaiera@Edent your own editor of choice will be the best GUI ;) learning NixOS takes a bit more time, but once you have something working, it will be very hard to break it... Have fun with the best distro out there !
@Pol I'd like to not break something *before* mastering it. Doesn't seem like too big an ask TBH.
Khleedril
Damian Poddębniak@Edent A friend of mine has the same device (I believe) and using https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware fixed most/all quirks such as rotated screen. Maybe give it a try?
Jonathan Frederickson@Edent One of my longstanding backburner project ideas has been a GTK config UI for Guix (which isn't exactly Nix, but same deal). I do think it's the sort of thing we need to give folks a more gentle introduction to the concepts if they don't want to dive in headfirst
GUI programming isn't my strong suit but I've been slowly learning
Brandon Bennett@Edent GUIs aren’t declarative and repeatable. I can get a new laptop and have everything done with one command vs clicking though guis.
@Edent although fractions scaling isn’t the default in GNOME (what you get when you install GNOME on nix) but should be the default in the next release which will allow you to select it in a GUI.
I assume this is the same for Arch which strives to not provided non-default configs for packages.
@nemith yes they are. More so than a text file. A text file can't have rules in it that prevent a user from selecting an incorrect value.
As I said, a GUI can save to a text file. So, yes, you can have an easy to use *interface* and still retain the ability to git clone a file to import.
Mark Crocker@Edent @snowflakelinux well there is SnowflakeOS https://snowflakeos.org/ which is a NixOS based Linux distribution focused on beginner friendliness and ease of use. They have GUI's for several major features like the installer, the Software Center, and the Configuration Editor.
Noah Bailey@Edent if it’s anything like the N100 gadget I got a year or so ago, it will take quite a bit of fiddling to get the touchscreen and pen input to work on the rotated screen. What worked the best was a couple udev rules, and some screwing around with grub. I’m fairly sure they simply loaded the bios splashscreen rotated 90° heh
Linux on the P8 Aliexpress Mini Laptop
I finally caved and bought one of the no-name 8" mini laptops from Aliexpress. I’ve had my eye on these for a long time. Really, since the days of my youth with the Sony Vaio P and other iconic UMPCs of the early 00’s. The game changer was the original GPD Pocket from a few years back. Now, there’s a cambrian explosion of cool tiny computers coming from China. This particular one was sold under the name “Topton”, but also appears under “Crelander”, “Aslay”, and a few other storefront names.
aburka 🫣
Tom Morris@Edent you’re joining the cult!
@Edent curious if there’s an entry in nix-hardware. Gimme a ping if you need a hand.
@tommorris ping!
It doesn't seem to do full disk encryption via the installer. Not even sure if it encrypted my home directory. Is that something I can fix post install or do I need to nuke it?
It doesn't seem to do full disk encryption via the installer. Not even sure if it encrypted my home directory. Is that something I can fix post install or do I need to nuke it?
@Edent yup, you set that up after setup - the manual should describe it, or you can search for “luks2” in the options search at search.nixos.org
Martijn@Edent @tommorris I would nuke and try again. It's for sure possible via the installer.
Be sure to double check the overview page after partitioning. I've also had issues where somehow it didn't encrypt my swap. Good luck
@Edent also for sensors like device orientation: https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/IIO
Henryk Plötz@Edent There was a time when I longed for a form factor such as this. I was getting really good use out of my Nokia E71 and then HTC Desire Z. Was always interested in like a GPD Pocket or something, for the physical keyboard.
But now I got my age appropriate presbyopia and, well, if I always have to carry my new glasses to interact with the thing anyway, the size doesn't make as much of a difference any more.
bugbear
lornajane
Fazal Majid@Edent mine is my bedside computer. The outstanding build quality also means it is fairly heavy, heavier than my 13” ThinkPad X13 G6 AMD that is my EDC laptop. One thing I really like about the Chuwi is great standby battery life despite Linux’ poor power management.
I have a small shoulder bag originally meant for an iPad that fits it perfectly, no pockets needed.