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
@davidak thanks. I have LUKS disk encryption so looks like I need a few more magic spells…
@Edent that is another unsolved issue :(
@davidak it is just rough edges everywhere, huh?
@Edent those user experience improvements seem to be the least popular areas to work on for the #NixOS contributors. even after documentation
i tried to work towards improvements by reporting issues like these and suggesting better behavior and it got somewhat better since 2017 with the GUI installer and many small improvements, but yes, there are a lot of rough edges in nixos. it does not have the number of contributors other distros have and i think other areas are more interesting for many
@davidak the documentation is laughable absent. But I'm getting there! Thanks for all your help.
Raito Bezarius@Edent those happens on any linux kernel based system, they are related to your hardware specifics, they can be harmless or they can harm some features like suspend or power management features (or physical extra buttons)
to fix them, you need to learn how to write ACPI code, debug it then submit a patch to the Linux kernel, alternatives involves running with workarounds like `acpi_osi="!Windows2020"` on the Linux command line
Chris McDonough ✅@Edent i made a video a while back about suppressing these at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G_ZPVrYmHY
NixOS 25: Suppressing Irritating Boot "Error" Messages
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