Installing Ubuntu 15.10 on the Defiance II

[Mnemonic]

I received my Defiance II laptop a couple of days ago, and I love it (a big "THANK YOU" to the team at PC Specialist). The screen, the keyboard, the performance - everything is exactly what I was looking for (and then some!). I'm primarily using it for a side-project that involves a lot of virtual machines and containers, so I was looking for a powerful laptop with at least 32GB of RAM. The Defiance II delivers.

Installing Ubuntu 15.10

The laptop came with an un-activated version of Windows 10 that PC Specialist used as part of their quality assurance process. This isn't a big deal. I have installed Ubuntu 15.10 as the sole operating system, but these instructions should also work if you wish to dual-boot (just select the correct option during the installation).

1. Go in to your BIOS by pressing the F2 key repeatedly when you see the PC Specialist logo appear.
2. Under Advanced | Advanced Chipset Control, set MSHYBRID or DISCRETE SWITCH to DISCRETE (very important!).
3. Under Security, set Secure Boot to Disabled.
4. Insert your bootable flash drive (containing the Ubuntu 15.10 installation media) in to one of the USB ports.
5. In the BIOS, go to EXIT and select Save Changes and Reset.
6. This time, when you see the PC Specialist logo, press F7 repeatedly - a menu should appear allowing you to select your boot device.
7. From the boot menu, select your flash drive (which should be listed).
8. Follow the installation instructions (choose the options you wish, I won't go in to these here).
9. Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to reboot.

That's it for the installation part. You should now have a basic install of Ubuntu 15.10.

Installing the nVidia Drivers

I have not yet been successful in downloading and installing the nVidia proprietary binaries directly from the nVidia website (I tried blacklisting the Nouveau drivers, but this didn't work. I didn't try completely uninstalling the Nouveau drivers). This isn't a big deal though, as the "Additional Drivers" applet will install the nVidia drivers for you:

1. Click on the Unity Dash (the icon at the very top of the left-hand menu).
2. In the search box, type in "Additional" (without the quotes) - you should see Additional Drivers appear in the search results.
3. Click on Additional Drivers to open the Additional Drivers applet.
4. Under the "NVIDIA Corporation: GM204M [GeForce GTX 9xxM]", select the "Using NVIDIA binary driver - version 352.63 from nvidia-352-updates" (may be different).
5. Click on the Apply Changes button.
6. You may have to log out and log back in again for the changes to take effect.

Upgrading the Kernel

Some of the new Skylake features can only be used with a 4.4 (or higher) kernel. To install the 4.4.1 kernel:

1. Open a terminal and then enter these commands:

2. mkdir -p /tmp/kernel
   cd /tmp/kernel
   wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.4.1-wily/linux-headers-4.4.1-040401_4.4.1-040401.201601311534_all.deb
   wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.4.1-wily/linux-headers-4.4.1-040401-generic_4.4.1-040401.201601311534_amd64.deb
   wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.4.1-wily/linux-image-4.4.1-040401-generic_4.4.1-040401.201601311534_amd64.deb
   sudo dpkg -i *.deb

I wasn't able to drive my 2 x external 2K Dell monitors using the two mini-DisplayPorts before upgrading the kernel (although I may be mistaken, it may have been another issue, not sure).

Switching to Hybrid Graphics

After upgrading the kernel, you can now go in to the BIOS and switch back to MSHYBRID graphics, and the system will not randomly freeze up after 30 seconds (as it does on the 3.19 kernel). The battery will also last twice as long (around 4 hours, depending on what you're doing). However, certain things do not work when in Hybrid Graphics mode:

1. The Fn + Screen Brightness Up/Down keys do not work (you can still adjust screen brightness using System Settings | Brightness and Lock).
2. Shutdown does not work (I have tracked this down to LightDM - for some reason it just freezes the system when it's stopped).
3. Suspend does not work (again, it's LightDM that's casuing the freeze up).

It's still very usable with the Intel GPU, but you'll have to hold down the power button to shut the system down (when it freezes while trying to shutdown normally). Sometimes I find it's worth it when in meetings (where battery life matters).

 

[techspec]

Shutdown of Linux doesn't work? Or laptop shutdown?
Is secure boot supported? Is hard drive/bios passwords supported? Is encryption supported?
Does anything else throw any problems?
Side note: Called pc specialist up and they stated 'Nope, no support for Linux at all, not compatible at all'
So maybe a staff member could update where they stand on this?

 

[Rakk]

So maybe a staff member could update where they stand on this?

Since the forums are not an official channel of support the PCS staff members get very little time to read the forums, so I suspect you're unlikely to get an answer from them here, your best bet for an official answer is via email or phone.

Edit: or see what others users such as Mnemonic below say

 

[Mnemonic]

Shutdown of Linux doesn't work? Or laptop shutdown?

The laptop will not shut down if you are using the on-chip Intel GPU instead of the dedicated (nVidia) GPU. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but it may be LightDM. If you use another distro (one that doesn't use LightDM), you may have better luck.

Shutdown and hibernation work fine when using the nVidia GPU.

Is secure boot supported?

I installed with Secure Boot disable, but I have since turned it on and the laptop still boots. I'm going to perform another install tonight, so this time I'll try it with Secure Boot enabled.

Is hard drive/bios passwords supported?

You can definitely turn on the BIOS password protection. This has nothing at all to do with the OS you have installed.

Is encryption supported?

Not sure what you mean by this question. During installation, I chose to encrypt my home partition, and this works just fine. I did not choose to encrypt the entire drive. I believe TPM is supported in Linux, but I have never tried using it for anything. I can see a bunch of TPM modules though.

Does anything else throw any problems?

• If you boot in to Intel GPU mode, there are a few issues - the brightness keys do not work, and shutdown/suspend do not work.
• If you boot up using the nVidia GPU, just about everything works (some of the function keys don't, like the "camera" key, and the "airplane mode" key etc...).

Side note: Called pc specialist up and they stated 'Nope, no support for Linux at all, not compatible at all'
So maybe a staff member could update where they stand on this?

PC Specialist definitely do not support Linux, but the Defiance II can definitely run Linux (I'm typing this to you now on my Defiance II running Ubuntu 15.10). There are a couple of things that will not work (as I have pointed out), and these little things may annoy some people more than others, but all things considered, it runs Linux rather well. I have no need to run Windows at all, so I bought this laptop with the intention of running Linux as the only operating system (no dual-booting etc...). Had Linux not worked on this laptop, I would have definitely returned it. I made my decision to purchase after reading a couple of posts in these forums (one by TabascoJunkie, for example). I was fairly confident that most things would work.

In regards to where PC Specialist stand: they simply do not support Linux, and I doubt they ever will. The market share is way too small for them. Most people who purchase a Defiance II are going to be serious gamers, and while Linux has Steam, most games are Windows only. There aren't going to be that many Linux users who go out and spank £1,000+ on a laptop to run Linux, when Linux will run quite well on a £300 laptop (or £500 laptop if you want a full HD display). Supporting Linux would cost PC Specialist in terms of time, resources, training, hiring Linux savvy technicians etc...

The only company I know of who support Linux on laptops is a US based firm called "System 76", but it costs a small fortune in taxes to buy from them and to have your purchase delivered in the UK. It's a shame that PC Specialist do not support Linux at all (and furthermore, that they actively discourage people who want to install Linux from buying their laptops), because the Defiance II is a perfect example of how well Linux can run on beautiful hardware. This is the first laptop I've been able to purchase without having to pay for Microsoft Windows - an operating system I don't need. I don't know how big PC Specialist are, but I suspect that Microsoft have probably threatened to charge them more for Windows licences if they choose to support anything but Windows (which is illegal, but no-one is going to stand up to Microsoft's illegal business practices).

I will create a YouTube video some time this weekend showing Ubuntu 15.10 running on my Defiance II. This is by far the best laptop I've ever owned.

 

[Mnemonic]

One thing I forgot to mention: the package came with a "WiDi" adapter (so you can stream from your laptop to a TV). I haven't even tried this out yet.

 

[Mnemonic]

Here's a quick video of Ubuntu 15.10 running on the Defiance II (sorry about the blurriness in some places):

[video=youtube_share;FKDDrL0uXII]https://youtu.be/FKDDrL0uXII[/video]

 

[chozabu]

Hi Mnemonic, thanks for the write up!

Any chance you could offer more detail on the problems? I'm looking at picking up the same system...

How sure are you about the issues you encountered being connected to lightDM? I'll be running KDE (latest kubuntu + neon), so this may not be an issue for me.

Also - the brightness, can you manually bind the keys (or other keys) to control this in your DE?

Finally - what problems have you encountered with the hybrid graphics? In my current system, I have optimus (intel+nvidia), but bumblebee/primus have been problematic enough I've ended up just using the nvidia card.

 

[Mnemonic]

Hi chozabu: When I set the graphics to "DISCRETE" in the BIOS so that Ubuntu is only using the nVidia card, just about everything works flawlessly. I say "just about" because the airplane mode function key doesn't (I don't have a 3G/4G module, so I'm not even sure what it's supposed to do), and I'm not sure about hibernate key combo (just haven't tried it yet, and I'm in Intel graphics mode at the moment). Other than those two things, I haven't come across anything that doesn't work in nVidia mode.

In regards to Intel graphics mode, I'm not sure the freeze-ups are caused by LightDM anymore. I get the same freezing happening when I do a sudo lshw -C network. I've done a big of digging around on the Internet, and it might be the Intel GPU that's the issue. It's annoying, but not a show stopper for me. I'm willing to do a hard-shutdown by holding the power button when my laptop fails to shutdown properly. I think it's a price worth paying for the extra battery life (I'm getting around 4.5 hours in Intel mode).

I don't use Bumblebee to manage switching between the Intel and GTX970m. I use the nVidia PRIME feature as a) it comes with the nVidia driver, and b) I prefer switching to one or the other (rather than using the Bumblebee method).

I will do a bit more digging around this weekend to see if I can find a solution to the shutdown (freezing) problem this weekend. I'll post anything I find here.

 

[Mnemonic]

Thanks to a post by Dario Chiappetta, I've managed to make some progress, but it's still not perfect. In short, if you install a later version of the nVidia driver (361), then you will be able to shutdown correctly, and run lcpci and lshw without the laptop freezing! So from the steps I have written above, instead of installing the nVidia driver from Ubuntu's Additional Driver applet, add the graphics driver PPA that has the latest nVidia driver.

Just to recap on the steps required to install Ubuntu 15.10 on the Defiance II (with the nVidia 361 driver):

1. Go in to the BIOS and set the graphics mode to DISCRETE.
2. Install Ubuntu from a USB flash drive.
3. Make sure everything is fully updated (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get autoremove).
4. Install the 4.4.2 Linux kernel.
5. Add the PPA with the nVidia 361 drivers: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
6. Update the system: sudo apt-get update
7. Install the latest nVidia drivers (361 at time of writing): sudo apt-get install nvidia-361
8. Install the "Bumblebee Switch" package: sudo apt-get install bbswitch-dkms

That's pretty much it. At this stage, because you're BIOS is still set to DISCRETE graphics mode, you'll have to reboot, go in to the BIOS, and set the graphics mode to "MSHYBRID". Then bring up the nVidia settings application (by typing "nvidia" in Ubuntu's "Dash" and clicking on the nVidia icon), click on the "Prime Profiles" option, and select the "Intel (power saving mode)" radio button. After this, you will have to log out and log back in again. When you do, you'll be using the Intel GPU. Unfortunately, the nVidia GPU is still powered on. This can be observed by executing the following in a terminal:

scott@d2-lin:~$ cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch
0000:01:00.0 ON

Normally, you would turn off the power to the nVidia card using:

scott@d2-lin:~$ sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF

but as Dario mentions in his blog post, this doesn't work. I have tried to follow Dario's solution, but it didn't work for me (the Defiance II would freeze up after a few minutes). Perhaps the Defiance II and the Santech C47 have slightly difference BIOSes or something.

If you want to see your power usage, install powerstat: sudo apt-get install powerstat (and then run is using: sudo powerstat). The output from mine says I'm using an average of 26.5 watts. If the nVidia GPU was powered off, this would be around 11 watts instead (so battery life would more than double). The good news is that while in Intel GPU mode, the Defiance II will shutdown properly, and will not freeze when running lspci or lshw (and the battery still lasts significantly longer).

I'll spend some more time on this over the weekend, and will write about it here if I manage to find a way to turn off the nVidia GPU.

 

[Mnemonic]

Thanks to Dario's instructions, I have finally managed to get to a point where I am able to boot in to Intel graphics mode and then turn off the power to the nVidia GPU. Here's the difference in power consumption (when idle):

With the nVidia GPU sitll powered on:

-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Average   0.1   0.0   0.0  99.8   0.1  1.0  108.7   41.4  0.1  0.0  0.6  23.64
  StdDev   0.1   0.0   0.1   0.8   0.6  0.2  133.2   48.6  0.3  0.0  2.2   0.06
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Minimum   0.0   0.0   0.0  95.2   0.0  1.0   48.1   20.6  0.0  0.0  0.0  23.54
 Maximum   0.8   0.0   0.4 100.0   3.5  2.0  806.0  297.9  1.0  0.0 12.0  23.76
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Summary:
 23.64 Watts on average with standard deviation 0.06

After cutting power to the nVidia GPU:

-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Average   0.2   0.0   0.1  99.7   0.0  1.0  142.0   64.1  0.4  0.0  0.2  11.69
  StdDev   0.4   0.0   0.2   0.8   0.2  0.0  250.9  150.0  1.3  0.2  0.5   1.89
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
 Minimum   0.0   0.0   0.0  95.7   0.0  1.0   39.9   19.4  0.0  0.0  0.0  10.28
 Maximum   2.5   0.0   0.9 100.0   0.9  1.0 1256.1  861.6  7.0  1.0  2.0  19.12
-------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ---- ---- ------
Summary:
 11.69 Watts on average with standard deviation 1.89

The steps to get the Defiance 2 to this stage are exactly as Dario has explained in his post:

1. Install Ubuntu 15.10.
2. Update to the 4.4.2 Linux kernel.
3. Blacklisted the nouveau driver (in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf).
4. Installed the latest Intel graphics drivers from Oibaf's PPA (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:\oibaf/graphics-drivers, then sudo apt-get update).
5. Reboot, again pressing CTRL + ALT + F1 to bring up a console window the moment the login screen appears.
6. Installed bbswitch-dkms (sudo apt-get install bbswitch-dkms).
7. Add bbswitch to /etc/modules
8. Run: sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
9. Reboot. This time, everything works, but the nVidia GPU is still powered on (confirm with: cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch).
10. At this point, you can turn off power to the nVidia GPU using: sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF

You will then notice your battery life almost double. You can confirm power usage by intalling powerstat (sudo apt-get install powerstat) and running it with and without the nVidia GPU powered on.

It would be awesome if nVidia's "Prime" could automatically turn off the power to the nVidia GPU when you select "Intel (power saving mode". Alternatively, it would be awesome if there was another option in the BIOS to allow three GPU settings: Discrete, MsHybrid and Intel). Things would be so much easier. I'll see if I can file a bug report somewhere with the nVidia driver creators, and I'm sure it would be something relatively easy for them to fix. That way, getting a perfectly working Defiance II laptop running Linux would simply be a matter of installing the right nVidia drivers.

 

[Mnemonic]

Just a quick update - I had a chat with one of the Bumblebee guys about the Defiance II (P65_P67RGRERA). He informed me that the P65_P67RGRERA is very Windows specific, so you have to include the following in your GRUB:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="!Windows 2015""

With the above acpi_os setting, I can now run lspci and lshw in Intel mode without a kernel panic Everything runs better with the above, although I still have to manually switch off power to the nVidia GPU.

 

[chozabu]

Another note or two here - I was having trouble getting the intel card running on the 4.4 kernel (kubuntu 16.04 + neon)

upgraded to 4.7.2-040702-generic and I am now able to boot in MSHYBRID mode

sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF

now sets bbswitch to off and

sudo prime-select intel

cut my power usage from 30W to 15W

Currently I am not running oibaf/graphics-drivers - doing so may have been a quicker/better solution - tempted to install intel drivers from there, particularly as I still get missing firmware warnings when rebuilding initramfs

$ sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.7.2-040702-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver6.bin for module i915
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic
$

Though, oddly last time I ran that command, the warnings were while updating the info for 4.4, and slightly different.

Still, very happy to have a long battery life!

Worth mentioning - my brightness keys also do not work, but I am on sddm, not lightdm

I also am not using the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT mentioned above (I tried inserting this, did not notice any difference, until I was upgrading to KDE NEON and it seemed to be causing issues)

 

[chozabu]

Noticed suspend had some issues, I have:

installed oibaf/graphics-drivers

installed skylake dmc from https://01.org/linuxgraphics/intel-linux-graphics-firmwares

at this point, still getting notified about missing firmware, so

grabbed missing firmware from https://ftp2.halpanet.org/source/_dev/linux-firmware.git/i915/ - placed in /lib/firmware/i915/

rebooted - suspend now works correctly Should have rebooted after each step to better know which actions helped (sorry!)

Keyboard Brightness control is still not happening.

Need to test quite a few more things, like multiple monitors, and practical ways to use the nvidia card when I want to - will probably post more soon

 

[chozabu]

Hmm, what I did not get working correctly was using the nvidia card! using prime, prime-switch or bumblebee
Even booting up in discrete mode was giving me no luck
Multiple monitors was not happening either (guess the ports are all tied to the nvidia card)

I think for now I will refresh my whole system, and go with the 15w extra usage from using nvidia all the time!

 

[Mnemonic]

Thanks for that Chozabu. I keep getting message about "possible missing i915 firmware", so will try out what you did when I get home.

 

[Mnemonic]

I have had zero luck with getting Bumblebee working properly. What I do to switch from nVidia to Intel graphics:

1. sudo prime-select intel
2. Reboot and go in to the BIOS.
3. Under "Advanced" (I think), I switch from DISCRETE to MSHYBRID.
4. Reboot.
5. Now cut power to the Intel GPU (sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF).

It's a bit of a hassle, but worth it for the extra battery life (if you're on the road or somewhere where you don't have access to a power socket). I'm getting around 5 hours usage (with the screen turned down and the keyboard backlighting turned off).

 

[karthik.upadhya]

I got a 14" Defiance II today. The BIOS does not have the options to switch between the onboard and the discrete cards ( I checked the advanced options too). Any suggestions on what can be done instead?

 

[Stephen M]

I am using the Nvidia GTX 970M with Ubuntu and the simplest way to get that going is via "System Settings", the "Software & Updates" and "Additional Drivers". The Ubuntu Xorg driver never seems to work but there is an option there to switch to the Nvida driver.

 

[total4linux]

Hi All
I just got a new laptop configured and received it with the intention that to install linux and i tried all of them with no luck(mint, centos, fedora, ubuntu).
It is not installing linux at all which is odd as linux could be installed on a minimum hard drive, some of the components might not have a compatible driver and not work(i can understand that) but not installing at all is very odd!!!

I wonder if anybody has similar issue(i noticed on this forum some purchased similar laptop and installed linux successfully).

I noticed in my BIOS there is no section of advanced setting

SPEC:
SkyFire: 14" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1TB SEAGATE HYBRID 2.5" SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
1 x 90W AC Adaptor
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0,
vPRO
2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Thanks

 

[Stephen M]

I expect you have already tried this, but if not try disabling UEFI and installing with "nomodeset".