Linux on Recoil ll

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sonik14

Member
Updates:

1) Flickering was finally a hardware issue of the monitor (since replaced no problem)
2) Front led light issue after hibernation/sleep is solved by latest firmware (game center app)
3) Webcam is too sensitive to some background light, since often colorful dots appear on cam (probably specific hardware issue and not a general one)

Questions:
1) Is there a way to limit battery charging up to 80%, since there is not official firmware support?
2) How can we turn off keyboard lights in Ubuntu?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
sonik14 said:
Updates:

1) Flickering was finally a hardware issue of the monitor (since replaced no problem)
2) Front led light issue after hibernation/sleep is solved by latest firmware (game center app)
3) Webcam is too sensitive to some background light, since often colorful dots appear on cam (probably specific hardware issue and not a general one)

Questions:
1) Is there a way to limit battery charging up to 80%, since there is not official firmware support?
2) How can we turn off keyboard lights in Ubuntu?
Click to expand...

I do appreciate that with Li-ion batteries their life can be extended some by not charging to 100% all the time, though I note that how much extra life is obtained this way is also greatly affected by how fast the battery is discharged, so I do wonder how much more battery life is really obtained by not charging to 100%. I suspect it varies greatly from device to device and the way the device is used. My ageing Samsung Galaxy S6 has been recharged to 100% every night since I got the phone about three years ago and it still gives me a full day of use, though my wife's Galaxy S6 of the same age, also charged every night, needs a boost charge during the day - but then she keeps Facebook in business. ;)

I'm not at all sure where the 'rule of thumb' to never charge beyond 80% and never discharge below 20% came from, but I expect it's simply another application of the Pareto Principle. The Battery University site here has a fairly detailed explanation on how to improve Li-ion battery life and they claim that maximum battery life is achieved by never charging above 75% and never discharging below 65%, this of course is impractical in the real world.

Only charging a battery to 80% does of course shorten its run time, so it becomes a trade-off between battery life and battery run time. Most people with a laptop are looking for maximum run time and in my view the battery should really be considered a consumable so that the maximum run time possible is maintained. That's what a laptop is for after all.

I suspect the reason there is no official firmware support to limit charging to 80% is because of the above. The benefit of increased battery life is outweighed in most cases by the reduced run time. Personally I would not advise messing with the battery charging methodology I'd just accept that if I keep the laptop for more than (about) three years then a replacement battery will probably be needed.

In the case of my Galaxy S6 phone for example, I could get a new battery fitted here in Crete for 35 Euros but a new Galaxy S9 would cost almost 500 Euros! You can guess what I've done then - I've bought a new Galaxy S9 of course.... :)
 
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sonik14

Member
Thanks for the useful information.

The reason I want the 80% charging is because 5 out of 7 days of the week, I use the laptop plugged in. I have read about the trade-off you describe, but I have also read that the battery maintains its full capacity when not used if it is charged around 60%. So I would like a solution for this scenario.
 
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Tony1044

Prolific Poster
I think you'd struggle with the 80% charge as it's electronics controlling the charge and reporting to the OS, not the OS controlling how much goes into the battery.
 
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Galzzly

Member
So over the weekend I finally managed to load Ubuntu 18.10 onto the laptop - as expected the touchpad did not work, and neither does the button to set the fans off like a jumbo engine.

Updated to kernel 4.20.3, as I saw earlier in the thread that 4.19 had the touchpad patch included, however, this sadly does not seem to be the case with 4.20.3. No big deal for me in general as I'd typically have a mouse with me. But it would be something that was nice to have.

I also seem to be experiencing some issues when shutting down and rebooting. It will often get stuck on the Ubuntu splash screen on shutdown with one or two of the dots in the progression set (under "Ubuntu" if that makes sense) coloured. I ended up having to hit the power button to force the power down - not something I particularly like doing, if I'm honest.

Has anyone else hit this issue?
 
Stephen M

Stephen M

Author Level
Have had that shutdown issue on two other machines, not the Recoil and it was intermittent and not happening at all now. I did not find a solution as such and was forced to use power button at times, although I also managed to open a tty terminal (ctrl+alt+f2) as it had not fully shut down and tried reboot, that brought it back up. After that I ran an update through the terminal and the shutdown did work but not always, although the problem did just stop and I have not had it on this Octane for several months and the Optimus is also fine now so it seems to be solved.
 
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igwan

New member
Galzzly said:
I also seem to be experiencing some issues when shutting down and rebooting. It will often get stuck on the Ubuntu splash screen on shutdown with one or two of the dots in the progression set (under "Ubuntu" if that makes sense) coloured. I ended up having to hit the power button to force the power down - not something I particularly like doing, if I'm honest.
Has anyone else hit this issue?
Click to expand...

Yeah, try this kernel param, it fixed it for me : acpi_osi="!Windows 2015"
 
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damole

Silver Level Poster
Is there a distro that works out of the box yet? I tried installing Mint with the intention of updating the kernel but I can't get past the login screen, I get a blank screen except for the pointer. I can boot into it from a live USB drive.
 
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igwan

New member
I tried Archlinux and NixOs and both works, better start with a minimal distro and add stuff after. Since the issue is mostly with nvidia and it's driver, a distro which use a graphical interface to install is more likely to have problems.

I still can't get optimus and suspend/hibernate to work.
 
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damole

Silver Level Poster
The live USB of Manjaro 18.0 works including touchpad and suspend. I will try installing it tomorrow. I had to use the DD image mode in Rufus.
 
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DaniSerra

New member
Greetings,

I was able to install ubuntu 18.04 in recoil II with booteable USB wiht UUI.

0- Desactive secure boot in BIOS.

1- You must press 'e' in the install options. Write after 'quite splash' the next text "acpi=off" this first step let you install wihtout hangs.

2- Install alongside windows or select your partition.

3- At restart mby laptop show you a blackscreen just turn off the laptop.

4- Start you can select in BIOS- boot - bdds properties use Ubuntu launcher or just restart windows holding press shift and select usb divice called 'Ubuntu'.

5- In grub boot selection repeat step 1, pres 'e' etc.

6- Use in terminal : sudo "ubuntu-drivers autoinstall" or "sudo apt install nvidia-390". Now you will havent too press 'e' in boot anymore and everything should work.


Now my problem is the keyboard leds and different options. I dont know how to control leds or touchpad lock. Anyone know?
 
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sonik14

Member
puigcerver23 said:
Does anybody know if the keyboard backlights can be enabled / managed on Ubuntu?
Click to expand...
What I have done, which was the quickest solution for me without modifying any kernel code etc, is the following:
I turn off thekeyboard lights in windows via game center app.
Using kernel 5.0.1, it recognizes it and keeps the keyboard lights off. Be sure that you use the latest game center application provided in their download section, because previous one had issues.
I have not found a way to manage the colors of the lights.

I am using Mate and I have just modified dconf editor to adjust the brightness of the lights, but it does not seem to work for me in that way.

Regarding my issue with displays:
1: gdm had really sever issues when using an external display, thus I use lightdm.
2: If external monitor is suddenly not recognized etc. Reset /home/user/.config/monitors.xml, so better use a backup of a working version.
 
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snookrun

New member
Hi all, I had installed ubuntu 18.04 on this laptop. Every works fine, except there is no control of the keyboard backlight. Any luck on this?
 
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GGrieco

New member
Hi Snookrun, so, from your post it seems that you didn't do any special things for installing Ubuntu, is it correct? And that the only problem is related to the keyboard backlight, is it?
 
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snookrun

New member
Hi ggrieco. Yes I installed the latest ubuntu 18.04 , should be the latest kernel. I had been using the laptop for 2 weeks in and everything seems to work well. Even the touchpad. The only thing is my keyboard backlight is on all the time. I wished there is some driver in ubuntu I can install to control it. Or is it easy to write a driver myself?
 
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