What hardware are you using?

Discussion of hardware related issues
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

Wow, firmware update last week for the T14s G3A, and ANOTHER one just a couple days ago. Just installed. Either the firmware updates or the new kernel seems to have helped with the battery usage on Endeavour. It had gotten REALLY bad (like 50% battery in an hour) after it was actually really good for the first few weeks I owned it (~12% per hour). Not sure if it's all the way back to the good battery life, but definitely not sucking it down like it was there for a week!!
I'm really liking being able to update via fwupd. Incredibly convenient to be able to update it (and it's a fully supported update method by Lenovo) from the OS like how Windows updates works. Did take a while to get it down right so I was able to use it correctly, I was trying to do it manually with fwupd for a while, and that just doesn't work very well. I have yet to get that working, but if it sees the updates are available, it works great.
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11085
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Windows updates in my case have been incredibly reliable but its not to say I havent had issues once in a while, mostly in the old days.
Site Moderator
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I was just reading a thread and apparently my Laititude 5420 DOES support fwupd. I could have sworn fwupd said there were no supported devices, but apparently i am misremembering. The 7415 is not, however. Surprisingly, there ARE some Inspirons that ARE supported by it.
wove
Posts: 1179
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

The 17" MacBook Pro I have been playing on has a 1st generation Intel i7 and 8GB RAM. I has hybrid graphics with Intel HD graphics and Nvidia GeForce GT 330m, which it switches automatically depending on graphic needs of the moment. I pay very little attention to specs, but I get the distinct impression that the 1st gen i7 with Intel HD graphics is pretty poor. 8GB of RAM is the max ram the processor handles. The chip includes 2 processor cores, the HD graphics and the memory controller. Intel limited the total power combustion allowed for the processor chip, then really ham strung it further by giving highest priority to the processor cores, so as the processor ramps up, the graphic and memory controller become starved for power and throttle down.

I used HomeBrew to install virtual manager, qemu, bhyve (BSD Hypervisor) and gave virtual machines a try. I started with Haiku, which is about as light weight an OS as you can get. It runs quite well however it pushes the real hardware to its limit. Processor cores are all running at 90%, RAM is maxed out, which swap being used heavily. Intel's HD graphics are shut down with Nvidia taking over. The fans are running wide open and the system is really hot on my lap.

The conclusion being that this 12 year old MBP is really not the machine you want to use for running virtual machines.
wove
Posts: 1179
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

I was giving Linux a try on the MBP. I keep stumbling over the hybrid graphics. Apple created their own multiplexer chip that automatically switches from Intel to Nvidia graphics depending on the graphics needs and this might well be the root of the problems. When I have tried to boot the MBP using an iso with Nvidia drivers, the machine ends up hanging and just never booting. It always boots fine using the intel drivers.

I just do not know how Linux deals with hybrid graphics. If I just intstal with intel graphics, what do I need to add to use Nvidia, and what do I need to install switch between graphics? Does Linux do this automatically like MacOS, or do I need to switch manually, and does this require a restart?

Overall in a live session the 12yr old machine does very well in Linux with the Intel HD graphics using shared memory, but I imagine it would do even better with Nvidia and a gig of dedicated VRAM.
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

I know on modern, switchable graphics, you either use Optimus &/or Bumblebee for Nvidia proprietary drivers, or Prime for any other form of hybrid graphics (including Nvidia w/ Nouveau). I'm going to guess it will be the same on the MBP, as well.
wove
Posts: 1179
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

Checking further into this I found this is a problem on Apple hardware from this era. In Linux Nvidia drivers for their older hardware (of which the GeForce GT 330m is one) will not boot from EFI. This is why any live image I have tried to boot from containing Nvidia drivers just crashes. From what I have read if you install with the Intel drivers, then install Nvidia will result in the same freeze when booting.

There appears to be a work around, which apparently modifies the EFI boot to create a fake BIOS boot(?). Apparently this works well, but it will take more research. It appears the simplest method is to just use the Intel HD graphics and let the system ignore the Nvidia card. For my uses that probably would not make much difference, but having hardware that I can not use just makes me crazy.
User avatar
tlmiller
Posts: 4848
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:29 pm
Location: AZ, USA

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by tlmiller »

Given the age of the card, wouldn't nouveau work with it rather well at this point?
wove
Posts: 1179
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by wove »

To be honest, I know nothing about video card drivers. I have never installed any. On Linux my experience is almost totally with Thinkpads/IBM/Lenovo. I think some of the early ones I used had ATI graphics, but whatever the distro I used picked whatever drivers to use and I have never had any need or in changing them. I have an older still MBP with Nvidia graphics and it has ran Kubuntu and Kaos without me needing to anything about drivers, which leads me to think that Linux does not really need specific Nvidia drivers. As far as having two graphics systems in one machine, it just seems silly.

On the newer MBP it boots and runs alright with Intel HD graphics. From what I read online the first gen of Intel's HD graphics is really not very good. However it might well be adequate for my needs and it would be fine to just ignore the Nvidia graphics.
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11085
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: What hardware are you using?

Post by crosscourt »

Nouveau will work fine and is actually recomended in that instance.
Site Moderator
Post Reply