topic title: Help w/Antix on Dell Inspiron 15-7559 UHD UEFI nVidia Laptop
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#1
I tried booting initially from USB (AntiX 16-386 Full), and in UEFI mode it did just booted to Windows 10. I'm not impressed by the UEFI, and Windows is super slow considering the i7-6700HQ processor and nVidia graphics.

So I changed the BIOS setup to Legacy mode and if I do an F12 it allows me to select the USB to boot from. If I take the video safe mode it does come up, but the screen is funky. The bottom bar is very tiny but the letters displayed look normal so they don't fit, and my conky has large lettering but is too far to the right so half of it has fallen off the screen. If I go into control center the resolution says 3840 x 2160.

Any ideas what to do to adjust the screen? I don't really need that good of resolution, I guess.

What would be the best AntiX version to try on it?

Should I hard wire it and try the AntiX 17 network version?

I see it only finds 1.8 gb of the 8 gb memory. Next week my 8gb upgrade will arrive, so I'm thinking I probably should be running a 64bit version?
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#2
Errrr. No inxi report. No link to laptop review. Nothing to say here. My 16 gig of ram is seen on 32 bit by the way.

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: biker Kernel: 4.10.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.3) Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8
           Distro: antiX-15-V_386-full Killah P 30 June 2015
Machine:   Device: laptop System: LENOVO product: 2347DS2 v: ThinkPad T430
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 2347DS2 UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: G1ET41WW (1.16 ) date: 05/25/2012
Battery    BAT0: charge: 27.9 Wh 99.8% condition: 28.0/56.2 Wh (50%) model: SANYO 45N1001 status: N/A
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-3320M (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10376
           clock speeds: max: 3300 MHz 1: 1208 MHz 2: 1208 MHz 3: 1215 MHz 4: 1441 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x900@60.01hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5080 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eth2 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (22.9% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: HGST_HTS545032A7 size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 7.6G used: 5.0G (70%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: /home size: 68G used: 3.5G (6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 4.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info:      Processes: 173 Uptime: 2:00 Memory: 382.6/15936.6MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.3.8
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#3
thriftee wrote:I tried booting initially from USB (AntiX 16-386 Full), and in UEFI mode it did just booted to Windows 10. I'm not impressed by the UEFI, and Windows is super slow considering the i7-6700HQ processor and nVidia graphics.

So I changed the BIOS setup to Legacy mode and if I do an F12 it allows me to select the USB to boot from. If I take the video safe mode it does come up, but the screen is funky. The bottom bar is very tiny but the letters displayed look normal so they don't fit, and my conky has large lettering but is too far to the right so half of it has fallen off the screen. If I go into control center the resolution says 3840 x 2160.

Any ideas what to do to adjust the screen? I don't really need that good of resolution, I guess.

What would be the best AntiX version to try on it?

Should I hard wire it and try the AntiX 17 network version?

I see it only finds 1.8 gb of the 8 gb memory. Next week my 8gb upgrade will arrive, so I'm thinking I probably should be running a 64bit version?
you shouldn't need safe mode, I would think the open source nvidia drivers will work, and you'll be happier with the 64 bit anyway, as you can't install the 32 bit in UEFI mode.
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#4
Thanks for the replies. Yes, my bad, I should have thought to copy those to the flashdrive
rokytnji wrote:Errrr. No inxi report. No link to laptop review. Nothing to say here. My 16 gig of ram is seen on 32 bit by the way.
When it was in UEFI mode it went straight to Windows 10 without asking anything and had no option to boot from anything other than that


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497197,00.asp"
linktext was:"http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497197,00.asp"
====================================

Code: Select all

System:    Host: antix1 Kernel: 4.4.10-antix.1-486-smp i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.3)
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8
           Distro: antiX-16_386-full Berta Cáceres 26 June 2016
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 7559 v: 1.0.4
           Mobo: Dell model: 0H0CC0 v: A00
           Bios: Dell v: 1.0.4 date: 10/05/2015
Battery    BAT0: charge: 60.8 Wh 100.0% condition: 60.8/64.9 Wh (94%)
           model: SIMPLO Dell status: Full
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-6700HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 20737
           clock speeds: max: 3500 MHz 1: 2100 MHz 2: 900 MHz 3: 3231 MHz
           4: 2033 MHz 5: 2807 MHz 6: 1885 MHz 7: 2076 MHz 8: 899 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 191b bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA Device 139b bus-ID: 02:00.0
           Display Server: X.org 1.16.4 driver: vesa
           tty size: 80x28 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Audio:     Card Intel Device a170 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: ALSA v: k4.4.10-antix.1-486-smp
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: eth1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Device 3165 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: wlan1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-3: Atmel usb-ID: 001-004
           IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1015.6GB (1.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000LM014 size: 1000.2GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Ultra_USB_3.0 size: 15.4GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.5G used: 12M (1%) fs: overlay dev: N/A
           ID-2: /home size: 504M used: 206M (42%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/loop1
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 168 Uptime: 1:29 Memory: 173.1/1847.6MB
           Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.3.0
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#5
thriftee wrote:Thanks for the replies. Yes, my bad, I should have thought to copy those to the flashdrive
rokytnji wrote:Errrr. No inxi report. No link to laptop review. Nothing to say here. My 16 gig of ram is seen on 32 bit by the way.
When it was in UEFI mode it went straight to Windows 10 without asking anything and had no option to boot from anything other than that


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497197,00.asp"
linktext was:"http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2497197,00.asp"
====================================

Code: Select all

System:    Host: antix1 Kernel: 4.4.10-antix.1-486-smp i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.3)
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8
           Distro: antiX-16_386-full Berta Cáceres 26 June 2016
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 7559 v: 1.0.4
           Mobo: Dell model: 0H0CC0 v: A00
           Bios: Dell v: 1.0.4 date: 10/05/2015
Battery    BAT0: charge: 60.8 Wh 100.0% condition: 60.8/64.9 Wh (94%)
           model: SIMPLO Dell status: Full
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-6700HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 20737
           clock speeds: max: 3500 MHz 1: 2100 MHz 2: 900 MHz 3: 3231 MHz
           4: 2033 MHz 5: 2807 MHz 6: 1885 MHz 7: 2076 MHz 8: 899 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Device 191b bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA Device 139b bus-ID: 02:00.0
           Display Server: X.org 1.16.4 driver: vesa
           tty size: 80x28 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Audio:     Card Intel Device a170 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: ALSA v: k4.4.10-antix.1-486-smp
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: eth1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Device 3165 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: wlan1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-3: Atmel usb-ID: 001-004
           IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1015.6GB (1.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000LM014 size: 1000.2GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Ultra_USB_3.0 size: 15.4GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.5G used: 12M (1%) fs: overlay dev: N/A
           ID-2: /home size: 504M used: 206M (42%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/loop1
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 168 Uptime: 1:29 Memory: 173.1/1847.6MB
           Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.3.0
*some* UEFI implementations can't boot from usb3 ports, so try a USB2 port when you hit your F12 for a boot menu.

You may have better luck with the 64 bit one as well, especially if you use the antiX live-usb-maker tool to make the usb stick.
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#6
Well, all the USB's are USB3.0. I guess I'm ok with how it boots, not optimal, but at least it boots.

PS I found an old post of Roky's and it solved the screen resolution problem. xrandr works it looks to show what is avalable and switch the resolution.

xrandr

xrandr -s 800x600
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#7
I tried to install, but can't read the characters on the screen. Even if I lower the resolution to way down, the characters on the install screens are illegible, sort of like someone was pretending to write something, but when you try to read it, its not actual letters, just scribble

Any ideas? I booted in safe video mode.

If I don't boot in safe video mode I get 3840x2160 video and I can't read it even with a magnifier and xrandr doesn't work then
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#8
Well, I guess I made a big mistake. The problem isn't really UEFI. I was able to get Debia Jessie installed, and it now dual boots fine from SSD with Windows 10 using grub. But Debian had the same 3840x2160 only display problem as AntiX has, where you need reading glasses in addition to a 5x magnifier to read the screen, and can't resize windows because you can't get the mouse to stay on a window edge to resize it..

With Debian I went through installing another kernel and nvidia drivers and then bumblebee from jesse backports, and got it all to work, doing glxgears, but I have to give up after spending a week trying, and even though it all works, I still can't get a screen mode where I can read the screen without a magnifier.

I didn't try the nVidia proprietary driver yet. I guess I have to do a full reinstall to try that. Overall its a big disappointment and a total waste of time and money. Its not Linux's fault, but here I sit typing on my 10 yr old HP.

And that's how the past couple weeks went... Tried loading 20 times, mostly Debian or Debian based distros, 64 bit. Pretty exhausted from the effort. Choices of old HP or new fast laptop that only is usable with windows, not great choices Root cause nVidia fancy graphics that I don't really use. I just wanted a faster machine.

And this morning, on today's 3rd try, I finally found a linux distro that worked with the screen, and was able to switch to 1920x1080, and I can see the letters without a magnifier. It was the Antix17a2full 386. I guess I don't know what happens to all my memory, but at least I can read the screen...
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#9
double post
Last edited by thriftee on 09 Apr 2017, 05:49, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#10
Well, I ran into trouble with 17, but then I decided to try 16.1 x64 full, and made the USB for it in Rufus under Windows, and lo and behold it was able to boot live, and gave me the option of changing screen resolution, so I installed it over Debian, and rebooted. I had trouble and had to add i915.preliminary_hw_support=1 to the boot line, and that seemed to get it to boot. I've got wifi working too, so the wife is happy with no more cable across the room.

Looks like I'm rolling now. __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#11
Practice makes perfect. At least in my case when it comes to figuring out stuff.
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#12
I'm fighting a sleeping problem, now. It will sleep but won't wake up. Interesting, while hunting for a solution, I think I found the solution for the double resume needed on my HP. I'm hoping it might also help the Dell's resume problem.

i8042.reset=1

PS: it didn't fix either machine, oh well, gotta keep trying. You haven't lost till you give up trying
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#13
The new machine is finally running...

I solved the resume problem by installing the newer 4.10.1 kernel via synaptic.

It did a lot better, but wifi didn't work after resume. I saw errors in dmesg relarted to the wifi, so i downloaded newer iwlwifi files from git, did another reboot, and now it resumes with wifi.

wget
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/iwlwifi-7265D-12.ucode"
linktext was:"http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel ... D-12.ucode"
====================================

sudo cp iwlwifi-7265D-12.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3265-12.ucode

I downloaded all the newer ones (seen with Apr 11 dates below)

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 740436 Dec 6 2015 iwlwifi-7265D-10.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1002800 Dec 6 2015 iwlwifi-7265D-12.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1008692 Dec 6 2015 iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1384256 Dec 6 2015 iwlwifi-7265D-14.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1384500 Apr 11 03:52 iwlwifi-7265D-16.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1383604 Apr 11 03:52 iwlwifi-7265D-17.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1385368 Apr 11 03:53 iwlwifi-7265D-21.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1028376 Apr 11 03:53 iwlwifi-7265D-22.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1032452 Apr 11 03:53 iwlwifi-7265D-27.ucode

Current inxi:
System: Host: d7559 Kernel: 4.10.1-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.9.2) Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8
Distro: antiX-16.1_x64-full Berta Cáceres 16 January 2017
Machine: Device: laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 7559 v: 1.2.2
Mobo: Dell model: 0H0CC0 v: A00 UEFI: Dell v: 1.2.2 date: 01/22/2017
Battery BAT0: charge: 60.8 Wh 100.0% condition: 60.8/64.9 Wh (94%) model: SIMPLO Dell status: Full
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-6700HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 20744
clock speeds: max: 2500 MHz 1: 1099 MHz 2: 1100 MHz 3: 1100 MHz 4: 1099 MHz 5: 1635 MHz
6: 1100 MHz 7: 1100 MHz 8: 1100 MHz
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 191b bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA Device 139b bus-ID: 02:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: nouveau,intel (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@59.93hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 256 bits)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel Device a170 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.1-antix.1-amd64-smp
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Intel Device 3165 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Card-3: Atmel usb-ID: 001-004
IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1256.3GB (2.8% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: MTFDDAV256MBF size: 256.1GB
ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST1000LM014 size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 14G used: 4.0G (31%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-2: swap-1 size: 32.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb6
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0C mobo: 29.8C gpu: 36.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 194 Uptime: 7 min Memory: 554.5/15912.4MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
Client: Shell wrapper inxi: 2.3.8