Tuxedo Aura 15 Gen1 EC

Terence64w · 1 January 2021 12:02

I just ordered this laptop by Tuxedo for my daughter, this will arrive in 2-3 weeks, all parts on stock.

Due the fact Tuxedo don’t offer Majaro and I have already a spare NVMe (970 PRO 512 GB), I niter order the NVMe nor the installation. My target is Manjaro-KDE.

I have seen all videos, read threads and I have two questions:

I Download 0122_Aura_15_Gen1_EC from Tuxedo, I think this is to flash an EC_ROM. Do I need to flash and how to do it right? And what is flashing that?
I seen in the AUR some tuxedo-packages but in the Tuxedo *deb-repository are much more packages including disputed dkms. Now, which packages can be installed from AUR, which package must be extra compiled and how to do it properly.

But a question over there, it’s a wiki for Tuxedo notebooks?

P.s.: If you like, I would write one once solved.

Greetings

Falav · 1 January 2021 12:19

Hi, I think you can find Tuxedo programs directly in Manjaro repos.

Try pacman -Ss tuxedo

samo_dadela · 1 January 2021 21:55

@Terence64w I also have an Aura 15. Just install the flavour of Manjaro you want (I have XFCE) and then install tuxedo-keyboard (this will enable the Fn keys shortcuts) and tuxedo-control-center (this one is used to control fan/cpu speeds). That’s it more or less - you have to use kernel 5.10 though (I tried 5.4 but I get a black screen on boot).

Aura 15 Gen1 (Tuxedo)

Well I got finally the ‘Aura 15 Gen1’ with latest ‘BIOS’ and "Firmware’ already installed on motherboard.
I remember you that I ordered it without ‘NVMe’ because I had/have already one of same manufacturer.
I should admit that I changed the ‘block-size-structure’ of this NVMe. During the storage-cells (by themselves) don’t have any idea of block-size, the NVMe-controller (sitting just before storage-cells) and the firmware on it decides how big is the PBS (physical-block-size) and the LBS (logical-block-size) are/should/must be.
Here the original structure of this particular NVMe-SSD:

PBS = 512 (this is a very old ‘standard’, the new is 4kib)
LBS = 512e (emulate a 4kib but with more additional bit)
OS = This is Linux that first (by installing) accept a standard 4k and later-on over linux-firmware discover the mistake and try to do a correction according to PBS.

I made a ‘secure-erase’ with nvme-cli that delete the ‘512e’ and made it as simple ‘512’. Now is the NVMe not only faster cause of eliminating ‘block-size-conversion’ (512 to 512e to 512 forward and backward) but it is also colder than before cause of less work of NVMe-controller.

Anyway… to the conclusion:

Installation results

Tuxedo own ‘WebFAI’ says I cannot install Manjaro-KDE on this model.
Started standard Manjaro-KDE, installed gparted and made a 2GiB-efi, a 438.94GiB-root and a 36GiB-swap.
Only issue I had is the keyboard recognition still want use en_US, so please pay attention on it and set a simple password at beginning, later-on (after one or two reboots) you can change it with sudo passwd root and for the user, in my case, sudo passwd terence.
After reboot I had to press ‘touchphad’ to click, if you want to just tipp touchphad to click than go to…

systemsettings5/Hardware/Input Devices/Touchphad

Here ‘Click’ is greyed-out, enable ‘tipp to click’, finish.
5. All Keys are functionally even the Fn and their combination out of the box, no need to install additional drivers outer you change the ‘CPU-Governor’ in the BIOS, later more about.

Recommendations

I recommend to install ‘DKMS’ sudo pacman -S dkms, through it will be easier to register the drivers in the kernels-module but… I’m sure the experts know better than me.

The CPU-Governor, UEFI and PWM-controller

PWM: As already said, I don’t see any necessity to add a desktop application that would control again the the PWM on motherboard but an only CPU-Governor will be great.
The reason is: The PWM-controller on motherboard should and must control the fan only, not an additional desktop application. If you choose max. performance and the notebook is in idle, the board-PWM will detect it and reduce/switch-off the fan/fan-speed automatically. That apply mostly well on all motherboards. The only reason to make additional changes could be: The MB-PWN don’t perform well cause of bad internal hard- or soft-ware.
I think Tuxedo choose good components hence no need for such desktop-application, by the way: You cannot force someone to run as world champion and forbid him to sweat .
CPU-Governor A such desktop application could be very useful but only if the PWM-Governor remain like it is (MB-controlled).
UEFI This is a really minimalist UEFI, I like it so much, all adjustments are in one only sub-menu, this is perfect .
The only criticism maybe I can express is: There are 4 governor (from 0 to 3) and for me is difficult (without reading user manual) to understand very well which governor make what.

Conclusion-s

Tuxedo promise and sell Linux-computers and hold his promise, thanks for that .
I don’t see any reason to download any additional deb-packages, convert them to Arch-zst and install them afterwards, this is a Windoof-user-behavior , not a Linux nor Arch-standard.
The ‘Web-FAI’ have only LTS (20.4), that mean kernel 5.4, Manjaro 5.9 and Arch 5.10. That mean also: If someone want to get more chances to receives latest drivers…, this one will choose Manjaro with well working 5.9. I test also Arch-KDE with 5.10, it woks perfectly! By the way: I switch to Manjaro and Arch cause of newest linux-kernel (under others).
For notebooks it will be great to get a CPU-Governor as desktop application but I would install it only if it’s already an arch-package e.g. on the AUR, TUXEDO-AUR or simliar.

caho · 5 February 2021 14:40

I am also am Tuxedo - owner since some weeks. I installed Manjaro without any problems. All works fine. It is very silence and super fast.

System:    Kernel: 5.10.7-3-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.5 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TUXEDO product: TUXEDO Pulse 15 Gen1 v: Standard serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: TUXEDO model: PULSE1501 v: Standard serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: N.1.07.A02 date: 12/08/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 67.8 Wh condition: 91.6/91.6 Wh (100%) 
CPU:       Info: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 4 MiB 
           Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/2900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1397 2: 1397 3: 1400 4: 1397 5: 1401 6: 1396 7: 1398 
           8: 1396 9: 1399 10: 1396 11: 1398 12: 1397 13: 1397 14: 1397 15: 1397 16: 1396 
Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Device-2: Chicony HD Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: amdgpu,ati unloaded: modesetting resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RENOIR (DRM 3.40.0 5.10.7-3-MANJARO LLVM 11.0.1) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.3 
Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor driver: N/A 
           Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.7-3-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi 
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 33.27 GiB (14.3%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: SA2000M8250G size: 232.89 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 219.86 GiB used: 33.27 GiB (15.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 312 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 35.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 34.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Prohttps://forum.manjaro.org/t/tuxedo-aura-15-gen1-ec/45866cesses: 308 Uptime: 2h 14m Memory: 7.26 GiB used: 2.26 GiB (31.1%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.2.02

regards
caho

Terence64w · 5 February 2021 14:44

have you installed some tuxedo specific packages?
If not, have you complete functions of all keys?

caho · 5 February 2021 14:52

Hello @Terence64w ,

no, i didn’t install specific tuxedo packages.

no, I only configured the function - keys different to the tuxedo - default. For example I configured F1 … F4 with other functions.

regards
caho

Terence64w · 5 February 2021 15:03

Hello caho
I’m interested for two things:

How to get such output as in your first post?
Is your TUXEDO Pulse 15 Gen1 the same of our TUXEDO Aura 15 Gen1? I mean, have you installed through ‘WebFAI’ or through standard Manjaro-installer?

caho · 5 February 2021 15:13

I did a “inxi -Fzn” in the console (yakuake). Then I selected it with the mouse, right click → copy and then I paste it into the first thread. To format it in the forum-post, select this and then click to “</>” to format the text.

I don’t know if it is the same. I I booted the Manjaro - ISO from an usb stick and started the life-system. Then I installed manjaro with the manjaro - installer without any problems.
Because manjaro is the only OS here , I deleted the whole SDD. The partitions created the installer …

regards
caho

Terence64w · 5 February 2021 15:45

That’s great to know, thanks.

I also installed with USB-live-ISO but I prefer to make the partitions and format by myself (with gparted). The reasons doing it are many:

Bigger EFI, 2 GiB for install refind and configure the whole system to use /dev/disk/by-id/
Bigger SWAP, 4 GiB + RAM-size to assure proper hibernate.

Regards

Yochanan · 5 February 2021 22:18

I don’t either.

❯ pamac search --repos tuxedo
wallpapers-tuxedo                                                        20190813-1  community 
    Tuxedo wallpapers
tuxedo-keyboard                                                          3.0.2-1     extra 
    Keyboard Backlight Driver from TUXEDO Computers
tuxedo-control-center                                                    1.0.9-1     extra 
    A tool to help you control performance, energy, fan and comfort
    settings on TUXEDO laptops.

Terence64w · 6 February 2021 08:31

The search by me under ‘pamac’ gave me more results, so I run yay tuxedo 8 packages from them 4 orphaned.

How to exclude orphaned packages from pamac?

Yochanan · 6 February 2021 16:20

That’s because you didn’t limit the search to repo results only like I did above.

You can do the same with Yay:

❯ yay -Ss --repo tuxedo
community/wallpapers-tuxedo 20190813-1 (13.1 MiB 15.6 MiB) 
    Tuxedo wallpapers
community/manjaro-xfce-tx-settings 20200226-1 (37.1 KiB 124.2 KiB) 
    Manjaro-Tuxedo Xfce settings
community/manjaro-kde-tx-settings 20200226-1 (50.4 KiB 771.2 KiB) 
    Manjaro-Tuxedo Kde-Plasma settings
community/manjaro-icons-tx 20191015-1 (49.7 KiB 182.0 KiB) 
    Icons for the Manjaro Tuxedo editions
extra/tuxedo-keyboard 3.0.2-1 (44.4 KiB 160.7 KiB) 
    Keyboard Backlight Driver from TUXEDO Computers
extra/tuxedo-control-center 1.0.9-1 (74.2 MiB 325.6 MiB) 
    A tool to help you control performance, energy, fan and comfort settings on TUXEDO laptops.

See the man pages for both for more info

spikerguy · 6 February 2021 16:39

I thought if you write in the comment of your order to put Manjaro KDE they would do, I am not sure if they have started that or not.

Ok a quick search shows that it is only available for InfinityBook Laptops for now.
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks/Alle.tuxedo#!#2072,2073

Lucky you, received your pulse 15 already while I had to wait for pulse14 hopefully should receive it within a week.

Aura and Pulse is similar just Ryzen 7 4700/4800U and 4700/4800H only difference is U and H version having a difference in power consumption.

sudo pacman -S tuxedo-keyboard will give you tuxedo keyboard pkg.
while
sudo pacman -S tuxedo-control-center will give you tuxedo control center app.

Once I receive the device I will look into all these tuxedo package and maybe update some for the Ryzen series laptops.

Thank you informing

Terence64w · 22 February 2021 14:31

Sorry guy, I start with the intention to use Manjaro on this notebook as on all remain notebooks in the family but finally decide and install Arch-KDE.

At first I had everything working without Tuxedo packages, after last update/upgrade with new kernel cannot switch anymore color of keyboard-LED, so I installed finally tuxedo-keyboard and tuxedo-control-center from AUR.

Sorry guy!

spikerguy · 24 February 2021 05:59

For this to be installed successfully the user will need linux header package for the kernels installed.

I have received my pulse14 and installed manjaro along with these pkgs and everything seems to work fine.

Now suspend is something I have been testing. It have been working for a short time but on longer sleep it fails to wake up.

Terence64w · 9 March 2021 09:39

I never installed linux without headers, often *buntu family need dkms too.
Well, I installed arch-kde and went all ok until update with kernel 5.11 having difficulties with keyboard color switching and finally switching back to lts (5.10) don’t boot anymore.
Then I try to install manjaro-kde kernel 5.9 and fails to boot usb-installation-stick.

Basically you should install Manjaro with the partitioning option “Hibernate” to works.

Finally I installed arch-lts-kde (over CLI (actually kernel 5.10)) without any tuxedo package and rEFInd as bootloader.

The suspend-issue is a topic correlated to swap, this don’t work well if it’s a file (swap-file) sitting on / (root) and this is very old under linux generally. The other issue is the size of swap and last issue is the partition position.

“Old” linux use to have swap on separate partition and a long time put it as last partition on the disk so the heads (of HDDs) don’t have to run over swap to reach root, home and or other partitions. Partitioning toll (apart gparted) don’t allow to make proper partitioning following this schema (example is on a 970 Pro):

Partition	Type	Dimension	CODE:
nvme0n1p1	EFI	+2G	ef00
nvme0n1p2	Root	+438.9G	8300
nvme0n1p3	Swap	+36G	8200

Neither Manjaro nor *buntu let you today (since systemd appeared) to choose partition dimension and position and even if you know the trick to use something else… soon or later the OS will crash.

Fedora recommend to use as swap 1.5 of nominal-ram, that does mean by 32GB ram 48GB swap, I use nominal-RAM + 4GiB (36 GiB) on separate partition (no swap-file) to get proper hibernation or suspend. Manjaro I think use nominal ram + 6 GiB that correspond to ca. real-ram + 8 GiB.

I could write a whole book on partitioning and file systems but just would tell you ones:

ZFS will be the future file-system and Linux the future Operating-System with all good and less good sites. This’s a question of time and not of feasibility.

ZFS actual requirements and general information:

Root-partition is the first after boot-partition (EFI), see scheme above.
ZFS don’t works well with GRUB, rEFInd works best.
ZFS don’t works well (or at all) with swap-files, swap-partition is last-one at end of DCD (Data Carried Device)

Well, Ubuntu 20.04 install for you ZFS on root with GRUB and a 2GiB swap-file, what do you mean about?

I love manjaro for his drivers-support, new and very stable kernels, simplicity and completeness, even the size for hibernation is good. The only thing I would be glad to have is the freedom to choose partition size and position/succession under an “Expert-Menu” during the partitioning under which one, later, I can choose also ZFS.

P.S.: In the near future we need a 128 bit File-system (ZFS) and even 128 Bit processors and a couple of thing must change e.g. at least smarter partitioning-tools where i can partition the third with a certain size letting empty space in the middle for later partitioning as root.

linux-aarhus · 9 February 2022 17:56