[sf-lug] Considering purchasing a lightweight laptop: thoughts Thinkpad X1 carbon vs. Thinkpad T460S

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

One of the first things your code does is to modprobe bbswitch, which
immediately locked up the whole machine just by itself without even a
kernel panic.

On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 11:43 PM, Antonio Malcolm
<antonio.malcolm at gmail.com> wrote:
> Oops! Forgot to add sflug-
>
> The question he's answering is:
>
> "Eh? Is there something about the Skylake architecture, which precludes the
> reliable use of proprietary GPU drivers?"
>
> If he plans on using the Nvidia GPU, proprietary is going to be his best
> route. Nouveau drivers won't cut the mustard, for either performance or
> power-efficiency.
>
> OTOH, they replace the open source GL drivers...
> Though there are ways of having both.
>
> -At the risk of tooting my own horn (mea culpa), I have one such solution,
> which works, for me, across three different machines, with three different
> architectures and three different Nvidia GPUs:
>
> https://forum.voidlinux.eu/t/optimus-opengl-on-both-nvidia-and-intel-have-your-cake-eat-it-too/181
>
> In any case, he will hopefully share his use-case.
>
> Mayhaps his need for dual-booting involves some gaming? In that case,
> dual-booting is his best option, and he should stick with the Intel GPU, for
> the Linux install, as he'll get the best power efficiency.
>
> Also worth considering, are the external-facing video ports on this line of
> machines connected to the Intel GPU, or the Nvidia (it may very well vary,
> by model)?
>
>
> ~Antonio
>
>
> On Dec 26, 2016 23:16, "Daniel Gimpelevich"
> <daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us> wrote:
>
> Unknown. All I can say is that I spent many hours down at CABAL trying
> to get such a laptop to work without blacklisting all modules which
> could possibly touch the chip, and I never succeeded. I do not
> remember whether I attempted to install the proprietary nVidia drivers
> as well, and I likely didn't, because the use case left no room for
> them, and I did not trust RPM to clean up after them.
>
> On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Antonio Malcolm
> <antonio.malcolm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Eh? Is there something about the Skylake architecture, which precludes the
>> reliable use of proprietary GPU drivers?
>>
>>
>> ~Antonio
>>
>> On Dec 26, 2016 22:12, "Daniel Gimpelevich"
>> <daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us> wrote:
>>>
>>> And if you do get a Skylake laptop for GNU/Linux, avoid discrete
>>> graphics like the plague.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 10:02 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
>>> > Quoting Jon Lam (jonplam at gmail.com):
>>> >
>>> >> I do not mean to hijack this discussion. Does anyone have any
>>> >> experience
>>> >> running dual boot Windows and Linux on the Acer V Nitro?  I have a
>>> >> older
>>> >> mid 2010 Mac Book Pro and am looking at a different configuration.
>>> >
>>> > I'll be very surprised if anyone on this mailing list satisfies that
>>> > extremely specific request.
>>> >
>>> > If as I suspect nobody says "By a freakish coincidence, I happen to
>>> > dual-boot that exact model.  What do you want to know?", perhaps you
>>> > can
>>> > follow up by saying what actual problem you're trying to solve.
>>> >
>>> > For example, you might be trying to ask "Would I have Linux driver
>>> > problems on an Acer V Nitro?"  Part of your problem there is that Acer
>>> > V
>>> > Nitro isn't a specific model.  It's the marketing name for a series of
>>> > laptop models, all of them pitched at gamers.
>>> >
>>> > All of those use Intel Skylake-architecture motherboard chipsets and
>>> > Nvidia GTX960M graphics chips.  I personally wouldn't touch Skylake at
>>> > this point.  Linux support requires a fairly cutting-edge kernels as
>>> > Matthew Garrett described this past April:
>>> > https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/41713.html
>>> > As far as cutting-edge Nvidia graphics chips aimed at gamers, I'd
>>> > personally avoid those, too, as they're open source-hostile.  (You
>>> > would
>>> > end up needing to retrofit Nvidia's  propritary drivers.)
>>> >
>>> > Why Acer V Nitro?  Gamer usage?
>>> >
>>> > Also, unless you have something about your use-case that is best
>>> > addressed with dual boot, consider a VM solution instead, so you can
>>> > use both OSes concurrently and needn't juggle a complicated bootloader
>>> > setup.  In my experience, dual-boot is almost always a tactical error,
>>> > most often chosen mainly because the user didn't consider alternatives.
>>> >
>>> >
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