Tag: gentoo

Gentoo Laptop

Razer 15 mid-2019 Advanced :: RZ09-03017EM8

We’ve made it far enough. I’ve lost the ability to count the number of times I’ve installed Gentoo in the last month.

For some reason when I first began my journey down the Open Source Rabbit Hole, I started with Gentoo. I was obsessed at the idea of efficiency. Something about being able to make a decision at every step in the process of setting up a Gentoo system meant power to me. The idea that I could “tune” the code, pre-compilation to harmonize as much as possible with the tools I was working with, was important to me at the time. Harmony was and always will be important.

However, this was my personal harmony. Not exactly harmony with the rest of the internet which was standardizing and promoting mass adoption. That wasn’t a problem for me at that time either. During highschool from 2000-2005 the internet was still a very democratic place.

I digress…

Recently I required a new personal laptop. I had not owned one for some time. My 2 in 1 Asus Transformer had served its purpose getting me through school and I am still using an Intel NUC connected to my TV for everything else (watching hockey mostly).

We’re back and getting it on with a Razer 15 Mid-2019 Advanced.

It was a trip just getting my hands on this hardware.

WINDOWS

In order to get the correct drivers for installing from scratch say;

https://support.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-blade-15-mid-2019-advanced

I’d say setting up pro and moving about Windows 10 is a walk in the park these days. Had to install without internet, but that wasn’t a big deal with the link above.

GENTOO

Never skip the handbook: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64

Major props to the initial author of: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Razer_Blade_Pro_(2019)

The kernel configuration alone is invaluable.

I had to perform the following to get a Gentoo Kernel I could load the proper Wireless drivers on.

Kernel (Gentoo-Sources)

I needed a Linux 5.x kernel to get the wireless to work

echo "sys-kernel/gentoo-sources ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords/gentoo-sources

Once the kernel was setup with ‘iwlwifi’ I still had to force build the right driver from ‘sys-kernel/linux-firmware’.

CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="iwlwifi-cc-a0-48.ucode"
CONFIG_IWLWIFI=y
CONFIG_IWLWIFI_LEDS=y
CONFIG_IWLWIFI_BCAST_FILTERING=y
CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING=y

Webcam

CONFIG_USB_MDC800=y

Graphics

Nvidia card is working. Offloading is still a bit messy, so I’m making the GPU run the display manager (lightdm) and desktop environment (cinnamon/fluxbox).

Learned a lot from here: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NVIDIA/Optimus

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Layout"
	Option		"AllowNVIDIAGPUScreens"
	Screen      0  "nvidia"
	Inactive	"intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"intel"
	Driver		"modesetting"
	BusID		"PCI:0:2:0"
	Option		"DRI" "3"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group		"video"
	Mode		0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
	Option "Composite" "Enable"
	Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"intel"
	Device		"intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"nvidia"
	Driver		"nvidia"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"nvidia"
	Device		"nvidia"
	Option		"AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "Yes"
EndSection

Sound & Bluetooth

Followed the ALSA & Pulseaudio guides for sound.

Alsa: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ALSA

PulseAudio: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PulseAudio

Installed ‘pavucontrol’ for managing sound levels.

Using Bluez & Blueberry for Bluetooth.

Bluez: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Bluetooth

Bluetooth Headset: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Bluetooth_headset

Gentoo Specifics:

/etc/portage/make.conf

# make.conf
#

USE="lm-sensors theora native-headset abi_x86_32 client networkmanager xkb dhcpcd bluetooth bluetooth-audio png jpeg ffmpeg gtk3 gtk introspection gnome-keyring pulseaudio elogind mount cairo python cups dbus opengl text ssl icu minizip inspector sqlite secure-delete postproc apng xorg udev X alsa"
MAKEOPTS="-j13"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

COMMON_FLAGS="-march=core2 -O2 -pipe"
CFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FCFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"

# NOTE: This stage was built with the bindist Use flag enabled
PORTDIR="/var/db/repos/gentoo"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"

# This sets the language of build output to English.
# Please keep this setting intact when reporting bugs.
LC_MESSAGES=C

GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"
INPUT_DEVICES="libinput synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"

NOTES:

I am running elogind, which has forced me to mask a lot of packages with USE=”-consolekit”. So far this hasn’t been a problem, even though I also run consolekit for PulseAudio.

Additional Props:

Discord – Linux Blade: https://discord.gg/T8pJbz