Nico Schottelius/ blog/ Alpine Linux on the HP X360 1040 G5

Overview

Due to RAM limitations in most notebooks (16G maximum) I have recently switched to the HP X360 1040 G5, more or less the 14" HP equivalent of the Lenovo X1 Carbon. Some tech specs for the geeks under us:

  • Resolution 3840x2160
  • 1 TB SSD / NVMe
  • 32GB RAM

This article is work in progress, currently more to be seen as a todo list for myself.

Alpine

My backup notebooks are currently running Arch Linux and Devuan. As I find Alpine an interesting project (it resembles most of what I think how Linux should be), I thought about giving it a try.

Some things that are a bit special in alpine Linux:

  • Does not come with shadow by default
  • Uses musl libc instead of glibc (yeah!)

Besides that, some things that are instant benefits of Alpine:

  • easy to use package manager
  • easy to write package format
  • VERY fast package installations (because they are fast)
  • The sound is GREAT (especially compared to the X1 Carbon that does not really have speakers)

What is working on alpine + X360 1040

Almost everything. C'mon, it's 2019 and as long as xorg + i3 is running, what is there more that you want? Some things to emphasise of either:

  • The keyboard is quite nice (actually nicer then Gen6 X1 Carbon)
  • You can run startx via ssh and there is no stupid config that stops you from it!
  • Suspend works even with playing sound, just using pm-suspend + acpid
  • beauty!

What is currently not working on alpine + X360 1040

There are a few minor hiccups that I still need to solve in the next days:

  • create a package for mu4e 1.2 (currently installed in /usr/local)
    • needs fix for /usr/bin/sh reference
    • PR created by eu at https://github.com/alpinelinux/aports/pull/7881/files
    • local install: works!
  • -create a package for magit-
    • M-x package-install magit
  • create a package for vym
  • create a package for openconnect
  • create a package for kismet
  • checkout why the shotwell package is broken
  • checkout why the firefox package is broken
  • hotkeys don't send the right key events => might be a kernel issue
  • xrandr does not show screen connected via usb-c (have to test other outputs)
  • automate lid handling in cdist
    • Currently just created /etc/acpi/LID/0000080 with pm-suspend in it => works
  • The device has a very high frequency sound that varies over time
    • Seems to be unrelated to power plugged in or out
    • Seems to be related to the fan: fan on => no audible high frequency sound
    • The sound is louder than music played at "regular" volume
    • The sounds is directly related to screen brigthness: 100% => no sound
    • The lower the brightness, the stronger the sound

What has been fixed

  • xbacklight
    • Need to load / install the intel video driver (modesetting does not work atm)