Cosmos IV works with Ubuntu 15.10 / 16.04 out of the box (except webcam)

[micbro67]

Hi guys,

I know us Linux folk often have anxieties about driver compatibility when ordering laptops.

I took the plunge and went for a Cosmos IV with i7 6700HQ, with no OS pre-installed. I installed Ubuntu 15.10 on it (had a stick lying around with that image). Then swapped in my SSD from my previous laptop running 16.04.

I'm pleased to say that pretty much the whole thing is working out of the box with recent versions of Ubuntu 16.04+ (kernel 4.2.0-42).

Working:

• Screen (full res)
• Keyboard
• Keyboard backlight + fn button
• Touchpad + multi-touch gestures
• Webcam
• Screen brightness control
• Speakers & volume control Fn
• Headphone port
• Microphone (stereo)
• Brightness control
• Bluetooth
• Ethernet port
• Wifi wireless card (requires kernel > 4.0)
• USB3 ports
• SD card reader
• VGA port
• HDMI port

Not Working:

• Flight mode fn button (can emulate this with a keyboard shortcut + small script)

Not Tested:

• Mini DisplayPort
• Line-in audio port
• External mix audio port

I'll post a fix for the webcam issue once I've got to the bottom of it.

The build quality very good. It's lightweight but solid. The absolutely highlight is the screen: it's non-reflective, crisp and a very decent resolution.




---


Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 940MX - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
240GB BiWIN 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 559MB/sR | 514MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Supply
1 x 90W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Cosmos Series 3 Cell Prismatic Battery Pack (48WH)
Keyboard Language
COSMOS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

 

[Stephen M]

The webcam may be quite simple, I and a few others have had this problem. Go into Ubuntu Software and download Cheese webcam, it should be fine after that.
There are a lot of needless worries about Linux, I understand PCS have to cover themselves with their warnings but most problems are easily solved and generally I find most Distros work straight out of the box. I have a new Optimus on order and will post a review and any Linux problems when I get it.

 

[karthik.upadhya]

I am having a nightmare of a time getting Linux up and running. My major issue is with the gfx card. How did you get nvidia optimus to run? I am having screen tear with the nvidia gfx card. With the intel gfx card, I have stuttery videos while browsing ( both flash and html5) . Are you having the same issues?

 

[andgaz]

Hello, I just got a COSMO with the following specs:

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
1TB SLIM SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB M.2 2280, SATA 6Gb/s (534MB/R, 150MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Supply
1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Cosmos Series 3 Cell Prismatic Battery Pack (48WH)


I tried installing Neon KDE (black screen after first reboot post installation), Kubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 (both crashing after installation). In all cases I ran into trouble with some variation of the:
kernel BUG: soft lockup - CPU stuck for ... whatever number of seconds.

In the end, I got Mint 18 KDE to run smooth enough for me to install nvidia-367 after which everything runs fine and the soft lockup bug has gone away. I have the camera problem reported above and installing cheese does nothing to solve it. However, the rest of the system seems to behave fine so far (have not tested HDMI or card reader).

 

[andgaz]

Update on webcam: it needs to be activated via hotkey Fn-F10 (on my keyboard). Once you do that, you should see something if you check out "dmesg", e.g.:

[23500.940650] usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[23501.098505] usb 1-6: New USB device found, idVendor=04f2, idProduct=b59e
[23501.098513] usb 1-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
[23501.098518] usb 1-6: Product: Chicony USB2.0 Camera
[23501.098522] usb 1-6: Manufacturer: Chicony Electronics Co.,Ltd.
[23501.098525] usb 1-6: SerialNumber: 200901010001
[23501.101698] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Chicony USB2.0 Camera (04f2:b59e)
[23501.104711] input: Chicony USB2.0 Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-6/1-6:1.0/input/input111

and you 'll get something if you try "ls /dev/video*", e.g.:
~$ ls /dev/video*
/dev/video0

Before pressing the hotkey, "ls /dev/video*" returned the following:
~$ ls /dev/video*
ls: cannot access '/dev/video*': No such file or directory


I can verify that cheese works fine once the camera has been activated via the hotkey.