Defiance 2, geforce 970, 32gb ram, 500gb SSD, i7-6700hq - Linux

[chozabu]

First up - ordering & delevery:

ETA sounded a bit long (couple of weeks) - and was pushed back another couple of weeks.
During this time, the automated emails status failed, and conversations with customer service were inconsistant, did not match each other or the info on the website. But hey, these things happen - it arrived in under 1 month.

Generally seems quite solidly built, no screws fallen out the bottom yet - though it seems one of the fans sometimes makes a funny/unbalanced sound, it is generally fairly quiet. Also a strange sound when running gl mark.

Laptop already had windows install, though not activated(has a 1 month trial).
Following info from this forum, I disabled the onboard gfx in the bios before installing linux.
Went for Kubuntu 14.04 - as it is fast, stable and featureful
Installation was very quick and smooth - initally volume and brightness fn keys did not function, but letting kubuntu install gfx drivers, and setting the correct master sound channel fixed that.

Main thing I wanted from this device is _speed_ - and that I have got. Compiles code like the clappers. runs tests in no time. Squishes data like something-off-a-shovel! Good for games too!

the fn+lcd button turns off the screen - which is great, always had to do my own manual shortcut for that before!

what does not seem to work:
fn+ (touchpad-toggle/screenshot/airplane-mode)
But This could perhaps be fixed if I was willing to spend a few mins looking around the settings - not important enough for me to try it out yet though.

TL;DR; Laptop is great, but makes a funny sound or two. Strange info during slow delevery.

 

[Mnemonic]

Kubuntu looks amazing! Your screenshots make me want to install Kubuntu on my Defiance II.

 

[chozabu]

Hey Mnemonic - thanks again for your info ( https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...0-on-the-Defiance-II&highlight=defiance+linux <--here - incase anyone wants to see a little more )

I should note - I've not updated to latest nvidia graphics, not tried out intel card atall! Will try it out before I'm next unplugged for a while.

Also - as for Kubuntu/KDE - I still prefer it by quite some margin over other systems. The theme is just from searching the in-built theme repo for "dark" or similar.

I should note - kubuntu 14.04 uses lightdm after all, I think later versions default to S*DM.

Also worth mentioning - I have very sensitive hearing, the sounds mentioned in my review are probably nothing to worry about!

 

[Stephen M]

I am using the GTX 970 in an Octane running Ubuntu 15.10. The Ubuntu x.org driver did not work but switching to the nvidia driver in system settings was all that was needed.

 

[Mnemonic]

I have figured out how to get the nVidia and Intel working, although switching between the two is still quite complicated (much more complicated than it should be).

In short:

1. Make sure GPU was set to "DISCRETE" in the BIOS.
2. Perform a clean install of Ubuntu 15.10.
3. Update the kernel to 4.5 (then reboot).
4. Add the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa repo.
5. Install the nvidia-361 driver with sudo apt-get install nvidia-361 (then reboot).
6. Install bbswitch-dkms with sudo apt-get install bbswitch-dkms
7. Add "bbswitch" to /etc/modules.
8. Run sudo update-initramfs -u
9. Install Bumblebee following: these instructions.
10. Edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf (Driver=nvidia on line 22, and change all occurrences of "nvidia-current" to "nvidia-361").
11. Restarted Bumblebee (sudo systemctl restart bumblebeed.service).

While you'll be able to switch between nVidia and Intel in nVidia's PRIME Profiles (after you've gone in to the BIOS and set the graphics to MSHYBRID), it still doesn't power off the nVidia card. This can be observed by running:

cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch

Trying to turn it off the way I normally would on other dual graphics systems also doesn't work:

tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF

You can see the power consumption by installing "powerstat" (sudo apt-get install powerstat), then unplugging your laptop and running powerstat (sudo powerstat).

After RTFM'ing, I discovered you have to first unload the nVidia modules in order to cut the power to the nVidia card. I wrote a script to do this:

#!/bin/bash

on() {
  tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<ON > /dev/null
  modprobe nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia
}


off() {
  rmmod nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia
  tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF > /dev/null
}

status() {
  cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch | grep -oE '[^ ]+$'
}

case $1 in
  on|off|status) "$1" ;;
  *) echo "Usage: [sudo] nvidia {on|off|status}"
esac

I named this script 'nvidia' (made it executable with: chmod +x nvidia), then copied it over to /usr/local/bin. I can now use it as follows:

sudo nvidia off
sudo nvidia on
nvidia status

I've placed /usr/local/bin/nvidia off in my rc.local to make sure the nVidia card is off whenever I start my Defiance II.

I should point out that following the above steps, if you run a program on the nVidia card (using: optirun <program>), then the nVidia card will still be powered on after the program terminates. You need to explicitly turn off the nVidia card again with: sudo nvidia off.

Using all of the above (and upgrading to the latest Intel Graphics drivers), I'm getting just over 4.5 hours on battery (normal usage: browsing, terminal, chat, IRC etc...).

 

[Telvee32]

Are you using that script with prime or with bumblebee? I'm thinking of using this script while in intel mode so I can switch off the NVIDIA GPU when it's not in use (I do not have an option in the BIOS to turn it off), I'd rather not faff around with bumblebee if I can avoid it.
EDIT: Script doesn't work without bumblebee it would seem, when attempting to switch it off I get an error saying that the NVIDIA modules are already unloaded (nvidia status still returns ON at this point), so running tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF alone seems to do the trick, after running this nvidia status returns OFF. Machine now seems to be running at a more reasonable temperature in intel mode and the estimated battery life appears to have increased...

 

[Mnemonic]

Hi Telvee32: I wrote the above script because tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF on its own wasn't working for me. I read the manual, and discovered that you need to unload the nVidia modules first in order to turn it off. The prerequisites for the above to work are:

1. You have Linux Kernel 4.4 (or higher) installed.
2. You have the nVidia 361.x driver installed.
3. You have bbswitch-dkms installed (installing the 361.x driver should also install bbswitch-dkms).
4. You load bbswitch in /etc/modules.

If you don't need to load/unload the nVidia moduels to power on/off your nVidia card, you could modify the above script by simply removing the modprobe and rmmod lines.

If you've managed to power on/off your nVidia module without loading/unloading the nVidia modules, you're in a very good place! Are you using the proprietary nVidia drivers? What version of the Intel Graphics driver are you using?

Also - have you let powerstat run until the very end? What's your average power usage when idle? I'm getting 11.7 Watts on Ubuntu 15.10, 12.5 Watts on Ubuntu 16.04 beta 2.