Fixes for Debian & LMDE

debian-dell-ultraboook.md

Various fixes for Debian or LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) running on Dell Ultrabooks (Latitude E7440 in my case) and possibly other systems.

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• Problem: Random, crazy/erratic mouse behavior. Pointer flies all over and crazy clicks which mess with or close applications.

  • Logs show things like:

    [ 9719.613110] psmouse serio1: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 - driver resynced.
    [ 9719.614152] psmouse serio1: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
    [ 9719.615175] psmouse serio1: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
    [ 9719.616225] psmouse serio1: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
    [ 9720.940961] psmouse serio1: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.
    [ 9721.452154] psmouse serio1: resync failed, issuing reconnect request

• Workaround: This does not solve it but stops it from destructively clicking everywhere.

    # echo "options psmouse proto=imps resetafter=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf
    # modprobe -r psmouse
    # modprobe psmouse

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• Problem: System does not come up after resume from hibernation (aka suspend to disk)

  • Symptom: Blank screen with blinking caps lock. It has something to do with the kernel not supporting the 'platform' disk power management method.

  • It looks like this before changing:

    ~ cat /sys/power/disk [platform] shutdown reboot suspend

  • Solution:

    $ sudo su -
    # apt-get install sysfsutils
    # echo "power/disk = shutdown" >> /etc/sysfs.d/local.conf
    # cat /sys/power/disk 
    platform [shutdown] reboot suspend 

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• networking sucks on linux. especially 802.1x

  sudo gpasswd -a sean netdev

  • Added to my startup to make sure secrets are available for the 802.1x credentials.

    /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=secrets

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• fix backlight brightness.

  • Symptoms:

    • controls are very slow and freeze system
    • too dim by default

  • Fix part 1:

    • Create /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf with these contents:

    Section "Device"
            Identifier  "card0"
            Driver      "intel"
            Option      "Backlight"  "intel_backlight"
            BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    EndSection

• Fix part 2:
  1. Add the following to the 'GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=' line in /etc/default/grub ```video.use_native_backlight=1 acpi_backlight=vendor````
  2. Update the grub-config with: $ sudo update-grub
  3. Reboot

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• amazon prime instant video using pipelight. Some firefox fixes too. This makes me sad.
  • install pipelight using wheezy packages: http://pipelight.net/cms/install/installation-debian.html
  • make OpenGL work with 32-bit: sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
  • enable silverlight: pipelight-plugin --enable silverlight
  • Use a 'user agent switcher' to switch your browser to show as Firefox on Windows
  • Fix policykit:

apt-get download p11-kit:i386 gnome-keyring:i386
dpkg-deb -x p11-kit_0.20.1-3_i386.deb delete
dpkg-deb -x gnome-keyring*.deb delete
sudo mkdir /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11
sudo cp delete/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/p11-kit-trust.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11
sudo cp delete/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/pkcs11