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    Please Help Configuring Thinkpad X201

    I'm still new to Linux. My first Kubuntu installation died after about a week. Can't fix it. Maybe someone else could. But I can't. So I'm preparing to reinstall and try again.

    I ran into some issues with my first installation, and I'd like to avoid them this time, but I haven't got a clue how.

    My system is a Lenovo Thinkpad x201, 8G RAM, 256G ssd

    1) Ownership. Some files and non-native applications (Webstorm, Postman, Robomongo, etc) seemed to be owned by root, and others by User.
    How do i make it so that User owns all the files that I create and all the non-native applications that I install ?
    Am I even barking up the right tree?

    2) I keep all of my important files on a separate partition. In Windows I used a logical partition D:/ for this. I tried the same thing in Linux and found that some programs, (i.e. Webstorm) couldn't write to that drive. So now I've lost my settings file for Linux.
    How do I make it so Webstorm and other applications can fully access my files drive?

    3) My partition set up looked something like this:
    ROOT ~20G
    HOME ~ 30G
    SWAP ~ 8G
    FILES - The rest of the drive space

    What is an optimal partition scheme for Kubuntu given a 256G ssd?

    4) Can I install my applications to Home and then keep them intact if the main OS goes down, as just happened? If so, how?

    5) My logs showed there was some kind of driver problem with ACPI.
    How do I avoid this?

    Code:
    \- The start-up result is RESULT. Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf systemd-udevd[355]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001028-0x000000000000102F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001000-0x000000000000107F (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.PMIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x00000000000011C0-0x00000000000011CF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x00000000000011B0-0x00000000000011BF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011AF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: lpc_ich: Resource conflict(s) found affecting gpio_ich
    Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf systemd[1]: Created slice system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice.

    #2
    1) It's generally not a good idea to mess with ownership. A well designed and built user application will always provide for user read and execute of the program file. A system application has to be owned by root, but may provide for a group to which a user may belong if there is some - such as printing. If you go into a konsole and enter the command "groups", it will shows you what groups you are a member of for system applications that you personally are allowed to interact with, like this:
    Code:
    john@john-Desktop:/tmp$ groups
    john adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare
    john@john-Desktop:/tmp$
    2) Generally speaking /home is where your data goes, with some users making use of the /mnt directory for extended file storage. And /media is usually where plug in devices like USB drives may find themselves mounted. Right now I have this structure (no USB drives plugged in at the moment):
    Code:
    john@john-Desktop:/$ df -h
    Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    udev            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev
    tmpfs           1.6G  1.6M  1.6G   1% /run
    /dev/sda2        37G   11G   24G  31% /
    tmpfs           7.8G   45M  7.8G   1% /dev/shm
    tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
    tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    /dev/sda1       476M  6.1M  469M   2% /boot/efi
    /dev/sda3        95G   27G   64G  30% /home
    /dev/sdb1       293G   67G  212G  24% /home/multimedia
    tmpfs           1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /run/user/119
    tmpfs           1.6G   36K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000
    You can see that I choose to have a regular /home where a lot of my documents, and the configs for the apps I use go, and a /home/multimedia on a separate drive where my music, photos, videos, and the like go. The drives for both those directories are always mounted at boot time and are internal drives in the desktop PC. You can also see that the system also mounts a whole bunch of other small partitions - that are temporary.

    3) which brings up the question of what is "FILES" in you layout. Do you have a separate partition that is used to mount a directory named FILES? Not saying its illegal or anything , just unusual. Also, what do you anticipate storing in FILES?

    4) It's usually not a good thing to install applications to /home, precisely because of ownership and permissions issues. An application installed to /home can, and most likely will completely screw permissions on the entire directory. So don't mix data and applications, even if you think you "own" the application because you install the application. The /opt directory is often used for applications that are installed outside the OS's normal packaging system. If you can find an application that uses the Kubuntu Debian packaging system, it will usually behave much better than some others. Snaps and flatpaks are outside the Debian method, also. And even if a particular application is several versions ahead of the Debian version, the Debian version is compiled against the kernel and libraries that are in the current Kubuntu version, so they will run more smoothly. There are exceptions, but you most definitely do not run down a rabbit hole of chasing kernels and libraries that work with some application and not so well with the rest of Kubuntu. There are people who actually build their own Linux from top to bottom. But they are rare birds.

    5) Did you install or plugin some hardware, or some non standard app or library before that started to show? Or was that the immediate result after your re-install?
    The next brick house on the left
    Intel i7 11th Gen | 16GB | 1TB | KDE Plasma 5.24.7 | Kubuntu 22.04.4 | 6.5.0-18-generic

    Comment


      #3
      Thank you jglen940 for you help!

      3) "files" are anything I want to keep for a long time: pictures, config files, word docs, etc. Maybe "hoard" (as in "My neighbor is a hoarder who has a hoard") is a better word for this drive than "files". So I have a logical Hoard-drive.

      4) Ok I did a bad thing then and installed a couple of apps to Home. Chrome and postman I think. Do you think this may be what kicked me into emergency mode?

      5) Nothing that should affect that. I did install MongoDB official version, then I had to uninstall it because it doesn't work, and re-install Ubuntu's native Mongo packages. - Is there a way to fix the ACPI drivers in emergency mode?

      Comment


        #4
        Typically, the Thinkpad series of laptops are well supported by all Linux distros. The hardware is pretty common and therefore the needed libraries and other objects are a prt of the basic install. For your "files", which you define about the same way that I define what is in my /home/multimedia, can go under /home as I do or under /mnt as others do. I would not recommend using /media for that purpose - there MIGHT be a conflict with some transient mount such as a USB drive. You can put it in a separate partition on the hard drive or just keep it in a subdirectory under either /home or /mnt and just make sure you provide enough space in the associated partition.

        Right now your ACPI issues seem to be warnings and not errors, so if there is something that needs to be installed or updated that can be done within the session. Installs can be done with the Synaptic GUI or apt in konsole. I'm not all that familiar with the specific issue you seem to have with
        shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
        I used to have an older Thinkpad, but not now. While I do see that specific kernel module on my desktop PC, no problems or errors or warnings show in my logs. What I did to determine that is in konsole enter:
        Code:
        john@john-Desktop:/$ sudo find / -name shpchp*
        [sudo] password for john: 
        /lib/modules/4.15.0-44-generic/kernel/drivers/pci/hotplug/shpchp.ko
        /lib/modules/4.15.0-45-generic/kernel/drivers/pci/hotplug/shpchp.ko
        find: ‘/proc/2023/task/2023/net’: Invalid argument
        find: ‘/proc/2023/net’: Invalid argument
        /sys/bus/pci/drivers/shpchp
        /sys/module/shpchp
        /sys/module/shpchp/parameters/shpchp_poll_time
        /sys/module/shpchp/parameters/shpchp_poll_mode
        /sys/module/shpchp/parameters/shpchp_debug
        Which shows that is is present.
        And then:
        Code:
        john@john-Desktop:/$ dmesg|grep -A 10 -B 10 shpchp
        [   13.878608] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
        [   14.158709] systemd-journald[324]: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
        [   15.342777] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
        [   16.036060] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
        [   16.534789] parport_pc 00:01: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
        [   16.534832] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 5 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
        [   16.632060] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
        [   24.941079] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (65536 buckets, 262144 max)
        [   25.003682] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
        [   25.308757] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQAA data block query control method not found
        [   25.368703] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
        [   25.369043] (NULL device *): hwmon_device_register() is deprecated. Please convert the driver to use hwmon_device_register_with_info().
        [   25.370315] mei_me 0000:00:16.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
        [   25.392080] PKCS#7 signature not signed with a trusted key
        [   25.400098] nvidia-uvm: Loaded the UVM driver in 8 mode, major device number 237
        [   25.426256] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
        [   25.426357] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Disabling MSI
        [   25.426360] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Handle vga_switcheroo audio client
        [   25.547035] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig for ALC892: line_outs=4 (0x14/0x15/0x16/0x17/0x0) type:line
        [   25.547036] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
        [   25.547038] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0:    hp_outs=1 (0x1b/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
        Which shows no errors or warnings.

        Your situation will probably be different, and may be due to installing or plugging in additional hardware not normally a part of your laptop.
        The next brick house on the left
        Intel i7 11th Gen | 16GB | 1TB | KDE Plasma 5.24.7 | Kubuntu 22.04.4 | 6.5.0-18-generic

        Comment


          #5
          I'm just going to pile onto most of what jglen490 has already said:

          Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
          1) Ownership. Some files and non-native applications (Webstorm, Postman, Robomongo, etc) seemed to be owned by root, and others by User.
          How do i make it so that User owns all the files that I create and all the non-native applications that I install ?
          Am I even barking up the right tree?
          Totally barking up the wrong tree. You are admittedly new to Linux so I suggest doing a little reading on file permissions and ownership since Windows does nothing of the sort. Not an uncommon thing for a new Linux user to question, but an unbelievably bad idea to mess with until you're are exactly sure you're doing the right thing. My advice: leave all that in the system areas totally alone until you're advised to do something different. The whole reason you have a home folder is because that's where stuff you (as a user) should be mucking around. Also worth knowing: generally any system wide settings you might need or want to change would be in the /etc/ folder. Be very cautious about going outside there. BTW, just because it is in your home folder doesn't mean it's harmless either. Many many users here end up damaging their home settings enough that they can't get back to the desktop.

          One thing to consider - if you're going to experiment with things in your home, simply make a second user and log into that account to experiment. If your experiment works out, you can repeat the process as your regular user. If it doesn't, just delete the second user account and make a new one in it's place.

          Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
          2) I keep all of my important files on a separate partition. In Windows I used a logical partition D:/ for this. I tried the same thing in Linux and found that some programs, (i.e. Webstorm) couldn't write to that drive. So now I've lost my settings file for Linux.
          How do I make it so Webstorm and other applications can fully access my files drive?
          This is probably a file system issue. Windows by default uses NTFS and can't read or write to Linux file systems - of which there are dozens. Most Linux file systems use "journaling" which makes them safer from corruptions. It is ill advised to use NTFS, EXFAT, or VFAT for any files you really want to protect, but NTFS is safe enough IF you have a backup - which you should anyway. The simplest solution here is to install the NTFS tools in Linux and format a partition in NTFS to share for both operating systems.

          Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
          3) My partition set up looked something like this:
          ROOT ~20G
          HOME ~ 30G
          SWAP ~ 8G
          FILES - The rest of the drive space

          What is an optimal partition scheme for Kubuntu given a 256G ssd?
          "Optimal" is too subjective to reply to without knowing how you use your system. The only comment I have at this point is if the majority of your larger data files (pictures, videos, documents, etc.) are going to be on the "FILES" partition then 30G is too large for HOME because they'll be very little on it - basically just settings files.

          IMO, the best partition setup given what you've offered for information is this:
          ROOT ~30 to 40GB and using BTRFS file system.
          SWAP ~8GB assuming that's equal to your RAM size.
          FILES - The remaining.
          Here's my reasoning:
          By using BTRFS for ROOT, the 30GB of space will be shared by the Linux OS and your home. BTRFS uses subvolumes to separately contain files so your home would be in a separate subvolume (container) from the operating system. This allows easier backups of home and the OS without having to divide the free space and potentially waste it. With only 256GB drive, you should be mindful of wasting space.

          Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
          4) Can I install my applications to Home and then keep them intact if the main OS goes down, as just happened? If so, how?
          As the same as #1 above, deciding where programs should be installed is not usually up to the user. Primarily because is is assumed that when you install a program all users should have access to it. Anything in your home is only available to you. Also, "keeping them intact" is a misconception. If you have to do a reinstall, you will need to reinstall any programs you added. Any user files that are created by your use of the application will be in your home. Thus, a backup of your home protects what you need. The one exception to this is "appimages" which is a fairly new way to install and launch an application in the Linux world. In this case, an entire application exists in a single package which a user can simply download and run. Even in this case, the application will create files (settings, etc.) in your home folder, but it allows a non-administrator user to install a program.

          Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
          5) My logs showed there was some kind of driver problem with ACPI.
          How do I avoid this?

          Code:
          \- The start-up result is RESULT. Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf systemd-udevd[355]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001028-0x000000000000102F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001000-0x000000000000107F (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.PMIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x00000000000011C0-0x00000000000011CF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x00000000000011B0-0x00000000000011BF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011AF conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001180-0x00000000000011FF (\_SB.PCI0.LPC.LPIO) (20170831/utaddress-247)
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf kernel: lpc_ich: Resource conflict(s) found affecting gpio_ich
          Feb 07 12:15:55 BadWolf systemd[1]: Created slice system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice.
          The direct answer to your question is "Don't buy hardware that doesn't provide Linux drivers", but I suspect you really want to know what to do about it. You can either do nothing and safely ignore them because they're just warnings, or you can research the acpi drivers and see if there's something you can either install or a setting (usually a kernel boot parameter like "acpi_enforce_resources=lax") you can use. Likely, it's totally harmless and just there to let you know that one or more of your acpi features may not be supported. A few minutes of web searching reveals this may be a harmless bug dating to 2015 that has never been addressed because it's not causing problems. I'd just ignore it unless something isn't actually working.

          Please Read Me

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post
            IMO, the best partition setup given what you've offered for information is this:
            ROOT ~30 to 40GB and using BTRFS file system.
            SWAP ~8GB assuming that's equal to your RAM size.
            FILES - The remaining.
            Here's my reasoning:
            By using BTRFS for ROOT
            Would you recommend BTRFS for all the partitions or just ROOT?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by TwoFistedJustice View Post
              Would you recommend BTRFS for all the partitions or just ROOT?
              Just root in your case. You wanted a way to share files with Windows and the easiest way is to have an NTFS partition.

              Also, I suggest making the SWAP partition at the beginning or very end of the disk. Then later if you want to re-partition for any reason, SWAP is not in the way.

              I've written extensively here about BTRFS and how to use it. One of its primary advantages is the use of subvolumes. The *buntu installers will automatically put the operating system files into a subvolume labeled "@" and the home folders into "@home". This segregates the files but allows them to reside on the same file system - which means all the free space is available to either subvolume. They expand and contract as usage requires. Snapshots and backups can be made directly from the subvolumes making rolling back to a previous state and restoring backups super easy.

              The only major caveat is that BTRFS doesn't handle dynamically sized files at this time. Those are primarily only swap files and dynamically sized virtual disk drives. So if you are to use BTRFS as your boot file system, a swap partition is necessary and should be created before installation (makes it easier and it's selected automatically at install time). Virtual disk drives for virtual machines (like VMware or VirtualBox) can be put on a different file system or simply made fixed size rather than dynamic.

              Once you're up and running, do some reading about BTRFS - here on this forum and on the Arch Wiki pages. You'll be amazed at what it can do.

              Welcome to Linux and KFN.

              Please Read Me

              Comment


                #8
                Thank you oshnlvr!

                I have done as you said and set up root with BTRFS and everything else as ext4.

                I actually don't want to share with Windows. I used to run Windows and only mentioned it because I wanted to have a separate partition for my non-system stuff. And since I don't speak Linux fluently yet, I had to speak Windows. :-) It is my intention to completely drop Windows because I'm sick of my favorite 3rd party apps going unsupported because the developers are sick of MS changing the kernel every two weeks.

                I now have my system configured at a base level and need to find a way to back it up for quick restoration should it go boom again. But that's another thread...

                Comment

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