Summary of previous episodes

In another document (HTML, reST) you saw how to install a Debian testing base system on a laptop. You also found references to other general workstation documents to follow in order to tune the system. Now it's time to perform some laptop-specific configuration tweaking.

Fixing the boot process

Our example laptop experiences a delay in the boot process, while waiting for /dev to be fully populated. It waits for 120 seconds and then times out and goes on with the normal boot sequence.

This seems to be caused by the acer_wmi kernel module, which is supposed to support the Acer BMA150 accelerometer: the accelerometer seems to be recognized and a joystick-like device file is created (/dev/input/js0), but it does not seem to be really accessible. As soon as the package for joystick support is installed (see the document about games, HTML, reST), the joystick calibration restore automatism tries to probe /dev/input/js0 and waits for a reply, until the time out occurs.

In order to work around this issue, you may prevent the acer_wmi kernel module from being loaded:

# echo "blacklist acer_wmi" > /etc/modprobe.d/acerwmi-blacklist-local.conf
# update-initramfs -u

Starting from next reboot, this delay should not occur.

Network management

Network management on a laptop is slightly trickier than on a workstation/desktop or server machine: on a laptop different network interfaces are commonly used in different situations, and you cannot count on having the same network link always available.

# aptitude --without-recommends install connman-gtk \
  iw wireless-regdb wpasupplicant+M

# service connman stop

# ifdown eth0

# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# service connman start

$ connman-gtk

$ connmanctl

# mv /etc/resolv.conf /tmp
# systemd-tmpfiles --create /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/connman_resolvconf.conf

# systemctl disable connman-wait-online.service

$ grep -A 1 'network management client' ~/.xsession
# start network management client
connman-gtk &

# aptitude install pppconfig
# pppconfig

# vim /etc/chatscripts/$PROVIDER

# modeminit
'' 'ATX3'
'' 'AT&F Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0'
'' 'at+cgdcont=1,"IP","provider.url"'

# aptitude install usb-modeswitch

# service udev restart

$ pon $PROVIDER

$ poff

Enhanced touchpad support

In order to have better support for the touchpad (in the graphical environment), install the following package:

# aptitude install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

System monitor

In order to address laptop-specific needs, the configuration file for Conky should be adapted. You may use the following configuration file:

$ cat ~/.config/conky/conky.conf
-- vim: syntax=lua

conky.config = {
    background = false, -- do not fork in the background
    font = '-*-terminus-*-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*', -- X font (w/o Xft)
    use_xft = false, -- do not use Xft
    update_interval = 2.0, -- update interval (in seconds)
    total_run_times = 0, -- run forever
    own_window = true, -- do not use root window, create own window instead
    own_window_type = 'override', -- desktop own window
    own_window_transparent = true, -- use pseudo transparency
    double_buffer = true, -- use double buffering
    minimum_width = 380, -- minimum width of text area
    draw_shades = true, -- draw shades
    draw_outline = false, -- do not draw outlines
    draw_borders = false, -- do not draw borders around text
    draw_graph_borders = true, -- draw borders around graphs
    stippled_borders = 8, -- stippled borders?
    border_inner_margin = 3, -- border margins and width
    border_outer_margin = 0,
    border_width = 1,
    default_color = 'white', -- default colors
    default_shade_color = 'black',
    default_outline_color = 'black',
    alignment = 'top_right', -- placement
    gap_x = 8, -- gap between borders of screen and text
    gap_y = 8,
    no_buffers = true, -- subtract file system buffers from used memory
    cpu_avg_samples = 2, -- number of cpu samples to average
    net_avg_samples = 2, -- number of net samples to average
    override_utf8_locale = true, -- need to force UTF8
    use_spacer = 'left', -- add spaces to keep things from moving about
    text_buffer_size = 640, -- set buffer size (in bytes) for exec outputs
    if_up_strictness = 'address', -- set if_up check strictness
};

-- stuff to be formatted on screen
conky.text = [[
${color green}Host:$color $nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine
$hr
${color green}Time:$color ${time %a, %d %b %Y %T %z}${color green} - Unix time:$color ${time %s} s
${color green}Uptime:$color $uptime
${color green}Load Average:$color $loadavg${color green} - Processes:$color $processes${color green} - Running:$color $running_processes
${color green}CPU usage         %CPU   %MEM   RAM usage         %CPU   %MEM
${color} ${top name 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}  ${top_mem name 1} ${top_mem cpu 1} ${top_mem mem 1}
${color} ${top name 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}  ${top_mem name 2} ${top_mem cpu 2} ${top_mem mem 2}
${color} ${top name 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}  ${top_mem name 3} ${top_mem cpu 3} ${top_mem mem 3}
${color green}CPU Clock Frequencies:$color ${freq 1} MHz  ${freq 2} MHz
${color green}CPU Usage:$color $cpu % ${cpubar 6,100}${color green} - Disk I/O:$color $diskio/s
${color lightgrey}${cpugraph 30,190 0000ff ff0000} ${diskiograph 30,190 0000ff ff0000}
${color green}RAM Usage: $color $mem/$memmax - $memperc % ${membar}
${color green}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc % ${swapbar}
$hr
${color green}Core 0 Temp.:$color ${hwmon coretemp temp 2 1 273} K${color green} - Core 1 Temp.:$color ${hwmon coretemp temp 3 1 273} K
$hr
${color green}Network Ports:$color ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}
${if_up        eth0}${color green} eth0 - Upstream:$color ${upspeedf  eth0} KiB/s${color green} - Downstream:$color ${downspeedf  eth0} KiB/s
${color lightgrey}${upspeedgraph  eth0 30,190 0000ff ff0000} ${downspeedgraph  eth0 30,190 0000ff ff0000}
$endif${if_up wlan0}${color green}wlan0 - Upstream:$color ${upspeedf wlan0} KiB/s${color green} - Downstream:$color ${downspeedf wlan0} KiB/s
${color lightgrey}${upspeedgraph wlan0 30,190 0000ff ff0000} ${downspeedgraph wlan0 30,190 0000ff ff0000}
$endif${if_up  ppp0}${color green} ppp0 - Upstream:$color ${upspeedf  ppp0} KiB/s${color green} - Downstream:$color ${downspeedf  ppp0} KiB/s
${color lightgrey}${upspeedgraph  ppp0 30,190 0000ff ff0000} ${downspeedgraph  ppp0 30,190 0000ff ff0000}
$endif$hr
${color green}Filesystems:
${color green} /     $color${fs_used     /}/${fs_size     /} ${fs_bar     /}
${color green} /boot $color${fs_used /boot}/${fs_size /boot} ${fs_bar /boot}
${color green} /home $color${fs_used /home}/${fs_size /home} ${fs_bar /home}
${color green} /tmp  $color${fs_used  /tmp}/${fs_size  /tmp} ${fs_bar  /tmp}
${color green} /usr  $color${fs_used  /usr}/${fs_size  /usr} ${fs_bar  /usr}
${color green} /var  $color${fs_used  /var}/${fs_size  /var} ${fs_bar  /var}
$hr
${color green}${execi 50 ddate}
${color green}${execi 65000 fortune -s | tr -d '\b' | cowsay}
]];

Audio settings

The soundcard's volume levels may be adjusted by your regular user:

$ alsamixer

Set values according to the following table:

Power management

Install a power management daemon:

# aptitude install xfce4-power-manager

If you want to have this daemon started on each Fluxbox session you open, insert the following two lines into your regular user's ~/.xsession file (between MANAGER and HANG POINT):

$ grep power ~/.xsession
# start power management daemon
xfce4-power-manager --daemon

You can configure the daemon's settings, by selecting Power manager settings from the menu that pops up when you right-click on its systray icon, or, alternatively, by issueing the following command:

$ xfce4-power-manager-settings

In the "General" tab, choose "Ask" "When power button is pressed", "Do nothing" "When sleep button is pressed", "Do nothing" "When hibernate button is pressed", check "Handle display brightness keys", choose "Lock screen" on battery and "Lock screen" plugged in "When laptop lid is closed", check "Show notifications" and "Show system tray icon". In the "System" tab, choose "System sleep mode" "Hibernate" on battery and "Suspend" plugged in, set "When inactive for" Never on battery and Never plugged in, "Critical battery power level" 10 %, choose "On critical battery power" "Ask", and check "Lock screen when system is going for sleep". In the "Display" tab, check "Handle display power management", set "Black after" 3 Minutes on battery and 30 Minutes plugged in, "Put to sleep after" 5 Minutes on battery and 35 Minutes plugged in, "Switch off after" 7 Minutes on battery and 45 Minutes plugged in, "On inactivity reduce to" 20 % on battery and 80 % plugged in, and "Reduce after" 120 Seconds on battery and Never plugged in.

Hardware event management

In order to handle some hardware events, install the following package:

# aptitude install acpi-support radeontool_

On-the-fly video output reconfiguration

In order to be able to temporarily reconfigure video outputs (screen, external monitors, external video projectors, ...) on the fly, install the following GUI program:

# aptitude install arandr