Nora NICOLAS's questions

I've been having lots of graphical issues with specific applications on Ubuntu 18.04 using my Dell Latitude 7490. For instance on GitKraken:

The same thing happens on:

• Zoom
• Slack
• Signal
• Skype
• Discord
• Telegram (I think)
• Chrome
• Chromium

I think this is giving me random crashes after some point (where my session just closes and I lose everything that's opened, but the RAM doesn't lower). I'd like to fix the graphical issues first and hope that it fixes the random crashes.

I get the feeling there's an underlying cause there, some software thingy, a driver issue, but I have no idea where to look or what relevant information to give. I thought about:

$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 3ea0 (rev 02)

$ hostnamectl
Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
          Kernel: Linux 5.4.0-64-generic
    Architecture: x86-64

$ glxinfo | grep -i "vendor\|rendering"
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
    Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center (0x8086)
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center

It might be relevant that I'm using i3 and compton, though it happens on a regular Gnome session and with compton not running.

As everyone knows, nvidia drivers don't work well on Ubuntu. I deactivated my RTX 2060 nvidia card on my Lenovo Legion Y540 with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (keeping its use on Windows for gaming) doing the following (from there):

I checked Enable hybrid graphics in my BIOS; then,

sudo aptitude install bbswitch-dkms

and

sudo nvim /etc/modules

added bbswitch and reloaded.

I then switched to intel with:

sudo prime-select intel

And turned off nvidia card for lower consumption with

sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF

My consumption went from like 40W to 11W, which is great, but now xrandr gives

eDP1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm
   1920x1080    144.00*+  59.96    59.93  
   1680x1050     84.94    74.89    69.88    59.95    59.88  
   1600x1024     60.17  
   1400x1050     85.00    74.76    70.00    59.98  
   1600x900     144.00    59.95    59.82  
   1280x1024     85.02    75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1400x900      59.96    59.88  
   1280x960      85.00    60.00  
   1368x768     144.00    59.88    59.85  
   1360x768      59.80    59.96  
   1280x800      59.81    59.91  
   1152x864     100.00    85.06    85.00    75.00    75.00    70.00    60.00  
   1280x720     144.00    59.86    59.74  
   1024x768      85.00    75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1024x768i     86.96  
   1024x576     144.00    59.90    59.82  
   832x624       74.55  
   960x540      144.00    59.63    59.82  
   800x600       85.14    72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   864x486      144.00    59.92    59.57  
   640x480       85.01    72.81    75.00    59.94  
   720x405      144.00    59.51    58.99  
   720x400       85.04  
   640x400       85.08  
   640x360      144.00    59.84    59.32  
   640x350       85.08  
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I just tried to plug in an HDMI monitor, and now it turned on the nvidia card again (while prime-select query still gives intel as a result), my power consumption is at 43W. I have to run sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF again.

Does anyone know how to deactivate the nvidia card, yet still be able to connect external monitors? Maybe a USB-c adapter could do the trick if there is no other way?

lspci output:

lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 3e9b
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1f11 (rev a1)

On my last Ubuntu 18.04 installation on my MSI laptop, I had managed to setup my Elan touchpad using synaptics and the synclient commands.

My current setup is a Lenovo Legion Y540 with Ubuntu 18.04 again. The touchpad can move the cursor, two fingers scroll correctly, the buttons can click, but single or multi-pressing don't. The Fn+F11 combination (touchpad deactivation) works. I tried to see if I had a synaptics compatible touchpad, so I ran xinput --list and I got:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 Mouse  id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 Consumer Control   id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 Consumer Control   id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ITE Tech. Inc. ITE Device(8910) Consumer Control  id=15   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ MSFT0001:01 04F3:309E Touchpad            id=18   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0    id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 System Control id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated Camera: Integrated C           id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ITE Tech. Inc. ITE Device(8910) Wireless Radio Control    id=16   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ITE Tech. Inc. ITE Device(8910) Keyboard  id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=19   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 Consumer Control   id=20   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0 Consumer Control   id=21   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ITE Tech. Inc. ITE Device(8910) Consumer Control  id=22   [slave  keyboard (3)]

I tried to install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics and it prompted me to remove some core packages to go to previous ones (or at least I think), which seems not optimal. Here's the output:

sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  xserver-xorg-core{ab} xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1 414 kB of archives. After unpacking 4 187 kB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 xserver-xorg-core : Conflicts: xserver-xorg-video-modesetting which is a virtual package, provided by:
                                - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.2), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
                                - xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04 (2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3~18.04.1), but 2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3~18.04.1 is installed
                                - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
                                - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed

 xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04 : Conflicts: xserver-xorg-core but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
                               Conflicts: xserver-xorg-video-modesetting which is a virtual package, provided by:
                                          - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.2), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
                                          - xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04 (2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3~18.04.1), but 2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3~18.04.1 is installed
                                          - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
                                          - xserver-xorg-core (2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4), but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed

 xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04 : Conflicts: xserver-xorg-core (>= 0~) but 2:1.19.6-1ubuntu4.3 is to be installed
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

      Remove the following packages:                                                                      
1)      xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04 [2:1.20.4-1ubuntu3~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                     
2)      xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04 [1:7.7+19ubuntu8~18.04.2 (bionic-updates, now)]                            
3)      xserver-xorg-input-all-hwe-18.04 [1:7.7+19ubuntu8~18.04.2 (bionic-updates, now)]                  
4)      xserver-xorg-input-libinput-hwe-18.04 [0.28.1-1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                    
5)      xserver-xorg-input-wacom-hwe-18.04 [1:0.36.1-0ubuntu1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]              
6)      xserver-xorg-video-all-hwe-18.04 [1:7.7+19ubuntu8~18.04.2 (bionic-updates, now)]                  
7)      xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu-hwe-18.04 [19.0.1-1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                      
8)      xserver-xorg-video-ati-hwe-18.04 [1:19.0.1-0ubuntu1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                
9)      xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-hwe-18.04 [1:0.5.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]               
10)     xserver-xorg-video-intel-hwe-18.04 [2:2.99.917+git20171229-1ubuntu1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]
11)     xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-hwe-18.04 [1:1.0.16-1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                   
12)     xserver-xorg-video-qxl-hwe-18.04 [0.1.5-2build2~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                    
13)     xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-18.04 [1:19.0.1-0ubuntu1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]             
14)     xserver-xorg-video-vesa-hwe-18.04 [1:2.4.0-1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]                       
15)     xserver-xorg-video-vmware-hwe-18.04 [1:13.3.0-2build1~18.04.1 (bionic-updates, now)]              

      Install the following packages:                                                                     
16)     xserver-xorg [1:7.7+19ubuntu7.1 (bionic-updates)]                                                 

      Leave the following dependencies unresolved:                                                        
17)     xserver-xorg recommends xserver-xorg-video-all

I didn't find anything on the web for that kind of "MSFT[...] Touchpad", as it is neither Elan nor Synaptics. I would be really glad to be able to, at least, activate single-finger pressing gesture, if not edge scrolling on all edges and other things I could do with synclient. Thanks to anyone who can help me do that!