This is a wiki dedicated to getting Debian to work optimally on the TUXEDO Aura 15

About this page

This page is designed to help with installation of Debian GNU/Linux on the TUXEDO Aura 15 . 'This page is still under construction but the instructions should lead you to an usable installation' There are additional information on installation of necessary drivers and other optimizations.

Prerequisites

Important!: At the point of writing you need an Ethernet cable (LAN) to download the needed packages easily. In my case the WLAN was not working out of the box (non-free wifi driver needed). Also the touchpad does not work in the graphical installer so you should prefer the (non-graphical) installer when booting from the USB (see below).

Hint before buying: The AMD Radeon™ RX Vega 7 Graphics needs a non-free driver at the point of writing :( (for details see below). Consider to call TUXEDO to ask if they have a similar laptop without proprietary drivers needed.

Also consider buying a wifi chipset which is compatible with a free software system to support the free software community. TUXEDO offers the possibility to buy the TUXEDO Aura 15 without a WLAN chip so you can choose your own. If you buy it with the listed wifi chipsets you will need to install drivers from the debian non-free repository (see below).

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{i}

LAN network card:

{OK}

Detect CD/DVD:

[-]

Detect hard drives:

{OK}

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

[?]

Hibernation

{OK}

Sleep / Suspend

{OK}

Xorg

X-(

- OpenGL

[?]

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

[?]

Switch to External Screen

{OK}

Mouse

{OK}

- Built-in (Trackpoint)

[-]

- Built-in (Touchpad)

{OK}

Modem

[-]

Wireless/Wifi

X-( or {i}

Keyboard's Hotkeys

{OK}

USB-C

{OK}

Thunderbolt

[-]

Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Preparing the USB flash drive

There are many ways to install Debian. One way to install Debian on the TUXEDO Aura 15 is to use a flash USB drive. This might be your first choice since the TUXEDO Aura 15 does not ship with a CD-ROM drive. You will need a flash USB drive that is 256MB or larger. The below method outlines how to modify a flash drive putting the Debian installer on it. For other methods of installation please refer to the section Alternative Installation Methods or see the install guide.

Download the current stabel Debian 64-Bit image and verify it:

$ cd /Path/to/Debian10_amd64_iso
$ sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS 2>&1 | grep OK
 --> ok
$ gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.sign
 --> compare the fingerprint!

Creating a USB flash boot drive

We follow the Installation Manual (amd64) to create a bootable USB:

Attention: The following erases all data on the USB flash drive. Make sure you have a back-up of the data!

Run  lsblk -p  to see which devices are currently connected to your machine. Then attach the USB to see his name. Alternativeley you can use the GUI gnome-disks ("Laufwerke" in German). Make sure you copy the image on the whole device and not on a partition (e.g. dev/sdb, not /dev/sdb1)!

# cp debian.iso /dev/sdX
# sync

ToDo: verify

Install

To get the TUXEDO Aura 15 to boot from a USB stick you must enable USB booting from the BIOS. To do this, press ESC as the laptop boots and ensure booting from a USB is enabled in the BIOS.

This will cause the TUXEDO Aura 15 to boot the Debian installer from the USB stick. Now follow the instructions in the installer.

ToDo: You should prefer a setup with an encrypted hard disk

Output of inxi

For beginners the stable release is recommended and you can skip this paragraph. At the time of writing 'Buster/Debian10' is the stable release but if you choose to install the testing release (Bullseye) no backports are needed. Make sure to read up how to handle security support in testing though. Once Bullseye becomes stable you can probably skip the paragraphs to install backports (see below).

root@aura:/usr/lib/firmware/amdgpu# inxi -F
System:    Host: aura Kernel: 5.9.0-5-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Console: tty 4 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux bullseye/sid 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TUXEDO product: TUXEDO Aura 15 Gen1 v: N/A serial: N/A 
           Mobo: TUXEDO s model: AURA1501 serial: N/A UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.03RTR2 date: 11/13/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 49.4 Wh condition: 49.4/48.3 Wh (102%) 
CPU:       Info: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: 4 MiB 
           Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1397 2: 1397 3: 1397 4: 1397 5: 1397 6: 1397 7: 1397 
           8: 1397 
Graphics:  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Device-2: Acer BisonCam NB Pro type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.10 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa tty: 293x80 
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root. 
Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor driver: N/A 
           Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.9.0-5-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 80:fa:5b:8a:20:da 
           Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi 
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: 78:2b:46:2a:e2:48 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 51.22 GiB (11.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 447.02 GiB used: 51.07 GiB (11.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0 
           ID-2: /boot size: 473.5 MiB used: 146.5 MiB (30.9%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
           ID-3: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 8.4 MiB (1.7%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.73 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/dm-1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 35.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 414 Uptime: 23h 36m Memory: 30.81 GiB used: 4.46 GiB (14.5%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Shell: Bash 
           inxi: 3.2.01 
root@aura:/usr/lib/firmware/amdgpu#

Troubleshooting

When first booting, in my case the boot process was stuck with an error. By pressing 'alt + F4' I could log in under the command (user: root, pw: from Installation).

The missing part in this case was some non-free driver :( for the AMD Radeon™ RX Vega 7 Graphics. For more information read the AtiHowTo (In my case I first tried to update the kernel but it might not be necessary)

The AMD/ATI graphics processing unit (GPU) series/codename of an installed video card can usually be identified using the lspci command. For example:

See HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI for more information.

We will use buster-backports to get the newest version of the firmware-amd-graphics. Change the source list to include the backports:

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list
# buster backports
deb http://http.debian.net/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free

If you installed from a cd/dvd image you can comment out that source with '#' (if you want to use https-sources you need to installthe apt-transport-https package)

Then update and upgrade:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Install the firmware-amd-graphics from backports, libgl1-mesa-dri, libglx-mesa0, mesa-vulkan-drivers, and xserver-xorg-video-all packages:

# apt-get install -t buster-backports firmware-linux-nonfree
# apt-get install  libgl1-mesa-dri libglx-mesa0 mesa-vulkan-drivers xserver-xorg-video-all

Restart your system to load the newly installed driver by typing reboot.

If you encounter the same error, install the newest kernel to support the hardware drivers:

First search for the newest linux headers and images:

apt-cache search linux-headers | less
---> choose the newest from the list (in my case: linux-headers-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64)

apt-cache search linux-image | less
---> (in my case: linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64)

Then install header and kernel:

apt-get install -t buster-backports llinux-headers-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64

After the installation reboot:

reboot

Now you should have a graphical interface to log in. Enjoy!

(in the terminal you could verify the new kernel version with

uname -r
---> 5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64

EFI-EC-Update

There is a known bug in the EFI-EC (BIOS) that lets the TUXEDO Aura 15 freeze from time to time :( - If you encounter this problem you need to update the EC (depends on its version - the fixed version is newer than 8.12.2020):

BIOS-Dateien-in-Ihrem-Kundenkonto.tuxedo.

Follow the instructions carefully! Make sure you choose the right files for the TUXEDO Aura 15 update the EC first if you also want to update the BIOS. If you download the wrong ones you might end up with a permanent damaged Notebook!!

You need an empty USB stick with FAT32 or NTFS format. Download the zip (the one for the TUXEDO Aura 15: in my case ‘0122_Aura_15_Gen1_EC.zip’) and unzip it. Moreover download und unzip the EFI Launcher Paket. Load the two folders on your USB, attach the charging cable and the USB (and nothing else!) to the TUXEDO Aura 15 and boot by pressing multiple times 'F7' into the BIOS.

Choose the USB stick and press 'Enter'. Then start the Shellx64.efi that will start a shell (if not automatically started yet).

You will prompted a list. Make sure you are logged in on your USB file (Removeable HardDisk fs1 in my case – type ‚fs1:‘ if needed – the ‚:‘ can be found on with ‚shift+Ö‘ on the German keybord‘.

Then use the command dir to list all files, cd into the EC folder and start the '?EcFlash.NSH' script.

After the script is done the Notebook will shut down. Then, if you do not intent to update the BIOS as well (not necessary in my case), remove the charger and wait 5 Min until you plug it in again to start the Notebook again.

Problems booting the installer

Problems with the installer itself

The mouspat was not working in the graphical installer → Use the (non-graphical) installer...

Problems with older Debian releases

Other

Setup

The installation will produce a usable Debian installation. However, some configuration is needed to get everything working.

Custom Hardware drivers

Wi-Fi

If you bought the TUXEDO Aura 15 with the WLAN chip from TUXEDO (Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 or Intel Dual AC 9260 at the point of writing) you need to install drivers for them from the debian non-free repository.

Consider buying a wifi chipset which is compatible with a free software system instead to support the free software community. TUXEDO offers the possibility to buy the TUXEDO Aura 15 without a WLAN chip so you can choose your own.

ToDo: some experience on possible chipsets?

Here is how you install the wifi package:

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

# buster backports
deb http://http.debian.net/debian buster-backports non-free main

→ save

# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade

# apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi

TUXEDO keyboard etc.

To get the TUXEDO specific hardware support (LED colors, fan control etc), you might need to install some deb packages from TUXEDO with

sudo apt install /Path/custom_driver.deb

or better compile them from source. Here an example on how to compile the tuxedo-keybord module:

Log in as root and clone the git repo:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
apt-get install install git

git clone https://github.com/tuxedocomputers/tuxedo-keyboard.git

cd tuxedo-keyboard

git checkout release

Build the keyboard module as a kernel module:

make clean

sudo make dkmsinstall

Load the Module with modprobe:

sudo modprobe tuxedo_keyboard

Now the modul should be loaded automatically on boot.

Suspend on lid closure

Other distributions

Where to buy

External Links


CategoryLaptopComputer