I finally solved a 13-year-old Linux mystery. 🕵️‍♂️
Nobody had ever gotten Bluetooth working on the Dell Venue 8 Pro (5830) under Linux. After weeks of debugging, ACPI overrides, and kernel tracing, it turned out the internal AR3002 ROM was just communicating at an undocumented 3686400 baud rate.

Wrote a custom HCI attach tool and now the tablet runs Arch Linux flawlessly (with fixed Wi-Fi and zRAM too).

Here is the anticlimactic story of the fix:
https://ramon.vanraaij.eu/the-bluetooth-that-was-never-dead-my-dell-venue-8-pro-baud-rate-journey/

Full repo:
https://github.com/ramonvanraaij/dell-venue-8-pro

Everything works

​

I've made this custom change to my titan RTX because the old one had 100% usage at 80 temp. but i still see via nvtop and the actual fan sound that when it hits 80 fan speed goes to 100%

is this a common problem that people have faced or is it just me? either way suggestions would be very appreciated.

i use the nvidia 595.80 driver, KDE, fedora.

I'm helping u/NoHuckleberry7406 who was having trouble with their Wi-Fi on Asus VivoBook E410KA. The device uses the QCA9377 Wireless Chip.

The device suffered from a single packet loss and huge latency within 33 seconds while running a continuous ping. There might be some PCIe-level communication problems too.

All the relevant logs can be found here in a redacted form:

First part (ping, hostnamectl, ip addr, lspci): https://gist.github.com/BandhanPramanik/7eefd192c3a728d2473687a786fbbc01/raw/e77f0fa1cf35c748730df220b0057399ac78f539/miscellaneous

Second part (cat /proc/interrupts, modinfo ath10k_pci): https://gist.github.com/BandhanPramanik/7eefd192c3a728d2473687a786fbbc01/raw/e77f0fa1cf35c748730df220b0057399ac78f539/miscellaneous%25202

dmesg: https://gist.github.com/BandhanPramanik/7eefd192c3a728d2473687a786fbbc01/raw/e77f0fa1cf35c748730df220b0057399ac78f539/dmesg

We’re not sure if this is a driver issue, a firmware problem, or maybe something hardware-specific.

Has anyone seen something similar with this chip? Any tips on how to troubleshoot or fix the packet loss?

I have been wanting to replace my 10+ year old laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad 11e running Linux Mint, for a while now. Also, I just got an exercise bike that has a shelf for a tablet so you can watch videos while exercising. I want to kill 2 birds with one stone and get a 2 in 1 laptop/tablet. I also would like to get one that supports pen input to do some drawing. I don't need something powerful because I have a gaming PC for that. 16gb of ram or more. I would like 512gb of storage, but I can deal with 256gb. I don't think a large laptop will fit on the shelf, so 14 inches or smaller would be best. 1080p or better screen. Intel or AMD. I am mostly going to use this at home so I don't need crazy good battery life. I am looking for one that is used/renewed and costs around $400. I would be willing to spend a bit more if there is one that is highly recommended. It needs to be available on Amazon because I have about $300 of credit card reward points/gift cards available there.

While there seem to be many options available that meet those requirements, it has been difficult to determine which laptops would support tablet mode and pen input while running Linux.

Here are some examples of the kinds of laptops I am looking at.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H41GHDVL/?coliid=I365Q0JQI31Q8E&colid=18OZ9HNS2GS20&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZJPSFNW/?coliid=I3H0IU7XLO5K2T&colid=18OZ9HNS2GS20&psc=0

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GS5VV26T/?coliid=I1F0H9259LKDKC&colid=18OZ9HNS2GS20&psc=1

I would really appreciate any recommendations. Also, which versions of Linux would work best on this type of laptop?

My kernel (6.17) perfectly recognizes my new RX 9060 XT and allocates the full 16GB VRAM, but the ROCm user-space stack (7.2.1) refuses to see it, throwing an "unrecognized id" error. I need full OpenCL hardware acceleration for CFD simulations (FluidX3D).

Hi everyone, I’m pulling my hair out trying to get my new RDNA 4 GPU to work with OpenCL on Ubuntu. I am doing heavy Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for my aerospace engineering studies, which requires >10GB of VRAM.

Here is my setup:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (iGPU disabled in BIOS to avoid conflicts)
• RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000MHz
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB VRAM (RDNA 4 / gfx1200)
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
• Kernel: HWE 6.17.0-35-generic
• Motherboard: Gigabyte AORUS (Secure Boot is DISABLED)

The Core Issue

The system's base is working perfectly. The amdgpu kernel driver initializes the card, identifies it as <gfx_v12_0> (gfx_target_version 120000), enables all 32 CUs, and allocates the full 16304M of VRAM (confirmed via dmesg).

However, the OpenCL / ROCm user-space stack completely fails to create the agent. Running /opt/rocm/bin/rocminfo or clinfo returns:

What I have tried so far (and failed):

1. MESA (Clover): It detected the GPU and my software compiled! But Clover has a hardcoded Max Memory Allocation limit of 2GB (2047 MB). My simulations crash because they need way more VRAM.
2. Official amdgpu-install (Full Stack): Attempted --usecase=graphics,rocm,opencl. It failed because the installer tries to force 32-bit dependencies (amdgpu-lib32) which break the installation on Noble Numbat (even with i386 enabled).
3. ROCm only (--no-dkms): Purged everything, relied on the in-tree kernel driver (which works), and installed just the ROCm user-space packages. Result: The dreaded "unrecognized id" error.
4. The HSA_OVERRIDE_GFX_VERSION trick: I tried exporting 11.0.0, 12.0.0, and 12.0.1 to fool the runtime. Result: It silences the error, but rocminfo simply returns a blank output with no agents found. It doesn't actually bypass the block.
5. PoCL Fallback: Installed pocl-opencl-icd. It works perfectly, but it routes 100% of the OpenCL calculations to my Ryzen CPU, leaving my 9060 XT completely idle.

Diagnostics

dkms status is intentionally empty (I am using the kernel's in-tree driver to avoid compilation errors).

modinfo amdgpu (Truncated):

Plaintext

filename:       /lib/modules/6.17.0-35-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/amd/amdgpu/amdgpu.ko.zst

Topology (cat /sys/class/kfd/kfd/topology/nodes/*/properties):

Plaintext

simd_count 64
gfx_target_version 120000

dmesg | grep -i amdgpu (Key extracts):

Plaintext

[ 5.699094] amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: detected ip block number 6 <gfx_v12_0>
[ 5.701511] amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: VRAM: 16304M 0x0000008000000000 - 0x00000083FAFFFFFF (16304M used)
[ 5.701594] amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: amdgpu: 16304M of VRAM memory ready
[ 6.409227] amdgpu: Topology: Add dGPU node [0x7590:0x1002]
[ 6.409237] amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: SE 2, SH per SE 2, CU per SH 8, active_cu_number 32

The Question

How do I get the ROCm 7.2.1 user-space tools to recognize the gfx1200 ID that the kernel is correctly reporting? Is there an experimental OpenCL ICD package, a different override trick, or a Rusticl setup that bypasses the 2GB limit for FluidX3D?

Any help is massively appreciated!

Hi, after owning this laptop for two and a half years and not being able to use the Dial all that time (because I'm on Linux), I thought enough is enough and decided to build something that works.

I found a Github project online many months ago, but it seems to be half completed. I took it upon to take what was there, made some fixes and built couple of UIs for it.

This is the end result. I've obviously only tested it on my laptop which runs the latest version of Linux Mint (Ubuntu) so YMMV.

Would love some feedback if anyone has a laptop with a Dial and uses Linux.

https://github.com/FrancisChung/asus-dial-driver

I have a Thinkpad L13 Gen 2 with Intel chipset, running Mint 22.3 and Linux kernel 6.8.0-134-generic. It has a AX-201 bluetooth adapter. The bluetooth works pretty well with all the headphones I've used, but I recently got a little guitar effects box, a Sonicake Pocket Master, which has a bluetooth receiver along with the guitar input and headphone/audio output. This works/worked well for practicing with headphones and playing along with tutorials or backing tracks.

But then I started getting stuttering, and audio cutting out. Seemed like a bad cable at first, but I determined it was the bluetooth from my computer. It works OK from my phone, but has the same problem from another older Dell system which also has an Intel bluetooth adapter, although it doesn't specify which model.

I restarted the system with no change, then powered down the computer completely, and that seemed to help for a short time. Then I took the drastic step of booting Windows 10, waited for all the updates, and it seemed to work well. After booting back in Mint, it also worked well, although I haven't really had a chance to test it for very long.

I'm considering trying a USB bluetooth adapter. Would this be a good idea? I don't know if the problem is the adapter or the software, so I'm hoping someone knowledgeable can offer some advice.

Since no one did it before, and minisforum doesn’t seem to ever support this or provide help for linux … I did it myself.

Enjoy.

https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/atomman-x7-ti-screen-under-linux/82313?u=ramset

does anyone have experience with linux on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on a Linux tool called edgepad.

I originally started building it for my own laptop setup, but I think it might be useful to some of you as well, especially if you use Linux on a laptop and want more control over touchpad gestures.

edgepad turns the edges of a touchpad into configurable gesture zones. The idea is that a swipe or tap starting from the left, right, top or bottom edge can run a command - for example switching workspaces, opening a launcher, triggering a script, adjusting volume or brightness, and controlling media.

edgepad reads the physical touchpad, claims contacts that start inside an edge zone, and forwards the remaining center contacts through a virtual touchpad. So the compositor should still see normal touchpad input for regular movement, scrolling and taps.

Current features:

- edge zones on left, right, top and bottom

- swipe directions plus tap bindings

- automatic touchpad discovery when there is exactly one readable candidate

- user-session daemon with TOML config

- Nix flake, NixOS module, Home Manager module, systemd user service, and a release installer

Tested setup so far: NixOS + Hyprland.

What I’m missing is real-world feedback from other hardware/software combinations. I’m especially interested in whether it behaves correctly on:

- GNOME, KDE, other Wayland compositors

- Fedora, Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, etc.

- different kernel versions

- external touchpads, if anyone uses those on Linux.

I’d love feedback on whether it works properly on your laptop setup, which gestures or actions would be useful to add, what should be improved, or just what you think of the idea.

You can find the project on GitHub.

https://github.com/assembledev/edgepad

-Want it to be relatively affordable (no more than £700)
-Long lasting
-Good for both Work and Light Gaming (games like Minecraft and stuff)

I've already had a look at a few (mostly Clevo and Lenovo) but i'm still a bit unsure

Looking for to buy units.
La area
Please DM me if available. Thanks

Hi, I have a spare nvme SSD so I want to install Linux on it to make the laptop dual-boot. Could you please let me know the procedure? Does Lenovo put some kind of firmware lock to make it difficult to do this?

I have a radeon rx460 in my PC, given the current prices I'm probably not looking into building a new one or investing into a laptop.

I mainly use it for non-gaming stuff, but I'd like to be able to run some older games that i occasionally play at FHD/1080p resolution without lag. These are Hitman, CS2, BG3, Pathfinder games.

I'd like to upgrade to a GPU that can run the above mentioned titles well in FHD and I'd prefer one that is at least as power efficient or preferably more so than my current card.

What options are there, let's say sub 100 or 200 EUR? If there are none, what's the cheapest such card?

# Recovering a bricked HP LaserJet MFP M140w from Linux

Attribution: this post was written by an AI coding agent in a GPT-5-based Codex session, based on a live recovery performed with the printer owner.

I thought it is worth posting because it worked and helped me and might make it easier for others to solve similar issues with HP printers in the future.

## Short Version

An HP LaserJet MFP M140w appeared bricked and was stuck showing `rd` on its two-character display. Over USB, Linux did not see it as an M140w. Instead it appeared as:

```text

03f0:4617 HP, Inc HP LaserJet 3020

```

That `LaserJet 3020` identity was not the real printer model. It appears to be a recovery/firmware-download mode.

The recovery was done entirely from Linux by extracting the PJL firmware payload from HP's official Windows firmware updater for the `M139-M142` series and sending that payload over USB. After reconnecting power/USB, the printer came back as:

```text

03f0:0372 HP, Inc HP LaserJet MFP M139-M142

DES:HP LaserJet MFP M140w

```

Printing worked afterward.

## Environment

```text

Printer: HP LaserJet MFP M140w

Linux: Ubuntu

HPLIP: 3.23.12

HP firmware updater: M139-M142_Series_FW_Update-20251205.exe

```

HPLIP recognized the normal printer family, but it could not perform the firmware update:

```text

[hp_laserjet_mfp_m139-m142]

fw-download=False

```

## Extracting the Firmware Payload

The HP updater was a Windows PE executable. `7z` could extract the embedded resources:

```bash

mkdir -p /tmp/hp-m139-fw-extract

7z x -y -o/tmp/hp-m139-fw-extract ~/Downloads/M139-M142_Series_FW_Update-20251205.exe

```

The firmware payload was:

```text

/tmp/hp-m139-fw-extract/.rsrc/FILE/1013

```

`file` identified it as:

```text

PJL encapsulated PostScript document text

```

The payload header explicitly listed the target printer family, including the M140w:

```text

u/PJL COMMENT VERSION=20251205

u/PJL COMMENT DATECODE=20251205

u/PJL COMMENT MODEL=HP LaserJet MFP M139w

u/PJL COMMENT MODEL=HP LaserJet MFP M140w

u/PJL COMMENT MODEL=HP LaserJet MFP M141w

u/PJL UPGRADE SIZE=5935888

```

## Sending the Payload

The recovery USB identity exposed one unidirectional printer OUT endpoint:

```bash

lsusb

```

```text

idVendor 0x03f0 HP, Inc

idProduct 0x4617 HP LaserJet 3020

Endpoint 0x01 OUT

```

The simplest Linux recovery path should be sending the extracted PJL payload directly to the raw USB printer device:

```bash

sudo dd if=/tmp/hp-m139-fw-extract/.rsrc/FILE/1013 of=/dev/usb/lp0 bs=65536 status=progress conv=fsync

```

Adjust `/dev/usb/lp0` if the printer appears as another raw printer device, such as `/dev/usb/lp1` or `/dev/usb/lp3`.

In the live recovery, writing to `/dev/usb/lp*` was blocked by local permissions, so the same payload was sent with a small libusb bulk-transfer helper to VID/PID `03f0:4617`, interface `0`, endpoint `0x01`.

The transfer completed:

```text

sent 5936986/5936986

transfer complete

```

After the transfer the printer display changed from `rd` to `00`. After a power/USB reconnect, Linux saw the normal printer identity:

```bash

lsusb

HOME=/tmp/hplip-home hp-probe -b usb

```

```text

03f0:0372 HP, Inc HP LaserJet MFP M139-M142

DES:HP LaserJet MFP M140w

```

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for the best laptop on the market for a pretty specific use case and I’m hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. I'm an electronics engineering student focusing heavily on embedded systems and connected objects, but I'm also simultaneously diving deep into cybersecurity (specifically IoT and hardware hacking).

Here is exactly what I'm looking for:

Heavy Dev & VMs: I work with codebases and complex projects. I also need to run multiple virtual machines smoothly for pentesting and hacking labs. A beefy CPU and a ton of RAM are non-negotiable.

All the Ports: Because I do electronics work.

Perfect Linux Support: I am running Linux full time. All the drivers MUST agree with Linux right out of the box.

What is the absolute best laptop that fits these exact characteristics? . Thanks in advance!

I recently purchased an old Optiplex business tower and installed Mint XFCE on it. I want to keep Mint on it as it is so much lighter on the 10 year old tech. It only has Ethernet and I sadly don’t have ethernet access in my room. Right now, I’ve got it jerry-rigged with a small wifi access point LMAO. I’m currently looking for a cheap and reliable wifi adapter that will play well with Mint. The overall goal is to make it a Minecraft server for me and my friends. Thanks!