Progress on setting up Linux on P750DM-G ... but, backlight/wifi/etc?

Hi all...

So I've made some progress, and am now running Lubuntu 15.10 on my P750DM-G. Thanks to all who have helped so far.

Now I have the proper Intel 7265 wifi card, and have it physically installed, but it doesn't seem to be connecting to any networks. If I go into WiFi Radar it detects the network at the house, but it won't connect even if I put the key in under select access point -> configure -> wifi options -> key. Also running a command line diagnostic utility (I forgot which one now) I think said the Intel 7265 was disabled or something like that. (Why would it call it disabled if it detects the network? Or is it detecting it through my wired connection I currently have plugged in?)

Also I'm unable to change the backlight using the keyboard keys. (On the P750DM-G, it's Fn+F8 & F9.) The little window pops up indicating the bar going up or down, but the brightness doesn't actually change. Also running xbacklight in console returns "No outputs have backlight property". What can I do to fix this?

Third, I keep triggering the touchpad while typing and resting my hands on it. I learned of a command line utility (although this is now the 3rd or 4th time I've forgotten what it was) with which I could set it to not respond until X seconds after a keypress. But, is there a better way to do it? I do also have a USB mouse (that came with the Logitech MK200 that I got for my desktop PC), but I want to also be able to use the internal touchpad for occasions when I don't have room to use the mouse or don't feel like stealing it from my desktop PC.

Also what's the procedure for adding shortcuts to the Lubuntu "start" menu, when I install an app and it doesn't automatically put one there? Also I'd like to bind the windows key to open that menu if possible - how is that done?

 

I only have limited experience with Linux Mint and some outdated experience with Ubuntu; not sure what I can offer here. Do you have the option to change the infrastructure type in the network settings? If so, what do you have it set to?

Not sure what to tell you with regards to the backlight hotkeys.

As for the touchpad: Does the hotkey for toggling it on/off work (unlike the other, said hotkeys)? The touchpad hotkeys are FN + F1.

 

On the WiFi, it still detects the networks (using the WiFi Radar app) with the wired connection unplugged, so I know that part of it is working, but I can't actually connect. Maybe I'm entering the key in the wrong place? (It's stuck at "Acquiring IP Address (DHCP)".) Running "dmesg | grep iwl" in console says the Intel AC 7265 is detected, but there's quite a few lines of "L1 Disabled - LTR Disabled". But I now can't remember what console command I used that showed me something is disabled. :/ Also just to see if that would work, I tried USB tethering with my phone's 4G connection (the phone's running Cyanogenmod) and the laptop wouldn't detect it. It did detect the phone's filesystem when I turned tethering off, though.

Hmm... apparently under LMenu -> Preferences -> Network Connections, it only shows Wired connection 1, but has the option to add a WiFi connection. Looks like I gotta manually configure things though, look at the router label, etc ... but that doesn't seem like the way it's supposed to be done (manually configuring IP, DHCP, gateway, SSID, MAC address, etc). Under LMenu -> System Tools -> Network, it isn't finding much of anything there.

OH! Now I click on the icon by the clock (lower right) that says my network is disconnected, it shows the WiFi access points, click that, put in the key ... and it connected. BUT... I'm only getting 1 bar of signal, and I'm like 8 feet from the router with no obstacles in between. Maybe I need to take the laptop apart again and see if I need to hook up an antenna to the wlan module? Or is there something else I can do to change it? My phone (Samsung SGH-T699 running Cyanogenmod) is able to get the signal near the back of the house about 30 feet or so away through about 6 or 7 walls, or about 150-200 feet straight back in the back yard through about 2 walls, although it's spotty there. (Also I'd like to be able to get USB tethering with my phone working, in case I want to use internet where I don't have WiFi but do have cell data service.)

I was talking about the screen backlight, not the keyboard backlight. I can't seem to turn it down, and I'd like to be able to do so to make my battery run longer, and also for situations when a full-brightness screen is undesirable.

For the touchpad, Fn+F1 doesn't do anything. So far the only thing I've been able to do is "synclient MaxTapTime=0" to disable tap to click on touchpad, and "synclient -i 1 -d -K" to make the touchpad not respond for 1 second after pressing a keyboard key, but I have to redo that every time I reboot, and the wait 1 second after keystroke isn't how I want it to behave. :/

Also is there a gui-based utility to modify the CPU and GPU clock speed? I had found something in console (forget what it was now) but would like a graphical utility to do so. I know that with a non-K CPU I can't overclock it, but I want to be able to manually cap it at a lower speed to save battery life when I don't need the extra performance.

Also what's the procedure to enable hibernation / suspend to disk?

 

Linux Mint required it to be set up in a similar fashion, from what I recall. Although Mint is somewhat based on Ubuntu, it's hard to speak for Lubuntu.

If not a driver issue, then yeah, it could be an antenna problem.

Right, I understood that. Still unsure of how to resolve it since the hotkey utility is supported in Windows only. Does the screen backlight respond if you navigate to the display options and drag the brightness slider?

 

For the backlighting, it can be kind of tricky... For Xubuntu on my P157SM-A and P377SM-A, I had to use my programming skills to write a couple scripts to get brightness control working. As for Wifi, it was plug&play for me on both Intel and Realtek so I cannot help you with that. I wouldn't normally suggest trying a different distro until you've done absolutely everything you can to get your current distro to work the way you want it to, but I'm pretty drunk right now, so if you're willing to, maybe give Ubuntu a shot and see if it works fine for you?

 

edit: oops, double post. Seems to be a lot of double posts today on NBR...

 

Hi I just got a Clevo based laptop
Clevo Barebone - P750DM
Display - 15.6” IPS Full-HD 1920x1080 16:9 Matte (anti-glare)
CPU - Intel Skylake Desktop Grade i7-6700
GPU - NVIDIA Quadro M1000M 2GB GDDR5

Ubuntu 16.04 is just not booting - I get to the "Try Ubuntu without installing" and when I click on it, the whole screen goes blank. Am unable to 'check device' or 'test memory' Any ideas?

 

have you tried 16.04.1, this works a treat for me, however l am running a gtx 980m instead of the Quadro.

 

just tried 16.04.1. No progress. Funny thing is that I do not even get the terminal i.e. Ctrl-Alt-F2 etc does not work either.

 

SOLVED: Then did some googling and 'nomodeset' to boot/install and then installing nvidia proprietory drivers solved the issue.
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sarah_cinnamon.php
Everything working like a charm now.