Purism Librem 14 v1

User Support HCL Reports
10

I’ve been having a number of issues with my Librem 14 and Qubes.

  1. xfce4-power-manager sometimes does not recognize plugging/unplugging the power adapter.

  2. The battery sometimes decides to not charge. Even with the power adapter plugged in, the battery level will stay at 63%, for example.

  3. The headphones do not work yet, but evidently there is a firmware update in the near future to fix this.

  4. xfce4-power-manager sometimes does not recognize the lid is closed and does not suspend. I’ve been having to manually suspend before closing the lid.

  5. After rebooting today, I currently cannot login to Qubes due to some sort of login loop. The OS boots to the login prompt after successfully decrypting the luks drive. Upon entering the incorrect password, the login fails with an appropriate error message. Upon entering the correct password, the login prompt just resets.

I think some more tweaks are required before calling this compatible out of the box.

2 Likes
11

Are you talking about Qubes 4.0 or 4.1 here? Librem 14 is very new and 4.0 uses very old Fedora, so I would expect some problems.

This looks like a possible bug. Perhaps you could create a separate thread for that and maybe someone can help here.

12

4.0.

I’m still trying to debug the login issue, I’ll create a separate thread for it later today (edit: created login loop thread).

1 Like
13

Did you try to run 4.1 instead 4.0 on Librem?

14

@leaningtrees Thats strange.

Looks like we both have 4.0 according to my ACL above and I have none of the problems above.

I run the i3 desktop manager which switches out some xfce tools for their own like xfce4-power-manager.
So you might have some xfce troubles since I only booted that long enough to install i3 on log into that.

I’ll play around with xfce instead of i3 today and see if i can replicate some of your issues @leaningtrees.

15

@fsflover Bluetooth works fine =)

Did a quick test with bluetooth and got it working:

  1. dnf install blueman in the base template for your media VM that needs bluetooth.
  2. restart VM and base image.
  3. run lsusb in sys-usb and look for the bluetooth device hash. mine was 04ca:xxxx
    the device had bluetooth in its name.
    this assumes that the bluetooth device got assigned to sys-usb with the other peripherals during installation. If you clicked “use sys-usb for usb devices” during setup bluetooth should be here.
  4. then just assign that USB device in the USB applet to your Media vm
  5. the blueman applet starts automatically in media VM and detects bluetooth automatically on device assignment.
  6. Open blueman applet Pair, connect and listen away on your bluetooth speakers.

Did I misunderstand what you meant by not really supported?

1 Like
16

Yes, you can make Bluetooth work in 4.0. However, AFAIK it won’t be secure to use it for audio, because PulseAudio is not isolated from dom0. I don’t know the technical details, I have only read the link I provided. One more link:

2 Likes
17

Thanks @fsflover learnt something new today =)

1 Like
18

I logged into the default desktop manager XFCE instead of i3 that i use to see if I could replicate your issues.
Note, that i only repeated each point a few times, not extended use over a day etc.

xfce4-power-manager sometimes does not recognize plugging/unplugging the power adapter.

it correctly detected that i pulled the power plug and detected the insertion later on and charged to maximum and then stopped.
Repeated a few times with at coffee break in between.

The battery sometimes decides to not charge. Even with the power adapter plugged in, the battery level will stay at 63%, for example.

I couldn’t replicate this unfortunately.

xfce4-power-manager sometimes does not recognize the lid is closed and does not suspend. I’ve been having to manually suspend before closing the lid.

This worked for me a few times in a row. Once it took 7sec before powering down but it worked nonetheless.

The headphones do not work yet, but evidently there is a firmware update in the near future to fix this.

This bug we both share, it doesn’t automatically detect the headphones inserted into the jack so you have go click the sound applet icon and switch the external output to the headphones.
Then everything works, annoying though.

After rebooting today, I currently cannot login to Qubes due to some sort of login loop. The OS boots to the login prompt after successfully decrypting the luks drive. Upon entering the incorrect password, the login fails with an appropriate error message. Upon entering the correct password, the login prompt just resets.

Not sure how I can test this, according to the HCL I posted and the Qubes version you posted we should be running the same Qubes version on the same laptop.
Strange that we have two completely different experiences =/
The silicone lottery shouldn’t matter this much…

Hope you get it working @leaningtrees!

19

Thanks for checking hanabi.

I was able to get suspend on lid close working - I had to uncomment the following line from /etc/systemd/logind.conf:

HandleLidSwitch=suspend

as the default xfce4-power-manager setting of logind-handle-lid-switch is defaulted to true.

I am still seeing really erratic behavior with the power manager upon un/plugging the power adapter in. Sometimes it detects it, other times it does not. I’ve also noticed that sometimes some of the function keys stop working with xfce4-power-manager - brightness buttons don’t do anything. Other times they work fine. For example, right now I have the power cable plugged in but the xfce4-power-manager applet, upower -d, and cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status all show Discharging, and the Fn+F5 or Fn+F6 buttons to change the screen brightness do nothing. Not sure if this is a problem in the firmware - certainly doesn’t seem like a problem with Qubes at all. I added a comment to this Purism thread.

The headphone jack has a partial fix coming in the next firmware release according to this Purism forum post, though it sounds like automatic switching to headphones and the microphone (audio input) is still a work in progress.

The login loop was of my own doing - I updated the other thread I created (user’s shell did not exist).

1 Like
20

Another update: I noticed that the weird suspend on lid close and power manager behavior mentioned above was only occuring after the first suspend after booting. The Librem’s embedded controller was getting into a weird state with ACPI events that caused certain functions (keyboard screen brightness keys, suspend on lid close, un/plug power events, etc.) to stop working. Installing the librem-ec-acpi DKMS driver manually in dom0 resolved all of my problems. It would be nice if this driver made it to the upstream kernel.

See my two comments on the Purism forums for more information:

symptoms described in Purism forum post

solution and how to get DKMS driver installed

3 Likes
21

Thanks @leaningtrees!

Has happened twice that my laptop completely shut down when unplugging my charger. That update might solve the issue.

22

Another user reported issues with the touchpad not working during the instalation screen. Using a mouse solved it.

23

Seconding Hanabi and Leaningtree findings:
So far so good overall! Much improved experience compared to my old laptop. Issues encountered on Qubes 4.0.4 (8/4/2021):
-Battery issue out of the box for Librem 14 v1, frequently has had a total crash despite reporting 50%+ battery (total power loss, not standby). On charge was reporting 100% but then would fail after 15 minutes or so. Followed Leaningtree’s DKMS driver install link, and now it’s reporting a more realistic battery charge level. Also did:
echo 90 > /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_start_threshold
-There’s an unresolved Intel graphics issue being discussed in the Purism forums that’s possibly major if anyone uses KDE/Plasma/etc. I only noticed its cosmetic effects the pureboot menu and am fine in xfce Qubes.
-Trackpad went bonkers on the Qubes OS installer, had to use the keyboard to navigate menus with Tab.
-Having to switch to headphones from the top right sound menu is annoying.
-Kill switch for wifi as mentioned requires a restart of sys-net to get it working again.

24

Hello everyone. @fsflover requested that I provide my experience running Qubes on the Librem 14, so here I am.

Did Qubes work out of the box, or did you perform any configuration?

When I received my Librem 14, I verified that everything worked out of the box running the preinstalled OS (PureOS) on the preinstalled SSD. I then removed that SSD and installed my 1TB NVME SSD with Qubes 4.0 that I had been using on my Librem 13 for the past few years. I can confirm that everything worked without needing any additional configuration.

There is only one thing that did not work as intended, both on Qubes and on PureOS. I have it set to switch off the display when the laptop lid is closed, but the display does not actually switch off. This is solved by manually lowering the display brightness to zero using the keyboard key before closing the laptop lid and then manually raising the display brightness after opening the laptop lid.

So I would say that, Yes, Qubes worked out of the box on my Librem 14v1 without the need for any configuration.

1 Like
25

Hi @dom0, what a cool user name!

We already have one good R4.0 HCL report from @hanabi for the Librem 14
v1 (i7-10710U). Would you be so kind to submit a report too? Then we
could add the Librem 14 v1 to the “just works” list.

This would be extra exciting for two reasons:

  • it would for now be the only non-Lenovo laptop on the list
  • it would also be the only laptop that can still be purchased directly
    from the OEM – for those not wanting or having to go the pre-owned route.
26

I submitted a report here.

1 Like
27

It’s also the only one with a possibility of interdiction services and a microphone/camera kill switch. Perhaps these points could even be mentioned in the list.

1 Like
28

Done.

1 Like
29

Thank you!
One could also mention this report: Best Qubes Laptop is the Secure Librem 14 – Purism. It indicates that the company intentionally makes their laptops compatible with Qubes OS, which no one else does in this list.