HP spectre x360 on linux

[nstommel]

Okay so audio support for Broadwell I2S audio has been added and refined in the rt286 'ASoC Audio DSP support for Intel Broadwell Wildcatpoint' driver so that literally none of the aforementioned grub flags need to be added to /etc/default/grub. Don't modify it, period. Also, it appears that the speakers and headphone output sound *considerably* better in I2S than HDA. Note that in order to assure sound remains working in I2S when switching between Windows and Ubuntu *do NOT restart, perform a cold boot after shutting the computer down*. You'll end up with nonfunctioning sound in Windows if you attempt to restart instead of shut down in Ubuntu. 

To answer the questions regarding the graphics weirdness, it's a specific bug in the intel_opregion.c file that disables Intel's proprietary display management interface (this is bad, and stupid). Don't use any of the 4.6 kernels, 4.6 was notoriously awful on Broadwell and Skylake cards. It just so happens that the kernel regression happened right after v4.7.4. But no worries, I maintain a repo of nice patched kernel packages so you don't have to figure out how the heck to patch and compile it yourself. This should be of particular interest to users of Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak, which uses kernel v4.8 (yes, I have tested the most recent build and the graphical rainbow glitching/artifact issue persists). See the bug report I filed at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97918

Also note that the newer kernel includes support for automatically disabling the keyboard in Ubuntu when the screen is flipped over! And battery life appears to be improved over v4.4.x. 

Easy-to-install .deb packages customized for the Spectre x360 with Broadwell U processor for every kernel post 4.7.4, are available in my github repo at https://github.com/nstommel/Linux-Kernel-Broadwell-i915-graphics-patch

Install the new kernel using sudo dpkg -i *.deb in the terminal from your ~/Downloads directory (assuming you have downloaded just the two packages for the desired version, the ..headers.deb and ..image.deb).

[ajicaribe]

Thank you for your effort, I have exactly this same flickering issue in my HP Spectre x360 laptop, UBUNTU details say its Intel® HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2), when I run " lshw -c video "  in the terminal I see: configuration: driver=i915_bpo

please be patient, Can you post more detailed instructions on how to install the patches to correct this problem?

Do I first need to update my Kernel to 4.7 or above before installing the patches?

How exactly Do I install the patches?

Thank very much,

[Str1der]

Thank you Nstommel!!

I have just installed your patched 4.8.1 kernel on 16.10 and the problem with graphics seems to have disappeared!

You also mentioned that the newer kernel includes support for automatically disabling the keyboard in Ubuntu when the screen is flipped over. How do you enable this? Because it doesnt seem to work for me.

[nstommel]

Sure, so glad it worked for you! Make sure you fold the display far enough back, and you should see the backlight simply turn off, indicating the keyboard has been disabled. If that doesn't work, you might have to edit some settings in the /etc/systemd/logind.conf
This will also allow you to actually suspend the laptop when the lid is closed (the power light should blink, suspend on closed lid doesn't work out of the box with Ubuntu on the Spectre for some reason)
Find and uncomment (remove the hash symbol ) and replace the following lines with:

HandleSuspendKey=suspend
HandleLidSwitch=suspend
HandleLidSwitchDocked=suspend
LidSwitchIgnoreInhibited=yes

And now that should fix it (at least it worked for me)

[ajicaribe]

Thanks for all the help, I'm having some odd issues in 16.04. with the patched 4.8.1 kernel, The touchpad seems to disable multi touch haphazardly, its still checked in the configuration options but the touchpad just does not respond to the 2 finger touch. I reboot and it's back working again. Also the keyboard and touchpad are not disabled in tablet mode...

Should I upgrade to 16.10? do you think it would be better, less buggy? Will the keyboard and touchpad disable automatically in 16.10?

Is there a better way to tweak the touchpad that has a Graphical interface?

[nstommel]

I have the HP Spectre x360 4102dx with Broadwell 5500U processor, it's possible that the custom kernel I compiled using make-kpkg won't be perfect on your laptop if it has a different processor and sensors and stuff. I have no issues whatsoever with the keyboard and touchpad disabling in tablet mode, and multitouch works flawlessly for me. Did you have these problems to begin with? Because if so, then it's not a problem with my patched kernel.
If you're so inclined, you can compile the kernel yourself with my opregion patch applied. Otherwise, I've been running it myself without issue.
You could always try a fresh install of Ubuntu I suppose if all else fails. The reason why I created the repository with patched kernels is that the Spectre has a serious issue with the default unpatched kernel 4.8 in Ubuntu 16.10 that results in annoying and frequent graphics artifacting. I can confirm that my patched kernel works for both 16.04 and 16.10, however. At least for my particular model.

[nstommel]

Skylake support may be kind of iffy on Linux unfortunately. It's quite possible that your hardware isn't fully supported yet. This fix works perfectly on Broadwell Spectre x360s however.

[ajicaribe]

Thanks, mine is 13-4105dx with Intel® HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2), Intel® Core™ i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4. with the QHD touchscreen with 2560 x 1440 resolution.

I guess at least the Touchpad should be the same... Its just driving me crazy... Do you know how I would go about reinstalling the touchpad drivers? is it possible that some sensor for the screen flip is just not being recognized?

[nstommel]

Driver installation is not as cut and dry like in Windows, but it's possible that a fresh installation could fix some of the problems. HP may very well have changed components like the touchpad and hinge sensors with the new generation Spectre x360. You might be surprised how many things were actually modified (at the very least on the firmware level) with the inclusion of the Skylake SoC. The UEFI BIOS for the Skylake edition is also of course different, so certain hardware components could behave slightly differently. Unfortunately it is not possible for me to test this or customize the kernel for this system configuration, as I have the original Broadwell model.

[James00]

Is there an update on Spectre x360's Linux compatibility? 

In my case I'm down to either purchasing the Kaby Lake Dell XPS 13 or the Kaby Lake Spectre x360 (which I'm really digging).  I will install Ubuntu 16.10 in either case.  The only thing holding me back from going with the HP is Linux-compatibility.

Thank you for your personal feedback!

J

#firstpost 🙂