[PLASMA 5] I am fed up, I've had it with Neon. - multi-monitor and suspend/resume issues

[Tahaan]

I've stuck with Neon for about 2 years.

It is not worth it.

10% of the times when I resume I have to hard reset my computer.
1 in 5 of those times I need to pull the battery to get my computer to respond (this is a new issue since April, though I had similar issues 2 years ago when I started with Neon).
I get a black screen (but can see everything seems to be working based on disk activity) about 25% of the time when I resume from sleep (this only happens when I resume without the external screen attached. This requires me to force a power-off and reboot.
33% of the times I need to tell Neon where the external screen goes (on the right of my laptop). This is a new problem since April, but used to be a daily problem 2 years ago until some update fixed it.

When these things are combined I have issues on more than half of my resumes from suspend.

I am looking for a replacement D.E. What a pity because other than the external screen related resume-from-suspect issues I have no problems.

I very much prefer KDE of Gnome/Gnome derivatives... but I need multi-monitor and suspend/resume to work well, consistently.

[oshunluvr]

I had no idea Neon was more than a year or so old, but I can hear your frustration. Honestly, I a brief web search doesn't reveal a large number of people complaining about this. No offence, but you've given nothing here that points to the Neon repository as the problem. For example AFAIK, sleep/resume functions aren't part of Plasma, that would be a core problem and the core of KDEneon is Ubuntu. On the other hand, I don't use a laptop with Neon so I can't say for sure one way or another.

Admittedly, lots of folks are/were having multi-screen issues but there are usually ways to solve those - automatic scripts and the like. In my case, it was to simply disable kscreen2 in background services and it stopped randomly swapping my monitors - again though, on a desktop not a laptop.

If you want to try a different distro using Plasma 5, try Manjaro. I installed Manjaro KDE Edition (17.0.2) along side my current Neon install and it works really well. I went with the "free" version rather than "non-free" because I have not yet been able to get my nVidia card to produce sound over HDMI/DP unless I use the nouveau driver. It's Arch based so there's a lot of differences, but it installed flawlessly and works very well out-of-the-box.

Otherwise, you could try addressing and trouble-shooting your issues directly. Good luck to you whichever way you go...

[Tahaan]

If I remember correctly Neon first had KDE 5.6. It certainly feels like 2 years ago.

I'm ready to try another release/distro/whatever. I realise the interactions between KDE and the Kernel suspend/resume code is complicated, and further complicated by all the hardware permutations. I'm sure Neon may well work better with other hardware but this is what I have.

Speaking of which, I may be in the market for a new laptop within the next 6 months so recommendations about what to look out for in terms of chipsets, etc to guarantee a smooth experience would be awesome. The Gigabyte P47G series with HDMI, dual mini display port, 32GB ram support and a not-too-awful keyboard has got my attention.

Do I want to abandon the Debian side to go Arch? It depends on how much of a learning curve it is going to be - I find that I have less and less time to learn operating system nuances due to demanding projects. Manjaro has got a nice ring to it though. If it ends up working better it may just as well be a different compiler option somewhere in the kernel. Next week will be interesting.

At any rate thank you for your response.

[oshunluvr]

If I remember correctly Neon first had KDE 5.6. It certainly feels like 2 years ago.

LOL, I can see that...

I'm ready to try another release/distro/whatever. I realise the interactions between KDE and the Kernel suspend/resume code is complicated, and further complicated by all the hardware permutations. I'm sure Neon may well work better with other hardware but this is what I have.

For sure on all counts. I've had all kids of ACPI/APCI issues in the past that only eventual kernel updates solved after months of struggle. I have the blessing of having upgraded my hardware recently so none of those problems exist (at least for now). I could be a simple BIOS vs KERNEL issue. You know you can manually install 4.10 in KDEneon? It's in the repos, just not automatically dragged in by updating. Might be worth a try. Note that not all the needed packages will come in with the image, so you have to install all these to get everything:

ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-headers-4.10.0-27 
linux-headers-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27 
linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-27 
linux-image-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-image-extra-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-tools-4.10.0-27-generic

Which reminds my that I had some issues when I first installed KDEneon because "image-extra" wasn't installed. Might check that too.

Speaking of which, I may be in the market for a new laptop within the next 6 months so recommendations about what to look out for in terms of chipsets, etc to guarantee a smooth experience would be awesome. The Gigabyte P47G series with HDMI, dual mini display port, 32GB ram support and a not-too-awful keyboard has got my attention.

That looks like a well spec'd machine. Folks are buying the System76 units too since they come with Ubuntu installed, but they might be pricier.

Do I want to abandon the Debian side to go Arch? It depends on how much of a learning curve it is going to be - I find that I have less and less time to learn operating system nuances due to demanding projects. Manjaro has got a nice ring to it though. If it ends up working better it may just as well be a different compiler option somewhere in the kernel. Next week will be interesting.

Yeah, it's different alright. I booted it live for a look-see when I was trouble-shooting my audio-via-HDMI with nVidia driver issue. It runs very nicely and the installer utilizes btrfs with subvolumes when installing so I installed it twice - both fee and non-free versions - just to play with it. I really love the package manager and it's been rock-solid for the few hours I've played with it. It was very smooth install-wise and I've only had to add a few things to it since then.

At any rate thank you for your response.

That's why we're here

[Snowhog]

I'd want to ask; so I will; how did you install KDE neon? Did you 'add their repository' on top of your existing Kubuntu installation? That was the route very early on. Have you concidered doing a fresh install with a fresh downloaded .iso of KDE neon, either the User or Developer version?

[oshunluvr]

I'd want to ask; so I will; how did you install KDE neon? Did you 'add their repository' on top of your existing Kubuntu installation? That was the route very early on. Have you concidered doing a fresh install with a fresh downloaded .iso of KDE neon, either the User or Developer version?

That's a good point...

[Tahaan]

I'm running Neon user Ed now but I did briefly play with Neon-on-ubuntu for a while. Package management was awful.

[wartnose]

Have you simply tried Kubuntu? I'm running 16.04 on a Dell Refurb laptop I recently purchased. Zero issues.

[Tahaan]

I ran Kubuntu for years, ever since I heard the word "Unity", till the day I switched to Neon.

In fact It is still installed and worth just rebooting back to it and upgrading it I guess.

[GreyGeek]

KDE Neon User Edition has always been good to me but it became fantastic when I installed nvidia-378 for my secondary Nvidia GT650M, which was immediately make my "primary" driver, even though there is NO bios setting to set my secondary as my primary.

[dequire]

Of course, if you're not running proprietary graphics drivers (I'm looking at you, NVidia!), you're free to install any kernel you want. I'm currently running 4.11.8 (released today) on Neon. Zero issues in forever. Most power-type issues are kernel-related, and you might well try a newer kernel before you abandon Neon. Heck, you can try 4.12 rc 8 if you desire. They can all be found here. Might be worth a shot.

I love everything about Neon EXCEPT the older kernels that come from running off of a LTS base. Even the HWE kernels, if enabled, aren't new enough for me. This is simply because RadeonSI has massive patches every new kernel cycle, and many times these newer kernels are needed to play nice with newer Mesa releases. But for a normal user looking to get USB-C functionality working on new hardware, for example, or trying to work out a HW-related bug as the OP is, definitely worth a shot.

[Tahaan]

[...snip...]
You know you can manually install 4.10 in KDEneon? [...snip...] Might be worth a try. Note that not all the needed packages will come in with the image, so you have to install all these to get everything:[...snip...]

ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-headers-4.10.0-27 
linux-headers-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27 
linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-27 
linux-image-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-image-extra-4.10.0-27-generic 
linux-tools-4.10.0-27-generic

Which reminds my that I had some issues when I first installed KDEneon because "image-extra" wasn't installed. Might check that too.
...

I need a short guide on how to do this? I assume it is more than just apt install... ? Also what is my regression plan?

[oshunluvr]

I need a short guide on how to do this? I assume it is more than just apt install... ? Also what is my regression plan?

Well, not really.

sudo apt install <INSERT LIST OF FILES HERE>

will install all you need. Regression plan is: The installation of a new kernel doesn't remove your old one. Install the above, boot to it, if you don't like it, reboot to the old kernel (select it in GRUB), and remove the above packages.

[Tahaan]

Hello oshunluvr

I added the packages you named into a text file /tmp/4.10

Then I tried to install them but get package not found errors.

root@komputer:~# apt install $(cat /tmp/4.10)        
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-4.10.0-27
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-headers-4.10.0-27'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.10.0-27'
E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-4.10.0-27-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-headers-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-headers-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Unable to locate package linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-27'
E: Unable to locate package linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-27
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-27'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-27'
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-4.10.0-27-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-image-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-image-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-4.10.0-27-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-image-extra-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-image-extra-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Unable to locate package linux-tools-4.10.0-27-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-tools-4.10.0-27-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-tools-4.10.0-27-generic'

apt search shows that there is 4.10.0-26 but nothing 4.10.0-27. so I edited the text file replacing the 27s with 26es and tried again. I still get errors, just fewer:

root@komputer:~# apt install $(cat /tmp/4.10)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26-generic
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26-generic'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'ilinux-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26-generic'
E: Unable to locate package linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-hwe-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26'
E: Unable to locate package linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-26
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-26'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-hwe-tools-4.10.0-26'

So I'm probably missing something? You mentioned something about "image-extra" ... Is that related?

Thank you

[oshunluvr]

Hmm, well for starters, the "i" in the first file was a typo on my end - sorry about that. Should have been "linux..." not "ilinux..."

It looks like the -27 series is still in the "Proposed" PPA

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-proposed universe restricted multiverse main

As far the .26 version, they changed the names a bit on these two packages:

linux-hwe-edge-cloud-tools-4.10.0-26
linux-hwe-edge-tools-4.10.0-26