Igor Bubelov

Dell Laptops Refuse to Install Security Updates

Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My laptop battery died a few weeks ago. I removed it and kept using my Dell XPS 13 with no issues. Everything worked like a charm, so I wasn’t in a hurry to buy a new one.

Today, I got notified of a new firmware security update and decided to install it right away, but, apparently, you can’t update your Dell laptop’s firmware without a battery attached.

Blocking important security updates on perfectly capable hardware is just beyond stupid. But I guess it would be less of an issue if Dell batteries lasted more than a couple of years.

Keychron K8

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve bought three mechanical keyboards recently, and my favorite so far is the Keychron K8 with Gateron brown switches. It took me some time to get used to the switches, but I think they’re pretty good. That doesn’t mean I won’t experiment with others. I really want to try different Cherry switches as well as custom keycaps.

The only thing I don’t like about the K8 is its closed-source firmware. But it looks like Keychron will start selling an open-source K8 pretty soon.

I don’t think I’ll buy it, because I’m more or less happy with the current model, and I can probably flash some open-source firmware on it anyway.

PinePhone Keyboard

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PinePhone keyboard looks really promising, and it can also triple PinePhone’s lifespan on a single charge. I wouldn’t hurry to buy it though, since software support is still lacking.

Mechanical Keyboards

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We can’t really take it for granted that market forces will always improve the quality of every product. There is a compromise to be made between product price and product quality, and that’s exactly what happened with keyboards. My first PC was a Pentium 4 with a Genius keyboard. They served me well for many years, and it kind of became a baseline for evaluating all computers and peripherals in the future. Newer CPUs were always better, SSDs felt like magic compared to HDDs, GPUs kept improving. We had a lot of incremental improvements pretty much everywhere.

The keyboards didn’t change that much though, and it’s not because there is nothing left to improve. Sure, laptops had to be more creative with space, and they popularized so-called “scissor” switches, which actually feels like a noticeable improvement, but it’s nothing to write home about. In the past few years, I noticed that some of my friends started to mention mechanical keyboards, so I decided to give those things a try. It turned out, there are three kinds of mechanical key switches: linear, tactile and clicky, and the right choice is a matter of personal preference. It’s generally a good idea to try all of them and decide which one is more comfortable for you. Personally, I had to buy two keyboards with different switches because it was hard to make a final decision.

My initial impression is very good, and I’m thinking about buying this keyboard in the future:

https://system76.com/accessories/launch

It’s a bit pricey, but it’s open source, and it’s Linux-first.

AMD RX 6600 XT

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Finally, I was able to get a GPU for my new PC. I’ve been waiting for a long time for this specific model, and it works like a charm with my current setup. One of the main benefits of AMD GPUs is the fact that their drivers are baked into the Linux kernel, so they are expected to work out of the box with zero additional setup. Nvidia refuses to open their drivers, and they’re lagging on a few important fronts, such as Wayland support. Also, AMD is an underdog, so why not support more competition in the GPU space?

Desktop Motherboard Firmware Updates

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It turns out, updating motherboard firmware is no fun. I’ve been using Dell XPS 13 for a few years, and it can handle firmware updates automatically, so I never had to think about it. Desktop motherboards seem to operate in a different way, though. About a week ago, I found out that my new GIGABYTE motherboard has an outdated firmware. To add insult to injury, many updates I missed included various improvements for systems equipped with my CPU.

How hard is it to update desktop firmware? Well, I had to find a flash drive, format it to legacy FAT filesystem and then do a few manual adjustments in BIOS. None of those missed updates had any critical fixes, but it would be naive to dismiss the importance of being able to update firmware quickly and easily. There is certainly a room for improvement in the desktop segment.

XPS 13 Dynamic Backlight Shenanigans

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I had a strange issue with my Dell laptop for a while: sometimes it would randomly mess with the display brightness whenever I moved my cursor. It was odd and curious, but it didn’t happen often enough to justify investigating.

A few weeks ago, I accidentally found the cause. Turns out, Dell has a feature called dynamic backlight control, and it doesn’t always work as intended. Fortunately, it can be disabled in the BIOS.

Framework Laptop

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

One of the things I learned the hard way is the importance of preferring easily repairable hardware, especially when it comes to laptops. It’s also nice to be able to upgrade my SSD or add more RAM. I’m currently using Dell XPS 13, and I bought it precisely because it’s super easy to upgrade and repair such a laptop. I already replaced its battery once, and I’m planning to equip it with a latest-gen SSD in the near future. Dell did a good job with this laptop, but we can do better. Framework Laptop looks like it takes extensibility and repairability to the next level.

Replaceable RAM is a radical departure from the rest of the laptop market, and I wonder if it’s going to backfire. Some initial reviewers point that the battery life isn’t that good, at least for now. Maybe it’s a price of non-soldered RAM? I’m not a hardware expert, but I hope that this product succeeds and sets the trend for the whole market.

AMD RX 6600 XT

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t wait for this GPU shortage craze to be over. so I can buy a decent AMD GPU. Nvidia isn’t Linux-friendly, and I’d prefer to get rid of it as soon as possible. AMD RX 6600 XT is the newest addition to the high-end line of AMD GPUs. It’s kind of the lowest-end model of a highest-end product line, to be precise, which makes it a sweet spot for my desktop. I don’t use my desktop for gaming, but I may play a game or two in the future, so I have no objection to having all the latest and greatest GPU features on the market for the lowest possible price.

New PC

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I love assembling new PCs, and I finally convinced myself to buy another one. Here are the specs:

Component	Model	Comments
Case	Fractal Meshify 2 Compact	-
Power supply	Corsair CV 550	-
Motherboard	X570 Aorus Master	-
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X	The warranty do not extend beyond the first purchaser. What a bunch of assholes.
CPU cooler	PC Cooler GI-CX 360 ARGB	-
RAM	Corsair CMD 32G DDR4 3466 C16	Old part, will replace later.
GPU	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	Old part, don’t buy that piece of garbage.
SSD	Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB	-

All of that hardware (except RAM and GPU), is latest-gen, which may raise a question about Linux compatibility. The answer is: it works like a charm! Linux kernel 5.11 fully supports the latest motherboard chipsets and AMD CPUs. Wi-Fi and Ethernet work without any issues. The motherboard has two Ethernet adapters from different vendors: one offers 2.5 gigabits, and the other one offers more conventional (and practical) 1 gigabit bandwidth.

As you may notice, one of those components looks odd. Why pick Linux-hostile Nvidia GPU? Well, I didn’t want to do it, but I wasn’t able to buy a new GPU because of the global supply shortages. I have no idea what causes those shortages: some sources say it’s a sign of inflation, others convinced that it’s the result of shitcoin mining craze. Let me clarify: Bitcoin has nothing to do with GPUs, it uses different hardware for mining, but there are thousands of digital coins, mostly run by scammers, and they often require GPUs to operate.

Jabra Evolve 30 II

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been doing some podcasting in the last few months, and it motivated me to buy a mic. I don’t know much about mics and I’m not ready to waste a lot of money on a thing that I might not need, so I decided to start with a simple headset from Jabra and I’m pleased with a headset I’ve got. It greatly improved the quality of my voice recording and the headphones themselves are also great. They don’t cause pain in my ears even if I use them for a few hours. Most of other headphones do, and I’m not sure if I’m alone here or it’s a common thing.

BeagleV

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

BeagleV board looks promising. I like my Raspberry Pi 4 computers, but they have at least two severe problems:

They require closed-source binaries to boot!
They’re ARM-based.

RISC-V is a more open instruction set architecture. Is it that important? Yes, very. ARM licenses are pretty expensive, and it was used as a tool for political pressure. Business have no reason to trust or to pay ARM, RISC-V looks like a cheaper and safer bet.

Closed binaries is an ugly compromise which Raspberry Pi folks had to accept. I don’t think they’re happy about it but I guess there are no other options. Well, it seems like the situation is changing.

AMD Ryzen 9 on Linux

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

It looks like new AMD CPUs are working great on Linux from the day one, and they beat Intel in every metric. Maybe it’s time to build a new PC?