Share your System Specs -- Super List

Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Tried & Tested
105

Dell Inspiron 11 3162 (a new netbook with almost the same hardware as a chromebook)
Intel Celeron N3050 Braswell 1.6 Ghz > 2.16 Ghz (dual core)
2 GB of RAM
32 GB of SanDisk eMMC (a cheaper type of flash storage, slower than SSD but faster than HDDs, it's widely used in tablets and smartphones)
Intel Wireless 3160 driver: iwlwifi
Intel Audio Device 2284
Intel HD Graphics 400

  • Ubuntu MATE 16.04.1 - MATE 1.12.1 - 4.4.0-62-generic x86_64 (64 bit) - UEFI mode (secure boot disabled) - latest BIOS.
  • Interacts with both my Windows Phone and Android. HP Printer works. microSD cards work.
  • Using all Open Source drivers. Only microcode updates are activated as proprietary.
  • Most resource intensive game I can play? Counter Strike: Source. Anything lower will run good, including PSX emulators. It is capable of running Unity (but runs better with Low Graphics Mode). On the other hand, GNOME is VERY slow on this machine. KDE is fast and usable too. But you get the most out of it with MATE.

BUGS

  • Bluetooth file sharing works until you suspend Ubuntu, because of the network-manager bug #1589401. This bug causes all other Wireless APs to disappear from the list after suspend, replacing the Wifi icon with the Ethernet icon. Workaround: sudo systemctl restart network-manager. It fixes until you suspend again. To automate it, use this script. This bug seems to only affect Ubuntu based OSes. It can be annoying for inexperienced users, but it's tolerable.

  • I witnessed a new problem in which the whole MATE panels disappear at random times. You can run mate-panel --reset and if it doesn't work, go for Ctrl + Alt + PrintScr + R E I S U B , which will reboot the PC. The workaround I use is disabled compositing. Marco without compositing.

  • Fonts will occasionally become corrupted after leaving the laptop idle. After it executes the screensaver and sleeps, the characters in the UI become unreadable. Disable screensaver (leave it blank screen) and it keeps it from happening all the time, but it will happen.

These bugs only seem to affect Ubuntu and the MATE desktop. If you go ahead and install, say, Fedora or Manjaro, it will work without problems. I use Ubuntu and MATE because they work better for me and I know my way around the bugs.

Always confirm if TRIM is scheduled (by cron or by systemd timer): sudo systemctl status fstrim.timer or check if fstrim file exists in/etc/cron.weekly/ and try it with sudo fstrim -v /

Install ZRAM (compressed RAM), because this laptop runs out of memory when opening lots of tabs on Chrome (Firefox runs painfully slow) or executing some video editor... sudo apt install zram-config does it all automagically. Ubuntu MATE uses ~500 MB when idle. It's responsive and reliable if you stay within its limits.

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