#Ubuntu raid monitor install
#Ubuntu raid monitor drivers
#Ubuntu raid monitor update
#Ubuntu raid monitor driver
#Ubuntu raid monitor windows 10

One NVME slot is labelled as SATA/NVME and the other just as NVME. Neither Linux nor the BIOS saw the flash, however once I switched their order, both were recognised just fine.

I salvaged a second NVME flash from an older laptop and installed it next to the pre-installed one.

#Ubuntu raid monitor install

I found in the original packaging an easily overlooked cable and was able to install a 2,5″ SSD. The Nitro 5 has several internal extension slots I wasn’t aware of: two NVM express slots for flash memory, two RAM slots and an empty bay for a 2,5″ SSD. While fixing the dead keys issue (see comment above) I took the chance for a peek under the covers.

2x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0 ports work fast and reliably.

The lowest, non-zero, screen brightness level is too high, but writing values to the /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness device allows much finer brightness control – but you have to write a script for that and bind it to a key combination.

5GHz Wifi nets 10 MB/s but is sometimes unstable, 2,4 GHz works ok.

Bluetooth works, I didn’t try HDMI, LAN does almost 100 MB/s.

#Ubuntu raid monitor update

Update April 2021: the issue is a loose cable and very easily fixed as kalbasnikov shows on YouTube. I’m waiting for it to become worse before using the warranty, because the issue is spurious and I can totally see how it wouldn’t show when I take the laptop back to the shop and try to demonstrate the issue. Squishing the plastic between the last key row and the touch pad seems to work around the issue.

The bottom key row (YXCVBNM) on the keyboard goes dead sometimes.

#Ubuntu raid monitor drivers

Uninstalled nvidia drivers again (blacklisting is not enough). Update May 2020: I was wrong, not disabling the nvidia GPU crashes the computer at some point.

#Ubuntu raid monitor driver

Update April 2020: installing the proprietary nvidia-435 driver and using the prime package for switching between Intel and nvidia GPUs works flawlessly.

#Ubuntu raid monitor windows 10

Ubuntu on the laptop feels overall faster and more responsive than Windows 10.

Sound occasionally stutters under I/O load.

The webcam resolution is low and the picture is noisy update January 2021: guvcview can set higher resolution and modes if enough light is present.

Update May 2021: a year later, the situation hasn’t improved or deteriorated.

The battery won’t last more than 2 hours this worries me as the laptop is brand new.

The laptop gets pretty warm even at moderate use, but that was an issue already with Windows.

One of the many fans always spins at a low to mid speed.

I was able to work around that by blacklisting nouveau.

After resuming from standby the laptop’s screen will freeze at some point (much) later applications continue to run, key strokes are (apparently) not registered and the screen isn’t updated any more.

I can run the laptop for a week without rebooting with several daily sleep/resume cycles without any issues.

Resuming from standby will freeze the mouse pointer for 10-20 seconds everything else works fine and the mouse pointer thaws after a while (Update April 2020: this issue mutated into a random, temporary freeze which goes away).

Disabling it is kind of tricky: enter the BIOS, set a supervisor password (this unlocks advanced settings), go to advanced settings, press CTRL + S (this unlocks the hidden optane setting), change from optane to AHCI.Ī few notes after running Ubuntu for a week now: The reason is that the BIOS enables Intel’s optane mode. The first surprise lurks behind trying to install Ubuntu on the SSD: no drives are found. I didn’t try bluetooth or the secondary nvidia graphics card. These things work out of the box: WIFI (5 GHz), webcam, USB, sound (internal/external), microphone (internal/external), keyboard backlight. Since I “just” wanted to try out basic hardware compatibility that isn’t much of a problem – or so I thought. Important: this will not work if a data persistence is chosen Ubuntu will fail booting then. I downloaded the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS image, installed Rufus, partitioned the USB stick with a single volume and had Rufus install Ubuntu on it. The Nitro comes with Windows 10 home pre-installed and UEFI secure boot enabled – booting Ubuntu from an USB drive thankfully doesn’t require disabling secure boot. The Acer Nitro 5 is an interesting breed decent computing power, a mid-range SSD, a large screen with high contrast, a decent and solid keyboard with good haptics at an ok price – but will it run Ubuntu 18.04? (yes, it will – also with Ubuntu 20.04) Live Boot from USB