These are my notes from the installation of Manjaro linux on an HP EliteBook Folio G1 with Intel Core m7-6Y75. This was meant to be a fast installation for basic internet things so more advanced stuff like docking station or virtualization are not covered. I also haven't even tried to install Windows on it so I don't know the performance difference between Linux and Windows.
- Host: HP EliteBook Folio G1 (P2C90AV)
- Resolution: 1920x1080
- CPU: 6th gen Intel Core m7-6Y75
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 515
- Memory: 8 GB (soldered)
- SSD: 240 GB (Samsung MZVLW256HEHP-000H1 (originally from HP Elite x2 1012 G2))
- Network: Intel Wireless 8260
I've chosen Manjaro because it became my go-to Linux distro. I like it for having a very good support, access to AUR and the fact it is rolling-release. This time I've installed it using the default settings with default partition layout. However because I wanted to have it installed really fast I've originally installed it in on bigger 1 TB drive and later decided to move it using Rescuezilla. This is also a reason why I have a clone of this system installed on my Elite x2.
After the installation I have found out that the default setting for swap file in Manjaro installer creates 512MB file without a hibernation support (obviously) so I had to recreate the file from scratch and add the support for hibernation manually (there is a good tutorial about that on Arch Wiki).
Another big issue I found were constant glitches on the monitor after the installation. It turns out it is common for this model and the solution for that should be using the i915.enable_psr=0 kernel parameter (more on that here). However it didn't help me and I found somewhere that using intel_idle.max_cstate=2 kernel param could also help with similar issue (it turns off some Intel power management features so it might be on expense of battery life) and luckily it did. So altogether my kernel params (set in /etc/default/grub file) on this notebook are as follow:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash resume=UUID=<UUID> resume_offset=<offset> udev.log_priority=3 i915.enable_psr=0 intel_idle.max_cstate=2"After setting up kernel params you need to recreate GRUB using the following command.
update-grubor
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgAs I'm working 100% remote I have a setup with a professional company dock for my company Thinkpad P14s which works over Thunderbolt 4. I've recently checked and it works correctly with this laptop as well making it in full desktop PC. I was able to use it with 3 external 1080p@60Hz displays (or 2 external and 1 internal, couldn't set up 4 screens because of GPU limitations), some USB devices (keyboard, mouse, headset), ethernet connection and obviously power. It seems that this kind of setup is completely OK for Thunderbolt 3 devices and it works out-of-the-box with Linux (the only thing that needs to be set up is the display layout) on this machine.
I was very surprised finding out that was the only issue I had on this laptop. It seams to be a perfect device to run Manjaro and it offers great performance for basic tasks. This laptop looks like a device I wish I had during my high school times.