Lenovo 300e Gen 2, Part 4: Laptop/slate Driver Investigation

Recap

In Part 3, we dug through the ACPI definition of the Laptop/slate indicator. While we don’t understand absolutely everything about how it works, we’re confident that the ACPI definitions look relatively normal.

This time, let’s start looking at driver integrations.

Identifiers Recap

We got the following identifiers out of Windows in part 1:

  • BIOS Name: \_SB.CIND
  • Compatible IDs: ACPI\PNP0C60 and PNP0C60
  • Hardware IDs: ACPI\VEN_AMDI&DEV_0081, ACPI\AMDI0081, *AMDI0081
  • Device Instance Path: ACPI\AMDI0081\0

In part 3, we saw that:

So let’s dig into these identifiers and see if we can turn up anything useful online.

Searching… Searching…

AMDI0081

No meaningful results. But result 4 points to this series of posts, so… yay?

PNP0C60

Lots of results!

The most useful ones are from Microsoft:

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Lenovo 300e Gen 2, Part 3: Digging in to the Laptop/slate switch and ACPI

Recap

Last time, we determined that simply asking Linux to identify as Windows didn’t make a difference. That’s okay, it was a long shot anyway. However, we also gathered a bunch of useful general information about the system.

Now we’ll get started with specific tasks to determine why the laptop/slate mode switch doesn’t work.

Identifiers Recap

We got the following identifiers out of Windows in part 1:

  • BIOS Name: \_SB.CIND
  • Compatible IDs: ACPI\PNP0C60 and PNP0C60
  • Hardware IDs: ACPI\VEN_AMDI&DEV_0081, ACPI\AMDI0081, *AMDI0081
  • Device Instance Path: ACPI\AMDI0081\0

From these identifiers, we know the Laptop/slate mode switch is an ACPI device - mostly from Device Instance Path, but also because ACPI appears in a bunch of places in identifiers.

In part 2, we gathered the full dmesg output. That’s rather long, so let’s find all the dmesg output that mentions ACPI:

[steve@fedora ~]$ sudo dmesg | grep -i acpi
[sudo] password for steve: 
[    0.000000] …
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Lenovo 300e Gen 2, Part 2: lshw, lspci, dmesg, and some initial investigation

Recap

Last time we determined what devices don’t work under Linux - the touchpad and the laptop/tablet mode sensor. We also went in and gathered some useful hardware identifiers for these devices.

Next, we’ll reboot to Linux and do some early exploratory work.

A Word on Distros

For various reasons, I ended up installing Fedora Workstation 37. I’m going to use it as the “working” linux distro while I explore and fix – and from there, potentially try others.

Why Fedora? Normally on new hardware, I try something that keeps the newest software possible. In the past, I’ve used Manjaro Linux, as it strikes an excellent balance between “easy to boot/install” and “up-to-date”. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get it to boot - the system refused to recognize the USB drive.

On my “stable” systems, I tend to run Debian Linux. As someone who often works with bleeding edge systems, it’s nice when I don’t …

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Fixing Linux Unsupported Devices on the Lenovo 300e Gen 2

I got a Lenovo 300e (with Windows) from a Lenovo sale (for $126!). It seems to be a neat little machine - but it doesn’t fully work under Linux. As far as I know, cheap machines like this tend to be built with cheap parts, which tend not to be new, but instead minor additions or changes to new ones. Manufacturers often give these new device IDs, which sometimes means drivers don’t support them. I’m hoping that’s the case here.

Lenovo 300e AMD laptop, shown in four different positions. It’s a laptop with a 360 degree hinge. Shown top-right, as a laptop. Bottom-right as a tablet, with the keyboard on the table. Bottom-left as a tent, with the hinge at the top of the system. And top-left as a tablet-stand, with the keyboard on the table, effectively halfway to tablet mode.

I tried this with an older Lenovo Yoga machine and it turned out the sensor for laptop/tablet mode did some weird accelerometer-based stuff. I figured out how it worked, but was never able to get the system fully working. So let’s hope this one goes better!

The Plan

My plan with this device is pretty simple, at least at a high level:

  1. Identify non-working devices
  2. Gather identifiers
  3. Determine if existing drivers work for those devices
  4. If yes, add support to those drivers
  5. If not, is there anything close we can borrow from?
  6. If yes, …
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Publications and Appearances Update

I did a bunch of public speaking this year. I have finally got all the material here on my website and the various conferences have released the video. So, here’s updates from all my speaking this year.

IEEE Cluster HPCMASPA

I presented the first work towards my PhD at the HPCMASPA workshop of IEEE Cluster. Slides and preprint paper are online. No video was made, so no video will be uploaded.

A New HOPE

HOPE is always a favorite of mine to attend and this year I got to present! I presented a significantly revised and extended version of my hCaptcha work. Video, slides, and FAQ are now online.

Enigma 2022

Way back in January, I gave a first talk on hCaptcha at Enigma 2022. The video of this went up a couple months ago and I missed it. It’s now been added to the page for that appearance.

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Website hosting changed

So I just changed the hosting for my website. It’s now hosted using Hugo and on GitHub pages. Long story short, if anything seems broken, Contact me

This is because Django2 support is coming to an end and Zinnia (the blogging engine I used with Django) never got support to move it to Django3. So after at least 6 years, it’s time for a new site.

Honestly, the technical of this is not that interesting.

Some improvements

I took the opportunity to make some improvements to the theme I’m using. It’s now more responsive and (hopefully) more helpfully responsive as screen size shifts.

Why Hugo?

Mostly because this is a static site. I don’t use any non-static features on my website, so why use (and pay for) something more complicated than I need?

As a side effect, this reduces the amount of software I need to keep up to date, removes two daily cron job emails, and shuts down a web server.

I also like writing in Markdown. I keep my personal notes in Markdown when …

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Enigma 2022

I appeared at Enigma 2022 to give a talk called “Broken CAPTCHAs and Fractured Equity: Privacy and Security in hCaptcha’s Accessibility Workflow”. That talk came with a fair amount of accompanying material, including videos, slides, and code. That material can all be found on the Enigma 2022 page.

There will eventually be video.

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Getting new lenses for Lensfun

Rosen sind rot… And yes, by another name, they do still smell sweet! The focus of this image is two red roses seen from the side, positioned in the right-hand third of the picture and in focus. The rest of the image is out of focus. The power half of the image is rows of distant green grape vines. The next quarter of the image is out-of-focus homes, mostly white with red-orange roofs. And the last quarter right at the top of the image is a mostly cloudy sky.

Since moving to Germany, I’ve started taking pictures. Lots here is beautiful, and my cell phone camera just didn’t seem to be cutting it. So I bought a camera – a (used) Canon G5 X. The photos at the top and bottom of this post are a couple I’m proud of.

Of course, using a real camera means using real photo editing software. I run Linux on my laptop. Specifically, at the moment, Ubuntu. Ubuntu comes with ShotWell. I chose to shoot raw photos, so that I would have the maximum flexibility in editing them. In turn, this means I need software that can edit raw photos. For that, I chose DarkTable (which could probably do all the photo management, but I just haven’t gotten around to trying that workflow).

I’ve only got one major pain point with DarkTable: Lens correction. When a camera takes a photo, the lens typically causes certain distortions. For digital cameras, these are easily corrected in software – if you know what the distortions caused …

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Living in Germany: Converting a Driver's License

I don’t ever plan to drive in Germany. The public transit here is amazing, and in 7 months of living here, I haven’t once wished I had a car. But there are some things one can’t do by public transit (like moving furniture or appliances). I will eventually have to do those and would like to have the flexibility to drive if needed. So I want to keep my ability to drive, which means converting my US license to a German one.

As it turns out, Massachusetts (where I lived before moving) is one of 11 US states that have full reciprocity with Germany. That means that converting my MA license to a German one should be a matter of just some paperwork. This page is the list of countries and states which can be converted into German driver’s licenses, and whether or not the theoretical or practical tests must be done.

So… How does one actually do this?

There are many articles out there promising to tell you step-by-step how to convert a driver’s license. Many …

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I'm moving to Germany!

I’m moving to Germany in March! I took a position as a researcher at HLRS (in Stuttgart, Germany), where I’ll be working primarily on SODALITE.

I’m really excited about this for a number of reasons. The largest is simply that I miss being in a research environment. I miss being around people thinking about big problems in a variety of ways, just for the fun of thinking about them. Over the last few years, I’ve published two papers, been issued a patent, and spoken at three conferences. Only one paper and one speaking event were through work and that was a rather unique opportunity. I find the process of starting with a problem and building up a novel and unique solution to be really fulfilling. If engineering is the process of building things, research is the process of proving things can be built. And it turns out I enjoy both parts and am most fulfilled when doing some of both.

This does mean leaving HPE/Cray. I’ve been there six years and worked on 3 …

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