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I just recently got a new HP Spectre x360 and I've dual booted ubuntu 18.04 on it. I had to get wifi working by following these steps (mostly posting in case others need help). Once I was able to do that, I moved to the display, which is stuck at Unknown Display 1024x768.

When I run inxi -F, I get:

System:    Host: mbb Kernel: 5.0.0-37-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Gnome 3.28.4
           Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Machine:   Device: un-determined System: HP product: HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13t-aw100 serial: N/A
           Mobo: HP model: 86FA v: 87.26 serial: N/A UEFI: AMI v: F.06 date: 10/28/2019
Battery    BAT0: charge: 58.0 Wh 94.8% condition: 61.2/61.2 Wh (100%)
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-1065G7 (-MT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
           clock speeds: max: 3900 MHz 1: 1003 MHz 2: 1008 MHz 3: 969 MHz 4: 1011 MHz 5: 1127 MHz
           6: 1048 MHz 7: 1026 MHz 8: 1016 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 8a52
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.20.4 ) drivers: fbdev,intel (unloaded: modesetting,vesa)
           Resolution: [email protected]
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 8.0, 256 bits) version: 3.3 Mesa 19.0.8
Audio:     Card Intel Device 34c8 driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k5.0.0-37-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Device 34f0 driver: iwlwifi
           IF: wlo1 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: 7c:b2:7d:d0:74:6f
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1024.2GB (0.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: KXG60ZNV1T02_KIOXIA size: 1024.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 493G used: 7.1G (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 322 Uptime: 28 min Memory: 1396.6/15845.8MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.56

This tells me that my system is at least identifying the gpu (and it is intel). However, when I run apt list --installed, I checked my installed packages and noticed that for some reason I had xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu-hwe-18.04 installed instead of intel.

Also, when checking /usr/shared/X11/xorg.conf.d, I don't have a 10-intel.conf file, I only have 10-amdgpu.conf, 10-quirks.conf, 10-radeon.conf, 40-libinput.conf, 70-wacom.conf.

Then, when I check xrandr -q, all I get is:

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1024 x 768, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected primary 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
       1024x768      76.00*

Which is concerning because I cannot seem to fix the first error, but it also means when I run xrandr --newmode and xrandr --addmode, I can change the resolution but it runs off the screen (so I still only see 1024x768 pixels worth of screen).

xrandr --listmonitors returns:

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Monitors: 1
  0: +*default 1024/271x768/203+0+0  default

Other info that I'm not sure how exactly it ties in...

lspci -k | grep VGA returns 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 8a52 (rev 07)

I've tried installing mesa-utils and that doesn't seem to do anything.

I think there was another command that gave me helpful info, but at this point I'm just kinda running in circles. Does anyone have any idea what I can do to get my screen resolution fixed?

I also have a DP to USB-C adapter that I've used to plug in an external monitor, but it doesn't get detected.

Matt
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  • See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1199944/dell-inspiron-3593-shows-display-unclaimed-for-intel-device-8a56-rev-07 – Pilot6 Jan 01 '20 at 16:33
  • That didn't work. When installing 18.04, a number of hwe-18.04 packages were installed (as I said). I also tried removing them and only installing the intel one, I tried only installing the linux-generic (that's recommended in that post), and I tried installing both. None of the solutions worked. Maybe I had something else configured incorrectly, but I was unsuccessful. – Matt Jan 01 '20 at 18:02
  • hwe-18.04 and hwe-18.04-edge install different kernels. The latter installs the 5.3. That should work. Check with uname -a the kernel version. – Pilot6 Jan 01 '20 at 18:04
  • Looks like you were correct. I could have sworn I tried that package, maybe I tried an intel-edge. I'm not sure, but linux-generic-hwe-18.04-edge definitely works. It fixes wifi and screen resolution. I'm still running into screen brightness issues and cannot create/change /sys/class/brightness. I'll have to spend more time there. – Matt Jan 04 '20 at 21:47

1 Answers1

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Correct Answer

As @Pilot6 said in the above comments, this is the correct answer. All I had to do was install Ubuntu 18.04, plug an ethernet cable into my computer, and run sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-18.04-edge. This fixes the wifi and screen resolution problems.

I still have the brightness/battery issues listed below and am unable to create/edit /sys/class/brightness as many answer suggest. I'm still looking into a solution here.

Original Answer

I was unable to get the display to work on 18.04. After hours of struggling and reading a slew of posts on ubuntuforums.org, I decided to attempt 19.10. Everything worked on the initial install. I didn't have to do anything extra.

Moral of the story, if you have the late 2019 model Spectre x360, install 19.10, not 18.04.

Edit: I've been using 19.10 on this laptop for about a week now and there are some issues that I haven't been able to work out/haven't had the time/expertise.

  • I cannot change the screen brightness without using the command xrandr --output eDP-1 --brightness 0.5 (thank you ctrl+r for not making me type this every time). It randomly resets to 0.98, so I do use this command a bit.
  • Ubuntu randomly freezes up and logs me out. This is definitely a pain as it happens when I'm writing code. I've figured out that this is an issue with OpenJDK 11. I've upgraded to 14 and have yet to run into this problem.
  • Battery life is 100x worse in Ubuntu than it is in Windows. I think this is directly related to the screen brightness but I'm guessing there are some other optimizations (or lack-thereof) that are also contributing.

All this being said, I do think I'm going to keep this laptop for 3 reasons: Windows 10 works very well on it, 20.04 is coming out in April and these kernel? issues will hopefully be resolved, and emulators run so much better on this laptop than any other I've owned (because of the new G7 GPU).

Matt
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