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XPS Developer Edition – USB-C Dongles

I’ve seen the future of mobile computing and it (unfortunately) is dongles

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Dongles in Theory

I purchased a Lenovo C109 6-in-1 USB-C hub from Amazon, and here’s its normal state of connection. Clockwise from the top it’s complete with HDMI (adapted to DVI), USB, USB-C Power-in from the Dell power adapter, and Ethernet.

The more I thought about my dislike of dongles, I thought about the alternatives. Laptops are getting so small and that they can no longer fit a standard size Ethernet port on them. So do we get docking stations instead? That sounds decidedly worse. I do like the fact that I can plug the USB-C power input on either side of the laptop (although Dell recommends the upper left port). So, dongles it is.

Remember what the laughing guy said about bringing a bag of dongles everywhere you go? Lenovo must have watched the video as well because they included a nice felt bag 😂

A nice thing is about most USB-C multi-function dongles is they have a USB-C port for power delivery, sometimes labeled “PD”. So you plug your power adapter into that, and the multi-function adapter relays power to your laptop. That way there’s only one thing plugged into the laptop – everything else plugs into the dongle.

Dongles in Practice

Here’s where it goes south…. the multiple functions of the adapters don’t always work. I thought it was just my adapter, but after combing through at least 20 different multi-function USB-C adapters on Amazon, I realized all of them suffer from a collection of these issues:

Overheating
Unable to deliver full power from charger
External monitor doesn’t re-initialize when awoken from sleep
Wired Ethernet doesn’t work reliably
Wired Ethernet floods network if dongle has power but it not plugged into computer

My issues are with power delivery, wired ethernet, and the external screen coming back after sleep. 😞

I first noticed the issue when I encountered was this BIOS message after rebooting with the dongle plugged in.

The Lenovo 6-in-1 (and/or the accessories I’ve elected to use) are using enough power to get the BIOS to complain at boot that the power supply is down 10 watts. Thankfully they let you know that this warning can be disabled in the BIOS.

Here’s where you can find the setting in this abomination of a graphical BIOS:

SRSLY – what ever happened to a good old text interface where I could navigate without using the trackpad?!?

Another power issue I had with the Lenovo dongle is it apparently cannot deliver enough power for my particular USB DVD drive. I have a LG Slim Portable DVD Writer and when it’s plugged into the dongle with a disc inserted it keeps spinning up and then acting like it was disconnected. Then it reconnects and spins up again and disconnects ad nauseum. But if I plug it “directly” into the laptop using the included Dell USB to USB-C adapter, it works fine.

After talking with some co-workers, one solution is to get a monster USB-C adapter like the CalDigit T3 Plus:

So I guess a docking station-esque adapter it is… at least this one is universal and should connect to any laptop with USB-C.

Have you had any luck with multi-function USB-C adapters? Let us know in the comments what you like and what you don’t.

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B6.1 Carpet to Dirt (Clay)

Off-road carpet racing is gaining more and more traction, literally. It is especially convenient to race on carpet surfaces up here in Minnesota – inside in the winter. Also the track can be configured in off-road and on-road configurations, allowing proprietors the opportunity to serve both off-road and on-road racing enthusiasts. The Team Associated RC10B6 […]

The post B6.1 Carpet to Dirt (Clay) appeared first on Meatball Racing.

The Team Associated RC10B6 is the first iteration of RC10 kit to come in both a carpet and a dirt version of the car. I had the opportunity to pick up my friend Chad’s B6.1 carpet car as he was switching to the TLR buggy platform. Chad’s B6.1 included everything and the setup was already dialed for carpet. I was glad to drive it as-is at MMR, Dollar Hobbyz, and Thunder Road carpet tracks.

Sometimes dirt is fun too. There’s a clay track called The Toy Box about 45 minutes away in Wisconsin. So I was wondering, what would it take to get my carpet car race-ready for high-grip dirt and clay?

Continue reading “B6.1 Carpet to Dirt (Clay)”

B6.1 Clay Setups

I took a look at two Spencer Rivkin setup sheets for the B6.1D and the B6.1 – they’re both using “carpet car” 3-gear/laydown motor & transmission setup. What does this mean? It means on high-traction clay surfaces, the B6.1 carpet car is just a few parts away from being dirt ready.

Two cars?

I know a lot of people who race both clay and carpet like to keep two separate cars for each. It’s much easier to have a specific car with a specific setup ready to go. That way you can race carpet at MMR on Friday night and hit the Toy Box on Saturday without any setup time in-between.

Why I’m sticking with one car

I’m not interested in getting another buggy for dirt. Mostly because of cost, but there are other reasons. I don’t tear down my cars often to go through them and check everything. Switching my car from carpet to dirt and back forces me to go through all of the hinge pins and shocks to make sure everything is moving smoothly.

I typically only race at one place on a given weekend, so I have all week to switch the setup. Changing the setup, including changing shock oil, only takes about 1-2 hours.

Parts & Tools

For parts, it comes down to these parts

Tires (and wheels)
Springs
Ball Differential

If you’re starting with a race-ready B6.1 set up for carpet racing, it’s about $120 to get everything you need for dirt: https://www.amainhobbies.com/account/wishlist/show/635249

For tools, the only new thing you might need is a hex wrench for the ball diff. You can get a tool like this https://www.amainhobbies.com/team-losi-racing-aluminum-hex-differential-wrench-tlr-22-tlr2950/p203513 or you can just get a 1.5mm hex wrench and cut it short with a dremel:

This allows you to sneak the wrench behind the dog bone while everything is installed in the car so you can adjust the tightness of the ball diff.

Here’s a great video for breaking in a ball differential if you’re installing it for the first time:

It also has tips for setting the tightness of both the diff and the slipper clutch after break-in.

Talk to other racers, and have fun

The best thing you can do before starting to convert your buggy from carpet to dirt is talk to other racers that frequent the dirt track you want to race at. Find out what tires (and compound) they’re using. Then find out what shock setup they’re using (springs and oil). Those two things alone will have the biggest impact on how well your car handles the dirt, and consequently, how much fun you’ll have.

The post B6.1 Carpet to Dirt (Clay) appeared first on Meatball Racing.

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Windows-X/C/V Cut/Copy/Paste in Ubuntu

The last time I’m going to refer to it as the Windows key is in the title and in this sentence. We’ll go by it’s rightful name, the Super key. To make mine extra super, I cover the Windows logo with a Linux Penguin logo. I got this one from ThinkPenguin.com:

After using a Mac for about a year, I started to really like the approach of using the Command key for clipboard operations. Mostly because I still use the command line very often and I want to continue using Control+C for cancel. It’s like having your cake and eating it too. Why not put the Super key to use on my Ubuntu system for the same purpose?

We’ll cover the setup on several different applications. I like to add Cut, Copy, Paste at a minimum as well as Select All and Undo (since the A and Z keys are also in the vicinity). In cases where it’s possible, I’ve also mapped Redo as Shift+Super+Z since some programs would use Shift+Control+Z for Redo.
Continue reading “Windows-X/C/V Cut/Copy/Paste in Ubuntu”

Programs

I’m not going to cover all of the applications that I use, just a few to get you started 🙂 What I like about my approach is in most cases I’m not overriding Control+A/Z/X/C/V. We’re augmenting it by adding Super+A/Z/X/C/V so using the control key will still work.

Here’s what we’re going to cover:

Gnome (mostly to remove other Super bindings)
GTK
Gnome Terminal
VSCode
Emacs
Nautilus (Gnome’s File Manager)

Gnome

We need to “free up” some of the default Gnome keybindings found in Ubuntu 18.04. Bring up the system Settings and navigate to Devices -> Keyboard. Type “super” there to filter all of the shortcuts to just those that use the Super key.

I simply changed Super+A and Super+V to Shift+Super+A and Shift+Super+V. You can see the customized shortcuts highlighted in bold.

Install Gnome Tweaks:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

After it’s installed launch Tweaks and navigate to the Keyboard & Mouse section.

Move “Overview Shortcut” from left super to right super, effectively disabling the overview on most laptops since they don’t have a right-side Super key. You can still access this functionality by pressing Super-S. Apologies to anyone that has a right-side Super key 😢

GTK

GTK keybindings will cover many applications – this setting alone might get you about 80% there. It will work on Firefox and Chrome – plus Electron apps based on Chrome like Simplenote and VSCode. Not all bindings will work in all apps (like Select-All, Undo & Redo) but Super-X/C/V should. Plus we’re augmenting the existing Control-A/Z/X/C/V so those will continue to work.

vi ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

@binding-set gtk-super-cut-copy-paste
{
        bind "x" { "cut-clipboard" () };
        bind "c" { "copy-clipboard" () };
        bind "v" { "paste-clipboard" () };
        bind "a" { "select-all" (1) };
        bind "z" { "undo" () };
}

* {
        -gtk-key-bindings: gtk-super-cut-copy-paste
}

Details: https://askubuntu.com/a/851055/803610

Gnome Terminal

In 18.04 you can just go to Edit -> Preferences and set Copy, Paste and Select All in the Shortcuts section:

VSCode

Rather than using the keybinding editor in VSCode, I like to just open up the user keybindings.json file and add my keybindings as additions.

vi ~/.config/Code/User/keybindings.json

Super-X/C/V is already working from the GTK settings, so we just need to add the following to get Super-A/Z for Select-All/Undo/Redo:

// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[
    {
        "key": "meta+a",
        "command": "editor.action.selectAll", "when": "textInputFocus"
    },
    {
        "key": "meta+z",
        "command": "undo", "when": "textInputFocus && !editorReadOnly"
    },
    {
        "key": "shift+meta+z",
        "command": "redo", "when": "textInputFocus && !editorReadOnly"
    }
]

Emacs

vi ~/.emacs

Yes I realize the irony of editing my .emacs file with vim.

Add the following lines:

;; Mac-style cut/copy/paste
(global-set-key (kbd "s-x") 'kill-region)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-c") 'kill-ring-save)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-v") 'yank)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-a") 'mark-whole-buffer)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-z") 'undo)

Nautilus (File Manager)

I adapted a program called BackspaceBack.py to do my bidding within Nautilus.

sudo apt install python-nautilus
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/nautilus-python/extensions
vi ~/.local/share/nautilus-python/extensions/KeybindingRemap.py

You’ll have to restart nautilus for these to take effect. Just log out and log back in to put the settings into action.

Looking Ahead

The way to do this has changed over the years from one major release to the next, so I won’t be surprised if some configurations are different for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but we’ll just have to wait and see. If you have any additional apps and configurations you’d like to add, let everyone know in the comments!

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Off-Road Racing in Houston

Every year my family travels out of the frozen wasteland of Minnesota to Texas, usually around Thanksgiving. If flights are cheap, we’ll fly down. If not, the road-trip is on! I personally like the road trip because it means I can bring some extras along which usually means my bicycle and a couple of RC […]

The post Off-Road Racing in Houston appeared first on Meatball Racing.

Since we’d be driving through Dallas on US-75, we stopped at Traxxas HQ in McKinney.

Continue reading “Off-Road Racing in Houston”

This Thanksgiving I decided that my son and I would bring our Slashes to run at Mike’s Gulf Coast Raceway in Porter, TX. I had run my VTA car at their on-road track years before and wanted to check out the dirt this time around.

Everything in Texas is bigger. In Minnesota we race primarily 1/10 scale indoors. In Texas it seems like 1/8 scale outside is the norm. A Slash has roughly the same wheelbase and dimensions as a typical 1/8 scale eBuggy. This would ensure our vehicles are approximately the same size as everyone else on the track.

So we packed up the Slashes and hit the road. We drove to Oklahoma in one day so we could have a shorter drive the second day, and some downtime before racing at 6pm Saturday night.

An aside about RC track websites

To find out if we could get some practice time in before the race, I called the shop while on the road. I was informed that racing had been moved up from 6pm to 3pm because it was getting cold at night. Oh boy, these guys would be floored to know how late in the season the Southern Minnesota RC Club runs outside – their last race was a high of 48°F.

So I went to to the Mike’s Gulf Coast Raceway Facebook Page. Before I go on, let me say:

FACEBOOK Is Not A Website!

At my local track, they don’t have a great website, but they have an actively maintained calendar. At Mike’s, several clubs organize the racing whether it’s for on-road, off-road, or oval racing. There’s a pinned post on the track page, but it’s obviously not up-to-date, as it still said 6pm the day after we raced at 3pm:

Turns out that I needed to join yet another facebook group to get the inside scoop: Mike’s Gulf Coast RC Racer’s Lounge.

Lemons or Lemonade?

Learning that racing was starting 3 hours earlier than planned left me pretty sour, but I like to stay positive, so I tried to turn it into lemonade

We drove straight to the track with no downtime, and arrived at 2:45pm – right before racing started. No time for even some practice laps, just put it on the track and get racing.

We wound up running in the C-Main group of the eBuggy class. I had outfitted our Spec Slash trucks with 13.5T brushless motors and ESCs to hopefully clear the jumps on the big 1/8 scale course.

The run-up on the jumps wasn’t long enough for our 2wd vehicles to get traction and build enough speed. So we treated the two jumps (and their landings) as four humps, and tried to keep all 4 wheels planted the whole way around.

The trucks had plenty of power, but not enough grip to match. Also our suspension setup (dialed for carpet) left much to be desired. Our trucks were bouncing through the rough stuff rather than soaking up the bumps. While we were trying keep our trucks pointed straight with so much power but so little grip, we wound up at the back of the pack.

In the C-Main I did manage a 32-second hot lap, my best of the night. I managed to best some of the laps of all of the other 1/8 buggies in the main except the top C-Main driver. Granted my fast lap was probably only faster when other eBuggy drivers were getting marshaled. However, consistency and not getting marshaled is always a big part of the RC racing game.

Here’s where it gets embarrassing. I had two batteries for my truck so I could charge one and race with the other then swap ’em out. I charged my battery for the main, but forgot to do the swap. So I managed my best lap on a half charged battery

Then I noticed my truck was going much slower. Was it having a mechanical problem? No it just seemed slow. I was running at half-speed. The ESC was telling me it was coming up on low-voltage cut-off. I got a couple laps in at half speed and then had to pull it off the track during the race as it crawled to a stop.

It was a bummer, but I got to watch Jules pass me and finish his race strong. I’d like to come back next year, hopefully with a backslash setup (Slash converted to buggy). For sure I’m bringing my 1/8 scale wheel/tire setup for this track.

Hope to see you out there!

The post Off-Road Racing in Houston appeared first on Meatball Racing.

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Great 26″ Bicycle

So you’ve heard me wax poetic about the best 14″ bike and the best 20″ bike. Well today I’m talking about 26″ wheel bikes, and I’m not going to call this one the best, only because there are so many 26″ bike options out there. I just happened to find one that I feel suits my son best right now.

TL;DR? The Haro Flightline One Rigid Step Thru is a great bike for growing adolescents (boys or girls).

Continue reading “Great 26″ Bicycle”

Sizes – WTH?

Let’s talk about bike sizes. Kids bikes are usually measured by wheels size. Once you get beyond 24″ wheels you’re into adult bike territory. With adult bikes you’ll typically be looking at both wheel sizes (26″, 650B, 700C, etc.) and frame sizes (14″, 17″, 54cm, 55cm). To make matters worse, some measurements are in inches, some are in centimeters, and some have arbitrary numbers from the (g)olden days of cycling. The bottom line is to pay attention to what the sales guy is talking about and don’t be afraid to ask!

Growing Like Weeds

You may have noticed we skipped the 24″ wheel size bike and went straight for a 26″. Technically my son’s height is smack-dab in the middle of the 24″ bike range. But after outgrowing his 20″ bike, he began stealing his mom’s 26″ Trek Navigator 2.0. He looks and feels comfortable on it, so why not entertain the idea of getting him a 26″ wheeled bike? I like that idea over buying a 24″ and having him outgrow it in a year.

Many Options

Like I said there are many options out there. Here are several we considered:

This is not an exhaustive list, they’re just a few that are available near me at the time of writing. If you’re savvy, you may want to do some internet searching and calling around to find out what is available nearby. Visiting a local bike shop for a test ride is paramount.

We landed on the Haro with the step-through design. He could ride this slightly over-sized frame for his height, but he could still get on and off of easily.

Suspension

It doesn’t have a front suspension fork. Ironically there are other Flightline models that do come with a front suspension fork, and they’re cheaper 🤔 I suspect they charge the premium for the Step Thru frame, not the fork. The reason I like a rigid fork is because it’s much lighter.

Frame

The step thru frame is sometimes marketed as a women’s frame, but Haro have wised up with the following marketing message:

Ladies only? Not the Flightline One ST…One of Haro’s most popular models, the FL One also comes in a step-thru frame (all genders welcome). While it is true the majority of these are purchased by women, men with difficulty lifting their leg over a traditional frame may want to jump on an ST.

I wanted it for my son because he’s only 10 right now and having the top bar lowered makes it infinitely easier to get on and off.

I’m not saying it’s the best, but it’s the best for us right now. Do you have any 26″ kid-bike recommendations? Let us know in the comments what it is and why you like it.

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Chaining DNSMasq and resolved

I had a weird problem recently that I solved, and it was mostly due to my mis-configuring of my Ubuntu laptop. I finally figured it out when setting up my new Dell XPS Developer Edition laptop, so I wanted to share.

The situation: I would go to my local library and couldn’t connect to their wireless internet. But if I disabled dnsmasq and restarted the network-manager service, it would work fine.

What I didn’t realize was happening is dnsmasq was taking over local DNS control from the systemd-resolved service. What is systemd-resolved and why is it important? The man page reads:

systemd-resolved is a system service that provides network name resolution to local applications. It implements a caching and validating DNS/DNSSEC stub resolver, as well as an LLMNR and MulticastDNS resolver and responder.

My library uses a captive portal. When you connect to their network it brings up a page that makes you agree before actually being able to use the network. systemd-resolved has all the know-how to handle that – dnsmasq doesn’t.

I love dnsmasq and don’t want to loose it’s functionality. I want to use both the system resolved (pronounced resolve-D) and dnsmasq. Here’s how to have your cake and eat it too.

Continue reading “Chaining DNSMasq and resolved”

DNSMasq via NetworkManager

To use the dnsmasq plugin that is installed with NetworkManager, I just needed to add the bold line to the main section of NetworkManager.conf via sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
dns=dnsmasq

Local sites

This section is optional, I do it to create a local domain name that only exists on my local computer for web development purposes. Anything that ends in .test resolves to localhost. Also, I use a loopback IP address for my .test addresses in case I need to access them through a virtual machine (usually to test IE).

Then add this file, by running sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.d/01-dot-test.conf

address=/test/10.254.254.254

Why do I use .test? See this post.

Chaining DNSMasq & resolveconf

To really make things work I wanted to keep both resolved and dnsmasq working together in tandem. I found the answer in this thread on ubuntuforums.org. resolved just needs to know to use dnsmasq as its upstream provider. You can do this by adding the following bold lines via sudo vi /etc/systemd/resolved.conf

[Resolve]
DNS=127.0.1.1
FallbackDNS=127.0.1.1

You can restart network-manager and systemd-resolved services to apply your changes, or simply reboot your system.

Test it out

To make sure that it’s working, first check your resolv.conf file by running cat /etc/resolv.conf

# This file is managed by man:systemd-resolved(8). Do not edit.
...
# Run "systemd-resolve --status" to see details about the uplink DNS servers
# currently in use.
...

nameserver 127.0.0.53
...

This file should be managed by resolved and use the resolved IP of 127.0.0.53. Then use the hint given in that file to check the upstream server: systemd-resolve --status

Global
         DNS Servers: 127.0.1.1
          DNSSEC NTA: 10.in-addr.arpa
                      ...
                      corp
                      d.f.ip6.arpa
                      home
                      internal
                      intranet
                      lan
                      local
                      private
                      test

Ping a couple of domain names, both local and remote, and you should be good to go!

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Simple HiDPI Monitor Scaling with Wayland in Ubuntu 18.04

My company helped me purchase a new Dell 7390 XPS 13 Developer Edition. The biggest hurdle I had when setting it up was getting my external monitor to work correctly. It’s a standard HD monitor (1920×1080), and the laptop screen is 4K (3840×2160) – known as a “HiDPI” monitor because while it’s run at 3840×2160 it’s scaled 200% so actual humans can read the fonts.

This presented a problem because the scaling was affecting the external monitor – it was appearing as if the resolution was half of HD – 960×540. Hello 1990s!

Continue reading “Simple HiDPI Monitor Scaling with Wayland in Ubuntu 18.04”

Dell 7390 XPS 13 Developer Edition Laptop

Transcription:

Today I’m going to be unboxing the new Dell XPS Developer Edition for 2019. I just got this in the mail – super excited. I believe the number is 7390. Check it out!

Continue reading “Dell 7390 XPS 13 Developer Edition Laptop”

Alright so here it is. I actually found this laptop from listening to the linux4everyone podcast. That’s Linux, the number-four (4), and everyone. The episode that I heard, the host Jason was interviewing a guy named Barton George who works at Dell. He actually heads up a team called project Sputnik and they handle all of the hardware that Dell ships with Linux pre-installed. He mentioned quite a few things about how they don’t add any hardware that isn’t well supported.

So for instance – let me get this out – the fingerprint reader is omitted. I’ll tell you that on my old ThinkPad, I could never get my fingerprint reader to work reliably, so it just became a piece of… Something that I never use. So I’m thankful that they’re not going to include anything that I don’t need.

Packaging Box 📦

This thing is taped quite quite nicely. As you can see it’s got the battery warning on there – still got the packaging slip on there. You guys are seeing this for the first time, just as I am. Let’s see what we got — do not cut yourself 😬 🔪

Let’s take a look in here. Power cord, going to need that. Oh cool, a USB to – USB C to USB adapter. It will be good to at least get some stuff working right away. And the power adapter.

A couple foam pieces, we’ll get those out of the way. And the laptop… Cool.

Laptop Options

Alright, so the new Dell XPSes – the 2019 versions – were coming out at the end of 2019. On the podcast they announced that the i5s would be coming out in September, and that the i7s would probably be coming out a little bit later in October.

I went to the site, and when the i5 came out I was actually kind of disappointed. Because the RAM spec on it was 8 gigs of memory and it wasn’t upgradable, which seemed kind of weird to me because my ThinkPad – which is from 2014 – had 8 gigs memory on it. I’m like – I know a lot of people out there looking looking to upgrade – myself included.

So I waited like a week or two and went back. And the i7s had come out, and they were 16 gigs of RAM. So RAM is definitely a buy time decision, because a lot of manufacturers are soldering the RAM onto the boards, and you really don’t have a choice of upgrading.

Out of the inside box

OK cool, so this has got a little tab in the back to pull it out of the box. We’ve got an instruction manual in here. I don’t think there’s anything underneath this. No, nothing there, set that aside. Yadda, yadda, health and safety. XPS – a little brochure with where to plug stuff in. Plug it in to the left – got it. OK cool, we’ll plug it into the left.

Yeah, one of the most satisfying things is taking off this plastic. It seems kind of like a sleeve so I think I can just… Nope, never mind, do it like that.

Ports

Let’s take a look at this thing here. So we’ve got ports on the side, let’s see. So this side – I think this is the micro SD here. This is the battery gauge here (8), it comes with a full charge or, two-thirds. And then two Thunderbolt or USB-C (6), one of which I think is Thunderbolt, and then I think that is for locking (5).

This side. One of these is for the SD card, oh, here it is (2). Sorry, that’s a speaker (1). That’s what these two are right there (1 & 9). SD card (2), and headphone jack (3), and another USB-C (4).

Opening the lid

Let’s take a look. Alright, plug this guy in, let’s check it out. Looking good so far. I like this carbon fiber overlay on the front.

So this being the developer edition, I’m obviously not going to go into detail about how good the graphics are – although I did get the upgraded screen. I’ve been using Linux for 20 years, and I’ve been doing web development for 10 (actually 15). I’ve also been working remotely for 10 years – so things I’m interested in are… Like the keyboard, the battery life, the track-pad. The screen – and while I enjoy the high resolution – it’s also a touch screen but I’m probably not going to be using that feature.

Also the camera which is now up at the top. I use the camera every day to communicate with my co-workers
working remotely, so the “nose cam” that used to be like down here or down here would be a deal killer for me. I definitely wouldn’t be buying it if it still had that setup.

Oh I almost forgot! One of the most important features. Before we fire it up, I got these cool little stickers from ThinkPenguin.com. Put that guy right there – good to go, before we even turn it on.

First Boot & Setup

Exciting! Well, let’s see what happens. 💻

Later on I’ll be doing probably a review of some of the – I’m going to buy a USB-C multi-function adapter to
connect my external monitor. Normally I use wired Ethernet, obviously this doesn’t have ports for those like my old ThinkPad. But I might be reviewing those later.

A familiar sight. This is exciting, I don’t have to delete Windows and kind of start over – straight into Ubuntu, cool. Some custom Dell verbiage here – who reads all that stuff? Keyboard: US. I do want to connect.

Yeah, this screen looks awesome, and look at how close to the edge it goes. I know that’s one of their big selling things. (Laughing) oh, touch screen! Like I said, I’m probably not gonna use it but it’s there.

Where am I, Chicago? Close enough. I’m just gonna call this (hostname) XPS13 today. (user) justin, (password) pick something easy for now. Cool, oh look at this, this is great: save recovery media to flash drive. Awesome, I should be looking for a flash drive while this is going. I’ll be right back.

Look what I found: my old T440s Windows 8 recovery disk. I would use this but I think I’m going to try to… When I sell my laptop I might want to use this. So I’ve found another one that’s labeled “Ubuntu latest.” Hopefully we can format this and use it. Now’s the test where I grab this USB dongle, and put this guy in here.

Device is not large enough to hold this image. OK 🙁 Let’s see if we can go to terminal, like that? We could do something in a shell somewhere else.

Microscopic Console Font!

Holy cow that is the tiniest. That is crazy, can you guys see that?!? 🕵 Wow! That is the tiniest thing ever (laughing). Is this thing mounted? I need a magnifying glass to see this stuff here. 🔍 It is not mounted.

I think the answer is going to be: I need a bigger flash drive because this is not going to be big enough. You know it’d be helpful if it told you how big it needed to be. One second let me see if I can find something.

OK, found a new one. Let’s see if this guy is big enough. Yes, do it. Yes all data will be lost, there ain’t nothing on it.

Hardware

So far I really like the track-pad, nice and smooth. The mouse is definitely not fast enough, but I’ll change that in the settings. But it feels great. And the only thing I’m not sure about is this line here: does that mean that this is going to be right-click or left-click? Hopefully that’s configurable.

Keyboard feels really good too so far. Good size keys, kind of the same as my old ThinkPad. Which actually, I’ll grab real quick and do a quick size comparison. Because this is a 13″ and my old ThinkPad T440 is a 14 inch laptop. So while it seems like the screen is getting smaller, it’s also getting much higher resolution and the viewing angle looks pretty superb as well. Let me go grab my ThinkPad while it’s writing.

And we’re done! Cool, installation is complete. All right, quit. That thing continues to do whatever remainder of installation it needs to.

Size comparison

So here’s my ThinkPad, and when this is done maybe we’ll just power it off and and take a look at the two size differences. So here’s a quick size comparison to my old ThinkPad. It’s a T440s, well used. This thing’s from 2014, so it’s feeling its age.

This thing (XPS) could kind of sit in its lap. But the keys are actually pretty similar in size I’d say. You know, one of the reasons I got the T440 was because the keyboard got such good reviews. But so far I’ve been really liking this one too – time will tell.

You kind of look at it and it’s a little bit thinner end to end. But the key size is still very generous on this one. So the screen is, actually when you look at it with how close it goes to the edge, it’s really not that much smaller than this one.

← Summary Only

Dongles in Theory

Dongles in Practice

B6.1 Clay Setups

Two cars?

Why I’m sticking with one car

Parts & Tools

Talk to other racers, and have fun

Programs

Gnome

GTK

Gnome Terminal

VSCode

Emacs

Nautilus (File Manager)

Looking Ahead

An aside about RC track websites

Lemons or Lemonade?

Sizes – WTH?

Growing Like Weeds

Many Options

Suspension

Frame

DNSMasq via NetworkManager

Local sites

Chaining DNSMasq & resolveconf

Test it out

X Scaling Problems

Wayland: Scaling the Easy Way

Packaging Box 📦

Laptop Options

Out of the inside box

Ports

Opening the lid

First Boot & Setup

Microscopic Console Font!

Hardware

Size comparison