Yoga 260 - debian thinkpad_ec errors - fixed

I installed tp-smapi-dkms at some point while I was trying to get my yoga 260 working with all its features.

I noticed these messages from dmesg after a reboot.

[   10.557939] thinkpad_ec: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   10.558304] thinkpad_ec: thinkpad_ec_request_row: arg0 rejected: (0x01:0x00)->0x00
[   10.558305] thinkpad_ec: thinkpad_ec_read_row: failed requesting row: (0x01:0x00)->0xfffffffb
[   10.558307] thinkpad_ec: initial ec test failed
[   10.639393] thinkpad_ec: thinkpad_ec_request_row: arg0 rejected: (0x01:0x00)->0x00
[   10.639394] thinkpad_ec: thinkpad_ec_read_row: failed requesting row: (0x01:0x00)->0xfffffffb
[   10.639397] thinkpad_ec: initial ec test failed

Googling I found this thread from https://github.com/evgeni/tp_smapi/issues/14 that started in 2012 and continued to 2015.

The gist seems to be that I should remove tp-smapi-dkms because those features are not supported by the hardware.

Ran

apt-get purge tp-smapi-dkms

And on reboot the messages have gone away:

 dmesg | grep think
[    2.661884] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.25
[    2.661885] thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/
[    2.661886] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS N1GET70W (1.49 ), EC unknown
[    2.661886] thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 260, model 20FDCTO1WW
[    2.671689] thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
[    2.671850] thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver
[    2.671850] thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default...
[    2.675346] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is unblocked
[    2.678097] thinkpad_acpi: Standard ACPI backlight interface available, not loading native one
[    2.681189] input: ThinkPad Extra Buttons as /devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/input/input7

Linux Touch Screen Games

Games I know work with my yoga 260 touch screen on debian stretch

numpty physics - a bit awkward  for refresh because you have to side swipe  - http://numptyphysics.garage.maemo.org/

aisle riot solitaire - https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Apps/Aisleriot?action=show&redirect=Aisleriot

Chess - the one installed on debian


Five or More

Four in a row

hitori

iagno

klotski
lights off
mahjong
mines - ok except you can't right click with your finger

sudoku
swell foop
tarquin
tetravex


robots - I'm not sure I was playing it right

Doesn't work

gplanarity
nibbles - keyboard controls
quadrapassel

Thinkpad Yoga 260 and Debian Linux

I got a yoga 260 and I'm running linux on it.  It still has some teething problems but here's what I know so far.  It has a touchscreen.

The best linux status information for the yoga 260 is at the Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_Thinkpad_Yoga_260

I'm running Debian Stretch - which is currently "testing".  It has Gnome 3.


When you login you can select if you use Xserver or Wayland.

Web browsing

I use Chrome.  With Xserver, I can only scroll by using two fingers  on the page or using a the scroll bar and no other gestures work.

Last night I discovered that with Wayland, I can scroll using a single finger, make the page bigger by "unpinching" two fingers and go back to a previous page by swiping from left to write - like your swiping the current page away.

Chrome has several virtual keyboards available as extensions.  The first one I tried which had the most comments didn't work for me - it wouldn't bring up a keyboard in the search bar.  I'm currently using "Keyboard" from http://www.123easywebsites.com/ and it's working ok.

There is a Gnome Shell Integration extensions.  If you add that then you can install gnome instructions through Chrome at the click of a button.  It puts a little gnome footprint in your tool bar.

Gnome

Gnome extensions can be installed through the Chrome extension mentioned above by going to https://extensions.gnome.org/.

Caffeine - disables the screensaver and autosuspend - installed after trying to use my "tablet" as a recipe book - it's really annoying trying to enter a password with floury fingers.

On Screen Keyboard Button - to get an on screen keyboard you have to enable it all the time. (well that's what I've worked out so far).  This extensions puts a little a in your gnome toolbar so you can turn it off.

Dash to Dock - puts a dock hidden to one side of your screen - handy for switching apps in tablet mode.

Netspeed - reports netspeed - nothing to do with tablets but it's cool

This article has a good list:

http://aptgadget.com/best-gnome-shell-extensions/


Kernel

Currently running 4.9 installed from source following these excellent instructions:
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/debian-ubuntu-building-installing-a-custom-linux-kernel/

This gave me two buttons on my pen and I think the multitouch behaviour in touch screen mode became better.  The impression I have is that the touch screen behaviour became much more precise, less sluggish but I could be wrong - maybe it was always that good and I was just getting used to it.

Trackpoint -
I turned the trackpad off because it's annoying.  With or without it the cursor keeps freezing with:

[30922.323665] psmouse serio1: Touchpad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 6
[30922.323671] psmouse serio1: issuing reconnect request

And the way to get it back is in a terminal with root permissions to run:

rmmod psmouse; modprobe -a psmouse

Which works but is annoying.  

Middle click keeps being ignored and the pointer jumps.  That's also annoying.

Tablet Mode works ok - but there is no screen rotation.  Locks the keyboard automatically.  

Screen rotation does't work because 

monitor-sensor
    Waiting for iio-sensor-proxy to appear
+++ iio-sensor-proxy appeared
=== Has accelerometer (orientation: undefined)
=== Has ambient light sensor (value: 0.000000, unit: lux)

4.9 has fixed that for others so I need to investigate further.

That's some rough notes - but I haven't found that information in one spot so I'll publish it rough though it is just in case it helps someone else.

Preschool Sewing

Today I'm going to Kindy B to do some sewing.  I made an electrical conduit and ebay connector version of the sewing table I saw at the  Kleas Blog

I like the Bayeux Tapestry - lots of boats and people

It's very long and tells the story of William the Conquerer-

Holiday

I'm sitting looking at talabudgerah creek.
Forgive the spelling but blogger doesn't know the word and nor do I.
We managed to leave on our holiday just before 4pm yesterday.
Good night in Celia's tent.  Up early and the girls are happily playing in  a playground.

New Toy

I have a new toy. It is a new phone. And I am testing writing a blog the voice response talk. I do have a slight problem because I do not know how to get it how to do punctuation. I am having some problems persuading it to understand some of the things I'm saying and it's just put in a contraction where I did not expect it.  I may have to read the manual.

Tuesday Story - Beavers and Unnoticable Girls

Both girls managed to be dressed and pack their clothes by dinner time today (with a few contretemps along the way) so they got to chose their stories - both were library books.

Rosie chose:
Maude The Not-So-Noticeable Shrimpton by Lauren Child

I've liked all the  Lauren Child books I've read to the girls but I think this on was written for children a bit older and so it went over the heads of the girls a bit - but that's ok.  Callie said she didn't like the Tiger... Rosie said she liked the tiger because she has a tiger toy...

Callie chose:
If Beaver had a Fever by Helen Ketteman

Which was ok - a rhyming mother and child conversation book.

Sven's birthday tomorrow - will his present arrive in time - this and other mysteries to be discovered tomorrow...

Monday Story

Today we had a shower when we got home from day care - which we try to do.  I say we because I get wet and have a shower while they are supposed to be getting dressed.  This time they spent so long playing instead of getting dressed that I set the timer - and they almost got dressed in time but were debating which pymama the other person could wear and missed out by seconds.  So I gave them a special second chance and set the timer again so they could choose clothes for tomorrow.  Which they missed out because they were discussing which socks they would choose - with child A choosing a selection for child B.  This took so long that they missed the timer again and so I got to choose the book for the night.

This was another library book:
This Morning Sam Went To Mars (a book about paying attention) by Nancy Carlson

Rosie said she chose this book because the cover was "So Pretty".  The girls both thought it was about space and said "We'll learn things about Space".  It was actually a book about a boy who keeps imagining things and keeps getting told to focus.  The girls said they both liked it - and they had just gotten their clothes ready so they could empathise with some of the solutions.

Sunday Story

One today because it was we'd had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's and there is Kindy tomorrow.  Well officially it was because they didn't get dressed before the timer went. One of the library books:

Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks.

I liked this one because it part of the plot was that Polar Bears and Penguins live at different poles.  It makes me happy when childrens books don't enforce those common fallacies that get drummed into peoples heads - like dinosaurs and humans at the same time, polar bears and penguins playing together etc.  One might say it's just a children's story but I think there is a difference between talking chickens and telling children that  octopuses have 9 babies through a live birth rather than laying hundreds of eggs. (recent cartoon bugbear).  I'm ok with fairies and Santa and gnomes in stories but I'm not ok with polar bears and penguins living at the north pole together.  So I like this book.

Saturday Stories

After an exciting day where they attended a mermaid birthday party with a spectacular mermaid cake, we started the new library books with a fairy day.

The A to Z of Fairies by Caroline Stills

The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

The girls are so young they don't even know who Julie Andrews IS.

Friday Story

Thomas the Tank Engine story 2 for Rosie.
And for Callie after much deliberation and a "Mummy has already read that one" about another book - we get a different book which I read last week:

The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Hop by Robert Cox and Jim Robins

I don't think the girls get the punch line.  That one is either a hand me down or a life line book sale.

Tomorrow we might start the new crop of library books.

Thursday Story

Tomorrow is a busy day so the girls got one story so they'd get to bed quicker.
I got to choose (because it was only one story).  I chose This is My Book by Mick Inkpen

I love this book - the Snapdragon eats parts of letters and the dots off the "i"s :-)

Wednesday Bedtime Stories

Tonight I dissuaded Callie from having the Opera book she got at the lifeline book sale by saying it wasn't a story book.
Instead we had for Callie:
Little Princess: I Want My New Shoes! by Tony Ross

And for Rosie the first of the stories in the Thomas the Tank Engine Trouble on the Tracks
train tracks book she got from the Life Line book sale. (missing its train) (it was from the $2 section).

It sounds like all their books are from the life line book sale but we're still working our way through the ones they got a month ago.  They had a library period in the middle and now they've been finding things on their own shelves.

Tuesday Bedtime Stories

Tonight stories for two tired children:

The Little Ballerina by Sue Harris

Which Rosie got for her birthday from her Aunty Susan last year (I think).
It's got little envelopes with fold out cards in - and only one card is missing...

The first part of a disney Beauty and the Beast book which was either a hand me down or a lifeline book sale.  After visiting the lifeline book sale with my daughters and seeing which books they would choose I understood why we got so many disney and pink shiny books as hand me downs from my nieces. 

Bed Time Stories

The Girls said that they couldn't remember what day they last read a particular story.  I suggested we could write down what books we read.

Tonight:

What Planet Are You From Clarice Bean by Lauren Child 

Which we got at the lifeline book sale and I hadn't read before.  I enjoyed it but I think as it's about a 9 or 10 year old was probably a bit old for the girls.  They were yawning a bit - so they weren't really engaged.

Time, Ted and the Pirates by Ian Whybrow and Russell Ayto
Which was a hand me down from my sister and we read ocassionally.
Which is ok and rhymes - plus it has PIRATES and a Shark that has swallowed a large convertible car and what appears to be a train carriage.

Bees in our Backyard

The friday before last bees moved into our backyard. They are living in a tree.  When it rains some fall out of the tree.

Bees FLY

Bees Dance

A Bee Dance is like a Map

Bees Live Together - in Hives or Trees

Bees Visit Flowers

Bees Make Honey - BEE SPIT

Butterflies in our Backyard

We think we have caught a Common Grass Blue Butterfly
(Zizina labradus of the family LYCAENIDAE order Lepidoptera)

It was in our garden.

Butterflies:

Visit Flowers and drink Nectar

Butterflies Have Scales Like Fish

Butterfly scales:

 Caterpillars turn into Buttterflies

Butterflies Fly
 

Bees

A swarm of bees has decided that our backyard is their rainy weather holiday resort. Yesterday noticed a loud buzzing noise. I attributed this to my mildly blocked ears. Then Sven called "hey look a swarm of bees". There were lots of angry looking bees flying around each other. Then it began to rain. Now they have installed themselves on a tree branch 5 metres up. They've been there all night. They're very high up and I'm hoping they'll decide to move when it stops raining - bees are nice in the abstract but my vision of hundreds of touchy bees living in my backyard is not pretty.

Child rearing Advice

I have a new piece of wisdom for parents of young children that I haven't read anywhere else.
When your young toddler first starts using duplo - until you're used to it being spread everywhere wearing footwear is a sensible safety precaution :-)

I'm using those slippers they told me to get for the hospital when I had the twins - it helps that my toes are cold :-)

Buildbot windows service

I run buildbot and have a slave on windows. The buildbot is installed a service. The box was moved from one network to another a few days ago and the buildbot service would no longer start up.
In the original network the box was connected to a domain server. In the second network it wasn't.

In the original network, the username was part of the domain. When the box was moved I added a local account for the box. On another box which had the same move it didn't have a problem.

When I tried to start the service a dialog popped up: "The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start". In the event viewer was a message saying that the service depended on the netlogon service and the netlogon service was not started. The netlogon service said it didn't need to run because it was part of a work group.

After a while I guessed that the service authentication in the dialog was done through the netlogon service because it was a domain user name. So I:
removed the service.
rebooted the box (so the service would delete.
added the service again.

And it WORKED!!!!