Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 running on Yoga Pro 2 with HiDPI and touch screen support
Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 running on Yoga Pro 2 with HiDPI and touch screen support
See my previous post on how to install Ubuntu on Yoga Pro 2 for Ubuntu GNOME 16.04.
I think Ubuntu GNOME is the best flavor of Ubuntu if you are running in HiDPI mode 3200x1200. All screen captured images are at HiDPI resolution.
Ubuntu 16.10 is not released yet, the screen shoots are from a daily build, 16.10 it is scheduled to be released in Q4 2016.
Touch support
Ubuntu gnome support for touch screen is pretty good on the desktop shell.Chrome browser supports touch screen very well and much better than Firefox without any plug-ins.
The windows key on the screen panel works as the windows key on the keyboard.
Screen rotation is supported on the new gnome and disables the keyboard when the yoga is used as a tablet, side lock rotation button works to lock the screen in a certain rotation.
Yoga Keys boot key
F12 - Boot menu to select booting from usb drive
F2 - Bios Menu
Power down the computer. Push the “novo” button ounce or press F2 while booting to force the computer to enter into BIOS menus. Disable “Security Boot” and disable “Lenovo Fast Boot”. Leave UEFI option turned on since Ubuntu supports UEFI out of the box.
I also enabled the Functions keys in the BIOS by default but this is a personal preference.
Install
Format
your flash drive with a single FAT32 partition. Copy the contents of
the Ubuntu ISO (use your favorite archiving tool - 7zip for example) or
CD to it. Use a recent 64-bit Ubuntu version.
That's all you need to do. No need to use a special tool. You can also use Ubuntu tool to create a UEFI bootable flash drive.
Note: Avoid using something like Unetbootin to create a UEFI-bootable flash drive, it does not work.
Plug the USB flash drive on the laptop. Use the USB 2.0 port on the Yoga pro 2 to plug the usb flash drive. I had problems with the USB 3 port using a USB 3 flash drive, seems to me it was un-mounted during the installation process, when installer was setting up the drives.
Select the partition size for Ubuntu let the Ubuntu Gnome installer re-size your windows partition. Grub will have an option to boot windows after the install is done and will setup Ubuntu as the default OS.
Note:
The default options will work fine, there is no need to setup custom partitions. But if you want to setup new partitions here is what I did. I deleted all windows partitions since I don't run windows and created EFI 512 Mb partition (this is where the EFI code looks for the kernel to be loaded on boot, the installer allows you to create this partition with a special type), I also created a swap partition of 9Gb since I have 8Gb of physical memory, a 15Gb partition for the OS "/" and a the rest for home "/home".
.
What works
Almost everything works great out of the box, there isn't many changes you need to do. UbuntuGnome ships with gnome 3.20 and will boot with full resolution HiDPI and touch screen support enabledScreen HiDPI support
Brightness, resolution keys, option keys to turn off the screen all work.You can change the resolution in the settings to another resolution in case you don't want to use HiDPI, selecting 1920x1080 that should give you a good scale ratio on the Yoga Pro 2.
Camera, Sound, Keyboard, Sleep, Wifi, bluetooth, USB3
Camera, sleep, wifi, Bluetooth, USB3 and side sound button up/down works. Keyboard background light works, Special Fn key mute, volume up, volume down, turn off screen, refresh, brightness up and down, menu key, keyboard light, air-plane mode, all work as expected. The windows touch logo on the touchscreen works, small side lock rotation button works.Fn key to show all screens works but it is a shortcut to Activities menu so you don't have to use the touch pad.
Does not work out of the box
The Fn key to disable track-pad function.Tweaks to make some Apps work better with HiDPI
Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, Cheese, totem, vlc work great in HiDPI.Get chrome from google web site
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable
If you use a HiDPI monitor such as Yoga Pro 2 display together with another monitor, you can use AutoHiDPI add-on in order to automatically adjust
layout.css.devPixelsPerPx setting for the active screen. Set Pixel Ratio to 2x and HiDPI screen with to 3200, on the plug-in settings page.If you use the touch screen you should install Grab and Drag add-on to make Firefox more tablet friendly.
Chromium/Chrome supports the touchscreen better than Firefox if you wish to use it with the touchscreen Chromium is the better choice.
Run chromium at device scale in case it starts with big fonts.
chromium-browser --force-device-scale-factor=2
For Thunderbird see Firefox. To access about:config, go to Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Config editor.
Skype is a Qt program, and needs to be configured separately. You cannot change the DPI setting for it, but at least you can change font size. Install qt4 and run qtconfig-qt4 to do it.
Clementine is not scaled properly.
Reference for other applications on HiDPI
archlinux HiDPI documentationConsole
Configure larger font on tty console, leave all settings as they are, but for font select Terminus, and on the last one, where you can chose the size 16x32, and then reboot.sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup
Reference: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI
Ubuntu extras and tools
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
### media players, gnome,vpn and compression tools [lots of packages for these]
sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 icedax tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0 mpg321 libavcodec-extra openconnect network-manager-openconnect-gnome openvpn easy-rsa network-manager-openvpn-gnome
### DVD support
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
### Gnome utilities
sudo apt-get install adwaita-icon-theme-full vlc clementine minitube bijiben polari gnome-weather epiphany-browser p7zip-rar p7zip-full unace unrar zip unzip sharutils rar uudeview mpack arj cabextract file-roller htop dconf-editor gnome-backgrounds gnome-bluetooth gnome-boxes gnome-calculator gnome-calendar gnome-clocks gnome-color-manager gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-dictionary gnome-disk-utility gnome-documents gnome-logs gnome-maps gnome-music gnome-online-accounts gnome-photos gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions gnome-sound-recorder gnome-sushi gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-themes-standard gnome-tweak-tool gnome-weather frogr vinagre ghex chromium-browser picard gnome-todo
### Simple Games
sudo apt-get install gnome-chess five-or-more four-in-a-row gnome-klotski gnome-nibbles gnome-robots gnome-sudoku gnome-mahjongg gnome-tetravex iagno lightsoff quadrapassel swell-foop
### Run windows or other linux versions inside Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
### Gnome development tools
sudo apt-get install gnome-builder glade gitg ghex
USB 3 ethernet adapter
I got a USB 3 Ethernet adapter at frys, it works great. I'm also using a SIIG USB 3 hub with power adapter to plug a logitech USB sound bar, the USB 3 Ethernet adapter, a wireless mouse dongle and a external disk 60 Gb SSD.
Links to the hardware:
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Multimedia-Gigabit-Ethernet-UE3000/dp/B00DWXV4SY
http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-7-Port-USB-3-0-Adapter/dp/B00AAHLWA0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404719193&sr=8-1&keywords=siig+usb+3+hub
Wifi network card upgrade [not recommended, only do it if you need dual band wifi]
I also upgraded the wifi network card to a intel dual band, link to amazon and Youtube video.
Spec: 7260NGW Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11ac, Dual Band, 2x2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 6b) Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Capabilities: [154] Vendor Specific Information: ID=cafe Rev=1 Len=014
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Works great.
References
Ubuntu GNOME 15.04 running on Yoga Pro 2 with HiDPI support
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