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If things don’t improve, this StarLite will likely be the last Linux device I get.
Not asking for much, just:
- Battery life to at least match my ten-year-old iPad. (I’d be happy with something lasted more than two-
(sorry, cursor just jumped while typing that – see point 2, below)
-three hours.
- Trackpad that disables while typing so I can, well, type.
Basically, just a machine that gets the basics right.
(Really - sorry cursor jumped - want to love this machine. Just can’t.)
The trackpad issue, by the way: https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/firmware/issues/182
(And the battery issue… well, that’s been a problem with the previous Starlabs labtop I had too.)
(And yeah, I’d much rather be coding instead of typing th – cursor just jumped, sorry – -is but, due to this trackpad issue, I really can’t.)
Right, disabled the trackpad entirely and I can at least type again.
Thankfully, it’s a tablet (although you can’t use it for programming – at least in Terminal, e.g., with Helix – in tablet mode because the on-screen keyboard in GNOME does not have all the keys you need. e.g., ESC is missing. Kind of a biggie when using a modal editor) so I can use the touch-screen if I need to (not ideal ergonomically when using it docked but goodness it feels good to be able to type again.
Hmm, I wonder if this is actually an issue with tap-to-click not getting disabled when the disable touchpad while typing setting is on in GNOME and/or the StarLite firmware.
I’ve just re-enabled the trackpad but turned off tap to click and I don’t seem to be seeing the problem (and the mouse cursor does disappear while typing, which is did before too).
Hmm… I’ll update the issue and fingers crossed they’ll be able to fix it for tap-to-click too.
@aral @starlabssystems I have System 76's Lemur Pro and I don't think I've ever had the track pad problem. Batter life is pretty great on it too. Might be worth a look - it's also entirely user serviceable, which is nice.
@rateexportpilot @starlabssystems Thanks – I would have but I’ll be giving @system76 a miss after this interaction:
Before purchasing a systemd/Linux device you should review if the device works with free software - if it doesn't, it's guaranteed to be a lemon, if it does, then it'll probably work properly.
>-three hours.
Possible with low brightness and aggressive throttling on most laptops - although you need to install laptop-mode-tools to get that.
>- Trackpad that disables while typing so I can, well, type.
That is usually an option that can be set in the desktop environment.
Hyde @aral I have a Tuxedo one for 5 years if I remember correctly, and it works well so far.
@hyde How’s the battery life?
@aral After 5 years, it's still decent. I dont know exactly, but I have it next to me charged at 100%... let's see, and I'll update you as soon as I get a feedback :)
@aral so 3hours and 15 minutes more or less a couple of minutes.
I put a movie in loop to see, and had signal opened, and librewolf with 188 tabs opened
@hyde Thanks :)
I've had a Tuxedo with AMD cpu and has a wonderful battery life (6 hours easily, depending on type of usage, of course). As for the touchpad being disabled, isn't this a setting that could/should exist in the desktop environment, such as Plasma, Gnome, etc? Right now I don't have my computer, so I can't look for such setting
@hyde
@aral Pretty sure all my Thinkpad laptops have had accidental-palm-strike-detection for about a decade now. I think they do have specific drivers/kernel modules though.
@aral Buy without an OS and stick your own Linux distro on it. I'm afraid that Star Labs has declined in product, IMHO.
@linuxgnome I did :) (Although StarLabs installs a wide range of operating systems, to their credit.) This is a firmware and/or hardware issue with the magnetic keyboar, ju- oops, cursor just jumped while I was writing the apology for almost accidentally closing this reply – d – sorry –
*sigh*
While you wait for the trackpad issue to be resolved, am I right to assume you can mitigate the problem by adjusting trackpad sensitivity?
@linuxgnome
@bitnik @linuxgnome Hmm, actually, I’m wondering if it’s only an issue when tap-to-click is enabled. (I believe so.)
@aral
According to this post https://community.frame.work/t/solved-disable-touchpad-while-typing-ubuntu-linux/26477/6
touchpad is auto disabled while typing by default in Ubuntu 22.04 (and newer presumably) I don't know what flavour distro you are using but it's a pretty popular query/request but I'm not seeing a lot of extensions/apps etc to manage this behaviour (messing with lib configs yes, gui not so much)
@bitnik @linuxgnome
@acesabe @bitnik @linuxgnome Yeah, it’s set as disabled in GNOME for me under Fedora but that doesn’t disable tap-to-click.
@aral
Have you checked the gconf setting for this or maybe just try the following?
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing true
From:
https://ostechnix.com/how-to-automatically-disable-touchpad-when-typing-in-ubuntu/
@aral My bad, then. What I dislike most is the non-modular construction (yes, a common problem). I HATE soldered RAM. I dislike it when, if you disengage the battery, you can' get the sodding thing connected again. I almost bricked my StarLite - which I can now only use with the power cable.
@linuxgnome Ah, sorry to hear it. I wouldn’t be brave enough to open this up :)
@aral @linuxgnome
Shitty. Plasma has a specific setting for turning off the touchpad when typing, so maybe it's a DE thing and not a linux thing? No idea about the battery life and other issues though. I've never owned a new laptop, so battery life on mine have always been low and I've always just assumed it's the age of the battery and not the OS. Not great to find out otherwise 
@GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome GNOME has that too. And it’s on. So it’s either an issue in GNOME where tap-to-click isn’t disabled as part of that or it’s an issue with @starlabssystems StarLite firmware.
@aral @linuxgnome @starlabssystems 
my condolences...
If you have gnome-tweaks-tool installed, take a look in there and see if it's possible to fine-tune this behaviour.
@GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome @starlabssystems
@aral @GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome
Hi Aral,
After a brief chat in the office, I've been told it's an issue with GNOME.
I spent the best part of the day trying to construct a reply to that effect without feeling like I was finger-pointing because, on the company account, that's a no-go.
And then I went down this rabbit hole:
@starlabssystems @aral @GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome
I have the exact same issue on other computers with Gnome. It is not specific for the StarLink.
@starlabssystems @aral @GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome
Now I can't edit to correct the error.
@starlabssystems @GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome Thank you for looking into it. Good to know :)
@aral @starlabssystems @GuerillaOntologist @linuxgnome yeah, gnome took the wayland stuff far too literally in my experience, enough so that they block actually useful stuff. I'm not gonna get in the weeds about how wayland has design issues and so on, but a lot, and I mean a lot, of issues are because gnome refuses to compromise on anything which isn't absolutely necesary to run some kind of desktop. Server side decorations, never heard of them. Proper fractional scaling, what's that? hdr support, we don't need that, so let's do the bare minimum. Global keyboard shortcuts portal, perhaps I suppose? image copy capture protocol and the other one, those which allow users to capture a window only if they want instead of the entire screen, grudgingly if at all implemented. Support for xwayland apps to get keyboard events? nope, grumbles something about security. Support for notifications and app indicators done with an x11 hack before the dbus standard got created? hmm, nope, that's too old, everyone should have migrated by now. Should I continue? I'm glad they got the sovereign tech fund stipend for implementing accessibility stuff and other infrastructure things, but there are still issues in many areas. I like to use kde much more, even if the kde settings are absolutely horrible to navigate with a screenreader, and that should be saying something. Not saying the gnome people don't do awesome things, not saying their stuff isn't great for what it is, because it's a good desktop if you fall within the 99% of regular users who don't want fancy stuff, but when you do hit the gnome limitations, it does feel very much like hitting a brick wall, and that's about the resolution you get when trying to go over those.
are u using libinput? that comes with palm detection and disable-w-typing
```bash
libinput list-devices
```
@bebna Yep, I’m wondering now if it doesn’t work for tap-to-click… https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/firmware/issues/182
uff Gnome
didn't expect you to use such a fat monster
Gnome overrides settings you have to check with
```bash
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing
```
that tool can also set
```bash
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing true
```
u can find all options here: https://github.com/GNOME/gsettings-desktop-schemas/blob/master/schemas/org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.gschema.xml.in
otherwise palm detection should take care of most problems.
How is the keyboard u use designed? how are you hands positioned on it ?
@bebna Thanks, yeah, the issue appears to be that GNOME doesn’t disable tap to click as part of disabling the trackpad while typing.
@aral I've moved to a desktop machine full time now, but System76 has some solid laptops. I've had 4 of them. The new ones have some pretty strong battery life as well.
@entropealabs Thanks, I’m on desktop too usually but currently visiting family. I’d have considered System76 (and was previously a fan of their work, but not after this: https://ar.al/2024/06/23/fedora-has-been-shipping-with-a-broken-screen-reader-for-nine-years-but-the-real-problem-is-me/)
@aral
??
> Trackpad that disables while typing so I can, well, type.
maybe you have to turn it on? :>
> Basically, just a machine that gets the basics right.
Maybe i'm using it too long, but it is working right IMO
@wariat Yep, the setting is on but, while tap to click is on, it still registers taps as clicks while typing.
@aral
Strange. It's working here since… ok not always but really long time.
And i'm not using any fancy current hardware. Now it is thinkpad released in 2016 (or something like that). :>
@aral that's a bummer, I was hoping for around 4 hours of battery with light usage (videos with hardware decoding, browsing, reading, etc).
The trackpad issue sounds suspicious though,- I'll keep watching this topic/issue and hope it will be figured out until I receive mine.
Thanks for your feedback!
@aral Though it turns out this isn't actually a starlabs issue for you, I had nothing but problems with the hardware of the starlabs labtop mk 4 I had a while back and I would never buy another starlabs device.
They replaced the motherboard under warranty for me when the wireless and bluetooth died. But a few months latet when the warranty had just expired, the new motherboard had the same issue. Then there was issues with bad backlight bleeding, firmware problems, and other small papercuts.