Category: Hardware

nct6755 on xcp-ng – SuperMicro x12sae motherboard

I purchased a used SuperMicro x12sae motherboard for xcp-ng host.
Unfortunately, sensors-detect does not recognize the sensor chip.

Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'...               Yes
Found unknown chip with ID 0xd423

The sensor chip on this board uses nct6755 kernel module.

So in /etc/modules-load.d/nct6775.conf,

nct6775

You can load it with modprobe nct6775, and sensors command should report the temps and everything.

“coretemp” – coretemp-module-alt is also useful. Add both.

Ubuntu 22.04, NVidia and Intel hybrid graphics with multiple display problem and how to make it work

For WCE work, I used to use a Dell Latitude E7340 donated to WCE. It was not fast machine but it is easy to swap disks, etc. I got a lot of mileage out of it. With WCE getting newer laptops, I decided to replace it with newer one. It is not really new as it is a used donated Lenovo P51 but it is still better. Quad core, NVMe x 2, and 2.5 disk space
I fresh installed a vanilla Ubuntu 22.04 on it. What do you know, the external monitor does not work. This is a deal breaker as most of work I do with it, I work with an 2nd monitor.
So, here is what I have found:
1. Do not connect the external display until all of steps complete
2. In the BIOS, enable “hybrid graphics”. Choosing “discrete graphics” hangs at start up.
3. You must install NVidia proprietary driver
4. Once Ubuntu is up and the laptop is useable, open NVIDIA Settings
5. In it, go to “PRIME Profiles”, and choose NVIDIA (Performance Mode)
6. Reboot the machine
7. Profit!

NVidia native driver settings
It looks like this it not limited to Ubuntu or 22.04. Hybrid graphics and the driver is buggy. When an external monitor is connected, it kills Xorg and hangs the machine. Since this means that the graphics chip consumes more energy, it would be not ideal for laptop use but at home and using this as workstation, this setting gets around the bug. I am writing this on very this laptop with an external monitor.

Anker USB C Hub 555 and Ethernet port

I do not intend this site to be the product review site. I actually search my own site to be just a memo pad for daily use.

Having said that, I ran into Amazon not letting me to write the review of Anker’s USB-C hub. I think I’ve written a review before, and I wanted to update my findings about it, and I cannot get to my own product review.

Anker USB-C 555 hub

I’ve been using this hub for quite some time. As a matter of fact, I used to have 2 of them. It works as you’d expect. Everything works as advertised, except one weakness.

The ethernet port sucks. On hot summer day, it seems to overheat and stops working. It’s rare this happens but if you hook up a 4k monitor, USB-C power PD, all of USB ports used, the adapter heats up enough to stop working.

The other ethernet port issue I found is that, it cannot do full gigabit. It caps out around 330Mbit/s. I have another Anker hub of different type and I swapped between 2 Ethernet ports, and one works full gigabit and this one goes up to 330Mbit/s. IOW, this is real apple-to-apple comparison. The benchmarking is done by iperf3.
In real world use, it’s rare that you need full gigabit speed but it shows the Ethernet port is a weakpoint of this hub.

ntai:~$ iperf3 -c imac --port 3333
Connecting to host imac, port 3333
[  7] local 192.168.10.134 port 54262 connected to 192.168.10.40 port 3333
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-1.00   sec  42.5 MBytes   356 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   1.00-2.00   sec  40.4 MBytes   339 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   2.00-3.00   sec  40.3 MBytes   338 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   3.00-4.00   sec  40.0 MBytes   336 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   4.00-5.00   sec  40.5 MBytes   340 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   5.00-6.00   sec  40.2 MBytes   337 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   6.00-7.00   sec  40.0 MBytes   336 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   7.00-8.00   sec  40.5 MBytes   340 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   8.00-9.00   sec  39.9 MBytes   334 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   9.00-10.00  sec  40.5 MBytes   340 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   405 MBytes   340 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  7]   0.00-10.01  sec   403 MBytes   338 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
ntai:~$ iperf3 -c imac --port 3333
Connecting to host imac, port 3333
[  7] local 192.168.10.118 port 54333 connected to 192.168.10.40 port 3333
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-1.00   sec   114 MBytes   958 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   1.00-2.00   sec   111 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   2.00-3.00   sec   111 MBytes   932 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   3.00-4.00   sec   112 MBytes   942 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   4.00-5.00   sec   111 MBytes   933 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   5.00-6.00   sec   113 MBytes   945 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   6.00-7.00   sec   112 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   7.00-8.00   sec   112 MBytes   936 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   8.00-9.00   sec   112 MBytes   944 Mbits/sec                  
[  7]   9.00-10.00  sec   111 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   939 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  7]   0.00-10.01  sec  1.09 GBytes   938 Mbits/sec                  receiver