I have the new razer blade 14 and I have got everything to work on linux (including optimus/nvidia card, webcam, etc.). Note I had to install a different linux distro (manjaro linux) because I couldn't get it to work on linux mint (even with 325 nvidia drivers and kernel 3.11, I guess they didn't put that patch in for the way the nvidia card is connected).
However, it's a stand in until the linux mint kernels catch up to supporting the way the nvidia card is connected.
Here are my notes:
STEPS TO GET RAZER BLADE 14 WORKING WITH LINUX:
Note: I am a computer scientists/computational neuroscientist, so my needs may be slightly different from yours. But, generally my uses are:
-Basic everyday use as primary machine (presentations, connecting to internet, browsing, music, long battery life, etc. etc. etc.)
-Running code via CUDA on GPU (C++)
-Playing 3d games on nvidia GPU (e.g. heroes of newerth linux client)
I got all these things to work nicely. So, my setup will get it in condition to do this type of thing.
Follows are problems, fixes, and notes about what works.
--PROBLEM: BIG (initial) problems with nvidia card.
Solution: Had to switch to manjaro linux, use a special patch on the 3.9 kernel to get the ACHI/ACPI stuff to work correctly. 325 driver. NOTE format USB drive to fat16 or fat32 (mkfs.vfat /dev/usbstick) before you write the iso image to it. I now get a draw of about 9 W with wireless on and half brightness while browsing, giving 6-7 hours of battery life.
Had to switch everything in bios to legacy mode to install linux (UEFI was messing stuff up). (also disable quiet boot, fast boot, etc., and mess around turn on that thing to let you set everything to legacy mode).
This (manjaro 0.87) only got kernel 3.4, so X wouldn't start initially because of haswell video stuff (i915 drivers?) not supported in that early kernel.
Had to connect to internet via command line networkmanager (nmcli, connect to network, etc.). Don't remember the exact commands but you can google it.
Updated system with:
sudo pacman -Syu
Now X works and we have integrated card running, now we need to patch to the kernel that has the support for the bbswitch AHCI (ACPI?) stuff that the nvidia card is connected to in the razer blade 14. I followed this chain of links:
via
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=168622
http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=5936.msg54059#msg54059
Basically, inside manjaro you run
sudo pacman -Syu
wget http://www.paradoxcomputers.com.au/manjaro/packages/bbswitchfix/"$(uname -m)"/linux39-bbswitchfix-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && wget http://www.paradoxcomputers.com.au/manjaro/packages/bbswitchfix/"$(uname -m)"/linux39-bbswitchfix-headers-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && wget http://www.paradoxcomputers.com.au/manjaro/packages/bbswitchfix/"$(uname -m)"/linux39-bbswitchfix-bbswitch-0.6-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && wget http://www.paradoxcomputers.com.au/manjaro/packages/bbswitchfix/"$(uname -m)"/linux39-bbswitchfix-nvidia-325.15-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && sudo pacman -U linux39-bbswitchfix-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-headers-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-bbswitch-0.6-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-nvidia-325.15-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && rm linux39-bbswitchfix-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-headers-3.9.11-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-bbswitch-0.6-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz linux39-bbswitchfix-nvidia-325.15-1-"$(uname -m)".pkg.tar.xz && echo "** NOW REBOOT AND SELECT THE -bbswitchfix KERNEL FROM YOUR GRUB MENU **"
Then had to go inside /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf and set Driver=nvidia (it was noveau for some reason, causing big problem when I tried to start optirun etc.).
Then reboot, and your nvidia/bumblebee/bbswitch should all be working dandy!
You can check it with lspci | grep 3D (should be rev ff if turned off, rev a1 or something when its on).
Can try :
optirun glxgears
--PROBLEM: WEBCAM FLASHING (red-green etc. when indoors). Also in VLC etc., regardless of nvidia/intel GPU. (this also happens in windows -- haha those poor suckers)
FIXED by downloading guvcview and turning off white balance temperature/auto.
--PROBLEM: Battery charge threshold (always charges to 100%) can't be set?
Need solution from razer (I don't think this can be done in windows either -- I'm scared to try the thinkpad utilities b/c might brick battery?)
--PROBLEM: Touchpad multitouch doesn't work b/c no driver (jittery, double-click doesn't work, slide scroll doesn't work, no turn off when typing, etc.)
Need driver from razer (no synaptics available)
Some discussion (razer says it's proprietary hardware): http://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1jjelv/help_getting_mouse_working_on_razer_blade_14/
I found a forum post where someone was starting to reverse engineer it, but I can't find it again.
(xinput -list and the other thing shows there's no synaptics available.)
--PROBLEM: Hardware brightness control doesn't work (function f8/f9). But, can do it from within linux software.
Need solution (driver for keyboard?) from razer
--PROBLEM: Battery applet thing doesn't display discharge rate etc. (battery isn't recognized maybe?)
Solution: you can see via terminal (dunno where fans are though):
cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/uevent
Note, I also tried "sensors" program (lm_sensors) which at one time caused some weird screen colors (no problem after reboot) (when I let it do all the possible sensors, nvidia card etc...?)
Also used powertop, but that wasn't reporting discharge...
PROBLEM WITH MY MACHINE (?): Some weird jittering sound from left fan in back (at a certain angle)
PROBLEM WITH MY MACHINE (?): Screen is slightly off flush when closed (hinge on back-right is slightly off, causing it?). But <1 mm, barely noticable, but hopefully won't cause problems later on.
OBSERVATION (REVIEW): Screen is nice. No "pressure points" from carrying it in bag all day even. Don't know how it will react to doing that in heat/cold though, or being banged around significantly.
EXTERNAL SPEAKERS work
HEADPHONES work (properly turns off speakers when plug in jack, etc.)
SUSPEND/HIBERNATE works (?)
--WORKS: Hardware keyboard backlight control DOES work
--WORKS: print screen (fn+f12) DOES work
--WORKS: volume control (fn + f2/f3) DOES work
--WORKS: pgup/pgdown/home/end (fn + left/right/up/down arrow keys) DOES work.
--WORKS: HDMI-VGA output to external screen.
For VGA connection via HDMI, had to go via XFCE "display" program (just using the hardware switch didn't work so hot I think?). And adjust resolution, etc.
HDMI->VGA (for presentations) works nice (using QVS HDMI to VGA adapter HDVGA-ME)
--WORKS: USB ethernet plug and play:
USB ethernet works nice (using DLILNK USB 2.0 fast ethernet adapter DUB-E100).
Some other things I did (personal stuff, needed Japanese input, needed java RXTX, etc.)
get Japanese IME input to work:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sm ... d_platform
after installing scim-anthy and anthy:
in: ~/.xprofile
export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
export GTK_IM_MODULE="scim"
export QT_IM_MODULE="scim"
scim -d
NOTE: packages opencv, gsl, java jdk, skype, etc. all went smoothly. vlc plays fine.
For virtualbox:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox
needed to do dkms stuff (i.e. select dkms option for the module stuff when you do -- for me it was option 5:)
sudo pacman -S virtualbox
HOW to install java RXTX:
from AUR:
Download rxtx package from
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rxtx/
mv file into a directory (e.g. ~/aur_packages)
tar xfz packagefile.tar.gz
cd packagefile
makepkg -s #-s resolves dependencies?
sudo pacman -U packagefile/packagefile.pkg.tar.xz
I also had to do (b/c dir structure was a bit different).
sudo ln -s /usr/share/java/rxtx/RXTXcomm.jar /usr/share/java/RXTXcomm.jar