Powerline Error in VIM with Git

On Fedora 41, opening a Go file that is checked into Git results an error message that flashes briefly before VIM shows the file.  I'm not sure what is the exact cause but it went away when I uninstalled powerline and reinstalled it.   When uninstalling just powerline, it also uninstalled VIM for some reason the re-install was actually `dnf install vim powerline`.

Framework 13 (AMD) First Impressions

I recently purchased a Framework 13 (AMD) laptop to replace my 7 years old Razer Stealth as my travel companion and wanted to share my first impressions after taking it on a trip and using it for about a month.

My main criteria for a travel laptop is that it must be light, but as I've gotten older I've added a few more things to look for:

• Display must support good scaling.   As displays have improve their resolutions, everything shown has gotten smaller so I have to scale it up for it to be comfortable for my eyes. 
• Replaceable battery.  As evident from using my previous laptop for 7 years and still not feeling the need to upgrade, I tend to keep my laptop for a long time especially since I don't rely on my laptop to be my primary driver.  While most parts of a laptop are capable of lasting awhile, batteries are a different story.  I've had to replace the battery on my Razer twice because they started to swell.  This is not exclusive to Razer as I've had it happen on Macbooks and Pixelbooks as well.
• Linux support.  I mostly use Linux especially for development so I'm most comfortable with it, but I occasionally do have use for Windows (some games the family plays, camera apps, etc.).  They key reason, though, is that Windows is commercial and I don't want to be forced to pay to upgrade if it is not necessary.  The Razer Stealth ran Windows 10 and Microsoft says it's not compatible with Windows 11 so I either have to live without security updates or try to install Linux when Razer doesn't support Linux in anyway.  Having good Linux support is a way to future proof the laptop somewhat.

Given these criteria, I settled on the Framework.  It is lightweight (1.3 kg/2.9 lb) with a 13.5" 2880x1920 120Hz 2.8K matte display (the uniqueness of Framework is that it is modular so you can have different displays even if new ones are released in the future) that is a 3:2 ratio which allows better scaling especially with Linux.

The battery is replaceable (nearly everything on the Framework is replaceable/up-gradable) and it fully supports Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora being the officially supported ones but seems like most Linux distributions will work) even the finger print sensor.

First Impressions

Ordering the Framework, especially the DIY version, presents you with more choices than the typical ordering process.  Not only do you pick how much disk storage you want, you have options for what brand/specs you want and this is for all the major components:  display & bezel, keyboard, CPU,memory, storage, memory, ports.  If you're familiar with computer components, most of the parts are understandable from the description but for the keyboard it didn't explain what the difference is between US-English, International-English Linux and International-English (International English has the Euro key and Linux swaps out the Windows key with a Super key).

I was impressed how quickly the laptop shipped and arrived given it that it comes directly from Taiwan (where it was manufactured) and that each order have different sets of expansion ports (although I did pick a pretty standard set of ports).  It arrived faster then the 5-7 business days it listed when I ordered.

The packaging was nicely done to prevent anything from shifting during transit and everything is recyclable. The packaging include a screw driver needed to assemble all the components.

It took about 20 minutes to put everything together and the instructions were good.  A lot of people can probably figure it out even without the instructions, but the instructions really prepares you.  It suggests putting on the bezel starting at the bottom first and that definitely allowed it to fit better without fidgeting and it warn that the first boot will take longer so you don't worry about whether it not immediately starting up meant that you did something wrong.

It gives pretty good instructions on installing the operating system.  For Windows, it anticipated that you might not want to use a Microsoft account so it tells you how to bypass it and how to deal with the fact that during installation the laptop drivers aren't there so how do you get pass the part where Microsoft wants to have networking working just to complete the installation.  For Linux, the instructions was decent but maybe a little outdated especially with the screenshot.  Although Fedora is one of the two officially supported distributions, the Ubuntu guides seemed more comprehensive.  They also favor Gnome in their instructions.

You can get the Framework with either an Intel process/motherboard or AMD processor/motherboard and although the general sense that the AMD version performs better there's more information on the Intel stuff.

The display looks very nice with good contrast and brightness.  It's very comfortable to the eyes and scaling in Linux was not a problem.  No complaints about the touch pad and it worked with Linux out-of-the-box.  The keyboard is comfortable with good travel and spacing.  It wasn't too squishy.  If the Thinkpad is the bar, this isn't as good as that, but better then the last Macbook Pro I used . 

The fingerprint sensor worked out-of-the-box as well, but if you aren't using Gnome, you need to use the command-line tool, fprintd-enroll, to register your finger print. 

It's not clear whether Framework thinks you should run tuned-ppd to manage power profiles for both Intel and AMD or whether that's just for Intel and to stick with power-profiles-daemon for AMD.  On Fedora 41, if you install power-profiles-daemon then each time it wants to change the profile (such as when you plug/un-plug the power) SELinux will block it and give you a warning.

Although I had no problems with WIFI, the wifi chip it comes with always seem to have a weaker signal than other devices.  I think some people swap it out with the one that comes with the Intel board so it's something I'm watching out for.

I've been pretty happy with the laptop so far and hope it'll last a long time.  I like the company's mission and hope they continue to succeed with their vision of modular, sustainable and environmentally friendly laptops.

Using Physical Key for SSH, Git, Github For More Security

Normally, when using SSH (including SSH with Git), you generate a private and public key.  The public key is what you give to others (e.g. Github).  The private key should be kept secure and not be shared with anyone.  I don't like keeping my private keys on my laptop because mobile devices have a higher chance of being lost, stolen, or unknowingly accessed.  One solution is use a physical security key to store the private key that is plugged in to the laptop when needed.

To set this up requires having a security key such as the Yubikey from Yubico.  Then it is a matter of generating a key pair with SSH:

> ssh-keygen -t ecdsa-sk  # -t ed25519-sk is also an option but not always supported

This will generate the private key on the security key.  The generated id_ecdsa_sk file in the SSH directory is just a reference to the security key instead of the normal private key.  The id_ecdsa_sk.pub is the public key that you would share.  Whenever ssh needs to authenticate, the key will blink and with a tap of the key you'll be good to go!

For each computer that you want to use the key, you'll need to copy the reference key file to the SSH directory.

Installing Windows 11 without WIFI/Network Connection

 When installing Windows 11, it assumes you have a network connection and doesn't let you proceed with the installation.  To bypass this, press Shift+F10 to open a terminal and type:

oobe\bypassnro

The laptop will restart and when it reaches the network connection page there will be a new option for no network that will allow you to continue the installation.

Windows and Linux On a Single Drive and Installing Linux First

I previously posted on how to dual boot between Windows and Linux with each on them on separate disks, but what if you only had one storage device?  This is also possible can be a bit more messy because Windows and Linux must share the same boot partition (the part of the storage with the instructions on how to boot the OS).

The common convention is the install Windows first and then install Linux.  Windows has a "you don't need any other OS" mentality so when it gets installed it doesn't care if you have another OS, it will change the boot sequence to boot itself and you'll need to go into the UEFI menu to boot into Linux.  Linux distributions, on the other hands, comes with a boot loader that offers a menu of all the OS so that you can choose which OS to boot.  So the common convention is to

1. Install Windows
2. Resize the storage partition to make room for Linux to install.
3. Install Linux

What you end up with is that when you boot up, you'll see the Linux boot manager with the options to pick either Linux or Windows.

What happens when you install Linux first and then Windows?  Since Windows doesn't have a boot manager, it will just tell your system to boot directly into Windows.  To restore the Linux boot manager on older systems (BIOS-based), you'll need to use your Linux recovery disk and restore the boot manager (Windows mostly likely did NOT delete your Linux disk unless you installed windows on top of where you installed Linux).  

The general process is pretty similar:

1. Create a partition for Linux and Windows (just like Windows create a new partition from an existing one later)
2. Install Linux
3. Install Windows
4. Change the boot order back to Linux through the UEFI menu or efibootmgr tool (for UEFI systems) or use the Linux recovery disk (for BIOS)

On newer UEFI systems, the boot manager pointing to all the OS is still there in the boot partition but Windows only just changed it to boot its section.   You can generally change this back by going into your motherboard's UEFI menu on or on Linux you can use the efibootmgr tool to make the change.

Changing Fedora's GRUB Menu's Resolution

After installing Fedora on a laptop with a 2256 x 1504 resolution screen, the GRUB boot menu screen became too small to read.  To change the resolution, I needed to edit /etc/default/grub and replace the GRUB_TERMINAL_VALUE and add GRUB_GFXMODE with the desired resolution:

#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"
GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600

Then commit the changes to GRUB with:

> sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Determining Screw Length For Interior Walls

 

When driving screws into interior walls it's important to avoid driving into wires or pipes.  Wires and pipes going through studs should normally be going through a 1" diameter hole that is centered on the stud.

Interior drywall are typically 1/2" so a maximum screw length to avoid hitting something would be 1/2" + 1 1/4" = 1 3/4".  For a cabinet back that is 3/4" that would mean 1 3/4" + 3/4" = 2 1/2".

Object Backing	Maximum Screw Length	1" Into Stud
0	1.75	1.5
0.25	2	1.75
0.5	2.25	2
0.75	2.5	2.25
1	2.75	2.5
Drywall	0.5
Stud	1.25

Raspberry Pi Downloads Public Key

Raspberry Pi public key for https://downloads.raspberrypi.org

> gpg --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 54C3DD610D9D1B4AF82A37758738CD6B956F460C

Verifying the downloaded files with the GPG signatures that should be in the same location as the file itself.

> gpg --verify abc.xyz.sig abc.xyz

Enabling Japanese/Chinese (international) Input on Fedora

Enabling input methods for languages other than English on Fedora requires you to manually add the language that you want yourself through the Input Method Selector tool, selecting the ibus option preference and picking the input method you want to use.  I always forget this and would go to Settings > Languages or Settings > Keyboard, but neither one of those are for adding input methods. 

My Software Developer Machine for LLM Inference

I had to assemble a new PC for LLM inference work since my existing development lacked a discrete GPU so running any local LLM was extremely slow.  My aim is a dedicated development machine running Linux and will not be use for any gaming.  I wanted to keep the budget between $1500 and $2500 and wanted it to be quiet and not take up much space.  In the end, I had to make some compromises and this is what I ended up with:

Components

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super with 16GB GPU

Traditionally, a development machine didn't need a graphics card but that's different when it comes to working with LLMs so I started with the GPU and picked the .  The two makers are Nvidia and AMD but it seems like AMD cards are less supported and would require more effort to get it working.  The general consensus is that VRAM is the most important thing for running LLMs and you'd want to try to load as much of the model into the VRAM as possible so I aimed for 12-16GB*.  I picked the Gigabyte card because its length is on the shorter side and wouldn't require as large of a case to support it.

*Rough estimating the amount of memory needed by a model is to take the number of parameters and multiply it by 2 bytes (using 16 bit parameter type = 2 bytes).  A 7B model would use 14GB, 8B use 16GB, etc.  

**"How come my GPU only have 12GB of VRAM but I can a 8B model which would use 16GB?"  You might be using a quantitized/compressed model or you're using both the GPU VRAM and system RAM.  For example, if you download the default Llama 8B parameters model from Ollama, it's quantization is 4 so it doesn't take the full 16GB of memory.   If you don't have enough VRAM, then Ollama will use both system ram and VRAM:

Loading the 27B parameter Gemma model with quantization of 4 shows that it requires 18GB of memory and Ollama loaded 82% of it into the GPU's VRAM (~14.7 GB):

> ollama ps
NAME            ID              SIZE    PROCESSOR       UNTIL              
gemma2:27b      53261bc9c192    18 GB   18%/82% CPU/GPU 4 minutes from now

Nvidia shows that 14GB of its 16GB is being used matching what Ollama says:

> nvidia-smi
...
 0   N/A  N/A      2338      C   ...unners/cuda_v12/ollama_llama_server    14020MiB 
...

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X CPU (8-core, 16-threads, 4.5GHz base, 5.5Ghz Max Boost)

A solid performer for development work with integrated graphics.  AMD's integrated graphics are pretty good and by running my windows manager and GUI through the integrated graphics allows me to save the GPU for the LLMs and not use any of the GPU's VRAM.

ASUS B650M-PLUS WIFI AM5 Motherboard 

I didn't want a fancy motherboard with RGB but I did want something that is compatible and can support modern peripheral.  

Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB Memory

Got the DDR5 memory for the speed and 64GB since when the VRAM isn't enough for the LLM some of it will be loaded into memory.

be quiet! Pure Rock 2 CPU Cooler

I don't plan to over clock this system and the Pure Rock is well rated for being quiet and affordable.

Corsair RM750e (2023) Power Supply

Corsair 4000D Airflow Mid-Tower ATX Case

Although I would much prefer a small form factor case, doing so limits the options for the GPU and other components so this is a compromize.  The 4000D case comes with two fans and has good airflow.  When the system doesn't get as hot, the fans don't have to work as hard and the system is quieter.

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB M.2 SSD

The 1TB was out-of-stock and the 2TB was still relatively well priced.

The total price for the system came under $1900 so I was able to stay in my budget range.

Assembly and Usage

All the components came together with no compatibility problems.  I was able to get it POST and installed a fresh copy of Fedora 40.  Wifi, sounds, video, etc. all worked on the first boot.

When I first installed Ollama, it installed with support for the AMD integrated GPU since I haven't installed the Nvidia drivers yet.  Once the drivers were installed, Ollama recognized and used the NVidia GPU.  Make sure you plug your display cable to the motherboard's video port and not the Nvidia card's ports.  If you do the latter, the window manager and everything else will use the Nvidia card by default.

You can check which GPU is used using nvidia-smi to see what is running on the Nvidia card.  For AMD:

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer" # See what the system is using
sudo lsof /dev/dri/* # Shows what is running on it.