Tuxedo Control Center

[blitz]

Motivation for this change

Tuxedo is a German laptop manufacturer that provides Linux-friendly laptops. Their system control is done via an app called "Tuxedo Control Center" (TCC). This open source app provides fan control settings among other things. Without this app, the Tuxedo laptops default to very noisy fan control settings. It lives on Github.

This PR:

• adds the Tuxedo Control Center application and daemon, and
• a tuxedo-control-center module to enable the daemon at boot,
• bumps tuxedo-keyboard to its latest version.

Testing done:

I've been running TCC on a Tuxedo XP14 laptop without issues. Fan control notably improves compared to running it without TCC.

This PR is based to a large degree on work done by @Vodurden.

Fixes #132206.

Things done

• Built on platform(s)
  • x86_64-linux
  • aarch64-linux
  • x86_64-darwin
  • aarch64-darwin
• For non-Linux: Is sandbox = true set in nix.conf? (See Nix manual)
• Tested via one or more NixOS test(s) if existing and applicable for the change (look inside nixos/tests)
• Tested compilation of all packages that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review wip"
• Tested execution of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• 21.11 Release Notes (or backporting 21.05 Release notes)
  • (Package updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is major or breaking
  • (Module updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is significant
  • (Module addition) Added a release notes entry if adding a new NixOS module
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

[Mic92]

Please integrate the node package into our nodePackages in pkgs/development/node-packages set. 12000 lines of code for a single package is too much.

[blitz]

Please integrate the node package into our nodePackages in pkgs/development/node-packages set. 12000 lines of code for a single package is too much.

@Mic92 So in general I agree. I've updated the PR to do this (not yet fully cleaned up). The problem is that TCC needs its devDependencies to build which are not included in nodePackages. This results in build failure:

Error: Cannot find module 'node-addon-api'
Require stack:
- /nix/store/xhnnim063mxkv7y2810yr75zn7j429r5-tuxedo-control-center-1.0.14/lib/node_modules/tuxedo-control-center/[eval]
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:889:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:745:27)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:961:19)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:92:18)
    at [eval]:1:1
    at Script.runInThisContext (vm.js:134:12)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:310:38)
    at internal/process/execution.js:81:19
    at [eval]-wrapper:6:22
    at evalScript (internal/process/execution.js:80:60) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/nix/store/xhnnim063mxkv7y2810yr75zn7j429r5-tuxedo-control-center-1.0.14/lib/node_modules/tuxedo-control-center/[eval]'
  ]

Other people seem to have this problem when packaging as well (see svanderburg/node2nix#149), without any clear solution. Do you have a pointer?

[blitz]

@Mic92 I've tried to integrate TCC into nodePackages, but there are two roadblocks:

• TCC needs dev dependencies to be avaiable to do its build, this could probably worked around by patching the package.json, but it feels very hacky.
• it seems that the way nodePackages is composed, it doesn't respect TCC's package-lock.json, so you end up with incompatible libraries / untested library combinations.

So unless I'm missing something obvious packaging, TCC apart from nodePackages seems to be the way to go. It seems I'm also not in uncharted territory here, because there are quite a few Node/Electron packages that go the same route:

% find . -name "node-packages.nix" | wc -l
25

Don't understand me wrong, I would be happy if integrating it into nodePackages works, but I really don't see how. :(

[blitz]

I've rebased this and updated Tuxedo Control Center to 1.1.2.

[MichaelAkvo]

Is there a way I can use this while waiting for it to get merged?

P.S thanks a lot for the work!

[pgronkievitz]

Is there a way I can use this while waiting for it to get merged?

P.S thanks a lot for the work!

@blitz has made a module (unfortunately it's not a flake, but I've managed to work around this)

https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos

[blitz]

Is there a way I can use this while waiting for it to get merged?

P.S thanks a lot for the work!

@blitz has made a module (unfortunately it's not a flake, but I've managed to work around this)

https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos

I'm slowly flakifying my NixOS configs so this repo will also become a flake soon.

[MichaelAkvo]

@blitz you the real MVP.

Thanks for pointing me to the repo @pgronkievitz

[dasj19]

@MichaelAkvo if you are using the unstable branch of nixpkgs you can use the PR author's branch as your base for nixpkgs.
You can clone his fork and switch to the tuxedo branch then run this:
nixos-rebuild -I nixpkgs=/path/to/your/version/of/nixpkgs switch

As for myself I have some migration work to do on my tuxedo computer then I'll start using this and come with feedback

[dasj19]

There is a merge conflict and the following message
error: Package ‘electron-11.5.0’ in /home/daniel/workspace/projects/nixpkgs/pkgs/development/tools/electron/generic.nix:25 is marked as insecure, refusing to evaluate.

I added the electron package to the exceptions for now and started building.

Edit: build finished and got this result:

/bin/sh: line 1: prime-select: command not found
/bin/sh: line 1: prime-supported: command not found
(node:74258) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron.  See https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information
(node:74258) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: TypeError: Cannot read property 'on' of undefined
    at TccDBusController.onModeReapplyPendingChanged (/nix/store/nd10h9900zy5fvzgsc282n6c5hripn1b-tuxedo-control-center-1.1.2/e-app/common/classes/TccDBusController.js:206:24)
    at /nix/store/nd10h9900zy5fvzgsc282n6c5hripn1b-tuxedo-control-center-1.1.2/e-app/e-app/main.js:150:17
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
(node:74258) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection. This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). To terminate the node process on unhandled promise rejection, use the CLI flag `--unhandled-rejections=strict` (see https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html#cli_unhandled_rejections_mode). (rejection id: 1)
(node:74258) [DEP0018] DeprecationWarning: Unhandled promise rejections are deprecated. In the future, promise rejections that are not handled will terminate the Node.js process with a non-zero exit code.

[blitz]

@dasj19 Thanks for testing!

There is a merge conflict

I've rebased the PR, so this should be gone. If you actually want to use it while it's not merged, I would suggest you head over to this repo.

and the following message error: Package ‘electron-11.5.0’ in /home/daniel/workspace/projects/nixpkgs/pkgs/development/tools/electron/generic.nix:25 is marked as insecure, refusing to evaluate.

Checkout blitz/tuxedo-nixos#troubleshooting and tuxedocomputers/tuxedo-control-center#148.

I added the electron package to the exceptions for now and started building.

Edit: build finished and got this result:

/bin/sh: line 1: prime-select: command not found
/bin/sh: line 1: prime-supported: command not found

This is harmless, unless you have a nVidia PRIME system. In this case, please say so. It would be interesting to see whether we get this to work.

(node:74258) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron. See electron/electron#23506 for more information
(node:74258) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: TypeError: Cannot read property 'on' of undefined
at TccDBusController.onModeReapplyPendingChanged (/nix/store/nd10h9900zy5fvzgsc282n6c5hripn1b-tuxedo-control-center-1.1.2/e-app/common/classes/TccDBusController.js:206:24)
at /nix/store/nd10h9900zy5fvzgsc282n6c5hripn1b-tuxedo-control-center-1.1.2/e-app/e-app/main.js:150:17
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
(node:74258) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection. This error originated either by throwing inside of an async function without a catch block, or by rejecting a promise which was not handled with .catch(). To terminate the node process on unhandled promise rejection, use the CLI flag --unhandled-rejections=strict (see https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html#cli_unhandled_rejections_mode). (rejection id: 1)
(node:74258) [DEP0018] DeprecationWarning: Unhandled promise rejections are deprecated. In the future, promise rejections that are not handled will terminate the Node.js process with a non-zero exit code.

These need to be reported upstream. If there is specific broken functionality, we can try to patch it. I would welcome help for this.

[blitz]

@pgronkievitz If you want to give the flake a shot, there is a flake branch here that exports a module: https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/tree/flake

[dasj19]

@blitz Thanks for your response and fix.

I tried the new changes and it behaves as follows:

1. When I put tuxedo-control-center in environment.systemPackages in my configuration.nix it ends with the same error you said that should be sent upstream
2. when I build with hardware.tuxedo-control-center.enable = true; that error does not show up but instead I get only:

/bin/sh: line 1: prime-select: command not found
/bin/sh: line 1: prime-supported: command not found
(node:37258) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron.  See https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information

And a blank Tuxedo Control Center shows up.

The same happens when I use https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/#usage

My hardware us this https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks/15-16-inch/TUXEDO-Book-XA15-Gen10.tuxedo with max specs.

Edit: now it launches successfully using https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/#usage I guess I had to kill the previous process

Now a review of the app:

• In the dashboard, Main Process Monitor is blurred and does not show the cpu fan, frequency or fan speed, fan profile is blurred as well
• In Profiles tab, fan speed is blurred in all profiles
• For all the blurred stuff there is a tooltip on mouseover, it says: "This feature is not supported on your model."

[blitz]

@blitz Thanks for your response and fix.

I tried the new changes and it behaves as follows:

1. When I put `tuxedo-control-center` in `environment.systemPackages` in my configuration.nix it ends with the same error you said that should be sent upstream

Ah, I didn't realize that you don't use the module. Without the module, you don't get the TCC daemon and there is some dbus magic missing. So this is not expected to work.

Edit: now it launches successfully using https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/#usage I guess I had to kill the previous process

Yes, when you start TCC without the daemon and dbus magic it gets stuck in a weird state. I don't think there is anything we an do about it.

Now a review of the app:

It would be interesting, if the limitations you see also happen on Ubuntu or TuxedoOS. If so, this is an upstream limitation.

[dasj19]

It would be interesting, if the limitations you see also happen on Ubuntu or TuxedoOS. If so, this is an upstream limitation.

Hi, I figure that the prebuilt binaries for ubuntu 20.04 predates the machine I have and there is no point in trying them. So I tried compiling on ubuntu 22.04 live, but I can't figure out how to get tccd.service as mentioned in step 3. here https://github.com/tuxedocomputers/tuxedo-control-center#development-setup

Whithout the service the app crashes right after launch. So if you know of a tccd.service and tccd-sleep.service it will be handy. Otherwise I am unable to test on Ubuntu

[blitz]

So if you know of a tccd.service and tccd-sleep.service it will be handy.

Thanks for trying!

See here for the service files: https://github.com/tuxedocomputers/tuxedo-control-center/tree/master/src/dist-data

[dasj19]

@blitz thanks for guiding me so far. I did not succeeded in having a working build from source. The resulted tccd binary gives segmentation fault.
But I installed the deb packages provided by tuxedo for Ubuntu 20.04 on my Ubuntu 22.04 live usb.

The conclusion is that there is fan control support, and none of the features are unsupported. As I mentioned previously in NixOS there were certain parts of the application that printed "This feature is unsupported". In Ubuntu everything was supported.

[blitz]

@blitz thanks for guiding me so far. I did not succeeded in having a working build from source. The resulted tccd binary gives segmentation fault.
But I installed the deb packages provided by tuxedo for Ubuntu 20.04 on my Ubuntu 22.04 live usb.

The conclusion is that there is fan control support, and none of the features are unsupported. As I mentioned previously in NixOS there were certain parts of the application that printed "This feature is unsupported". In Ubuntu everything was supported.

Did you reboot after activating the module on NixOS? The module also loads a kernel module that is required for fan control etc.

[dasj19]

Did you reboot after activating the module on NixOS? The module also loads a kernel module that is required for fan control etc.

I don't know what happened but after reboot the TCC displays a blank window. When started from terminal I get TUXEDO Control Center is already running. Killing the processes and trying again does not help.

journalctl says:
Jan 27 07:55:31 tuxedo tccd[1445]: CpuWorker: Error validating/reapplying profile => Error: Could not read value from path: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu24/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq => Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu24/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq => Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu24/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq'

Edit: Tried with both linux 5.15 and 5.16
Edit2: I tried to nail down the problem and I found out that cpufreq is only available for cores 0-23 and not for 24-31 ... as I have 32 cores in total the tccd tries to read information for all of them... I must be hitting some limit that is set to 24 cores

Yes, confirmed with cpufreq-info

analyzing CPU 23:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 23
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 23
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
  hardware limits: 2.20 GHz - 4.76 GHz
  available frequency steps: 3.50 GHz, 2.80 GHz, 2.20 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: performance, schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 2.20 GHz and 3.50 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz.
analyzing CPU 24:
  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
analyzing CPU 25:
  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.

[blitz]

@dasj19 Having cpufreq sysfs files only for some CPUs is extremely weird. Do you have an unusual kernel configuration or any other special config?

That being said, given that this discussion is not necessarily regarding packaging, I would propose to continue the rootcausing as an issue in https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/.

[NANASHI0X74]

what's the current status of this PR? anyone currently working on it? Is it only still blocked by the upstream electron issue?

[blitz]

what's the current status of this PR? anyone currently working on it? Is it only still blocked by the upstream electron issue?

I'm still interested in getting this into Nixpkgs. But upstream using ancient Electron is still an issue. Otherwise there is the issue of checking in gigantic autogenerated Nix files.

[blitz]

I'm closing this for now. If someone wants to revive it, feel free to checkout https://github.com/blitz/tuxedo-nixos/