Diff for "HardwareSupport/Machines/Laptops/Dell/XPS/15z"

15z

Differences between revisions 37 and 41 (spanning 4 versions)

Contents

Introduction
Installation gotcha's
Hardware Support Matrix
Hardware
Fix various glitches
Wireless connection
USB 3 mass storage
External Links

Introduction

This page should give you all the information you need about running Ubuntu on a Dell XPS 15z laptop. XPS 15z works fine with Ubuntu, read this whole guide before start installation.

Installation gotcha's

Boot installer with acpi=off (to access boot options press any key when the purple screen with human=keyboard appears.) who suggested this? it will break power management badly!
USB installation: booting with an USB 2.0 storage on the USB 3 slot works to direct installation.

Hardware Support Matrix

Hardware	Ubuntu Release	Status
Keyboard	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
	Precise (12.04)	Works
Screen	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
External Screen (HDMI)	Natty (11.04)	Does Not Work*
	Oneiric (11.10)	Does Not Work*
External Screen (Mini Displayport)	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
Wireless ethernet	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
Trackpad	Natty (11.04)	Works with manual changes
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works with manual changes
Wired ethernet	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
Sound	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works
Optimus	Natty (11.04)	Works with manual changes
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works with manual changes
9-in-1 card reader	Natty (11.04)	Does not work
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works with manual changes
Webcam	Natty (11.04)	Works
	Oneiric (11.10)	Works

* The HDMI is physically connected to the nVidia card -- by manually changing the xorg.conf, it is possible to start X on the nVidia card only, getting the HDMI video (at the cost of inactive main laptop screen and the Mini Displayport output).

Hardware

Optimus / Graphics cards

Bumblebee and nvidia-current driver

With 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M Graphics Card with Optimus installing nvidia-current drivers from restricted drivers causes the loss of compositing. Moreover running nvidia-xconfig crashes X on the next reboot (fix it with sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf and reboot). This happens because you need Bumblebee to make it work, more explanations follow the suggested procedure.

More information about this subject can be found in Bumblebee.

As an example, using Bumblebee, it changes battery rate from 1900+ to around 1600 for me (verwilst). The current rate (with disconnected charger) can be tested using:

grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state

9 in 1 card reader

Download the drivers at post #10 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1718934 uncompress the file, open a terminal and cd to the uncompressed directory and type

# make

and then

# sudo make install

reboot

Trackpad

Full multi-gesture trackpad usage does not work at this moment.

A latest kernel update seems to bring basic functionality out of the box, therefore the following procedure won't be necessary.

It is however possible to get basic mouse functionality with the following command:

# sudo rmmod psmouse; sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps

( Or use proto=bare or proto=exps ).

To make this persistent, add the following line to a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ (/etc/modprobe.d/options.conf could be an option, but modprobe parses all the files in that directory):

options psmouse proto=imps

Fix various glitches

The following fixes are needed to boot correctly after installation. Otherwise the laptop will freeze before login screen.

For a first boot hit e on the first option while on grub screen and add the following commands to the boot sequence just after "quite splash".

pcie_aspm=force acpi=noirq i915.semaphores=1

To make it persistent add pcie_aspm=force acpi=noirq i915.semaphores=1 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub.

Then run the following command:

# update-grub

And reboot. This fixes ACPI issues, lowers power consumption and 1-2 second regular freezes of your video card.

Wireless connection

Wireless connection can be seldom hard to bound or discontinue, it depends on power management settings.

A script named wireless and located in /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d fires PSP when the pc is running on battery. If you want to override this setting create an empty file named wireless into the folder /etc/pm/power.d/.

In some cases PSP can be triggered also by other events like stand-by. If this is your case add the following lines to /etc/pm/power.d/wireless

#!/bin/sh

/sbin/iwconfig eth1 power off

USB 3 mass storage

If your USB 3.0 mass storage device is not recognized, even for fdisk or lsusb, you can try blacklisting the USB Attached SCSI module. Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

blacklist uas

External Links

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics

Trackpad

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1108661

Information on Bumblebee (for graphics card Optimus support)

Wireless

Power saving polling issues on Official Dell Forum

How to disable PSP on Ubuntu

HardwareSupport/Machines/Laptops/Dell/XPS/15z (last edited 2014-06-24 09:25:38 by 193)

-  ⇤ ← Revision 37 as of 2012-01-14 09:02:10 → 
  Size: 8090
  Editor: ppp-130-158
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 41 as of 2012-03-03 14:04:03 → ⇥
  Size: 5775
  Editor: 94
  Comment:
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 9:
- * Boot installer with '''acpi=off''' (to access boot options press any key when the purple screen with human=keyboard appears.)
+ * Boot installer with '''acpi=off''' (to access boot options press any key when the purple screen with human=keyboard appears.) ''who suggested this? it will break power management badly!''
 Line 17:
+||  || Precise (12.04) || Works ||
-Line 43:
+Line 44:
-'''Bumblebee vs Ironhide and nVidia current-driver'''
+'''Bumblebee and nvidia-current driver'''
-Line 45:
+Line 46:
-With ''2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M Graphics Card with Optimus'' installing nVidia current drivers from ''restricted drivers'' causes the loss of compositing. Moreover running nvidia-xconf crashes X on the next reboot (fix with # sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_no and reboot). This probably happens because '''you need Bumblebee or Ironhide to do Optimus work''', more explanations follow the suggested procedure.
+With ''2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M Graphics Card with Optimus'' installing nvidia-current drivers from ''restricted drivers'' causes the loss of compositing. Moreover running nvidia-xconfig crashes X on the next reboot (fix it with {{{sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf}}} and reboot). This happens because '''you need Bumblebee to make it work''', more explanations follow the suggested procedure.
-Line 47:
+Line 48:
-A suggested procedure is:
+More information about this subject can be found in [[Bumblebee]].
-Line 49:
+Line 50:
-. Add Bumblebee ppa (to be found here: [[https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee|Bumblebee GitHub]])
 2. Install nvidia current from ''restricted drivers''
 3. Install Bumblebee (''# sudo apt-get update''; ''# sudo apt-get install bumblebee'')
 4. Run $ sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee YOURUSERNAME
 5. Reboot
 6. Install mesa-utils
 7. Test integrated card with terminal command ''# glxspheres''
 8. Test nvidia card with terminal command ''# optirun glxspheres''
 9. Test you have nvidia restricted drivers with ''# lsmod | grep nvidia'', it should give you out nvidia and some numbers.

Nvidia-settings won't detect restricted drivers, neither you'll have nvidia commands like ''nvidia-xconfig''. Nevertheless everything seems to work flawless and optimus-like.

'''More informations'''

Bumblebee and Ironhide bring [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus|nVidia Optimus]] to Linux. Both have their own ppa for Ubuntu.

[[https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee|Bumblebee GitHub]]

[[https://github.com/MrMEEE/ironhide|Ironhide GitHub]]

Bumblebee works out of the box. The only configuration needed is to run the following command in a terminal window and then reboot (where YOURUSERNAME has to be changed with the right user name).

"# sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee YOURUSERNAME"

The enable/disable scripts can be taken from [[https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/issues/258|here]]. However, they are included in the latest release of Bumblebee.

'''Other useful informations'''

With Ubuntu 11.10, vgaswitcheroo no longer seems to work.
You can however control heat and noise by going straight to acpi:

Install the acpi-call-tools package from [[https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee/+archive/stable/+packages|here]].

# modprobe acpi_call

# echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._DSM {0xF8,0xD8,0x86,0xA4,0xDA,0x0B,0x1B,0x47,0xA7,0x2B,0x60,0x42,0xA6,0xB5,0xBE,0xE0} 0x100 0x1A {0x1,0x0,0x0,0x3}" > /proc/acpi/call

# echo "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._PS3" > /proc/acpi/call


As an example, this changes battery rate from 1900+ to around 1600 for me (verwilst). The current rate (with disconnected charger) can be tested using

# cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state | grep rate

'''Switch off NVIDIA card''' ( Only Ubuntu 11.04! )

# echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

'''Switch on NVIDIA card'''( Only Ubuntu 11.04! )

# echo ON > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch


Using the following command before and after the switch, you should see a drop/rise in mW being used:

# grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state

You can also '''completely disable the NVIDIA card''' and only use the Intel onboard graphics card ( which has more than enough performance for day-to-day work:

||# echo "blacklist nouveau" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf||
||# update-initramfs -c -k all||
||# reboot||
+As an example, using Bumblebee, it changes battery rate from 1900+ to around 1600 for me (verwilst). The current rate (with disconnected charger) can be tested using: {{{
grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state
}}}
-Line 161:
+Line 103:
-In some cases PSP can be triggered also by other events like stand-by. If this is your case add the following line to ''/etc/pm/power.d/wireless''
+In some cases PSP can be triggered also by other events like stand-by. If this is your case add the following lines to ''/etc/pm/power.d/wireless''
-Line 164:
+Line 106:
+|| /sbin/iwconfig eth1 power off ||
-Line 165:
+Line 108:
-|| /sbin/iwconfig eth1 power off ||
+== USB 3 mass storage ==

If your USB 3.0 mass storage device is not recognized, even for fdisk or lsusb, you can try blacklisting the USB Attached SCSI module. Add the following line to ''/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf''

|| blacklist uas ||
-Line 173:
+Line 120:
-[[https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee]]

[[https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/issues/258]]
+ * [[https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee]]
 * [[http://Bumblebee-Project.org/|Bumblebee homepage]]

Ubuntu Wiki

15z

Introduction

Installation gotcha's

Hardware Support Matrix

Hardware

Optimus / Graphics cards

9 in 1 card reader

Trackpad

Fix various glitches

Wireless connection

USB 3 mass storage

External Links

Trackpad

Information on Bumblebee (for graphics card Optimus support)

Wireless