15z
Introduction
This page should give you all the information you need about running Ubuntu on a Dell XPS 15z laptop.
Installation gotcha's
Boot installer with acpi=off
- Start installer directly, not through 'Try Ubuntu without installing'
Hardware Support Matrix
Hardware |
Ubuntu Release |
Status |
Keyboard |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
|
Oneiric (11.10) |
??? |
Screen |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Wireless ethernet |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Trackpad |
Natty (11.04) |
Does not work |
Wired ethernet |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Sound |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Optimus |
Natty (11.04) |
Works with manual changes |
Hardware
Optimus / Graphics cards
Switch off NVIDIA card
# echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
Switch on NVIDIA card
# 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 |
Trackpad
Cypress trackpad. Does not seem to work on Ubuntu. However it was reported to work on a stock 2.6.39 kernel on Gentoo, so must be a module/flag/option somewhere.. Adding i8024.nomux etc ( as seen on several forums for other laptops ) does not enable the trackpad on the 15z.
(I managed to get the trackpad partly working on Debian/unstable, kernel 3.0-rc5, with: rmmod psmouse; modprobe psmouse proto=bare; or: rmmod psmouse; modprobe psmouse proto=imps )
External Links
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics
Trackpad
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1108661