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
- USB installation: booting from the USB3 slots won't work. Use the e-SATA slot instead!
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) |
Works with manual changes |
Wired ethernet |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Sound |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
Optimus |
Natty (11.04) |
Works with manual changes |
9-in-1 card reader |
Natty (11.04) |
Does not work |
Webcam |
Natty (11.04) |
Works |
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
Full multi-gesture trackpad usage does not work at this moment. 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
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.
External Links
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics
Trackpad
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1108661