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) |
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) |
? |
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
With Ubuntu 11.10, vgaswitcheroo no longer seems to work. You can however control heat and noise by going straight to acpi:
# 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 |
Bumblebee
Bumblebee can be installed either from GIT or from the repositories at GitHub.
The enable/disable scripts can be taken from here (however, they are included in the latest release of Bumblebee).
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