Ubuntu-for-Azure-Developers

Setting up your Ubuntu 20.04 developer environment to build Azure solutions

This project is maintained by gloveboxes

Dell XPS 15 Stable Linux Configuration

As at July 2022, I no longer have a DELL XPS 15. I suspect there is much better out of the box install experience for this laptop now. So below may be obsolete.

After much testing this is the configuration that works well for me, most importantly wake from sleep worked consistently well.

Author Dave Glover, Microsoft Australia
Date 3 Dec 2018
System Dell XPS 15 9570 (2018), 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8750H Processor, 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD
WiFi I upgraded the standard Killer 1535 with an Intel 9260 wireless/bluetooth module
Kernel 4.19.6
OS Ubuntu 18.04

Tips and Tricks for Dell XPS 15 9570 (2018 Model)

Alternative instructions at DELL XPS 15 9570 Ubuntu 18.04 Respin

Update BIOS

From BIOS Setup.

  1. Change disk from RAID to AHCI. This will cause the Windows Partition to fail. Search the web for tricks to resolve. I personally decided to reinstall Windows as it seemed to be a robust solution than various tricks I read.
  2. Disable secure boot
  3. Experience setting up Ubuntu 18.04 on Dell XPS 15 9570

Reboot tip

You must must add nouveau.modeset=0 when you install Ubuntu and every time you restart Ubuntu until you have installed the nVidia driver otherwise you’ll be forced to hard reset the laptop.

  1. Boot Ubuntu 18.04 from USB
  2. Cursor to “Install Ubuntu” install
  3. Press ‘e’ to edit
  4. Edit line starting with ‘linux’, add nouveau.modeset=0 after the word ‘splash’ options
  5. Install Ubuntu as you would normally
  6. Press F10 to install Ubuntu (remember when restarting to add nouveau.modeset=0).

Apply Power Management Script

Alternative instructions at DELL XPS 15 9570 Ubuntu 18.04 Respin

The most complete script that I found for managing power and working sleep/resume was XPS Tweaks

Update the Linux Kernel

Kernel 4.17.x works well with the XPS 15 and the Intel 9260 wireless card I installed.

Ubuntu Kernel Update Utility

Ubuntu Kernel Upgrade Utility can be used to update to the latest mainline kernel. Mileage may vary.

Tweaking GRUB 2

  1. Nice 4k GRUB Theme
  2. Information on updating GRUB theme

GNOME Extensions/Tweaks

My favourite Gnome Extensions are

  1. CPU Power Manager

  2. Dash to Panel. Icon spacing, size etc can also be tuned for a Windows 10 like user experience.

  3. Shell Tile. Enhanced corner window snapping.

  4. OpenWeather

Ubuntu Desktop with Dash to Panel

Increase swap file size

  1. Increase virtual memory. On this system not so necessary, but your system will become unstable if it runs out of virtual memory. Follow these instructions to increase the swap file.

Enable Touchpad Right Click

  1. Enable Right mouse click on touchpad. See No secondary button (right click) on touchpad

     gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method areas

Windows/Linux Dual Boot Time Sync

Windows keeps system time as local, Linux keeps time as UTC. When you dual boot you need to resync time on Windows.

As a work around I set Linux time to be maintained as local.

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock

Then reboot.

Reference: https://www.howtogeek.com/323390/how-to-fix-windows-and-linux-showing-different-times-when-dual-booting/

Cool Apps I install

  1. Sticky Notes
  2. Zoom Conferencing
  3. Freeplace (Mind Mapping)
  4. vokoscreen (SNAP Install) screencast capture
  5. GIMP