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I have the XPS 13 Developer Edition, and it's a fine laptop in many ways... But it's marketed as a Linux laptop, yet requires a proprietary WiFi driver. After I
by mbrock 11y ago
I have the XPS 13 Developer Edition, and it's a fine laptop in many ways... But it's marketed as a Linux laptop, yet requires a proprietary WiFi driver. After I upgraded my kernel a month ago, the WiFi started kernel panicking randomly and often, so I don't bother even using the computer anymore... I just use a full screen terminal on my old MacBook and ssh to a VPS. One day I'll reinstall the driver or something, but, god damn, why must everything suck?
- glogla 11y agoHow is the touchpad? Is it comparable to Mac? How is the highdpi screen on Linux?
- mbrock 11y agoOh yeah, the touchpad is frankly awful compared to my MacBook's. I've almost considered disabling it, because I keep brushing against it with my palm causing wild cursor behavior and accidental button presses. It's difficult for me to control even when I do it intentionally. But I don't use the mouse much anyway (hence ratpoison). The HiDPI screen is pretty good, I talked about it in a sibling comment. Chromium understands the DPI setting and so does Xterm, and honestly I don't use any other programs. I imagine if I used different desktop applications, I'd probably run into some issues like maybe icons being too small or something.
- Aeolos 11y agoI don't if this is available on Ubuntu, but recent versions of libinput are way nicer than the old synaptics touchpad driver.
- mbrock 11y agoInteresting, thanks!
- abrowne 11y agoYes, for 15.10 (and 16.04) install xserver-xorg-input-libinput, then edit the config files: http://askubuntu.com/questions/649103/proper-touchpad-thumb-palm-detection-with-libinput/678122#678122 http://askubuntu.com/questions/649103/proper-touchpad-thumb-...
- kingosticks 11y agoPresumably this is the older non-skylake model. I heard the new one (9350) will ship with an Intel wireless card which already has support in the kernel. But I don't think it's out yet. I've got the new non-developer version and I did have to jump through some hoops to get the wireless working. And suspend still doesn't work. But other than that it is the best laptop I've used.
- Terribledactyl 11y agoI too was quite frustrated with the wifi card, apparently they've sourced different cards. The Broadcom (I think?) was pure crap in linux, fine in windows. I upgraded to the non bluetooth intel card, everything is fantastic now.
- mbrock 11y agoYeah, Broadcom. Oh, how did you upgrade? Ask the Dell support?
- Terribledactyl 11y agoI figured out which part people were having luck with, archlinux forums/wiki, and ordered it on amazon. intel 7265ngw + bluetooth. Looks like I went for BT and turned it off in bios. Currently 22$ + 2$ shipping. Maybe 8 torx 5 T-5 needed to be removed, swapped in a few mins.
- davvid 11y agoI have the same laptop. I wanted to run Debian/sid on it so I knew going in that I was going to need to do something about the wireless card. I researched[1] a bit and bought an Intel Wireless 7260 for ~$25, swapped it in, and it made all the difference. The card identifies itself as: 02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb) [1] https://yurovsky.github.io/2015/05/18/dell-xps-13-wifi-linux-intel/ https://yurovsky.github.io/2015/05/18/dell-xps-13-wifi-linux...
- mbrock 11y agoThanks. The proprietary Broadcom driver worked well enough until it didn't, and now I know firsthand why not to use them, so that's a useful experience at least.