> Headphones constantly crackle when they're plugged in. I've tried updating audio drivers, enabling/disabling various things, editing config files, etc. nothin

> Headphones constantly crackle when they're plugged in. I've tried updating audio drivers, enabling/disabling various things, editing config files, etc. nothing fixes it. I've gotten used to listening to music with a crackle superimposed on top. I thought Dell’s XPS series was supposed to have first class support on Linux? Did you try to contact Dell? I never had problem with sound on Linux even with some very cheap hardware. Anyway, if you’re willing to do some tinkering yourself it might be as simple as adjusting some deep alsa settings. E.g. this guy makes it look easy[1] :) > I've also tried updating/changing/etc libinput and it doesn't do anything. Does it use “precision” drivers on Windows? Sometimes trackpads implement their own gesture recognition and all kinds of other weird things. Check what you get with `xinput list` and try disabling anything that is not a pointer device. > (it was on the latest 16.04) Was it a new Dell? If you have new hardware and old kernel then forgot all of the above as that is obviously not a great combination. You absolutely need the latest kernel for the latest hardware. > I did `do-release-upgrade -d` without realizing it was a dev version, then after a few minutes of reading I realized it was, so I cancelled it, and rebooted my computer. Yeah sorry, Ubuntu doesn’t offer safe upgrades. I suggest if you don’t have much Linux experience (and even if you do) OpenSuse Leap/Tumbleweed which has full snapshot & rollback support[1], and since recently fully transactional upgrades as well. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1YkPtfC4LI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1YkPtfC4LI [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJgWvTLo07k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJgWvTLo07k