Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#91

Post by jwells89 » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 10:50 PM UTC

AvImd wrote: post #77

bartvk wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried a USB based WiFi adapter? Last time I checked (unfortunately many years ago), these were quite small.

I am considering doing that. I also considered replacing the wireless card though I was unable to find reliable information if the BIOS has some kind of whitelist that would prevent me from doing that.

Lenovo definitely has blocklists for its laptop upgrades (otherwise I’d have repurposed the empty WWAN slot on my X1 Nano for a second SSD), but I’ve not heard of Dell doing the same. At the very least my old 2008 Dell laptop has no hint of anything like that.

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#92

Post by phendrenad2 » Sun, Oct 22, 2023, 11:10 PM UTC

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #79

jadbox wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did the new kernel break the drivers when every release is supposed to be (usually) non-backward's breaking?

The kernel promises not to break any drivers in the kernel. But right now there's just some hacky out of kernel drivers for the no-longer-even-recent Intel IPU6 camera controller, which is on a lot of laptops. Intel's been slowly working on this. Here's an update from May: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-IPU6-Progressing . Fedora has this out of kernel tree in driver. But it's been like this for a long time. Here…

I don't get it. A webcam driver should be dead-simple. Why is it taking such a huge effort to get it upstreamed?

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#93

Post by mattl » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 12:56 AM UTC

smallerfish wrote: post #38

The camera doesn't work on the current XPS13 if you upgrade to a 6.X kernel (which, to be fair, means moving outside of Dell's packaging.) Technically this is Intel's fault, as they haven't released firmware for it yet. Still, hopefully the Dell team avoid similar issues in future configs by ensuring better driver support. It's a nice laptop otherwise.

I’ve had a couple of these. They’re fine.

It’s also sad that this is basically the only Linux-preinstalled and supported hardware from a mainstream company. When I have a choice it’s between one of these or MacBook Air and I’d choose the Mac at this point and forgo Linux

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#94

Post by mattl » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 1:00 AM UTC

mcbutterbunz wrote: post #25

Freak_NL wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dell is definitely weird about this; I had the same experience. Perfectly satisfied with my laptop (an XPS 13 with Ubuntu on it bought a few years ago), but Dell's online store is just bonkers.

I Googled XPS 13 and go to configure it but can’t find an option to choose Ubuntu, only downgrade to Windows 11 Home. It is weird.

Used to be dell.com/linux

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#95

Post by mattl » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 1:08 AM UTC

quercusa wrote: post #12

csdvrx wrote: post #3

In theory, laptops from Dell should work with Linux. In practice, not so much, especially if you like to sleep and wake up from sleep everytime without a crash + a reasonable power consumption, both during use and during sleep. IMHO consumption during sleep far more important: if I didn't plug the computer, I expect it to wake up immediately (no S4/suspend to disk) and with less than 0.5% of battery lost per hour (so…

I've got a Dell Vostro V5510 (i7, 32GB RAM) that's been rock-solid running Ubuntu and only cost ~ $1000.

Preinstalled or you had to install Linux?

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#96

Post by NorwegianDude » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 1:14 AM UTC

Been using XPS 13s since it was called XPS m1330. Linux has been fine on all of them, but the latest XPS 13 Plus with 13th gen i7 and FHD screen has terrible battery life. Only getting ~4,5 hours battery life coding in Intellij or browsing with under 50 % screen brightness... I have XPS 13s that are nearly 10 years old with 2x the battery life...

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#97

Post by GlibMonkeyDeath » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 1:42 AM UTC

I have an XPS 13 running the Dell-installed version of Ubuntu. There was jankiness with my Dell docking station (I still had to mess around with DisplayLink drivers by hand) and early screen-sharing problems (which I blame on Wayland, but have been resolved.) Otherwise, it's been pretty rock-solid for me. Camera, network, sound, etc. all work as expected now.

Is it for everyone? No. Even with explicit support by Dell on their hardware, it is not seamless, as my two anecdotes above illustrate. The time you waste on tinkering isn't going to make up for the extra money you pay to Apple or Microsoft.

But I just couldn't take any more telemetry and ads, and I think it is only going to get worse from here on out.

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#98

Post by dotBen » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 2:45 AM UTC

For $1500 I can buy a well spec'd MacBook and own a laptop with a first class citizen, commercially supported, *nix OS installed.

Unless I was truly a FOSS zealot I don't get why I would select Dell over Apple here.

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#99

Post by q-base » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 5:45 AM UTC

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #4

> The Dell XPS 13 is the best-known developer-focused, high-end Linux laptop. Not a good ol' ThinkPad T-series?

I have the Gen 9 X1 Carbon running Ubuntu. It has been my daily driver for years without any issues. Whether it is developer focussed can probably be discussed, but it has to be considered high-end.

Re: Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops

#100

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Oct 23, 2023, 6:11 AM UTC

nextos wrote: post #84

senkora wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I think it’s best to keep them on the installed Ubuntu LTS and not upgrade, if you want the seamless OEM experience. Granted, I’ve still had some random issues with mine, even on the stock version. (The wifi card is glitchy and I have to systemctl restart NetworkManager sometimes, apparently this is a known hardware/firmware issue).

This is a bit surprising for a Linux-oriented range such as XPS. I haven't had any broken devices due to an update in more than a decade, despite always using the latest kernel. But I try to avoid buying any machines that require drivers that have not been mainlined or are a bit unstable. In 2011, I got burnt by the infamous b43 Broadcom card / driver which, while supported, had disastrous performance. So never again…

Nah, it is the usual Year of Desktop Linux experience.

My Asus netbook was also sold with Linux (remember those days?), and if I want to have stable hardware video acceleration and OpenGL 4.1 support, I would have to keep using the original Ubuntu version that came with it in 2009.

Because the AMD open source drivers downgraded the GL suppport to OpenGL 3.3, and hardware video acceleration is yet to work as smoothly as it used to.