Small, quick guide to set up Manjaro on the XPS 15 9560

Dell XPS 15 9560 Manjaro Setup instructions

# 1. First of all of course get Manjaro:
https://manjaro.org/get-manjaro/

# I recommend using Etcher to copy the image to your USB:
https://etcher.io/

# 2. Before installing make sure:
# - Secure boot is disabled in BIOS
# - Your SSD, HDD or NVME drive is set to AHCI instead of RAID
# - Fastboot should be on Auto or minimal, but this shouldn't matter to much

# 3. Once at the GRUB menu do the following (these steps are important, Manjaro won't even boot otherwise):
# - For drivers select the nonfree option instead of free, there is no support for Pascal GPUs yet (is planned for 4.12)
# - Hover over the option 'From stick/hdd' and press 'e' to edit the boot entry
# - Look for 'quiet' in the boot entry, after quiet you should type the following:
nouveau.modeset=0 nogpumanager pcie_aspm=off acpi_backlight=none acpi_osi=Linux acpi_osi=!

# It should now look something like this: 
quiet nouvea.modeset=0 nogpumanager pcie_aspm=off acpi_backlight=none acpi_osi=Linux acpi_osi=!

# 4. Now just install Manjaro like you normally would.
# After install repeat step 3 as Manjaro will still not be bootable without

# 5. Once Manjaro is installed pretty much everything is set up already.
# Manjaro handles things like installing Bumblebee beautifully, but there is one more thing we should do.
# We need to add the boot arguments given in step 3.
# I recommend using something like grub-customizer (available from AUR or https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer)
# This is an UI for making Grub customizations

##### Using grub-customizer #####
# - Open up grub-customizer
# - Go to the 'General settings' tab
# - and add the following after quiet: 
quiet pcie_port_pm=off acpi_backlight=none acpi_osi=Linux acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009'
# Press 'ctrl + s' or click save and we are done. Your installation should be fully working now.

##### Using terminal #####
# sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# Find this line and make sure it looks like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nouvea.modeset=0 nogpumanager pcie_aspm=off acpi_backlight=none acpi_osi=Linux acpi_osi=!"
# run 
sudo update-grub2 # (or update-grub if update-grub2 is not symlinked)
# to update your Grub config and we are done.

# Some last notes
# I get around 5 to 8 hours of battery life on a i7, 16GB, 512GB 4k model 9560. 
# Stay on kernel 4.9 (standard on Manjaro right now). 
# I have tried 4.11, but it was hard-locking/freezing my XPS 15 every few minutes or wouldn't even boot up.
# 4.11 only adds NVME power management so we aren't missing out on anything.
# Once 4.12 hits I will test and update this guide, hoping there is better support for Pascal as well.

# Update as of May 2018
# Latest install of Manjaro is possible using the exact same instructions.
# The current kernel version used by Manjaro is 4.14 and it seems to run fine.

# Update November 2018
# I've updated the boot parameters as I found the originals didn't work for me anymore

# Additional notes
# (Thanks @Cznielsen) For the XPS 9570 it seems this flag is necessary 'systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service'
# (Thanks @Jonathancollinet) Some people needed this flag to boot Manjaro: 'acpi_rev_override=1'
# (Thanks @stucash) For fixing power management of the intel graphics use these parameters: 'i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.i915_psr=1 drm.vblankoffdelay=1'

@meirbon just to get it straight for myself would that mean re installing Manjaro with the Non Free Drivers? And then seeing how it fares and use the flags if necesarry?

Sorry for the probably stupid questions but i'm a new Linux user and choose Manjaro as my first Distro cause it seemed interesting and challenging.

@meirbon just to get it straight for myself would that mean re installing Manjaro with the Non Free Drivers? And then seeing how it fares and use the flags if necesarry?

Sorry for the probably stupid questions but i'm a new Linux user and choose Manjaro as my first Distro cause it seemed interesting and challenging.

Manjaro/Arch might be a bit much if you are new to Linux. I would recommend Debian or Mint if you start to have problems with Manjaro. You do not need to add those flags though that you mentioned if you are going to use the proprietary drivers.

Manjaro/Arch might be a bit much if you are new to Linux. I would recommend Debian or Mint if you start to have problems with Manjaro. You do not need to add those flags though that you mentioned if you are going to use the proprietary drivers.

I kinda want to run into problems with Manjaro as it would speed up the learning process of getting used to Linux. I don't mind learning the hard way. But i'll start by installing the proprietaty drivers for now :)

acpi_rev_override=1
This is essential. Without this X11 will hang up when dealing with nvidia.

pcie_aspm=off
without this kernel spit out some pci error/warning

modprobe.blacklist=nouveau
just don't touch nouveau driver. it's abandoned. at least to xps 15 9560

both nouveau and acpi_rev things are important for safely boot into livecd and normal system.

acpi_rev_override=1
This is essential. Without this X11 will hang up when dealing with nvidia.

pcie_aspm=off
without this kernel spit out some pci error/warning

modprobe.blacklist=nouveau
just don't touch nouveau driver. it's abandoned. at least to xps 15 9560

both nouveau and acpi_rev things are important for safely boot into livecd and normal system.

Actually you don't need to blacklist Nouveau because when you select nonfree install in boot menu it automatically does it for you and installs Nvidia with PRIME.

Just to report that I successfully installed Manjaro 20.0.1 with the nonfree drivers and I didn't have to add any flags in the grub configuration.
Just switch to the nonfree drivers in the grub menu when you boot from the live USB and the installation will take care of installing the nonfree drivers.

After that system boots perfectly fine

I installed the latest Manjaro 20.2. The installer boots with proprietary drivers but after installation it still requires the changes in the kernel parameters to boot.

Also, after updating the installation, lightdm couldn't start for me. I installed the video-linux package from cli and then rebooted to receive a severely f**ked screen with weird vertical bandings, and display stretched horizontally. I removed the package and the system reverted to mesa graphics. That fixed all of my troubles for now.

Here's the system details

OS: Manjaro Linux x86_64
Host: XPS 15 9560
Kernel: 5.9.16-1-MANJARO
Resolution: 1920x1080
WM: i3
Terminal: alacritty
CPU: Intel i7-7700HQ (8) @ 3.800GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 630
Memory: 3860MiB / 7533MiB