spenserlee/win_linux_dual_boot_xps_15_9560.md

## win_linux_dual_boot_xps_15_9560.md

      
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    Installing Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 on XPS 15 9560

This document is to serve as a set of notes for myself and can be used as a guide for others looking to set up Ubuntu on their XPS 15. For me this was a dual-boot setup with Windows 10. On Linux I don't have a need for the discrete graphics card, so the main focus is to maximize battery life for development.
I had initially tried to dual boot with Fedora 25, but ran into a lot of issues trying to disable the discrete graphics card, resulting in poor battery life. Instead of starting over with Fedora again, I decided to try with Ubuntu, since there seemed to be a few more resources available.
My XPS Configuration is: i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 4K Screen.
Setup

BIOS


Reboot and press F2 on Dell logo screen until "Preparing to enter setup" appears to get into BIOS
Under "System Configuration > SATA Operation" switch from RAID to AHCI
Optionally disable Touchscreen under "System Configuration > Touchscreen" to improve battery life
Many sources said to disable Secure Boot, but when I initially installed Fedora it wasn't required

After reading more about this, to install 3rd party drivers this was required, so I did disable Secure Boot in the end


Windows


Windows will have to be reinstalled after switching from RAID to AHCI
Fine to remove all Dell partitions, install as normal
Killer 1535: http://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads/item/killer-drivers-inf

Device Manager, update Killer, browse local files


Intel HD 630: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26772/Graphics-Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-15-45-
Disable fast boot in Advanced Power Management
Disk Management, shrink volume for Linux install (I'm using 100GB)
Create backup here

Installing Linux


ISO from: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/GetUbuntuGNOME
Created bootable USB via Rufus: https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows
Insert USB and reboot
Press F12 until "One time boot menu" appears to choose USB as boot device
On GRUB menu, choose Install Ubuntu GNOME

These are the settings I used for "something else":

leave device for boot loader installation as default
swap space set to 10GB
/ set to 25 GB
/home uses the rest (leave size blank)


Interesting note that Fedora 25 scaled nicely for installation process, while Ubuntu GNOME was not scaled
Didn't connect to internet during installation and didn't choose to install 3rd party software at this point

Setting up Linux

Scaling Issues


Potential fix for login screen scaling: https://askubuntu.com/a/912789

Did not work for me, still unresolved


Desktop did scale on initial login, though some issues with cursor becoming small when hovering over menu bar

Still unresolved, not a big issue


TTY is very small text

Tried to resolve by editing /etc/default/grub and set GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1600x1200

On restart it appears to be working, but after login screen loads, TTY still set to 3840x2160 (still unresolved)


GRUB boot up menu scaling can be fixed in a couple ways:

Via grub-customizer and setting a lower resolution: https://launchpad.net/~danielrichter2007/+archive/ubuntu/grub-customizer

Or just edit /etc/default/grub and set GRUB_GFXMODE= to desired resolution
In GRUB, navigate to console (usually by pressing 'c') and run videoinfo to get your machines supported resolutions for GRUB
XPS 15 4K supports: 3840x2160, 1920x1440, 1600x1200, 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480


Via setting a custom font with a larger font size via grub-mkfont: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/31752/139951

This solution did not work when I tried under Fedora 25, but did under Ubuntu GNOME 17.04
Minor, but noticeable lag in boot selection (i.e. up/down arrow) with this method


Power Management

TLDR: sudo apt install tlp tlp-rdw


Install powertop and powerstat to get monitor power usage:

powerstat grabs samples of power usage and prints an average
powertop reports what is using power


Power consumption testing done with the following conditions:

Bluetooth disabled
Location disabled
Connected to WiFi
Brightness set to 40% (8 steps up from 0 using keyboard button)
Only application running is a single terminal running powerstat (i.e. idling state)
powerstat -d 2 run for about 5-10 samples (50 seconds)


Base line with no updates or anything installed

Average consumption of 18.26 Watts
Audio codec hwC0D0: Realtek at 100% usage as reported by powertop


Install tlp and tlp-rdw for basic power management

sudo tlp-stat -s to check status
sudo tlp start to start tlp without reboot
After tlp started average consumption reduced to 9.96 Watts

Appears to have fixed Audio codec issue


Updating system sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade and a reboot

Upgrade from kernel 4.10.0-19 to 4.10.0-21
Average consumption 9.87 Watts, so pretty much the same


TLDR: Stop here if you don't need the Nvidia GPU!

After what I was reading online I wrongly assumed that the Nvidia GPU would be running all the time, so I thought I could achieve more power savings by disabling it. I have since come to the conclusion that the nouveau drivers act properly and are not using the Nvidia GPU, so this isn't necessary.
The following is what I tried before realizing that chasing a sub 9 Watt idle power consumption (at 40% brightness) was pointless. After reading more, I concluded this was likely only possible for XPS models with a FHD display. Anyways, here are my probably not-very-useful notes as to what I tried to get the Nvidia GPU working via optimusrun/prime-select.

Install acpi and acpi-call-dkms to disable Nvidia GPU


sudo apt install acpi acpi-call-dkms


sudo modprobe acpi_call


sudo bash /usr/share/doc/acpi-call-dkms/examples/turn_off_gpu.sh | grep works

For XPS 15 9560 should return: "_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._OFF"
NOTE: do not run this if using nvidia drivers, I think this crashed my system when I had previously run "sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall", which set to using the nvidia drivers


echo '_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._OFF' | sudo tee /proc/acpi/call to actually turn off the dGPU

After executing and re-running powerstat, did not observer any change in power consumption


Edit /etc/default/grub and add acpi_rev_override=5 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and reboot

No changes to power consumption, still around 12 Watts


Trying an sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

This improved power consumption to an average of 9.73 Watts, unclear what update specifically caused improvement

Possibly the upgrade from kernel 4.10.0-19 to 4.10.0-20 ?


Attempting switch to Intel proprietary drivers under "additional drivers" GUI tool

No noticeable changes, reverted back


Trying to install Intel Graphics For Linux Kabylake Drivers from: https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/firmware

Slightly worse power consumption now, average of 10.07 Watts, probably just margin of error