Dell XPS setup

01.09.2018, to see all post click here.

• Base installer
• Quiet fans

CPU frequency:

• use i7z ti check the frequency if cpu - if it is constantly stuck at high frequency even though nothing is using cpu you know that you are using bad driver...
• for this CPU the intel_pstate will be used. This provides mapping of performance settings to CPU frequencies
• This driver has only performance and powersave governors - they don't work when laptop is fully charged
• intel pstate
• the driver can be disabled or set to passive mod
• slow cpu
  • according to this, the solution is to disable the pstate. The CPU will still be used but their real freq will be somewhat obscured.

thus grub line in /etc/default/grub works.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_rev_override=1 acpi_osi=Linux drm.vblankoffdelay=1 mem_sleep_default=deep intel_pstate=enable nouveau.blacklist=1"

also try:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep intel_pstate=enable nouveau.blacklist=1"

Extensions

Emoji Selector - GNOME Shell Extensions

Hide Top Bar - GNOME Shell Extensions

Workspace Grid - GNOME Shell Extensions

I use this extension to disable win+<int> keyboard switching behavior - on default it switches between apps where as I wan't to be able to switch between desktops.

Dash to Dock - GNOME Shell Extensions

Installing Linux

• hard drive mode
• Had to turn of the safe boot
• Installed ubuntu - arch was impossible to use
• ubuntu had very confusing setup - had to go for default settings

Information

• thermal mode profiles
• wiki

Ctrl / swap

Ask ubuntu

Gnome tweak tool > Keyboard & mouse > Additional Layout option > Ctrl position

GPU settings

• How to switch to nvidia
• I have to log out to apply the nvidia settings. This is a bit annoying but whatever.
• prime select nvidia/intel

Fingerprint reader

hmaarrfk/Validity91

That project seems inactive.

Model 27c6:5395, use lsusb

Firefox settings

• Hiding title bar

Firewall

sudo ufw default deny
sudo ufw enable

Desktop

• auto-hide panel
• alt-tab

Keyboard shortcuts

SUPER+<int> behavior: link

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key ''

That does not work, maybe i need to modify source code.

Bash setup

sudo apt-get install git-core bash-completion

Power

• https://github.com/rcasero/doc/wiki/Ubuntu-linux-on-Dell-XPS-15-(9560)
• looks like i am able to get about 6h of battery
• frequency stuck problem

Quiet fans:

sudo apt install smbios-utils
sudo smbios-thermal-ctl --set-thermal-mode quiet

The supported thermal modes are:

• balanced
• cool-bottom
• quiet
• performance

sudo cpufreq-set -r -g performance
sudo cpufreq-set -r -g powersave

Disabling effects:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface enable-animations false

But should I really be doing that? Well everything feels so much faster...

Touchpad

Sometimes the touchpad opens 50x tabs.