Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

0X1A · 2016-02-03 16:28:31

Just wanted to add that if you have AHCI on and are trying to use legacy BIOS you are going to run into a problem with GRUB. The current version of GRUB used in Arch (as of 2/3/2016) does not support NVMe and will not install correctly to your boot device. A workaround is to install grub-git from the AUR, atleast until the officially packaged version moves on from GRUB's dated release schedule.

EDIT: I think this might effect UEFI as well since you'd be installing to NVMe. So that is, you'd need a patched version of GRUB no matter which method you use. An alternative to grub is to just just systemd-boot (bootctl)

Last edited by 0X1A (2016-02-04 14:33:55)

incer · 2016-02-04 10:53:47

So I have the DA200 adapter, and the ethernet connection only works if the adapter is connected during boot; if you connect it afterwards it does not work. Loading the r8152 module manually doesn't change this.
Where do I start with troubleshooting this?

Birdack · 2016-02-08 20:49:57

incer wrote:

So I have the DA200 adapter, and the ethernet connection only works if the adapter is connected during boot; if you connect it afterwards it does not work. Loading the r8152 module manually doesn't change this.
Where do I start with troubleshooting this?

# echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan

It works for me.

Last edited by Birdack (2016-02-08 20:50:46)

Utini · 2016-02-09 10:12:33

Two question:

1. Is there any way to active adaptive screen brightness (use the sensor to Change Screen brightness / backlight) ?
2. Am I the only one where the Keyboards backlight won't turn on automatically at boot up? I always have to manually enable it with the fn keys but after a sleep/reboot ist off again.

incer · 2016-02-09 20:35:32

Utini wrote:

1. Is there any way to active adaptive screen brightness (use the sensor to Change Screen brightness / backlight) ?

What, there's a sensor? I didn't know!

Utini wrote:

2. Am I the only one where the Keyboards backlight won't turn on automatically at boot up? I always have to manually enable it with the fn keys but after a sleep/reboot ist off again.

Mine turns on by itself... But you have to press a button to wake it, otherwise it's "asleep". This happens during use too. Kinda stupid honestly, since the moment you need the backlight the most is when you start typing, but I guess they need to save battery.

edit: the backlight also comes on if you use the trackpad

Last edited by incer (2016-02-09 20:36:13)

Utini · 2016-02-10 08:18:38

incer wrote:

Utini wrote:
1. Is there any way to active adaptive screen brightness (use the sensor to Change Screen brightness / backlight) ?
What, there's a sensor? I didn't know!
Utini wrote:
2. Am I the only one where the Keyboards backlight won't turn on automatically at boot up? I always have to manually enable it with the fn keys but after a sleep/reboot ist off again.
Mine turns on by itself... But you have to press a button to wake it, otherwise it's "asleep". This happens during use too. Kinda stupid honestly, since the moment you need the backlight the most is when you start typing, but I guess they need to save battery.
edit: the backlight also comes on if you use the trackpad

1. Yes on Windows this is enabled on the "power saving mode" by default. So usually I have brightness at 80% but at battery mode the "adaptive brightness" will be activated which dim's the Display as needed.

2. For me it is not getting turned on by pressing any key. I have to manually enable it with the "FN" keys?

Gat · 2016-02-10 11:08:21

Hi guys,

I'm having issues with bluetooth, bluetootctl cannot discover any devices and the laptop itself is not discoverable. I'm also getting some bluetooth-related errors in journal:

journalctl output for bluetooth:

Feb 10 19:01:12 work systemd[1]: Starting Bluetooth service...
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Bluetooth daemon 5.37
Feb 10 19:01:12 work systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Starting SDP server
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Bluetooth management interface 1.10 initialized
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Failed to obtain handles for "Service Changed" characteristic
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Error adding Link Loss service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Current Time Service could not be registered
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Not enough free handles to register service
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Sap driver initialization failed.
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.16 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Feb 10 19:01:12 work bluetoothd[4435]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.16 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink

hciconfig -a hci0

hci0:	Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB               
	BD Address: 48:E2:44:F5:FA:BC  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
	DOWN 
	RX bytes:4093 acl:0 sco:0 events:224 errors:0
	TX bytes:4638 acl:0 sco:0 commands:222 errors:0
	Features: 0xbf 0xfe 0xcf 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
	Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
	Link policy: RSWITCH SNIFF 
	Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT

lspci | grep BCM

02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC (rev 01)

rfkill list

1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

Did anyone had this issue?

incer · 2016-02-10 19:11:08

My bluetooth didn't work either. I've swapped the Dell network adapter with an Intel 7265 and it worked right away.

0X1A · 2016-02-12 04:07:08

When plugging in my phone to the thunderbolt 3 port the laptop fails to go to sleep. Haven't looked at any output but this is as of kernel version 4.4.1-2. Does anyone know that status of Thunderbolt 3 in the kernel?

Last edited by 0X1A (2016-02-12 04:07:32)

tavianator · 2016-02-12 21:44:34

Utini wrote:

2. Am I the only one where the Keyboards backlight won't turn on automatically at boot up? I always have to manually enable it with the fn keys but after a sleep/reboot ist off again.

This is configurable in the BIOS.

OdinEidolon · 2016-02-13 09:19:56

0X1A wrote:

When plugging in my phone to the thunderbolt 3 port the laptop fails to go to sleep. Haven't looked at any output but this is as of kernel version 4.4.1-2. Does anyone know that status of Thunderbolt 3 in the kernel?

Are you on the latest bios? There were fixes concerning USB-c and sleep IIRC.

Utini · 2016-02-13 12:13:59

Utini wrote:

incer wrote:
Utini wrote:
1. Is there any way to active adaptive screen brightness (use the sensor to Change Screen brightness / backlight) ?
What, there's a sensor? I didn't know!
Utini wrote:
2. Am I the only one where the Keyboards backlight won't turn on automatically at boot up? I always have to manually enable it with the fn keys but after a sleep/reboot ist off again.
Mine turns on by itself... But you have to press a button to wake it, otherwise it's "asleep". This happens during use too. Kinda stupid honestly, since the moment you need the backlight the most is when you start typing, but I guess they need to save battery.
edit: the backlight also comes on if you use the trackpad

1. Yes on Windows this is enabled on the "power saving mode" by default. So usually I have brightness at 80% but at battery mode the "adaptive brightness" will be activated which dim's the Display as needed.
2. For me it is not getting turned on by pressing any key. I have to manually enable it with the "FN" keys?

No one ?

0X1A · 2016-02-13 15:00:20

OdinEidolon wrote:

0X1A wrote:
When plugging in my phone to the thunderbolt 3 port the laptop fails to go to sleep. Haven't looked at any output but this is as of kernel version 4.4.1-2. Does anyone know that status of Thunderbolt 3 in the kernel?
Are you on the latest bios? There were fixes concerning USB-c and sleep IIRC.

Yup, I'm on version 1.1.19 that was release at the beginning of February. I'm not sure if there are some helpful logs I can post.

Yukagi · 2016-02-15 22:42:03

I just got my XPS15 9550 and just got Arch installed (not even fully setup just yet), and I've been going through my Windows install and noticing some issues. I think most of them have been resolved by installing the Samsung 950 NVMe driver. One big issue I'm having is waking from sleep. I close the display, come back to it a few minutes later, open it up, and it reboots.

Is anyone having this issue? Any ideas on resolving it?

Thank you so much!

ghedeon · 2016-02-22 11:47:27

Just installed arch on this machine. The intention was to keep it dual-boot (just in case), but I accidentaly formated the EFI partition during the installation. So, obviously, I've lost the Windwos EFI Bootloader. My current partition table:

nvme0n1     259:0    0   477G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   500M  0 part /boot   # system-boot, former windows boot
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   128M  0 part         # microsoft reserverd partition (MSR)
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 236.6G  0 part         # windows 10
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0   450M  0 part         # recovery (WinRE)
├─nvme0n1p5 259:5    0  13.7G  0 part         # oem recovery
└─nvme0n1p6 259:6    0 225.6G  0 part /       # arch

Now, is there any way to recover windows boot files, in order to add them to system-boot entries?

UPD: Fixed following these steps: http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/12/ho … windows-8/

Last edited by ghedeon (2016-02-23 09:46:19)

q3aiml · 2016-02-24 16:03:08

0X1A wrote:

OdinEidolon wrote:
0X1A wrote:
When plugging in my phone to the thunderbolt 3 port the laptop fails to go to sleep. Haven't looked at any output but this is as of kernel version 4.4.1-2. Does anyone know that status of Thunderbolt 3 in the kernel?
Are you on the latest bios? There were fixes concerning USB-c and sleep IIRC.
Yup, I'm on version 1.1.19 that was release at the beginning of February. I'm not sure if there are some helpful logs I can post.

I hit this suspend failing after thunderbolt/USB-C hotplug issue, too. I think it is due to an acpi bug. If you have /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs set, plug the device in, and check dmesg after that many seconds you may see a hung task stack trace. If you want to test I've thrown together a patch that seems to fix the issue for me: http://marc.info/?l=linux-acpi&m=145626748507267&w=2. I believe it also fixes hotplug so you don't have to manually rescan.

I imagine a phone should be fine, but more complex devices may still not work. I encounter issues with graphics over the various dell docks that can bring down the kernel, for example.

Yukagi wrote:

I just got my XPS15 9550 and just got Arch installed (not even fully setup just yet), and I've been going through my Windows install and noticing some issues. I think most of them have been resolved by installing the Samsung 950 NVMe driver. One big issue I'm having is waking from sleep. I close the display, come back to it a few minutes later, open it up, and it reboots.
Is anyone having this issue? Any ideas on resolving it?
Thank you so much!

I've seen the reboot after sleep issue too. It comes and goes. It's for a different laptop but I found https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108801 with skylake in common. I also recall reading someone mention that fully shutting down temporarily resolves the issue until something in the system gets into a bad state again.

ghedeon · 2016-02-24 17:59:38

q3aiml wrote:

If you want to test I've thrown together a patch that seems to fix the issue for me: http://marc.info/?l=linux-acpi&m=145626748507267&w=2. I believe it also fixes hotplug so you don't have to manually rescan.

Sorry for the noob question, how does one apply such kind of patch? I've checked this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Patching_in_ABS. I guess I have to locate the right package and PKGBUILD file first (after running abs command itself). Can't see any linux-acpi folder, the closest one being community/acpi. Is it the right one? Next would be adding the source array, with the link that you provided, so the diff is going to be downloaded automatically? How "prepare" function should look like? I've checked a few examples, but still need some guidance.

WishCow · 2016-02-28 22:22:56

As of the writing of this post, my experience is that it works out of the box. The only thing I had to fiddle with was:

* Using UEFI, I had to rename the efi file as described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … workaround

Otherwise, grub was dropping me into a recovery shell.

I don't experience the problem with the SD card (I don't have to trigger a rescan, after inserting one), nor the problems with the integrated/discrete card not displaying anything at boot.
I have nvidia, nvidia-utils, bumblebee, bbswitch installed, games like Dota2 run on max @ 1080p. I did not change my kernel parameters at all.
I did spend much time on Secure boot yet (I failed to get it up in 30 minutes, will come back to it later), and I can't comment on the headphones/bluetooth issues. One thing I'm still fiddling with is getting xbacklight to work, I can only change the backlight if I manipulate the device under /sys/acpi/...

Bonus surprise:
It is able to rapid charge through the USB-C slot.

Last edited by WishCow (2016-02-28 22:25:19)

OdinEidolon · 2016-03-03 09:34:31

After a wait of more than 3 months, I got my XPS on monday. Arch is now installed and is running sweetly, it seems that everything is working out of the box, I'm impressed. Still to test some things tho.

Anyone interested in creating a wiki entry for this model? It seems pretty popular, it may be worth it.

OdinEidolon · 2016-03-06 15:05:28

I'm experiencing a weird issue.
If I set the laptop to charge only up to 95% to preserve the battery (this can be done via the BIOS), then at 95% upower reports the laptop to be "on-battery" and "discharging" even though it is not. This causes an unwanted behaviour in the sense that the laptop tries to suspend after a while etc.
In theory upower should report "on-ac" even if the battery charge is not 100% and is not charging.

Can you confirm this on your machines as well?

0X1A · 2016-03-07 16:30:14

Has anyone else been getting abysmal battery times? I've got my brightness around 40% and acpi -b is telling me I have 2:40 at 80% battery remaining. Have the i7, 8GB, FHD variant.

Last edited by 0X1A (2016-03-07 16:30:49)

OdinEidolon · 2016-03-07 16:42:02

0X1A wrote:

Has anyone else been getting abysmal battery times? I've got my brightness around 40% and acpi -b is telling me I have 2:40 at 80% battery remaining. Have the i7, 8GB, FHD variant.

56 or 84Wh?
I also get bad battery runtimes with the 56Wh, but not that bad. It seems that upower sometimes reports anomalous battery drains... at least in my case. Sometimes I manage to get 9W in idle, then sometimes it idles at 14W. Weird.

I still have to do lots of tweaking and testing tho.

lkraav · 2016-03-09 09:56:27

For i915 enable_psr=1 is the only way to get battery life towards decent on Linux. I think kernel 4.5 is going to be flipping it on by default, but I'm running 4.4 with it. An occasional black flicker happens, but overall no large glitches and it's the first time I've ever seen `powertop` report 5W power consumption on this E7440.

OdinEidolon · 2016-03-09 12:15:39

lkraav wrote:

For i915 enable_psr=1 is the only way to get battery life towards decent on Linux. I think kernel 4.5 is going to be flipping it on by default, but I'm running 4.4 with it. An occasional black flicker happens, but overall no large glitches and it's the first time I've ever seen `powertop` report 5W power consumption on this E7440.

I have LOTS of black flickers using that option, it becomes almost unusable. Extremely annoying. I'd say a couple a minute. DO you experience that too?

WishCow · 2016-03-10 15:57:27

With i915.enable_psr=1, brightness at 10% (readable easily), and powertop --auto-tune, powertop reports a power draw of 6W, and estimates >8 hours of uptime. I don't get any screen flicker at all, with enable_psr on, i5 fhd.

I have a problem with shutting down X though (independently of the enable_psr option), it's like 80% of the time X freezes when I exit. Not sure where to look for information, the X logs are so verbose I'm not sure what to look for.

edit:
I also blocked bluetooth with rfkill, I'm never using it.

Last edited by WishCow (2016-03-10 17:33:39)

Arch Linux

#51 2016-02-03 16:28:31

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#52 2016-02-04 10:53:47

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#53 2016-02-08 20:49:57

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#54 2016-02-09 10:12:33

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#55 2016-02-09 20:35:32

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#56 2016-02-10 08:18:38

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#57 2016-02-10 11:08:21

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#58 2016-02-10 19:11:08

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#59 2016-02-12 04:07:08

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#60 2016-02-12 21:44:34

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#61 2016-02-13 09:19:56

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#62 2016-02-13 12:13:59

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#63 2016-02-13 15:00:20

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#64 2016-02-15 22:42:03

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#65 2016-02-22 11:47:27

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#66 2016-02-24 16:03:08

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#67 2016-02-24 17:59:38

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#68 2016-02-28 22:22:56

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#69 2016-03-03 09:34:31

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#70 2016-03-06 15:05:28

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#71 2016-03-07 16:30:14

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#72 2016-03-07 16:42:02

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#73 2016-03-09 09:56:27

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#74 2016-03-09 12:15:39

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

#75 2016-03-10 15:57:27

Re: Arch on New XPS 15(Late 2015)

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