Arch Linux

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 99

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I'm having loads of issues with the wifi card such as low speed and connections stopping. I've tried the patch posted above but didn't make much difference to me. My signal strength isn't great either, but I haven't had nearly the same issues with my previous laptop which used an Intel 8260.

I was thinking of buying the 8265 to replace the Killer 1535, however anyone know if the Intel 9260 will be for sale soon? Other then a product datasheet on Intel's website there doesn't seem to be much info about it.

[gnunn@gnunn-xps15 ~]$ iw dev wlp2s0 link
Connected to ac:22:0b:d0:9b:d4 (on wlp2s0)
	SSID: gexperts
	freq: 5180
	RX: 1599085594 bytes (1298138 packets)
	TX: 154355331 bytes (553874 packets)
	signal: -68 dBm
	tx bitrate: 6.0 MBit/s

	bss flags:	short-slot-time
	dtim period:	3
	beacon int:	100

sbeanie

Member

Registered: 2014-07-01

Posts: 9

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I've created an AUR repository for the linux kernel which compiles with the ACPI Override Possible config flag set and will patch the wireless module.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps-9560/

Install aur packages: "linux-xps-9560 linux-xps-9560-headers linux-xps-9560-docs"

Let me know if there are any issues.

Last edited by sbeanie (2017-06-11 16:43:50)

pl

Member

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 32

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I spent great part of a day trying to figure out why the headphone jack in the TB16 dock didn't work in my laptop, it turns out it was muted, but since you can't select the USB Audio card in alsamixer because it breaks, the solution is to boot into windows, un-mute it (and set the volume to 100% just in case) and go back to Linux, making the TB16 work 100%

I've got the dock at work, but could you check if it's just an alsamixer problem and you could unmute it directly?

amixer -q sset 'XXXX' toggle

Where XXXX is the name reported by amixer. Can't see that either without the dock attached...

Would be a really simple solution for now if it could be done without having to install Windows

dedsm

Member

Registered: 2013-11-16

Posts: 24

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I spent great part of a day trying to figure out why the headphone jack in the TB16 dock didn't work in my laptop, it turns out it was muted, but since you can't select the USB Audio card in alsamixer because it breaks, the solution is to boot into windows, un-mute it (and set the volume to 100% just in case) and go back to Linux, making the TB16 work 100%

I've got the dock at work, but could you check if it's just an alsamixer problem and you could unmute it directly?

amixer -q sset 'XXXX' toggle

Where XXXX is the name reported by amixer. Can't see that either without the dock attached...

Would be a really simple solution for now if it could be done without having to install Windows

nope, nothing trying to control the card I've tried works:

amixer -c 1 sset Master unmute      
amixer: Mixer hw:1 load error: Invalid argument

Interestingly enough, from the pulseaudio volume control I can handle the balance, and mute/unmute, but it seems that if you mute it in Windows it's stored in the hardware, so pulseaudio doesn't detect is muted and unmuting doesn't work.

Probably by playing with the snd-usb-audio kernel module there's a way to make it behave but haven't had time to debug this, and also I have very little idea on how to do it.

simo8989

Member

Registered: 2015-12-22

Posts: 72

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I've created an AUR repository for the linux kernel which compiles with the ACPI Override Possible config flag set and will patch the wireless module.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps-9560/

Install aur packages: "linux-xps-9560 linux-xps-9560-headers linux-xps-9560-docs"

Let me know if there are any issues.

Really appreciated, I just used it to upgrade the kernel to 4.11.3 and it work flawlessly. It would be really nice if you could mantain it over the time.
Thanks

Last edited by simo8989 (2017-06-13 01:02:08)

sbeanie

Member

Registered: 2014-07-01

Posts: 9

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I've created an AUR repository for the linux kernel which compiles with the ACPI Override Possible config flag set and will patch the wireless module.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps-9560/

Install aur packages: "linux-xps-9560 linux-xps-9560-headers linux-xps-9560-docs"

Let me know if there are any issues.

Really appreciated, I just used it to upgrade the kernel to 4.11.3 and it work flawlessly. It would be really nice if you could mantain it over the time.
Thanks

Awesome, glad to hear it works!  Maybe this could be added to the wiki?  I'll maintain it as long as a custom kernel is necessary.

simo8989

Member

Registered: 2015-12-22

Posts: 72

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I've created an AUR repository for the linux kernel which compiles with the ACPI Override Possible config flag set and will patch the wireless module.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps-9560/

Install aur packages: "linux-xps-9560 linux-xps-9560-headers linux-xps-9560-docs"

Let me know if there are any issues.

Really appreciated, I just used it to upgrade the kernel to 4.11.3 and it work flawlessly. It would be really nice if you could mantain it over the time.
Thanks

Awesome, glad to hear it works!  Maybe this could be added to the wiki?  I'll maintain it as long as a custom kernel is necessary.

Yes, it would be nice to add. It will make life easier for many people

simo8989

Member

Registered: 2015-12-22

Posts: 72

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Is anybody using i8kutils to control the fans speed? I found that when using this laptop on AC it almost never stops running the fans even if the temperatures are really low, like 35 C. Also, when the fans are on, they run at a minimum speed that is higher than the minimum speed on windows 10.
If somebody has already tried or can provide useful information on how to better manage the speed of the fans without harming the system it would be really helpful.
Thanks

I tried it, but as well as being difficult to set up it doesn't work so well imo. You can make the fans turn off more often but instead of the stock speeds (0,2400,3270,3900,4100,4800,5100) you can only manually set (0,2400,4800): https://github.com/vitorafsr/i8kutils/issues/5. Also you have to compile smm.c and write something to ensure that that smm command happens before i8kutils sets the fan speed (and after if you want to revert to automatic control)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ … n_and_fan/

My problem was that when the fans do need to go faster than 2400, 4800 is much much louder than 3200 and I prefer to deal with 2400 instead of 0 most of the time. I found that putting a heat conducting pad on the southbridge and SSD made the BIOS fan control much more quiet. The southbridge especially heated up to 70 when I plugged in an external screen.

Thank you, this is interesting.
So you ended up opening your laptop and putting the thermal pad. I was considering also to repaste the cpu, I will probably do both things at the same time. I just would like to know which screwdriver you used for opening the laptop, and if you have some reccomendation on that operation, since I am not an expert on disassembling electronics

hedgepigdaniel

Member

Registered: 2014-01-07

Posts: 42

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Thank you, this is interesting.
So you ended up opening your laptop and putting the thermal pad. I was considering also to repaste the cpu, I will probably do both things at the same time. I just would like to know which screwdriver you used for opening the laptop, and if you have some reccomendation on that operation, since I am not an expert on disassembling electronics

Mostly just take your time, what lots of videos (there are many about repasting cpus etc and a few about the 9560 in particular), and be careful/thorough. You need torx screwdrivers and also a regular phillips head to open the case, you can usually buy them in sets. I think its T6 but not sure.

Be careful particularly with the tabs on the front that make the back plate click on, I pulled the backplate off by pulling the back a long way up before unclicking the front and it broke one of the tabs. It also can take a bit of fiddling to make the backplate click and fit well everywhere. Also if you're repasting be careful not to bend the heatpipes while you're removing/cleaning them, apparently that degrades cooling and happens easily. Can confirm that they feel very soft.

I got that arctic 1.5mm W/mk thermal pad that everyone recommends on reddit and notebookreview forums, stacked 3 of them on the PCH (uncovered shiny die ~1x1cm) and one big one all over the SSD. The idea is to connect them to the backplate to dissipate the heat they produce.

aAlpine

Member

Registered: 2017-02-21

Posts: 4

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE, DO NOT REPLY.

The following task is now closed:

FS#53281 - Changing power state of discrete GPU does not work in Dell XPS 9560 / Precision 5520
User who did this - Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)

Reason for closing: Fixed
Additional comments about closing: on trunk

Looking at the commit history, looks like CONFIG_ACPI_REV_OVERRIDE_POSSIBLE is set for 4.11.5-1 forwards, no more recompiling the kernel!
https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … ages/linux

pl

Member

Registered: 2014-02-10

Posts: 32

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE, DO NOT REPLY.

The following task is now closed:

FS#53281 - Changing power state of discrete GPU does not work in Dell XPS 9560 / Precision 5520
User who did this - Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)

Reason for closing: Fixed
Additional comments about closing: on trunk

Looking at the commit history, looks like CONFIG_ACPI_REV_OVERRIDE_POSSIBLE is set for 4.11.5-1 forwards, no more recompiling the kernel!
https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … ages/linux

Yep, downloaded this yesterday and booted today to test it. Seems to work, great! Makes system maintenance much easier.

However, I have to say that I faced some weird problems while updating. While creating the initramfs the EFI partition reported access going over EOF and setting the partition to read only. Booting did not help and drive is 512MB and only has 20% use. Unmounting it and doing dosfsck revealed nothing, but mounting it after it made the write finally go through.

This makes me slightly worried about the hard drive and if it has something to do with the new kernel's nvme power saving. Anyone else faced something like this?

simo8989

Member

Registered: 2015-12-22

Posts: 72

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Mostly just take your time, what lots of videos (there are many about repasting cpus etc and a few about the 9560 in particular), and be careful/thorough. You need torx screwdrivers and also a regular phillips head to open the case, you can usually buy them in sets. I think its T6 but not sure.

Be careful particularly with the tabs on the front that make the back plate click on, I pulled the backplate off by pulling the back a long way up before unclicking the front and it broke one of the tabs. It also can take a bit of fiddling to make the backplate click and fit well everywhere. Also if you're repasting be careful not to bend the heatpipes while you're removing/cleaning them, apparently that degrades cooling and happens easily. Can confirm that they feel very soft.

I got that arctic 1.5mm W/mk thermal pad that everyone recommends on reddit and notebookreview forums, stacked 3 of them on the PCH (uncovered shiny die ~1x1cm) and one big one all over the SSD. The idea is to connect them to the backplate to dissipate the heat they produce.

Thank you Daniel, those are really useful insights (They might be in the Wiki, maybe just mentioning the "advice" to repaste). I will for sure try it as soon as I can.

Looking at the commit history, looks like CONFIG_ACPI_REV_OVERRIDE_POSSIBLE is set for 4.11.5-1 forwards, no more recompiling the kernel! smile
https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … ages/linux

I have been using the default 4.11.5 for 3 days now, and for me it seems all right, no issues at all and I just use the acpi_rev_override=1 kernel parameter.

simo8989

Member

Registered: 2015-12-22

Posts: 72

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I was trying to do some further debugging of the system by looking at the errors of: journalctl -p 3 -xb

There are various as you can also see, but this one made me suspicious and its relative to the powersaving settings (maybe due to the wiki suggested kernel parameters);

Jun 16 11:54:25 xps15 kernel: Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2c on CPU 0.
Jun 16 11:54:25 xps15 kernel: Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Jun 16 11:54:25 xps15 kernel: Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Anyone knows what is this about?

danielcb

Member

Registered: 2017-06-19

Posts: 2

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hi,
I've a new XPS 9560 and have random hangs while booting. Complete freeze in the boot screen. I have to boot between 1 and 20 times to get a complete boot. The symptoms are more or less the ones described in this thread:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2994

My setup:
* Current kernel 4.11.5-1 (self compiled for the ACPI override settings, but without any further changes,
* i915 power saving settings
* nvidia cpu disabled via bbswitch
* acpi_rev_override set
* pci=nomsi, pci=noaer set
* nouveau blacklisted because of lspci freezes

I've basically everything up and running, but can't get rid of those damn freezes. I tried to blacklist a bunch of modules and tried booting with verbose and systemd debug logs, but the freeze occurs in different locations/after different time spans..

If anyone has any idea, I'll try anything

Thanks

dedsm

Member

Registered: 2013-11-16

Posts: 24

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hi,
I've a new XPS 9560 and have random hangs while booting. Complete freeze in the boot screen. I have to boot between 1 and 20 times to get a complete boot. The symptoms are more or less the ones described in this thread:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2994

My setup:
* Current kernel 4.11.5-1 (self compiled for the ACPI override settings, but without any further changes,
* i915 power saving settings
* nvidia cpu disabled via bbswitch
* acpi_rev_override set
* pci=nomsi, pci=noaer set
* nouveau blacklisted because of lspci freezes

I've basically everything up and running, but can't get rid of those damn freezes. I tried to blacklist a bunch of modules and tried booting with verbose and systemd debug logs, but the freeze occurs in different locations/after different time spans..

If anyone has any idea, I'll try anything

Thanks

Have you tried removing all special kernel command line arguments? you are using a lot of things I don't use, also the linux kernel in the repo already has the ACPI override settings, although in my case I run the lts kernel and have no issues with bbswitch.

dmitriis

Member

Registered: 2017-07-02

Posts: 1

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I'm having loads of issues with the wifi card such as low speed and connections stopping. I've tried the patch posted above but didn't make much difference to me. My signal strength isn't great either, but I haven't had nearly the same issues with my previous laptop which used an Intel 8260.

I was thinking of buying the 8265 to replace the Killer 1535, however anyone know if the Intel 9260 will be for sale soon? Other then a product datasheet on Intel's website there doesn't seem to be much info about it.

[gnunn@gnunn-xps15 ~]$ iw dev wlp2s0 link
Connected to ac:22:0b:d0:9b:d4 (on wlp2s0)
	SSID: gexperts
	freq: 5180
	RX: 1599085594 bytes (1298138 packets)
	TX: 154355331 bytes (553874 packets)
	signal: -68 dBm
	tx bitrate: 6.0 MBit/s

	bss flags:	short-slot-time
	dtim period:	3
	beacon int:	100

I am waiting for 9260 myself. Regarding Killer Wireless, I have created a bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1670041 here but this is a very generic ath10k issue that specifically affects TCP traffic.

I can also confirm kernel traces in various situations and connection loss.

Feel free to subscribe to the launchpad bug or post your feedback there. Also, you can send some feedback to Dell, Rivet Networks or Qualcomm - maybe if there's enough noise they will to allocate some resources to fix this upstream.

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 99

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I am waiting for 9260 myself. Regarding Killer Wireless, I have created a bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1670041 here but this is a very generic ath10k issue that specifically affects TCP traffic.

I can also confirm kernel traces in various situations and connection loss.

Feel free to subscribe to the launchpad bug or post your feedback there. Also, you can send some feedback to Dell, Rivet Networks or Qualcomm - maybe if there's enough noise they will to allocate some resources to fix this upstream.

I went ahead and picked up an 8260 for now from a local shop, it fixed all of my issues with the killer wifi. Once the 9260 comes out I'll upgrade to that but I couldn't wait any longer to get reliable wifi.

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Has anyone found a way to enable powersaving for the touchscreen yet?

I am using an Alienware 13R3, but I believe the touchscreen should be the same, called USB device: Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 (Synpatics). Powertop reports an outrageous 7.59W estimate for its power consumption (out of less than 12 W which I am currently reaching in idle).

In the Tunables section, “Autosuspend for USB devic Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 (SYNAPTICS)” is reported as a fix.

blindevil

Member

Registered: 2011-09-01

Posts: 17

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hi guys,

I spent the entire day trying to install arch linux (I am not a newbie). But, even modifying the BIOS setup, I am not able to see the samsung hd by launching the cfdisk command.
With fdisk -l, I see all the partitions, so I tried also to set up the hd by launching cfdisk /dev/nvme-device, but after having installed the system, I am not able to install the grub.

Can you help me? I put in the BIOS the AHCI flag, UEFI -> legacy (I tried also to left it to  UEFI), I disabled the secure boot and finally, I put fastboot to Thorough.

Thanks.

dedsm

Member

Registered: 2013-11-16

Posts: 24

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hi guys,

I spent the entire day trying to install arch linux (I am not a newbie). But, even modifying the BIOS setup, I am not able to see the samsung hd by launching the cfdisk command.
With fdisk -l, I see all the partitions, so I tried also to set up the hd by launching cfdisk /dev/nvme-device, but after having installed the system, I am not able to install the grub.

Can you help me? I put in the BIOS the AHCI flag, UEFI -> legacy (I tried also to left it to  UEFI), I disabled the secure boot and finally, I put fastboot to Thorough.

Thanks.

have you tried systemd-boot? it should all just work.

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 99

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Just as an FYI, I picked up a new powerline adapter and ran into an issue with the TB16 where it started dropping ethernet packets. Apparently this is a known issue when you have a 1 Gbs connection and is discussed quite extensively here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1667750

I opted to workaround it for now by limiting the speed of the adapter to 100 Mbs, however this is also a patch available that will hopefully make it into the kernel at some point.

Last edited by gnunn (2017-07-15 17:14:31)

Osleg

Member

Registered: 2013-11-13

Posts: 6

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Has anyone found a way to enable powersaving for the touchscreen yet?

I am using an Alienware 13R3, but I believe the touchscreen should be the same, called USB device: Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 (Synpatics). Powertop reports an outrageous 7.59W estimate for its power consumption (out of less than 12 W which I am currently reaching in idle).

In the Tunables section, “Autosuspend for USB devic Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 (SYNAPTICS)” is reported as a fix.

If you installed TLP you can add touchscreen to autosuspend. I updated the wiki page on how to do it.
Though note, if you are frequent user of touchscreen you will face occasional delays in TS responsiveness with this option enabled. On the other hand, if you re not using touchscreen at all you can disable it completely in BIOS settings.

sauron_di

Member

Registered: 2014-05-01

Posts: 18

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

I am getting following in my log. Has anyone got the same ?. However there is a bug reported about this.https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192501

ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.XHC_.RHUB.HS11] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170303/dswload-210)
Aug 07 21:57:09 upuldi-xps kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20170303/psobject-241)
Aug 07 21:57:09 upuldi-xps kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, (SSDT:xh_rvp11) while loading table (20170303/tbxfload-228)

gilbertw1

Member

Registered: 2016-04-27

Posts: 14

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hey, just curious how suspend/resume is working for everyone. My entire setup is running pretty much perfectly except for one thing: While the laptop is suspended (i.e. I close the lid), it loses about 1-2% battery per hour. It typically loses about 10-15% overnight.

Not the end of the world, but I'd prefer it if it didn't do that. Does anyone else see the same thing, or know how to prevent this?

Thanks!

dedsm

Member

Registered: 2013-11-16

Posts: 24

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017)

Hey, just curious how suspend/resume is working for everyone. My entire setup is running pretty much perfectly except for one thing: While the laptop is suspended (i.e. I close the lid), it loses about 1-2% battery per hour. It typically loses about 10-15% overnight.

Not the end of the world, but I'd prefer it if it didn't do that. Does anyone else see the same thing, or know how to prevent this?

Thanks!

Are you sure it's suspending? because of what you say it can be it's just shutting down the screen