Linux on the Dell Studio XPS 16

Has anyone loaded up Ubuntu or another Linux distro on the new Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop? If so, how is the compatibility?

 

I'd assume it would be pretty good, so long as you made sure to get the intel wireless card

 

My main concern is the ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 graphics card. Does anyone know if this is supported?

 

Good question. I believe it is but the question is how well does it work. The driver for the card, that is.

 

The current version of the binary driver fglrx should work, as the HD3670 is just a higher clocked HD3650. However, you frequently hear about problems with this driver. The open-source driver radeonhd could be an alternative, but I'm not sure about that.

Although I own a T400 with HD3470, I'm not willing to try out fglrx on it - I've hard-switched it to integrated graphics because of better battery life and also hopefully flawless open-source drivers once xf86-video-intel 2.6 is stable.

 

Two laptops I am really interested in have ATI cards in them. The notebook mentioned by the OP and the topic at hand and the Thinkpad T400/500 (maybe even W500).

I like Dell, Lenvovo and even Sony for a Linux laptop but I am not sure about the ATI cards. I have read that the fglrx driver is problematic and that the radeonhd driver works but you lose features. So, it's a question, do you wait and hope that ATI/AMD sorts it out or choose a laptop that offers the hybrid switch so you can choose Intel or go with the discrete Nvidia-based laptop.

 

For Amranu :
I'm installing archlinux on a studio xps 16, and I have a problem :

My intel wireless 5100 card is off and the tactile key does not work. Do you know how I can enable my wifi card ?


Judu

 

On the cedega forums I read more issues with people with ati cards then with nvidia. If you are in the process of buying a laptop and you are serious about Linux I would really recomend a laptop with a nvidia card. You will always see nvidia is always ahead in the drivers over ati.

 

The catalyst drivers are really not good right now. Getting it up could be a hassle, and even then they don't perform well. I had to manually compile a xorg-server with fedora patches to make it smooth. Arch and Gentoo make the patching easy, but I can't say the same for Ubuntu and apt-get. Ubuntu might have a pre-patched xorg-server somewhere though, because I found the fedora patches in the Ubuntu bugtrac.

 

if you're looking for a hassle free distro for current gen xps, studio, and studio xps laptops try the ubuntu variant Mint7. i've had issues with my xps and studio with every distro until i found Linux Mint.

 

I installed 9.04 on my Studio XPS 15 and I got it to work. There is support for the 3670. The only thing that I cannot active is the wireless card!

Does anyone know how to active the Intel WiMax/WiFi Link 5150 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) 1/2 card and connect to wifi?

Other than that, everything is fine.

 

You have to enable the firmware for that wireless card. It should be in the 'non-free' repositories or Universe repositiory. I think it's called something like, 'firmware-iwlwifi.'

 

I installed CrunchBang on my SXPS16 a few weeks ago and all of my hardware is recognized after install with the drivers provided.

 

I'm looking to buy this one and also want to put Linux on it so I'm also a bit concerned about compatibility.

According to this wiki: http://www.linlap.com/wiki/dell+studio+xps+16 this lappy's ATI might have problems with the latest kernels (>2.6.29). Can you guys confirm if that's the case?

Also, I notice the SXPS16 can ship with an HD4670 -- is that better or worse supported with fglrx you think?

 

I installed ubuntu when I 1st got it. Everything works great, I think, at least w/e I tried to use it for.

For the ATI drivers, I read in some thread to dl EnvyNG thru the multiverse or w/e and get the ATI drivers enabled thru there. I did it that way and it works. I have not tried gaming on it, as I dunno what games I can actually install on linux anyways.

 

Many thanks for the reply, JL6speed!

I believe I should be ordering this on Friday, and (despite assurances) fingers crossed about compatibility! I'll try and remember to post here if it works or not.

 

I just got this laptop and I'm back to post for the sake of anyone else who might be considering getting it.

Overall impression is that this laptop works perfectly with Ubuntu 9.04 32-bit.

I've posted a review on UbuntuHCL:
http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/browse/product?id=6714

 

I got Fedora 12 working on my Studio XPS 1647. You can look at what I did here: What to do after installing Fedora 12 in your Dell Studio XPS 1647. The only I can't get working is the bluetooth. Anybody know how to make it work?

 

I just installed Ubuntu 10.10 on XPS 1645. But i couldn't get the wifi to work. I have download the drivers iwlwifi from intellinuxwireless.org (actually this driver is provided with the kernel) but it is in disabled state( rfkill : both software and hardware no). Then i tried the windows drivers using NDISwrapper but to no avail. Any one please help.

 

I had this problem too.

You can fix it with rfkill.

First have a look at the rfkill switch

Now unblock the blocked ones

And now have another look

Now reboot if your wireless didn't burst into life at that point.

That is all I had to do to make the wifi and bluetooth work on my Dell XPS Studio 1645 with Ubuntu Maveric 10.10.

 

Is anyone having trouble with the touchpad on the xps 16 in linux? It works fine in windows but I cant get it to work properly in the 3 distros ive tried (ubuntu,mint,arch). The touchpad will be super sensitive and if I touch the pad with two fingers my cursor jumps all over the screen. Ive tried adjusting the setting to no avail. Any recommendations?

 

you could use GPointingDeviceSettings - GNOME Live! or
Configure-trackpoint to adjust your touchpad settings...