
How to Install Ubuntu Linux on your Dell PC - agonzalezro
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN151664/en
======
Adaptive
I'm writing this on the first Dell I've owned since... 1999: a new "Developer
Edition" XPS-13 2015 (FHD i5 variant for max power savings, which are pretty
incredible).

This is close the best linux laptop I've used, including various my various
thinkpads and macbooks.

A couple years ago I met an enthusiastic Barton George showing off the first
gen XPS 13 at the ubuntu dev conference. It was sexy but flawed. I wasn't
interested in the machine, but I thought Barton was a guy to watch. His
project Sputnik group is the _only_ reason I have kept Dell on my radar at
all.

They could be doing a lot in a better way: the customer outreach, ordering
process, out of box experience: all include some (at times _very_ ) rough
edges.

Linux on the desktop is happening and, as I've said for a long time, it's
happening where it needs to: with developers first. I'm not super excited with
their Ubuntu centric strategy, but it's minimal effort to get Arch up and
running on the Dell dev units. If anyone is going this route I'm maintaining a
kernel for the XPS 13 (2015) here: [https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-
xps13-alt/](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-xps13-alt/)

~~~
yongelee
I have an XPS 13 2015 version but it came with Windows 8. I want to try out
ubuntu on it to see if it'll run better. Is yours touch screen? If so, how is
it working?

Also is there a difference between the windows xps 13 and the developers
edition? I heard the developers edition is cheaper, but with less powerful
hardware?

~~~
Adaptive
I didn't get the touchscreen version intentionally. That's not to say that
it's better with/without touchscreen. I just didn't want it, and wanted a
lower resolution FHD screen for power savings. I know that gnome has basic
support for touchscreens and just switched away from using a Surface Pro 3
with Gnome. It was _just_ ok. I'd say you'll be fine since you've got a
keyboard and trackpad as solid backup for the touchscreen.

There is no hardware difference to the windows/linux machines... the hardware
on the dev units isn't any less or more powerful. You will, however, want to
make sure your BIOS is upgraded to the current rev (A04 as of this posting).
[http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...](http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=133FN)

~~~
ironsides
XPS13 windows 8 with the QHD/ultra high res screen here -- it has issues
scaling windows apps -- Adobe Photoshop CC included. The apps imho are the
weak link as not all have been designed for the higher resolution display.

Sure, this will change in time for both OS but its quite annoying on a
productivity machine.

Edit: With that said, the XPS13 with 256gb ssd, touch screen and 8gigs of ram
is a very smooth running machine. Very happy with my purchase.

------
theyCallMeSwift
Most people don't know this, but Dell actually has an amazing line of
computers that come with Ubuntu on them already. Best part - there's a team of
people who make sure there's 100% driver support for everything on the
computer.

Check it out: [https://sputnik.github.io/](https://sputnik.github.io/)

~~~
otar
I'm very happy that I bought Dell XPS 13 (aka Sputnik 3) instead of MacBook
Air.

There were some problems regarding driver support thought... but in the latest
Ubuntu 15.04 most of them, maybe even all of them, are gone.

I've been using it for almost 1.5 years and can't recommend it higher.

~~~
aroman
How's the battery life? Durability? Does the computer sleep/wake up when
opening/closing the lid (as expected)?

~~~
otar
Note: I have a late 2013 edition, Sputnik 3, there's a newer - 2015 edition
which has a much better battery life from what I've read.

On average lasts ~7 hours, less if you're watching a video.

Yes, sleep/wake up is working as expected.

I myself was very impressed when I got the laptop, I didn't expect such
beautiful and fine tuned laptop from Dell.

~~~
kogepathic
I have a Dell E6320 (Core i3-2310M) from 2011 that I'm running Arch on with a
6 cell battery. The laptop can easily go for 6 hours with WiFi on if you're
just editing code or managing some servers via SSH.

Upgraded to 16GB of RAM and an SSD. The only thing I wish was that the screen
was higher resolution than 1366x768, but otherwise it's absolutely fantastic
for Linux. The dock works so seamlessly it's amazing.

------
aedocw
I know this is a Dell thread but for those interested in running Linux on a
sweet ultrabook, check out the Asus UX305. I've been running Ubuntu 15.04 on
it and it works beautifully, no special instructions required. Also only $800
- probably one of the best deals going in linux laptops these days.

~~~
mikekchar
Since you started the "not-a-dell" thread, I'll chime in. I picked up a
Toshiba Dynabook KIRA V63, which is _very_ similar to the Dell XPS 13 in
specs. I'm quite happy with it. It doesn't seem to have the problems described
for the XPS and I haven't needed a custom kernel. When it first came out the
track pad was virtually unusable, but a kernel update a month or so ago seems
to have fixed it.

Anyway, this is a Japanese model, so I'm not sure if/when it will be available
in other places in the world. More generally, the Broadwell 5500 i5 is an
amazing processor. It is very low power and is surprisingly fast. I thought I
would be making tradeoffs for power/battery life, but not so. I have been
using this as my main dev box since March (granted, I'm doing web development,
so my compile chain is rather forgiving ;-) ).

I don't get anywhere near the rated battery life, but I can easily hit 6-7
hours of real work time (including wifi) without having to plug in. Since I am
often working in strange places this is huge for me.

Anyway, the company I'm working for at the moment has a Dell contract and I've
been encouraging them to look at the XPS 13 for remote people.

------
justcommenting
Not an endorsement of Dell or Ubuntu, but Dell appears to offer 8 (mostly
lower-end) laptop models with Ubuntu pre-installed:
[https://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops](https://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops)

------
Difwif
Still waiting for Dell to fully support Ubuntu in their 2015 XPS 13 model. I
made the switch from a Thinkpad after Lenovo burned me too many times. While
the keyboard isn't quite as excellent it's still top notch and it's one of the
best laptops I've ever owned.

That being said getting everything working in Ubuntu has been a bit of a
fiasco [1]. Luckily after some firmware upgrades and the new kernel in 15.04,
a lot of issues have been fixed, but the laptop still does strange things
waking up from sleep. The worst issue though is that audio still seems to not
work in a dual boot configuration. The laptop can't produce sound from the
speakers or headphone jack in both Windows and Ubuntu when booting between the
two OS's. It seems the hardware gets put in a strange state by either OS and
it takes two full reboots after switching from Windows<->Ubuntu to get the
audio device to be recognized.

Also HDPI support in Ubuntu is still a little lacking so the beautiful higher-
than-retina display sometimes makes things absurdly small. I've seen a lot of
progress on this front though.

I really love this device but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the
excellent out of the box hardware support for Thinkpads in Ubuntu.

[1] - [https://major.io/2015/02/03/linux-support-dell-
xps-13-9343-2...](https://major.io/2015/02/03/linux-support-dell-
xps-13-9343-2015-model/)

~~~
vinay427
How did Lenovo burn you? Even minimal distros such as Arch with various
DEs/WMs work great out of the box on my T450s, because all of the hardware is
supported in the kernel. Reading the 2015 XPS 13 Ubuntu guide made it seem
like a painful process that involved downloading drivers, etc.

~~~
smhg
3 things I can think of straight away:

\- WiFi-card whitelist

\- Function-keys touch strip

\- Fn and Ctrl keys switch

~~~
stonogo

      - WiFi-card whitelist
    

gone in the [x,t][2,4,5]50 series

    
    
      - Function-keys touch strip
    

existed on one model for one revision, is now gone

    
    
      - Fn and Ctrl keys switch
    

this layout is correct and is mandated in the first chapter of the Bible

~~~
mpnordland
If you mean that from the left edge of the keyboard you have Fn and then Ctrl,
then yes it's correct, however I checked my Bible and (un)fortunately God
decided that the order of keyboard keys just wasn't worth divine inspiration.

------
bdcravens
I just installed 14.04 on an 3-4 year old Inspiron. Haven't really pushed it,
but it seems to have no issues, and I didn't have to do anything for
everything to work; the vanilla install seemed fine.

~~~
bwldrbst
I've been running Ubuntu on an Inspiron 17R SE since 2012. With the exception
of the multi-touch touchpad pretty much everything worked fine out of the box.

------
sirsar
How official are publications in Dell's "Knowledge Base"? This one looks like
it was written by a non-native English speaker, and doesn't seem to provide
much Dell-specific information.

~~~
agonzalezro
As far as I know they are directly coming from Dell. That's the "breaking"
part of this manual, that a retailer as big as them are trying to explain how
to get rid of Windows and just install a Linux distro.

~~~
dogma1138
They have been selling Ubuntu on laptops for years now, you used to be able to
get it on low end laptops like the vostro now days it seems its reserved for
developer editions of their xps line only.

~~~
gtk40
They have some cheaper ones too, such as this:
[http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3551-laptop-
ubuntu/pd?r...](http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3551-laptop-
ubuntu/pd?ref=PD_Family) (also a 14" for cheaper)

I have a Dell Mini 9 that I got for >$200 years (2009?) that came with Ubuntu
that I still use regularly. Now it's running Puppy Linux (Slackware based)
though.

------
BorisMelnik
Since they are providing installation instructions on their website, does this
mean they will also do phone / email support for Linux related installation
issues?

~~~
SG-
Right at #1:

"Note: If you install an operating system other than the one that shipped with
your system, then you do so at your own risk. Dell can't certify that the
hardware will be compatible and we may not be able to support the system in
that configuration."

~~~
truncate
I just bought refurbished XPS 13 with Windows because I wanted to save some
money. Ubuntu wont work out of the box. There are whole bunch of issues that
I'm still trying to resolve. So even if hardware is compatible, you may have
hard time. I think it will take some time, because everything gets smooth.
(afaik, hardware wise just wifi card is different)

~~~
pascalo
try using a newer kernel, fixed a lot of issues for my xps13 (not the latest
revision).

[http://askubuntu.com/questions/119080/how-to-update-
kernel-t...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/119080/how-to-update-kernel-to-
the-latest-mainline-version-without-any-distro-upgrade/142000#142000)

~~~
truncate
Thanks. There seems to be another issue of broadcom wifi being active when
suspending hence draining all the battery. Have to figure workaround for that
as well.

------
advancingu
I've set up a public issue tracker on Github for the XPS 13 (2015) developer
edition:
[https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues](https://github.com/advancingu/XPS13Linux/issues)

It should contain descriptions and some workaround for the most obvious issues
that currently exist for running Linux on these machines.

------
leommoore
Kudo's to Dell for acknowledging that the world is more than just Windows. I'm
the proud owner of a 1st Gen XPS 13 Developer Edition. It's a truly beautiful
product and a joy to use (apart from some Wifi issues)

------
chdir
There's lots of love for XPS 13 on this thread. I'm considering a switch from
Thinkpad+Asus to something different. Is the "XPS 15" just as good? (Although
it looks pricey).

------
gargarplex
What's the best way to get an Ubuntu/Debian-compatible linux distro on my Mac
laptop without destroying my data? The slowness of Yosemite seriously amps my
cortisol.

~~~
reddotX
if you have an older mac just install Ubuntu Mate
[http://i.imgur.com/HB2meal.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/HB2meal.jpg)

[https://ubuntu-mate.org/](https://ubuntu-mate.org/)

~~~
CSDude
Like good old Gnome 2, Mate DE is very nice if you do not want buttons that
takes 10% of the screen.

------
reddotX
the year of th..

yeah.. i'll see myself out

~~~
staunch
The year of the Linux desktop was brought about by Android, at a growth rate
and scale far beyond what Linux any enthusiast dreamed about 15+ years ago.
And it came at Microsoft's expense, which means prophecy has been fulfilled
and the world righted.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents#Documents_I...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents#Documents_I_and_II)

~~~
undertow

      The year of the Linux desktop was brought about by Android.
    

Oh, right. Ubuntu had nothing to do with it. Definitely not back in April of
2008, with LTS 8.04. No way. It was Android. The mobile operating system
intended for smart phones was what brought the Linux desktop to everyone.

~~~
staunch
There are 1+ billion Android users. Are there even 1 million Ubuntu desktop
users? I'm one of them.

~~~
phaemon
Yes, from wikipedia: In 2015, Canonical's Ubuntu Insights page stated "Ubuntu
now has over 40 million desktop users and counting"

Probably based on the number of hits to the repositories (so it would
obviously be a minimum number).

~~~
giovannibajo1
Not to be picky, but that number includes servers too, where it is widely
used.

~~~
phaemon
Since they specifically say Desktop, I'm guessing they're measuring updates to
stuff that's only on the Desktop (say, Unity or something).

~~~
staunch
Without disclosing how they came to that number it's just marketing puffery. I
doubt it would hold up to scrutiny. But even 4 million active Ubuntu desktop
users would be impressive.

~~~
phaemon
The blog entry at:

[http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/42464.html](http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/42464.html)

estimated (in 2009) the number of Fedora users at around 16 million. I think
Ubuntu has more users than Fedora had then.

