Documents

Repair manual: http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/xps-15-9560-laptop_setup%20guide_en-us.pdf

I have:

Product Name: XPS 15 9560
System BIOS: 1.0.3
ePSA: Build 4304.17 UEFI ROM

Initial Setup

Make a USB recovery disk for windows

You need a 16gb flash drive, and it will use the whole drive. Search Windows for “recovery” and it should recommend “Create a recovery drive” or something.

Make a note on the drive, store it for later. Just in case.

Also write the installer image to a USB disk ask described in the instructions: https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#sec-uefi-installation

Plug in your USB disk before rebooting to the BIOS.

Reboot to the BIOS

Pressing F2 when the DELL logo appears on the screen (repair manual, page 96) takes you to the BIOS.

Pressing F2 before the DELL logo appears enters you in to a Diagnostic Boot.

Note: You don’t need to press “Fn” with “F2” to enter setup.

You can navigate the BIOS with the arrow keys, or mouse, or touch screen.

Disable Secure Boot

Navigate to Secure boot -> Secure Boot Enable, select Disabled.

In General -> Boot Sequence, you should see in the top right “Windows Boot Manager” and an entry for your USB drive, “UEFI: …”. Select the Windows Boot Manager by tapping on it or with the mouse, then using the arrow icons to right move it to the bottom of the priority list.

When I did this, I also inserted my Windows Recovery USB and made it the highest priority. This way, I can check the disk is good, reboot, unplug, and move on to the NixOS without going back in to the BIOS.

This seemed to only make the change for a single boot. I also always saved these as User Custom Settings or whatever the option is. I’m not sure what that means, but I did it.

Disable RAID mode

System Configuration -> SATA Operation -> Select AHCI.

In RAID mode, Linux doesn’t seem to pick them up. I’m not sure why it is in RAID mode to begin with. If you want to dig in to this, the hardware reported here as Intel 82801 SATA in RAID mode.

Optional: Enable USB Wake Support

Power Management -> USB Wake Support -> Enable USB Wake Support

Interesting Features

• System Configuration -> USB PowerShare
• Security -> Various password settings (including Strong Password and Password Bypass)
• Security -> TPM 2.0 Security
• Intel Software Guard Extensions
• C-States Control?
• Turboboost?
• MEBx Hotkey

According to Security -> OROM Keyboard Access, you can press:

• Ctrl-1 to access Intel RAID config
• Crll-P/F12 to access Intel Management Engine BIOS Extension

Reboot in to the NixOS Installer

I reboot and there it is, loaded, the beautiful (lol) systemd-boot. The text is very small. God help our eyes.

At the boot menu, I selected the default, “NixOS Live CD”. It worked perfectly. I also tried the “NixOS Live CD (with nomodeset)” and it seemed to work just the same. I continued on with “NixOS Live CD”.

Resolution….

I tried pressing e to edit boot options and set the screen to a lower resolution with vga and video, but none of them worked. One point for debugging is I see in the journal:

fb0: EFI VGA frame buffer device

and if I looked at /sys/class/graphics/fb0/modes I only saw one mode:

3840x2160p-87

Windows reports a resolution of 3840x2160, but scaled 250%.

After you boot, you can type setfont latarcyrheb-sun32 and get a slightly larger font. (Found: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI#Linux_console)

Wifi

Works out of the box! Yay! Uses an Atheros driver (model QCA6174)

can be setup with:

wpa_supplicant -D nl80211,ext -i wlp2s0 -c <(wpa_passphrase YourWififNetwork "YourWifiPassword")

After connecting, Fn-Alt-F2 to change to TTY2 for the rest of the work. (Fix the font there, too.)

This was extremely helpful: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/13342#issuecomment-301451545

Disks

If you don’t have devices at /dev/nvme_* you forgot to turn off RAID mode, or you’re on your own…

You’ll want to use gdisk on /dev/nvme0n1, I found this via lsblk, as according to the UEFI instructions in the manual.

I then deleted partitions 2 through 6, leaving only 500M EFI system partition, and created partitions so it looked like:

Note I use 8300 as the code because they’re all encrypted. Calling the swap partition swap, systemd will try to automatically use it.

The cryptsetup luks key partition is 3 MiB so that it can fit the default 2 MiB LUKS header as well as the key.

Then:

# Create an encrypted disk to hold our key, the key to this drive
# is what you'll type in to unlock the rest of your drives... so,
# remember it:
$ cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p2
$ cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p2 cryptkey

# Fill our key disk with random data, wihch will be our key:
$ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/mapper/cryptkey bs=1024 count=14000

# Use the encrypted key to create our encrypted swap:
$ cryptsetup luksFormat --key-file=/dev/mapper/cryptkey /dev/nvme0n1p3

# Create an encrypted root with a key you can remember.
$ cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p4
# Now add the cryptkey as a decryption key to the root partition, this
# way you can only decrypt the cryptkey on startup, and use the
# cryptkey to decrypt the root.
#
# The first human-rememberable key we added is just in case.
$ cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/nvme0n1p4 /dev/mapper/cryptkey

# Now we open the swap and the root and make some filesystems.
$ cryptsetup luksOpen --key-file=/dev/mapper/cryptkey /dev/nvme0n1p3 cryptswap
$ mkswap /dev/mapper/cryptswap

$ cryptsetup luksOpen --key-file=/dev/mapper/cryptkey /dev/nvme0n1p4 cryptroot
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/cryptroot

# and rebuild the boot partition:
$ mkfs.vfat /dev/nvme0n1p1

Then for a not fun bit, matching entries in /dev/disk/by-uuid/ to the partitions we want to mount where. Running ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ shows which devices have which UUIDs. To determine what dm-1 and dm2, I ran ls -la /dev/mapper:

Note I do have a dm-0 for cryptkey, but no UUID but we won’t need it. I substituted the actual hash with A s B s C s D s E s and F s in order to make the mount commands easier.

# Enable swap using the decrypted cryptswap:
$ swapon /dev/disk/by-uuid/EEEEEEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEE

# Mount the decrypted cryptroot to /mnt
$ mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF /mnt

# Setup and mount the boot partition
$ mkdir /mnt/boot
$ mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/AAAA-AAAA /mnt/boot

Initial Configuration

Run nixos-generate-config --root /mnt

hardware-configuration.nix changes

I had to edit the hardware-configuration.nix to setup the luks configuration. I did this with nix-shell -p emacs, deleted the boot.initrd.luks.devices line, and added:

{
  # !!! cryptkey must be done first, and the list seems to be
  # alphabetically sorted, so take care that cryptroot / cryptswap,
  # whatever you name them, come after cryptkey.
  boot.initrd.luks.devices = {
    cryptkey = {
      device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/BBBBBBBB-BBBB-BBBB-BBBB-BBBBBBBBBBBB";
    };

    cryptroot = {
      device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/DDDDDDDD-DDDD-DDDD-DDDD-DDDDDDDDDDDD";
      keyFile = "/dev/mapper/cryptkey";
    };

    cryptswap = {
      device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/CCCCCCCC-CCCC-CCCC-CCCC-CCCCCCCCCCCC";
      keyFile = "/dev/mapper/cryptkey";
    };
  };
}

It should already be correct, but check that:

1. swapDevices refers to /dev/disk/by-uuid/EEEEEEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEE
2. fileSystems."/boot".device refers to /dev/disk/by-uuid/AAAA-AAAA
3. fileSystems."/".device refers to /dev/disk/by-uuid/FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF

configuration.nix changes

The generated configuration.nix seemed correct, too, but I made some changes:

{
  # I set the boot.kernelPackages to linuxPackages_latest just out of
  # habit, since I'm a power-user I'd rather detect problems before
  # other users.
  boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest;

  # I like networkmanager over wpa_supplicant, and with networkmanager
  # you don't need to enable networking.wireless. You _do_ need to
  # enable one of them, or you'll not have wifi when you boot back up.
  networking.networkmanager.enable = true;

  i18n.consoleFont = "latarcyrheb-sun32";

  # See the cpufreq section below
  powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave";

  services.xserver = {
    enable = true;
    # Note I didn't set autorun to be true until I figured out the
    # monitorSection / went through the "X Server Resolution" process
    # below, because the xserver display was much too small. I set it
    # to true after I had sorted out the DPI.
    autorun = true;

    # libinput performs better for me than synaptics:
    libinput.enable = true;

    # Just my personal preference:
    displayManager.lightdm.enable = true;
    windowManager.i3.enable = true;

    monitorSection = ''
      DisplaySize 406 228
    '';
  };
}

I did not set users.mutableUsers to false yet, or create my own user. I usually do this once I get to a GUI so I can set hashedPassword.

X Server Resolution

Note that when testing this, I would:

1. run systemctl start display-manager to start it
2. Press escape to exit the i3 configurator
3. press Alt-Enter to get a terminal
4. run systemctl stop display-manager to stop X
5. type Fn-Alt-F1 to get back to my terminal

xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution (installed with nix-shell -p xorg.xdpyinfo) revealed:

screen #0:
 dimensions:  3840x2160 pixels (1016x571 millimeters)
 resolution:  96x96 dots per inch

Successfully raised the resolution:

I took the 1016x571 and divided by 2.5, based on the 250% scaling I saw in the Windows settings, and using https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#Display_size_and_DPI, came up with:

{
  services.xserver.monitorSection = ''
    DisplaySize 406 228
  '';
}

however when I started a terminal in i3, it was still tiny. Adding terminator to systemPackages seemed to scale correctly. Note: on my other High-DPI computer, I never fixed xterm and it never seemed to matter.

Failed to fix the resolution:

{
  services.xserver.screenSection = ''
    Option "DPI" "240 x 240"
  '';
}

Fixed the resolution, but was super fuzzy:

On startup, running xrandr --output eDP1 --scale 0.4x0.4 (0.4 being 1 divided by 2.5)

Install…

NOTE: If you use nix-shell you must not run nixos-install inside the nix-shell!

I ran nixos-install, rebooted, and it worked like a charm.

Boots fine!

Hardware Check

Battery sensor worked out of the box

Webcam looks up your nose, but worked fine out of the box.

Backlight (intel) works out of the box

$ cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness
187

$ echo "100" | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

$ nix-shell -p xorg.xbacklight --run "xbacklight -set 50"

See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backlight

Audio works out of the box, including headphone switching

Volume control: alsamixer works out of the box, using Master / Headphone / Speaker mixers.

Suspend

systemctl suspend suspects correctly, and pressing the mouse button resumes correctly.

Hibernate

systemctl hibernate great if you have swap.

Trackpad

Using services.xserver.libinput.enable = true; fixes all these problems, and the touch screen continue to work. Right click by clicking in the bottom right corner.

Notes from before:

It works, but it seems to be in absolute positioning mode, and right click seems to not work.

psmouse serio1: synaptics: device claims to have extended capability 0x0c, but I'm not able to read it.
psmouse serio1: synaptics: Unable to initialize device.

Later:

psmouse serio1: Failed to enable mouse on isa0060/serio1

=ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored=

Not an issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/175793/what-does-the-following-dmesg-output-means

cpupower

cpupower: Setting cpu: 0
cpupower: Error setting new values.

Add: powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "powersave"; to your configuration. See: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/9611

BIOS Upgrades Without Windows

1. Make sure you’re on AC power. NOT the optional battery pack! It will not boot to USB on the battery pack.
2. nix-shell -p gparted -p unetbootin
3. run sudo gparted a format your USB disk to have one partition, FAT32, with the boot flag. After, right click and Format the partition as fat32.
4. Mount your USB disk (mine was at /dev/sda1) to /mnt
5. Run sudo unetbootin
6. Select FreeDOS 1.0 from the menu
7. Make sure the USB Drive Type is selected, and select the USB drive (again, mine was /dev/sda1) Then press OK
8. Download your BIOS update from Dell, and copy it to /mnt/.
9. Reboot to the BIOS setup
10. under Boot Options change UEFI to Legacy and make sure the boot devices above included at least USB.
11. Prepare to stick around for the next 4 steps! Don’t look away! FreeDOS’s default option is install to the hard disk! It may be fine, but I’ve never tried it.
12. Save and quit with the USB device plugged in.
13. Select the only boot option
14. Then select the “safe mode” option that says it won’t load drivers.
15. Type C:<enter> then dir<enter> and type XPS<tab> to auto-select the XPS BIOS update and press Enter.
16. The update will prompt for y a few times. Once it is done, enter the BIOS again.
17. Verify the update took place
18. Disable the legacy boot, switching back to UEFI.

Things to look in to…

Touch screen

• Touch screen works out of the box (WHAT!)
• doesn’t scroll?
• any touch is a click

In /proc/bus/input/devices the touchscreen is labeled:

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=04f3 Product=24a0 Version=0110
N: Name="ELAN Touchscreen"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-9/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-9/1-9:1.0/0003:04F3:24A0.0001/input/input11
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event6 mouse0
B: PROP=2
B: EV=2
B: KEY=400 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=3273800000000003 (may be wrong number of 0's?)

Running cat /dev/input/event6 revealed lots of output when I touched the screen.

Under xinput it is id=12. xinput list-props 12 revealed more information.

See:

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchscreen
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Libinput
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/863563/libinput-and-touchscreen-support

VGA Switcheroo

Unable to enable Bumblebee, because I’m using the latest linux kernel and the nvidia driver doesn’t compile with it yet.

VGA Switcheroo: detected Optimus DSM method \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP handle
nouveau: detected PR support, will not use DSM
nouveau: 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
nouveau: 0000:01:00.0: unknown chipset (137000a1)
nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -12

Wifi

athk10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for athk10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
athk10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for athk10k/cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
athk10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
athk10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-5.bin': -2

Warnings pre crypt-setup

ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCIO.XHC_.RHUB.HS11] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/dswload-210)
ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20160831/psobject-227)
ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, (SSDT:xh_rvp11) while loading table (20160831/tbxfload-228)
ACPI Error: 1 table load failures, 10 successful (20160831/tbxfload-246)
DMAR: DRHD: handling fault status reg 2
DMAR: [INTR-REMAP] Request device [f0:1f.0] fault index 2010 [fault reason 34] Present field in the IRTE entry is clear

mce hardware error

mce_notify_irq: 1 callbacks supressed
mce: [Hardware Error]: machine check events logged

Some reports of these here: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/4613/t/19997490

Using mcelog (nix-shell -p mcelog) it shows some output, but requires an update. Our mcelog is out of date. I updated it in unstable, and created an mcelog service. Nothing too scary in the log, not sure what it is.

See: [https://github.com/andikleen/mcelog/blob/master/mcelog.service](https://github.com/andikleen/mcelog/blob/master/mcelog.service)

int3403 thermal: probe of INT3403:06 failed with error -22

Other Notes

• In the console, closing the lid causes it to go to sleep in some fashion, but opening the lid again doesn’t get the screen back.
• In X with no extra configuration, closing the lid and opening it sleeps and then restores the display correctly.

Non-Problems

What are “Dell DMI hotkeys”?

output after entering the crypt password