Dell Studio XPS 16

Posted 03-28-2010 at 01:26 AM by custangro
Updated 03-28-2010 at 01:28 AM by custangro

I just recently bought a Dell Studio XPS 16 (3/2010) and wanted to share my WONDERFUL experience

Specs:

Quote:

Dell Studio XPS 16
Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz 6MB of Cache (8 Core)
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4670 1GB Video Card
8GB, DDR3, 1333MHz RAM
256GB Solid State Drive
Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5300 AGN

Distribution: LinuxMint 64 Bit

Quote:

$ cat /etc/linuxmint/info
RELEASE=8
CODENAME=helena
EDITION="x64 Edition"
DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 8 Helena - x64 Edition"
DESKTOP=Gnome
TOOLKIT=GTK
NEW_FEATURES_URL=http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_helena_whatsnew.php
RELEASE_NOTES_URL=http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_helena.php
USER_GUIDE_URL=http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/8/user-guide/english.pdf
GRUB_TITLE=Linux Mint 8 Helena x64

I assume this will also work on Ubuntu 9.10 since LM8 is based on that.

From the Live CD, mostly everything worked "out of the box".

* Integrated video cam works "out of the box"
* Network Card detected/works "out of the box"
* Videocard works "out of the box" using the "Hardware Drivers" icon that appears on the bottom right
* Multimedia buttons (play/rewind/fastforward/vol/wireless) works "out of the box"

After installation There were 4 (known) issues that are easily (ok...only 3 are easily dealt with...) dealt with

1) Sound doesn't work

This is easily fixed by putting the following in your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file

Code:

# Configure the sound card
# Codec: IDT 92HD73C1X5
options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

2) Multitouch (e.g. two finger scroll, etc.) doesn't work. You need to create a script called touchpad.sh and have it execute on login...(script):

Quote:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Use xinput --list-props "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" to extract data
#

# Set multi-touch emulation parameters
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure" 32 10
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Width" 32 8
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Two-Finger Scrolling" 8 1
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling" 8 1 1

# Disable edge scrolling
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Edge Scrolling" 8 0 0 0

# This will make cursor not to jump if you have two fingers on the touchpad and you list one
# (which you usually do after two-finger scrolling)
xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Jumpy Cursor Threshold" 32 110
#
#-EOF-

3) Get OpenVPN working; create the file openvpn.patch:

Quote:

--- nm-openvpn-service.conf.fixed 2009-11-05 16:07:53.764591878 +0200

+++ nm-openvpn-service.conf 2009-11-05 12:24:59.672779358 +0200

@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@

<allow own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

<allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

</policy>

+ <policy user="at_console">

+ <allow own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

+ <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

+ </policy>

<policy context="default">

<deny own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

<deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn"/>

Apply the patch with the patch command (install with apt-get if you don't have it):

Quote:

sudo patch -b /etc/dbus-1/system.d/nm-openvpn-service.conf < openvpn.patch

4) No Turbo Mode

...it doesn't seem like the Intel i7 turbo mode works (where your 1.6 8 core will act like a 2.8 quad core for CPU intensive processes).

All in all this was an AMAZING buy and everything important (besides the sound that was EASILY fixed) works without much hassle

100% recommend it

Dell Studio XPS 16

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