Hi all,

I'm getting a new Dell laptop, and of course the first order of business with this new laptop will be to dual boot (err triple boot) openSUSE and Ubuntu/Mint along with Windows 10.

I haven't gotten a new computer in 5 years or so, back in the pre-Secure Boot days of yore.

For Dell personal quality (Inspiron) Laptops and AMD chipsets, are they any gotchas, wiley Wi-Fi cards, UEFI forcefeedings, or abhorrently unsupported models/designs you can forewarn me about?

Hi.

The l-o-n-g-e-r you look -- the better the buy*... reviews and by how many people (more is better) can lead to some good top picks; like distros that will run on most HW.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

This Thinkpad was refurbished and cheep so I got an SSD and 9 cell battery. Some are used by more developers than others I'd guess and could have more open designs?

I would like:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena
or:
https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-x200/

Have fun!

Gotchas on my Windows 10 Laptop.

Only one. I had to disable Hibernation in Windows 10 so my Linux file manager could access Windows files.
Grub2 played nice on MBR though so that was a plus.
I run it in Legacy mode in bios (UEFI)
Mine is probably older than your Dell by a few years.

1 members found this post helpful.

It might be a good idea to do some reading on dual-booting using uefi.
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/201...alongside.html

AMD should work well (As for Intel+Nvidia, google up Optimus Linux). As a general rule make sure you have new kernels/mesa/xorg (and LLVM in case of radeon OSS drivers) since the hardware is probably recent too.
Keep in mind that most laptops nowadays have 2 video cards - AMD laptops have AMD IGD+AMD DIS, Intel laptops have Intel IGD+Nvidia DIS or Intel IGD+AMD DIS. AMD IGD+AMD DIS and Intel IGD+AMD DIS usually work well on Linux with the built in RECENT open source drivers without much configuration (besides installing a firmware package), but Intel IGD+Nvidia DIS is the infamous Optimus system (Nvidia by itself works really well on Linux if its the ONLY card) that doesnt work consistently well unless you have a BIOS option to force only one of the cards.

Another thing is to check the BIOS/UEFI options - some laptops have very few configurable options. Most should permit legacy boot (AFAIK it is in fact included in the secure boot spec), but manufacturers sometimes cut corners, especially for the "consumer" laptops.

1 members found this post helpful.

I figured that I'd have to just use a recent distro for newer hardware and that I should *double* check to make sure Legacy Boot is an option. I'm leaning on the AMD Inspiron 15" 3000 Series, and it sounds like that I won't have too many issues - I'll of course avoid Nvidia like the plague.

Thanks, and feel free to add anything more if you think it'd help.

Hello,

I actually dual boot Windows 10 and Slackware 64-bit on an HP Pavilion with an Intel i5 5th generation with HD Graphics 5500. I bought the laptop November last year.

The UEFI didn't pose any problem. It is preferable to shrink the Windows partition from inside the Windows itself using Disk Manager. If you can't shrink it enough, you might use gParted, but then you will need to repair the Windows using a Windows repair disk, I think.

I ran into a couple of issues regarding display driver. To solve that I simply installed a new kernel and upgraded the X video drivers (xf86-video-...). I also had to upgrade the xf86-input-... drivers for the touchpad to work properly.

Wise decision of yours to stay away from Nvidia.

Check these out for the UEFI:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/201...alongside.html

All the best.

1 members found this post helpful.

I don't know if I'd stay away from nVidia though I'd not pay extra for it. It takes a bit of extra work to get Bumblebee up and running but not to much..

I also wouldn't use any non-Latitude or HP Probook I like my Intel NIC's fighting networks suck

Well i tried bumblebee and co on some Latitudes (E6520/E6530) but it didnt work consistently so id say stay clear of Optimus. These laptops had Optimus disable options that enabled only the nvidia card though but that drained the battery fast and made them hot (with the nvidia driver).
Some recent Optimus Lenovos i saw had optimus-disable options in the BIOS that enabled only the Intel card.

Thanks again.

I probably won't mess with shrinking the 10 partition, as I'll probably wipe over the OEM crapware chocked 10 install with a clean, Digital River Windows 10, already installed to a partition small enough to leave plenty of room for my Linux shaninigans.

I have really no need to anything beyond basic Intel or AMD graphics cards; so staying out of Nvidia's way is ok for me. Plus I feel much the same way about them as Torvalds famously does on YouTube

Mines a wee bit older it's a 6420 and I've never had issues. If gnome was as stable as Bumblebee I'd be a happy camper

I tried mate and unity, both had flickering on external monitors connected via HDMI, and random freezes. As these laptops were used in production we really didnt need headaches so we just disabled Optimus (luckily they are not used on battery much). But the new models such as the XPS does not have this option anymore.
Neither has the Intel+Ati Dell Latitude 6540 and Precision 3510 but those work well on Linux.