DELL XPS 9560 - The Perfect Linux Laptop?: The Full List of Changes

This document contains all of the changes I made to get my Dell XPS 9560 looking like the one in my YouTube video of the same name.  It should really be thought of as a companion to that video.

The following things were changed from the vanilla 
Fedora 25/26 installation.

Problems with Wayland and Nouveau Drivers


There are some known issues with Nouveau (the Open Source nVidia drivers) and the Wayland display protocol.  I've documented below, the changes which worked for me, but you may want to install the proprietary nVidia Linux drivers instead. (This procedure is documented on this site; https://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2015/fedora-nvidia-guide/) 


Failing that, if you want to stick with Nouveau, complete the following changes to Grub...

Issue: When logging on, the machine freezes and you have to hold the power button down to turn off and then turn it on again.

Resolution: To resolve this, you must tell the nVidia chipset that you are some strange breed of Windows by adding;

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Windows 2009

to the following line in the grub set up file;

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

so it looks like;

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/swap rhgb quiet acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Windows 2009'

Then rebuild the grub config using;

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Issue: Running lspci freezes the machine and you have to hold the power button down to turn off and then turn it on again.

Resolution: Add nouveau.noaccel=1 to the following line in the grub set up file;
sudo vim /etc/default/grub

so it looks like;

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/swap rhgb quiet nouveau.noaccel=1 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Windows 2009"

Then rebuild the grub config using;
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Issue: After upgrading from Fedora 26 to Fedora 27, I found I had to add another couple of switches to the grub config... perhaps I should have added these from the start, because it does seem alot smoother and quicker generally... although it hasn't helped with Battery life :-(

Resolution: Add  nouveau.runpm=0 nouveau.modset=0 to the following line in the grub set up file;
sudo vim /etc/default/grub

so it looks like;

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/swap rhgb quiet nouveau.noaccel=1  nouveau.runpm=0 nouveau.modset=0  rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Windows 2009"

Then rebuild the grub config using;
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

If all of that doesn't work, you can also alter the Brightness manually e.g.

echo 50 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness 
echo 60 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness 
echo 80 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness 

etc.

Problems with Changing Brightness using Function Keys

Issue: Sometime after upgrading from 25 to 26, the Brightness keys (F11 and F12) stopped working, although the animation still appears on screen. Most advice that I've read suggests that adding acpi_backlight=vendor to grub will work, It didn't work for me, but it may work for you.


Possible Resolution:
dnf install xbacklight
 
sudo vim /etc/default/grub 
 
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora_xps15/swap rhgb quiet nouveau.noaccel=1  nouveau.runpm=0 nouveau.modset=0  rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=Windows 2009"
acpi_backlight=vendor
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Install the Gnome Tweak Tool

The Gnome Tweak Tool should be part of the core Fedora distribution, but it isn't, so this should be one of the very first things you install using the following commands;

sudo dnf -y install gnome-tweak-tool
sudo dnf -y install dconf-editor

Enable Laptop Power Settings
Battery management isn't great within Linux, so you should install Powertop to give you the most optimised battery management possible...

sudo dnf -y install powertop
sudo systemctl start powertop.service
sudo systemctl enable powertop.service
sudo powertop --calibrate
sudo powertop --auto-tune

Initial Installation of Gnome Extensions


You can search for Gnome extensions using either of the following two commands;

sudo dnf search gnome-shell-extension
or

sudo search gnome | grep extension

But these are some of the most useful extensions to start with;

sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-drive-menu
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-common
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-places-menu
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-user-theme
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-alternate-tab
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-workspace-indicator
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-background-logo
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-fedmsg
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-activities-configurator
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-panel-osd
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-openweather
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-topicons-plus
sudo dnf -y install gnome-shell-extension-media-player-indicator

Enable the COPR DNF Repository


sudo dnf copr enable region51/chrome-gnome-shell
sudo dnf -y install chrome-gnome-shell

Add Extra Themes


sudo dnf copr enable tcg/themes
sudo dnf -y install la-capitaine-icon-theme
sudo dnf -y install la-capitaine-cursor-theme
sudo dnf -y install gnome-themes
sudo dnf -y install gnome-icon-theme
sudo dnf -y install oxygen-icon-theme
sudo dnf -y install oxygen-cursor-themes
sudo dnf -y install oxygen-sound-them
sudo dnf -y install fedora-icon-theme
sudo dnf -y install OSX-Arc-Plus-theme
sudo dnf -y install OSX-Arc-White-theme
sudo dnf -y install OSX-Arc-plank-theme
sudo dnf -y install OSX-Arc-Darker-theme
sudo dnf -y install OSX-Arc-Shadow-theme
sudo dnf -y install sound-theme-freedesktop
sudo dnf -y install sound-theme-acoustic
sudo dnf -y install oxygen-sound-theme

Install the Fonts and Themes

sudo dnf -y install *liberation*

Use the FreeSans Reguar Font
Use the Liberation Mono Font

Set Install the Font Manager and Font Tweak Tool


sudo dnf -y install nautilus-font-manager
sudo dnf -y install fonts-tweak-tool

Reboot and Set the Fonts in Gnome Tweak Tool


Windows Tiles: FreeSans Regular Bold 11
Interface: FreeSans Regular 11
Documents: FreeSans Regular 11
Monospace: Liberation Mono Regular 11

Reboot and Set in Fonts Tweak Tool

Sans Serif: Free Sans
Serif: Free Serif
Monospace: Liberation Mono

Add Backgrounds

sudo dnf -y install f25-backgrounds-extras-gnome
sudo dnf -y install earth-and-moon-backgrounds-single
sudo dnf -y install *backgrounds*

Download and Install Dash to Doc Extension
Install the following extra Gnome Extensions...


Install Some Other Useful Apps

These last links are some essential software pacakages that I use all of the time.  I hope they're useful for you as well...

sudo dnf -y install chromium chromium-libs-media chromium-libs chromium-native_client  fedora-user-agent-chrome

sudo dnf -y install vlc

sudo dnf -y install java-openjdk icedtea-web

sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux

sudo dnf -y install flash-plugin alsa-plugins-pulseaudio libcurl


sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
sh -c 'echo -e "[code]\nname=Visual Studio Code\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repo'

sudo dnf check-update

sudo dnf -y install code

sudo dnf -y install kdenlive

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