17 R5, BIOS issues

[Miles B Huff]

My kernel log is full of errors and warnings caused by bugs in the Alienware 17 R5's BIOS. Please fix these issues for the next release.

(My distro is Arch Linux. I am running the latest publicly-available BIOS. The fact that these issues occur on Linux does not mean that Windows is safe -- it's likely being affected as well.)

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The Alienware 17 R5 BIOS is missing a hotfix that the Linux kernel is expecting it to have. (source)

dell-smbios A80593CE-A997-11DA-B012-B622A1EF5492: WMI SMBIOS userspace interface not supported(0), try upgrading to a newer BIOS

According to the Linux kernel, having WGDS without WRDS is nonsensical, because WGDS requires WRDS. (source)

iwlwifi 0000:47:00.0: BIOS contains WGDS but no WRDS

From what I read online, these need to be set in order for voltages to work properly. (source)

i2c-DELL0877: supply vdd not found, using dummy regulator
i2c-DELL0877: supply vddl not found, using dummy regulator
platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2

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I would think that this could lead to broken or duplicated buttons.

acpi PNP0C14:04: duplicate WMI GUID 05901221-D566-11D1-B2F0-00A0C9062910 (first instance was on PNP0C14:03)
acpi PNP0C14:05: duplicate WMI GUID 05901221-D566-11D1-B2F0-00A0C9062910 (first instance was on PNP0C14:03)
acpi PNP0C14:06: duplicate WMI GUID 05901221-D566-11D1-B2F0-00A0C9062910 (first instance was on PNP0C14:03)

????

wmi_bus-PNP0C14:01: WQXM data block query control method not found
wmi_bus-PNP0C14:05: WQBC data block query control method not found

????

iTCO_wdt: can't request region for resource [mem 0x00c5fffc-0x00c5ffff]
iTCO_wdt: probe of iTCO_wdt failed with error -16

Apparently means the touchpad firmware can't be updated?

rmi4-00.fn34: rmi_f34v7_probe: Unrecognized bootloader version
rmi4_f34: probe of rmi4-00.fn34 failed with error -22

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From what I read online, these are unimportant messages from the Linux kernel, and there is already a motion to remove them. As such, these may not be particularly relevant to DELL; but I'm mentioning them, anyway. (source)

iwlwifi 0000:47:00.0: Unhandled alg: 0x707
iwlwifi 0000:47:00.0: Unhandled alg: 0x71b

[freefreeno]

I have all the same errors and warnings that you do in the new Dell Precision 7540 that is a Ubuntu laptop. I have had the laptop a week and I regret buying it just because I thought hey if it comes with Linux on it then it should do pretty good. I have had nothing but errors and warning and even some lock ups. I have gotten two Bios updates in less than a week but they have not stopped any of my warnings and errors. 99% percent of this can be fixed with bios updates I believe but the dell bios have been spewing warnings for a long time and I really don't see any of it getting fixed. Same errors and warning that are in the XPS 15 also. I got my laptop with AMD graphics hoping to cut down on the hassle of nvidia in Linux but it is just as bad. I wanted to install a more up to date Ubuntu desktop and I can not because my wifi card does not work. It has just not been good for me. I wish Dell would just realize that people are gonna use Linux a lot more now and try to fix these bios and things.