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.)
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
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
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
