ArchBang Linux works like a charm on Haswell/Ubuntu XPS 13

As shipped, wireless, trackpad and touchscreen work out of the box on Ubuntu 12.04. I can also confirm that they work after using the official recovery media. If you stray from the pre-installed Ubuntu or the official recovery media, it's true you may have driver problems with Ubuntu.

I used the official Sputnik ISO (http://hwe.ubuntu.com/uds-q/dellxps/amd64/sputnik-precise-amd64.iso) and the wireless didn't work, nor did the trackpad or touchscreen. I recompiled with the Sputnik Kernel (https://launchpad.net/~canonical-hwe-team/+archive/sputnik-kernel) and the trackpad worked, but not the wireless. I recompiled with kernels 3.12.6, 3.11.10, 3.10.25, and the trackpad never worked, even after making sure Cypress Trackpad support was selected via menuconfig. Wireless didn't work with standard Ubuntu 12.04 or 13.04. Trackpad didn't work with standard 13.10, nor did touchscreen.

I have no doubt that there are ways to get all of this working, but there just isn't any excuse for it being so difficult. Trackpads and wireless adapters aren't exotic technologies; they are essential. It is an embarrassment that one can't simply install current, vanilla versions of Ubuntu and have them work on a $1250-$1550 laptop that pitches itself as a Linux machine. After all, the Canonical Hardware Enablement Team declares on its website that "ALL FIXES HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED into standard Ubuntu kernels" (all-caps in original). I don't expect Linux on current laptop hardware to work perfectly, but I should be able to reinstall the OS without losing basic functionality. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but after a week of looking, that's beginning to feel doubtful. I support the Sputnik Project; unfortunately, I haven't been able to use the machine.

That's good to know, though it remains the case that everything works--touchscreen, trackpad, wireless, etc.--under out-of-the-box ArchBang, i.e., you don't have to hunt around for the drivers.

And it shouldn't be the case that one has to buy Ubuntu pre-installed to get all the drivers. The Cypress driver is open source (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=60736); working touchscreen drivers are open source (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/touchscreen); the driver for the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 is open source (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi); and the wireless firmware is available via Intel's Firmware License (http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-016675.htm).

As far as I can tell, there isn't any proprietary Dell software that is required for the XPS 13 to work, which means that I should be able to install vanilla Ubuntu and have a functioning computer. But that isn't the case. And it seems mildly outrageous that on the official Developer Edition wiki (http://dell.to/1lrWp5H) that the ISO listed is the original Sputnik install image, because, let's remember, the original XPS 13 had a different wireless adapter, so no wonder the wireless doesn't work on the new machine when that ISO is used.

I'll stop belaboring the point, but I just don't understand how Dell could ship an "Ubuntu Linux" laptop that doesn't work with standard Ubuntu while *also* not making available a custom ISO that does work, which would be trivially easy to do. All they would have to do is one or the other, and they did neither.

Agreed. 

Dell should absolutely publish an updated ISO, and work with Canonical to clearly label the current "Sputnik" ISO as being for the older models. 

Also, any packages which are "private" to the pre-installed state / recovery media should be published somewhere convenient, so one can easily start with a vanilla Ubuntu 12.04 install, and update it with appropriate packages to have it work as well as the pre-installed image does. 

If a small distribution like ArchBang can pull off complete hardware support for the XPS 13, surely the combination of Dell and Canonical can as well!

@ffsam and @Markstos,

Thanks for the input.  Let me huddle with the team and see what we can do.

@ffsam and @Markstos,

Thanks again for the heads up re this issue.  After hearing back from the team I have updated the tech center community page[1] to provide links to the drivers etc needed for the Haswell version and have clearly marked the the ISO for the Ivy bridge version

ISO and Drivers

• XPS 13 developer edition (Haswell-based) -- Driver Support Pack 
• XPS 13 developer edition (Ivy bridge-based, L322x) -- Install image 

Also we will update the page to remove reference to the PPA.  Here is the response from engineering;

The PPA doesn’t do anything anymore.  All the fixes for the L322X and L321X have now been integrated into the standard Ubuntu kernels.  

thanks!

1 http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/w/wiki/3687.software-dell-xps-13-laptop-developer-edition.aspx

I have the XPS13 Haswell with WIndows 8.1 installed, and I'd like to dual boot Ubuntu.  I believe you're saying here that I should be able to use the ivy-bridge install image and then the haswell driver support pack to do that.  I've tried several times to install the ivy bridge iso, but after selecting either 'try ubuntu' or 'install ubuntu' it runs for a bit (showing the ubuntu splash screen) and then hangs with the 'can't find a live image' error.  I've redownloaded the image several times to make sure that the file wasn't corrupted, but that hasn't changed the result.  Can you offer any advice?  Thanks.

The only way I could get wireless to work from the get-go with Ubuntu was to install 13.10. Once that is up and running, you should be able to use the Haswell driver support pack to get the touchscreen and trackpad to work (though I haven't verified that step myself). Wireless didn't work for me using 12.04, 12.10 or 13.04, and it shouldn't work with the ivy-bridge iso since that edition came with a different wireless adapter.

Thanks.  I have tried 13.10, too, and I get the same error message while trying to install.

I've successfully installed 13.10 now.  I believe that enabling the load legacy rom option is what allowed the usb to load and install without error.

Now, I'd like to use the driver pack to get the touchpad working, but I'm not clear how to use the pack once downloaded.  The directions say to double click on the downloaded file, but that simply opens the archive.   Any further instruction on how to install the drivers in the driver pack [bearing in mind that I've installed 13.10 rather than 12.04 if that matters]?  thanks

The instructions assume you started with the pre-installed image, which ships with a 'dell-driver-installer' tool. It has been registered to open this particular file when downloaded. You can try finding and installing 'dell-driver-installer' first. If it turns out the dell-driver-installer is *in* the driver pack, you could unpack the driver back, install dell-driver-installer with "dpkg -i whatever.deb". The launch that program, and select the original driver pack to install. 

I started with the pre-installed image of 12.04, so I didn't have this challenge.

@markstos, thanks for the advice.

@Barton George, is it possible for me to download the dell-driver-installer such that I can install the driver package on my xps13 dual boot as mentioned above?Thanks

The dell driver installer is on the Ubuntu software centre.

However, on 13.10, the hardware pack does not install as there is variable type error which causes it to fail.

Can someone look into this, please?