Dell xps 12 convertible

I think the main takeaway is that everything seems to work out of the box on the xps 12, with a few exceptions (the touch screen doesn't work, and neither does auto-rotation detection).  However, after updating to Ubuntu 12.10, the touch screen also works, with multitouch gestures and all.

To get Project Sputnik kernel, just add the sputnik repositories and update the system.

Sounding good.

Ooh, that's compelling.  FWIW, if you turn on captions in the video, the translations appear to be decent.

mjumbewu, I agree the English translations of the Italian captions are useful - thanks for the tip.

The translation makes some vague mention of extra config being needed for the screen rotation (not sure), however they do demonstrate it working, so obviously this is do-able.

I wasn't sure about how to go about installing 12.10 with the sputnik kernel. The following thread explains it en.community.dell.com/.../20210094.aspx and this seems fairly reasonable too.

I've gone ahead and ordered the xps 12 (five week wait for delivery). I'll update this thread with my findings

Hi all,

I just got my XPS 12 (Jan/2013) and installed the latest  Ubuntu version (12.10). I followed what seemed to work for others:

1.Installed Ubuntu 12.10 (official release)

2.Added the sputnik ppa ( canonical-hwe-team/sputnik-kernel )

3.Upgraded the kernel

However, I still have a couple of issues with the touchscreen and touchpad support. Here are the main issues:

1.Tap on touchpad does not work as a left-click button (nothing happens). No multitouch support at all. This means I have to use the left and right buttons of the touchpad for everything.

2.Tapping on the touchscreen does not do anything either

Any ideas how to fix these?

Installing Ubuntu as described in the above link is pretty straight forward. I did initially try and install ubuntu as a dual boot together with win8 but found this problematic and ended up just replacing win8.

I've only been using the machine for a couple of days and everything seems to work of of the box, except for the multitouch issue reported by andlessa below, which I experience too.

An annoying issue that I do have, which I presume is not related to the machine itself, is that the monitor attached to the Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station (that I bought with the machine) is not detected (this monitor was detected by win8). I'm really hoping that this does get addressed sometime in the future otherwise I have an expensive $200 paperweight ...

A quick update:

I found that my problem has been reported before. What actually happens is that in order to "click"  using the trackpad I need to double tap and then hold it for a couple seconds. The same happens with the touchscreen. It seems that this issue should have been resolved by the latest sputnik drivers, however it does not seem so in my case. Also, the trackpad seems to have been correctly recognized:

xinput --list:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                     id=2 [master pointer  (3)]

⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer               id=4 [slave  pointer  (2)]

⎜   ↳ Atmel Atmel maXTouch Digitizer           id=9 [slave  pointer  (2)]

⎜   ↳ PS/2 Cypress Trackpad                   id=12 [slave  pointer  (2)]

⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   id=3 [master keyboard (2)]

   ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             id=5 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Power Button                             id=6 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Video Bus                               id=7 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Power Button                             id=8 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_1.3M           id=10 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard             id=11 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                         id=13 [slave  keyboard (3)]

   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0 id=14 [slave  keyboard (3)]

On the issue of screen rotation, my interpretation of the youtube video was that this wasn't yet implemented. They show using the Display control panel to rotate the screen manually. This is pretty convenient, at least.

Yes, the Display control panel rotate does work. Worth noting that if you're not working in tablet mode i.e. you're still using the keyboard then your mouse is inverted in portrait mode.

I've had my xps 12 for a few weeks now and it's a wonderful machine - I love it. With regard to the touch screen I mainly make use of it while working in normal mode with my keyboard. It's not really that practical at present in "tablet" mode. However I like the novelty and I'm expecting that more and more touch focused Linux apps will become available over time

I have just got my XPS 12  a couple of days ago, and am enjoying the hardware. There are a few Ubuntu issues I'm seeing though, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any quick answers:

* sometimes wakes from suspend at strange times (like in the night)

* two-finger scrolling doesn't work from screen or keyboard

* Mouse and Touchpad control panel doesn't have a Touchpad tab

* can't boot to Windows 8 - I've tried boot.repair, and have emailed them for a follow-up also

* tap-to-click sometimes works from the screen and other times seems to get into a confused state

can anyone help me with the BIOS settings to run Ubuntu from an USB Stick?

You have to enter the BIOS with the F2-button, than set the boot-option to legacy.

Than restart the device and press F12 to select the boot device. This worked for me.

I have installed a daily build from 10th April with the newest 3.8.0-18-generic kernel. Touch gestures and all works for some time (seconds to minutes) or amount of touches. Then the screen still recognizes the finger and multi-touch gestures work but I cannot make a primary click.

Summary:

+Multi-touch on touchscreen works

+No strange wake-ups

+Touchpad also supports multi-touch

-Touchpad only recognized when booting in Laptop mode

-Touchscreen click-function stops working after some time !