Update on XPS 13/15 2016 Developer Edition availability

I'd like to second BELETTE's desire to gain more knowledge about the drivers and its restrictions. even if i wouldn't say that i can't live without a working hdmi-adapter it would be good to know what we'd have to expect if we don't want to stick to the pre-installed linux.

as it's pretty clear that dell cannot guaratee that the drivers will work with a wide set of linux-distros i see enough reasons to aim for having the drivers available for integration into other distros as there are several reasons for wanting a custom installation (full-disk encryption and bloat-removal being some of the very relevant ones for me).

We understand that, even with customers who buy with Ubuntu pre-installed (which is great because it financially justifies our Linux efforts!), they may not end up running Ubuntu. We contractually have required both Canonical and Red Hat, as applicable, to upstream fixes. (In the case of Red Hat, they will not integrate changes until they've been accepted by the relevant upstream project.) Only in the cases where an upstream maintainer is unwilling to accept fixes do fixes only make their way into the distribution that's factory installed.

DELL-Jared D rcatajar Do you know what will be the differences between the regular precision 5510 and the dev edition ? (price? specs?, something else?) Price, Ubuntu 14.04, Type C driver functionality, official support (via ProSupport). When you say 'type C driver functionality', I assume that you will supply drivers for that to linux. Am I wrong? What then would be the difference between a regular XPS and installing linux on it, and the DE XPS ?

I mean that changes may be too significant to make it into an LTS release, but we require that drivers are supported by component makers and submitted to upstream projects for inclusion (upstream Linux kernel, X graphics stack, etc).

USB Type C doesn't work out of the box with the version of Ubuntu that is shipped. Is there documentation regarding the drivers/configuration of the base install that comes with 14.04? I need a fresh install on a fully encrypted partition anyway. The machine is too expensive (I paid $2800 for the machine and a docking station) for this to not work.

Is there an official support channel for machines configured with Ubuntu?

USB Type C doesn't work out of the box with the version of Ubuntu that is shipped. Is there documentation regarding the drivers/configuration of the base install that comes with 14.04? I need a fresh install on a fully encrypted partition anyway. The machine is too expensive (I paid $2800 for the machine and a docking station) for this to not work.

Type C is supported and tested on the device (video, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt non-dock devices). Our Type C docks however are not yet supported. There is work needed to be completed on the supporting the hardware in the docks themselves.

Is there an official support channel for machines configured with Ubuntu?

Assuming you have ProSupport, you can contact Dell Support at http://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/us/en/19/contactus.

Perhaps the docks shouldn't be an option with the Ubuntu builds if it's not currently supported.

I couldn't get the Type C - ethernet adapter that came with the device working either.

Thanks for pointing those out. I'll check on seeing about getting restrictions for those until they're resolved. My apologies since I thought that'd been done already. (I'm an engineer so not always up to date on our sales/site work.)

I think I knew it wouldn't work given that it will take kernel developments to make USB Type C work properly. However I think it's important to not offer something that's half baked, otherwise it will attract unfair criticism. I really hope the docking station works at some point because we are getting so close to a serious linux machine (and it has a non-trivial price tag).

I'm happy to be supporting this project and will gladly recommend the precision 5510 as soon as I'm convinced all of the pieces are working.

just to double check, is there any plan to add the drivers support of USBc in futur linux kernel? (thinking about support of the Dell multi adapter dongle ethernet/VGA)

perhaps a stupid question : I have a plan to not use ubuntu but archlinux/parabola on the XPS. as I will completely erase the disk and activate full disk encryption and stay away from ubuntu, do I have any good reason to wait for DE released or should I get a normal version of XPS?

in another words, not using the pre-installed ubuntu, is there any good reason/value for me to get the DE edition?( I think I read that the hardware are exactly the same?)

many thanks again for the clarification

just to double check, is there any plan to add the drivers support of USBc in futur linux kernel?

Yes. We've been working with Intel on ensuring that happens.

perhaps a stupid question : I have a plan to not use ubuntu but archlinux/parabola on the XPS. as I will completely erase the disk and activate full disk encryption and stay away from ubuntu, do I have any good reason to wait for DE released or should I get a normal version of XPS?

Fingers crossed, the Developer Edition of the XPS 13 will have an Intel card. Also, you'll have the Ubuntu hardware enablement packages handy should you need to reference them for debugging issues with your distro of choice.

in another words, not using the pre-installed ubuntu, is there any good reason/value for me to get the DE edition?( I think I read that the hardware are exactly the same?)

Like the sales volume to justify continuing the program (which is what lets us have funds/sway to get driver support in the first place)? We very much track the sales of these systems with Linux versus with Windows, and those numbers are important for management internally. :) That'd be the main reason if you're not using our Ubuntu image.

Thanks for the response, it's great that this is all feeding back into the mainline. I'm looking forward to getting one. Fingers crossed they start shipping soon.

M

I'm also considering this and found a bunch of info (search Dell XPS 9350 ubuntu).

This link http://digitaltopo.net/o/?p=243 

lists a bunch of issues with installing Vanilla Ubuntu on this machine.

The other options are 1) Wait for official Developer Edition 2) Wait for Ubuntu 16.04 and see if that works better

Since this thread is about XPS Developer Edition availability would it be useful to have a separate thread for Linux availability on Precision 5510 (or all Mobile Precision workstations) or are people happy enough tracking information for both on this thread?

Hi @DELL-JARED D,

I just ordered the Precision 5510 with pre-installed Ubuntu and the TB-15 usb-c dock.

Unfortunately I saw your post afterwards.

Now my question is what do you mean with "work needed to be completed" for supporting the dock devices? Will there be a firmware update for the dock or the laptop? Or will my dock never work with Ubuntu and only future hardware releases might be supported?

Thanks for clarification,

Hannes