XPS13 ubuntu wireless issues.

Asking as a prospective buyer -- are these wireless issues common? Seems like a killer flaw in a laptop designed for portability...

I'm not sure about how common these wireless issues are, though if we can go based on the number of reports we've seen, it's a small fraction of the number of Sputnik units out there.

Speaking based on my personal experience, I used the Sandy Bridge XPS 13 since it came out about a year and a half ago with only seeing a problem once. It was with a Netgear AP with its "draft 802.11ac" capability turned on. Since it was at a relative's house, I was able to log into the AP and turn off the draft 802.11ac feature--leaving only (not "draft" but actually standardized!) 802.11n. The problem went away completely, and the signal strength went up. I don't know why companies release APs with support for draft standards, especially since not everyone doing so is using the same draft.

We've had many people here at Dell try to reproduce these wireless issues with XPS 13 DE systems and not had luck. Dell Support has even taken systems returned by customers because of wireless problems and tried without success to reproduce the issue, though the systems were wiped and reinstalled (not to mention tested in different RF environments than the customers') so determining what combination of hardware, software and environment is the source has proven challenging.

What information would you need? I've connected to several connections including my home network, public library and at other locations. If you let me know what you need I'll try and provide it

Thank you. We've had difficulty getting enough debugging information to be able to reproduce or even triage these wifi issues. I know that Support would really like to get useful data for solving this.

I'd recommend reporting a bug in the dell-sputnik Launchpad project (https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bugs)--including the usual system debugging information Launchpad asks for--and also making sure to include the information recommended on the Network Manager wiki page here: https://wiki.gnome.org/NetworkManager/ I'll add to that list the brand and model of one of the APs you're trying to connect to when you're collecting this debugging information. If you can, collect all this both with and without Network Manager as part of the equation.

Since you're getting a replacement for your current system, please tell ProSupport that you're working on collecting debugging information. I'll email the person in Support who's working closely with us on Sputnik so that this is on his radar.

Can you recommend a replacement? I've heard ok things about wicd but haven't investigated much

Wicd is probably the best alternative unless you feel really comfortable with command line tools. 

I was having other issues so I'm glad I can hopefully get a system that works!

I hope you are able to as well! I really wish we could have a fix for these wireless issues some have been having, but wireless bugs are some of the hardest to debug. In college, I ran the network at my living cooperative, and sometimes fixing wireless problems felt like tuning an old TV to the right channel sometimes. :-(

My wireless card was replaced soon after I got the system. So, the wireless wasn't that good even then. I've been consistently getting weak signal and drops in connection.

Fair enough. So even with the factory installed Ubuntu 12.04, you saw consistently weak signals and connection drops?

Hi,

I have a Dell XPS 13 - L321X model. First 6 months everything worked fine with sputnik Ubuntu 12. After May I started having some wifi issues. Sometimes the wireless just disconnected, even after reboot the wifi didn't worked. I realize that the machine was not detecting the wireless card, only Bluetooth. I tried all combinations, bluetooth off, bluetooth on but no wifi found at all.

I tried everything and decided to install Ubuntu 13. First couple days worked fine and in order to troubleshoot the issue I had stopped any software updates. Did not install anything new... everything worked for sometime and then one day... wifi was off... the same thing ... wifi card not detected.. 

I had turn the laptop off and next day I turn the machine on and wireless was working again... so seems that is not a software issue but a hardware thing...

Doesn't matter what kernel I am using or what configuration I have... sometimes the wireless just stops and I need to wait hours before it decides to start again...

My wireless card is 6230...

I have other 3 old dell laptops working with ubuntu and they are very stable.... seems that I ha needed to spend around1000 pounds to start having problems.

I just received my XPS13 Ubuntu laptop on the 23 of October (last week). I experienced the disconnecting wireless yesterday and today. I did an experiment today to see if I could reproduce it. While not a totally scientific test it seems to work.

The only time I get drops is when I have the laptop plugged in and I am using it. If I leave it running and just sitting there plugged in, it does not drop the connection. It only happens when I am using it while it is plugged in. I guess I am driving extra CPU cycles.

I think it might be a heat issue as the laptop is quite hot on the bottom at the middle of the back side. Is there a way to set a configuration to make it charge slower if that will reduce the heat? For now, I will try not to use it when it is plugged in.

I am liking it quite a bit.

I left my XPS13 sitting next to me just running on battery power and over a couple hours it dropped the wireless twice. I was not using it at that time. I plugged it in to charge it through lunch and I was working on it the whole hour and it did not drop the wireless once. So I guess my last post is a red herring. The two times it dropped on battery power I did feel a good amount of heat on the bottom of the laptop about where the zero key is.

I am not too worried about the wireless, what I would like is a recommendation for a USB dongle that I could use my CAT5 wired network at home. A good driver recommendation would be good as well.

I've been using this adapter (with an ASIX AX88179 chip):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C50FSPU/

With this driver (the Linux kernel driver, obviously):

http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=131

It's been working for me.  I don't think I've used it since the 13.10 update, though.  I might try it later today, if I get a chance, just to make sure it still works.

Thank you. Being impatient I ordered this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00484IEJS

If it does not do the trick, I will check out that one. I don't use wireless at home.

To the Dell folks. If you want me to run some test, I can. Preferably not destruction tests. :emotion-1:

Guys,

Has anyone had their Intel 62xx WiFi card replaced with a Killer 1202?  Dell have now switched from using the Intels to the Killer cards, that must be for a reason.  

I had nothing but issues with the original Intel card in both Windows and Linux, after reading online I saw many people with similar problems.  I called Dell Support and managed to persuade the operator to swap the Intel card with the Killer - two days later the engineer arrived and carried out the replacement.  The difference has been huge, performance is now fantastic and rock solid in both Win and Ubuntu.

Has anyone had their Intel 62xx WiFi card replaced with a Killer 1202?  Dell have now switched from using the Intels to the Killer cards, that must be for a reason.

I originally had an Intel one that got replaced with a Killer card. The performance increase was notable but a few weeks later got worse again.

A couple of days ago I received a replacement XPS13 and it had a Killer card. I occasionally had wifi problems until today when I uninstalled network manager and installed Wicd. My issue wasn't that internet was slow, just that if I was more than a metre away from the router the signal would drop dramatically (of course resulting in speed decrease). With Wicd this doesn't happen anymore

This also worked for me. Three weeks after purchase and struggling with wifi in three locations continually dropping out. This solved the problem. Wifi is now stable and usable. Still using 12.04.  Why didn't Dell sort this out at the start?

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal

That worked great for me, thanks. Only issue seems to be that hibernate no longer works. Has anybody asked Dell why this is needed?

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal

This worked great for me and fixed the wifi problems, thanks. However, the system will no longer hibernate. Also I have the feeling that power managements is much worse.

I realise that I don't know what the original kernel version was, anybody know how to get back to the linux that it was shipped with?

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal This worked great for me and fixed the wifi problems, thanks. However, the system will no longer hibernate. Also I have the feeling that power managements is much worse. I realise that I don't know what the original kernel version was, anybody know how to get back to the linux that it was shipped with?

I would be interested in the steps to restore to factory default as well.

I am running the default installed OS with just Ubuntu updates. I just did a uname –r and got the following: 3.2.0.56-generic. I had just done an Ubuntu update last Thursday.

As far as the hibernation goes, if you are talking about it coming out of hibernation while you have it put away and getting real hot, I have that as well. I have been shutting down every time now. If the wireless is wrapped up, I was planning on making a post about the hibernation.

I believe Dell is trying to get a viable Linux desktop out, as they are pushing updates out in the updater. I am staying with version 12.04 and the default setup as much as possible. The only intrusive thing I have done so far is to disable the key logger. Now I do not consider a prompt change or setting up aliases as intrusive. I have needed to do an apt-get for several development libraries as I prefer platform development. I am using Eclipse with the CDT plugin.

EDIT: I should note that my hibernation issues were from before my updates last Thursday. I do not know the best way to test this. After I do some testing to see if the wireless drops next week, I may just leave it in hibernation next to me and see if it turns on. I think that may have happened the day it turned on when I had it put away.