XPS13 with Ubuntu 12.04 is now my daily driver

Question

Due to needing to send my trusty System76 machine in for some warranty work, I'm using my XPS13 as my primary machine.  In any given day I move between the following 3 roles: Manager doing mostly web stuff Developer working with IntelliJ, with a full web stack running local (MySQL, Apache, Tomcat, PHP, Maven, Java, and JavaScript) DevOps doing a ton of SSH work to remote machines With it's SSD, this machine is still screaming fast.  It is actually faster then the quad core i7 in my System76 machine for boot, compiles, and system updates. I've found that the lack of real-estate on the LCD is not really limiting.  If I'm doing development work, I use an external monitory.  The video driver seamlessly adjusts to whatever external monitor I plug in... this is a welcome change from the nVidea drivers on my System76 machine which get really cranky when monitors change.  When doing DevOps and Manager stuff, I just go to full screen mode for all my apps and tab between them. The only downside I am still working to solve is the touchpad is too sensitive when typing (even though I have 'disable touchpad while typing' enabled, so I end up typing in the wrong place a lot, or having to hold my hands in an unnatural position. Overall, I really like this thing, and if we could get a little more memory would consider it as the default machine I buy for my developers.  With 4G, it is fine for native OS work, but I'd never consider running a VM with Windows with just 4G of memory, and every web developer I have needs to test on multiple browsers, including IE. -Mike

Cy Jervis - Ide · Answer

Thanks for the feedback on your experience.  I'm glad you have been pleased with the setup and have forwarded your comments on the touchpad to the team.

Kathi Fletcher · Answer

I have been having the exact same problems with the trackpad sensitivity on the XPS 13. I often have to

correct problems several times to type a single email. (Twice already during this message.)

Would be great to have a fix.

Kathi

veryno · Answer

Me three, exact same issue. Would love to see a fix!

DELL-Lucas P · Answer

Hello Kathi,

We would like to further investigate the issues with the touchpad sensitivity that you and others are reporting, but we have not yet been able to replicate the issue here. Could you direct message or email me your service tag and contact information? I will have one of my analysts reach out to you directly to get some additional info on your configuration and to help identify a solution to what you are experiencing.

Thanks,

Lucas Pauwels

Senior Technical Analyst | Dell REC

lucas_pauwels@dell.com

Kathi Fletcher · Answer

Hi, I actually have found some improvement with the trackpad jumping behavior by installing the sputnik kernel. See this thread for more information -- www.webupd8.org/.../fix-dell-xps-13-backlight-brightness.html . The cursor still occasionally jumps, but much less frequently. The nice thing is that that message shows you how to back it out again in case it doesn't work for you.

Cheers

seebach · Answer

Hi Lucas, and others.

I too have experienced some issue with the trackpad. The most frekvent being that while typing, I hit the trackpad by accident and I start typing elsewhere.

The other is that I use the 2 finger scrolling, I by accident bring up the dash (same as hitting the Super key). I've beeing able to replicate this consistenly by scrolling up/down with 2 fingers, and then adding a 3 finger (almost clicking).

veryno · Answer

Seebach,

The first thing is a bug (it's been mentioned by other people-- glad to hear I'm not the only one). The second sounds close to existing features.

Two fingers: Scroll

Three fingers: Move the current window

Four fingers: Bring up the dash

Try testing again and see if that's the behavior you're seeing? If so, it's working as intended.

DELL-Lucas P · Answer

Thanks Kathi. I'm glad that info has helped with the touchpad issues you were seeing.

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/fix-dell-xps-13-backlight-brightness.html

Seebach / Veryno have either of you had a chance to try test with the info Kathi provided in the link above? Have there been any improvements since doing that?

Here is some additional bug report info that may be helpful.

'Cypress Trackpad' incorrectly detected as 'ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse' in 'Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook''

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/978807

backlight brightness not adjustable by default on Dell XPS 13

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/954661

veryno · Answer

Hi Lucas-- I've had the sputnik kernal ppa installed for some time (I tried doing it again just now in case something had been messed up -- it made no change to sources.list).

My touchpad is correctly detected as "CyPS/2 Cypress Trackpad" using xinput --list.

It sounds like I might have less frequent trouble than Kathi was seeing, but I still do occasionally see the cursor move and click while I'm typing.

Linux General

XPS13 with Ubuntu 12.04 is now my daily driver

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