New XPS 13 Ivy Bridge w Ubuntu 12.04 - no stable wireless

Thanks, I'll be anxiously waiting.

I have just received my Dell XPS 13 (developer edition) and I am kind of pissed off at the attitude Dell support had with me. They said the Italian support division isn't supposed to provide tech support for the Ubuntu operating system, even though IT IS the 12.04 LTS originally installed on a brand new laptop.

I have the WiFi issue with a n-router (Technicolor TG852n) and the Atheros AR9462. I can't figure out why the connection drops as soon as the traffic gets a little heavy (3-4 tabs in Chrome reset the connection to the router, not to talk about system updates!) and they seem to be unwilling to help me.

I have to say that if I'm not able to fix this issue in a short period I'll have to return the laptop and get a full refund: this is not a good way for a company to treat their customers.

@frapontillo

Im sorry to hear about your experience, let me see what I can do, stay tuned.

thx!

I have tried connecting to several other APs, routers and modems. All of them have shown issues of some kind:

- Technicolor TG852n keeps disconnecting as I already reported.

- A DLink Wi-Fi router at work looked like it was working fine, then all of a sudden my Dell XPS 13 and my work PC (an Asus) disconnected at the same time. The strange thing is that other PCs in the room remained connected, so could it be an interference issue?

- My home Netgear WGR614 v9 (g-class router) has the same issue as the Technicolor, but it also is very slow in connecting (about 1 minute, then connection falls again).

- I have tried another router as well (in another place, not home or work, just to exclude external interferences), the Pirelli DRGA226M, and the same issue arises (slow while connecting, connection falls after a while).

I'm trying to install Windows 8 on another partition today and see if it is a hardware or software fault. I don't know what more I can do, if there's anything else I can try, please do tell.

I installed Windows on a logical partition (next to the swap one) and there are no Wi-Fi issues whatsoever. So this is a driver issue. Also, I have tried the Ubuntu 13.04 live CD on a pendrive)and it suffers from the same issue (i.e. frequent disconnections, slow connectivity).

:(

My XPS 13 serial number is 8QBP1Y1. Thank you.

I have found someone to help, what is your serial number?  It should be under the metal flap on the base plate.  thanks!

Yeah, I'm pretty much at my wits' end. I may also try upgrading to 13.04, even though I strongly prefer to stay on a LTS release. And if neither of those work, I guess the only thing left is trading in my svelte ultrabook for something heavy but reliable.

I was contacted by Dell Pro Support and on Monday/Tuesday a Dell technician is going to replace my Atheros with an Intel card, I think it will be the 6235 model.

Meanwhile a friend of mine suggested to change the network manager and use wicd instead. I have thus removed network-manager in favor of wicd and have only had a couple of disconnections so far. I'm going to stress test this configuration and see if I can avoid the card swap.

I'll let you guys know (am I the only one with issues with the Atheros card?).

I'm stress testing on Windows 8 as well, let's see if I can reproduce some kind of odd behavior. The thing that worries me the most is: we're having issues with an LTS release that was supposed to be working out of the box, I can't imagine how things are gonna change with time... :-S

No, you are not the only one with issues. :/

Mine shipped with an Intel card, had the card replaced once, then got the Atheros card, then had that card AND the motherboard replaced once. I think the Intel drivers and my MB were part of the problem because things are better now, but I'm still getting too many disconnects. Very very disappointed that the drivers for both seem to be no good. I'll try swapping out Network Manager though, since that (and, of course, Ubuntu) are the only pieces left that are still the same.

Well that's bad. wicd gives a lower number of disconnections, but it still happens frequently. I hope not to have to call Pro Support that much.

Same issue here with a brand new XPS 13 Developer Edition using the stock installed 12.04 LTS.

No stable wireless with an Airport Extreme 802.11AC or Netgear CG3200. Given the laptop has no ethernet port this is really disappointing. Connecting slowly, dropping connections frequently and generally poor performance.

I'd call it the "Disconnected Developer's Edition". Can't really encourage anyone to buy this (otherwise great) laptop until Dell announces some kind of official statement other than "try to use rfkill".

I answered already to this topic: en.community.dell.com/.../20431153.aspx

But try:

"apt-get install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.8-precise-generic" and reboot.

Have you tried using wicd?