RHEL for Precision 3530

RHEL support is not free.

The purchase and use of Red Hat products and services are governed by an Enterprise Agreement including an End User License Agreement.

This does not come from DELL or the forum.

https://sso.redhat.com/auth/realms/redhat-external/protocol/saml/clients/legacy-idp-servlets

I bought self-support. The problem is that the out-of-the-box redhat package does not work correctly. I want to understand what needs to be done to properly install with working drivers for my laptop.

There is no such thing as RED HAT self support from Dell.

Dell only supports the OS that came with the unit.

Unless you purchased with Redhat Pre installed its not going to be supported.

The 3530 is REDHAT CERTIFIED.

but again you do not get hand holding support without paying for it.

https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/hardware/3377981

There are 2 notes on this particular model.

1. How can I use the discrete graphics card in a system that only supports "Switchable Graphics"
2. Kernel requirements for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 on Dell Precision laptops with Coffee Lake CPU

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5
• Dell Precision Mobile Workstation (3530, 5530, 7530, and 7730) laptops with Coffee Lake CPUs.

Issue

• What kernel parameters are needed at install time for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 on Coffee Lake based Dell Precision 3530, 5530, 7530, and 7730 Mobile Workstations.
• After installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5, what kernel version is the minimum version needed for full support.

Resolution

If this solution is attached to a certification that system was certified without using accelerated graphics drivers during install. The discrete GPU (if equipped) was disabled by passing the "nomodeset" kernel parameter.

It is recommended to install 7.5 on these systems with the "basic graphics" option in the installer, (Which passes the 'nomodeset' parameter to the kernel on boot).
Or you can install using the i915 accelerated video, and disabling the discrete graphics by passing the appropriate kernel parameters on install. e.g. "module_blacklist=nouveau,amdgpu,radeon i915.alpha_support=1"

Once the system is installed, you should upgrade to kernel 3.10.0-862.3.2.el7 (7.5 Batch Update 1 "z-stream"). This kernel requires no kernel parameters for accelerated i915 video,.

Root Cause

The i915 driver in the 7.5 GA kernel does not support Coffee Lake graphics by default.
In some instances the nouveau driver has caused lockups during install.

@speedstep 

I am well aware that my 3530 did not come with RedHat. I want to understand why I can't put RedHat on it out of the box.

You can.

How this is done is not free support.

Onsite Redhat engineers can do this in short order.

3530 from DELL with Redhat Pre installed would have specific custom image.

Dell does not make said image available for public download.