Dell has got to be one of the most frustrating companies that put out a linux laptop. They put out a laptop certified for ubuntu but then never support newer releases. A big part of their hardware is always proprietary drivers like webcam, fingerprint reader etc… Then you update to a new LTS release because lets be serious 20.04 at this point is going to sunset in a couple of years… However after you update the webcam stops working, or some other hardware stops working. Then you are constantly troubleshooting to get it working and every kernel update it breaks again. If you ever did ask support they will just tell you to go back to 20.04 image from dell. Not to mention all their OS tools are made for windows even the ones for making linux recovery images… like WTF! I am two years in on this laptop and I am just getting rid of it I cannot put up with this nonsense anymore from them.
Just gonna leave this here for anyone who wants a laugh. It wasn’t a Linux based desktop, but it was hilarious. Buying a PC with Dell: my journey into hell
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Buying a PC with Dell: my journey into hell
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
You are lucky. My laptop’s fingerprint scanner did not work out of the box. I also had troubles with audio (“subwoofer” was disabled) and WiFi (losing connection). This all was fixed in later Ubuntu updates, but I had to wipe out Dell’s spyware manually. So I’d say Dell with preinstalled Ubuntu is the same as any laptop with FreeDOS: you have to install the OS you need instead preinstalled one and troubleshoot all the driver issues. No guarantees that all hardware is Linux compatible.
The issue is whether the thing is running a mainline compatible or distro kernel. If the device is running an orphan kernel, you’re screwed. This is the depreciation mechanism built into Android. It is “not Linux” because they are all orphans.
Technically even this is not enough if you want to get in the weeds. Technically the device can be on mainline but the company has a full time dev maintaining the required modules while the hardware itself it undocumented. If the hardware is documented at the api/registers level and it is already on mainline, it will likely remain supported for decades.
This is the true benchmark of ownership; public hardware documentation and fully merged support in the mainline kernel. Just for reference there is not a single mobile device that fully checks all of these boxes. Just to further illustrate how pervasive this is and how ignorant most of us are, the Raspberry π is proprietary with its full documentation locked under NDA. The vast majority of the silicon is made for a defunct TV tuner box, but you’ll never find documentation about any of this hardware at the registers level.
Your computer is the same, the microcode on ×86 is undocumented and things like the ALU architecture are not fully known except that it is a CISC wrapper around a RISC architecture. ARM is mostly proprietary at the registers level. All modems have been proprietary since the Atheros stuff over a decade back. The closest you can come to a FOSS computer are the old Duo series Intel chips supported by Libreboot and that is only because of the wonderful Leah Rowe’s hacking skills.
If you want to know what really works, go to https://linux-hardware.org and search. Either way, get the Hardware Probe from flathub or your package manager, run the test and review/upload your results to save the next person from similar issues. Seriously, don’t just ignore this. Upload your scan to the database with 233,034 other tested computers and 474,877 parts that have already been tested and uploaded. You can also see the configurations other people have used on the same hardware and get an idea if another kernel might work.
I’ve been more fortunate than you apparently. I’ve got a xps15 5520 which is not officially supported, but thx to the return policy I felt safe to buy it and give it a try.
I’ve been using mint on it without any problems. Hibernation was what took me the most with to get working. Very happy user so far.
Even on the Windows side of things they’re frustrating. Company took my perfectly working Thinkpad and replaced it last September with an “upgraded” Dell Inspiron laptop. It’s a piece of crap. Wakes up all the time in my bag, randomly drops wifi, and randomly drops ViewSonic monitors. Official IT solution: this happens sometimes, we don’t know why, and we’re going to send you Dell monitors instead.
Waking up in the bag is a known problem with Windows’ new sleep mode but the rest ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
Inspiron? Must be a small company. That’s consumer class, they’re made to be sold at Walmart. Latitudes are pretty good imo, I actually prefer them to thinkpads.
My error, I just checked and apparently it’s actually a Precision. I don’t deal in Dells so I don’t know all their nomenclature! It’s still been a downgrade though from my ThinkPad.
I bought a dell xps15 circa 2017 and it is god awful with Linux. I will never buy another dell ever again.
Not to mention they sell proprietary parts and couldn’t sell me a replacement ac adapter for my docking station. They wanted to force me to buy a new docking station instead of just purchasing an AC adapter… Horrible company and horrible compatibility.
Do not buy dell… They are like apple without the whole “good products” part.
Suggest a better choice, please. Lenovo?
I had a Dell back in the day (like 20’ish years ago) and I had the same experience on the Windows install it came with. Sad to hear that they just switched the issues over to Linux from Windows. :(
If you’re in the EU, I can heartily recommend Tuxedo computers. Specifically targeted towards Linux use.
i’m seriously considering the Pulse 14, since it’s around 800 eur cheaper than FrameWork Ryzen options, any good reviews out there?
Edit: also the customization looks promising, it seems Tuxedo has its own github page with drivers so you can hack your own keyboard layout, now I really want one!
shutupandtakemymoney.jpg
Exactly, never going to buy any Dell anymore… I’m so pissed with their XPS 13 issues.
Their XPS’ have gotten worse IMO. I have an XPS now running Linux Mint and it seems fine. Issue here or there.
I went to buy a new one but now they only come with 2 USB-C ports and that’s it! It’s not practical…
I have a gen 6 X1 carbon. Have Pop on it, and it’s a dream. Got it new, half price from lenovo, as it was a couple years old and they were shifting stock. Best laptop I’ve had, and an exceptional Linux experience.
Hmmm. I didn’t know Dell had a Linux laptop. I bought a vostro with windows pre-installed and flashed fedora on it, expecting to get no WiFi webcam but everything worked out. It’s interesting that their windows machines run Linux better than their flagship Linux machine.
Not sure why anyone would by linux certified laptops and expect to be treated with the same level of care as windows users.
Sorry you got ripped off, but hopefully this will be a lesson for the future.
One would expect that a Linux certified laptop would use Linux compatible hardware.
Yes, one would hope.
But that’s just not how the capitalist world works.
I don’t think you’re right on this. When DELL is branding a laptop as “linux supported”, then the hardware normally works out of the box with at the very least, Ubuntu (and probably by most other distros too). If you’re seeing hardware incompatibilities, it’s probably because the Linux kernel itself might have dropped some of the older hardware drivers from its list of support. I’m writing this on a DELL Latitude 5480 from 2017, and I have installed the latest ubuntu without any hardware issue whatsoever. Everything’s just supported out of the box. No special image from DELL was ever required. So if you’re seeing your hardware stop working, you should look if DELL provided closed source drivers or firmware for your laptop’s hardware. If that’s the case, then you didn’t have a “linux supported” laptop, you had a laptop with specifically-added Linux support after the fact. I wouldn’t have bought that in the first place.
You have this view because your hardware is from an era where fingerprint reader largely weren’t a thing and webcams were connected via internal usb. The issue is not that the Linux kernel drops anything (between you and op, you’re the one with the old hardware). The issue is, that fingerprint readers became a commodity without ever gaining universal driver support, and shengians like Intel pushing its stupid IPU6 webcam stuff without paving the way upstream beforehand
In that case, the solution is to buy hardware that is linux-certified.
So not Dell, apparently. OP has a valid point. Dell claims to support Linux but in practice doesn’t.
Specifically the shitty IPU6 situation is on Intel, and is invariant to any laptop manufacturers. I also have a Thinkpad X1 with that issue. So for that the situation that one manufacturer would support it properly (i.e. upstream) and others don’t can’t exist, as soon as anybody puts it upstream it works for everybody. Thankfully there’s some progress (search for libcamera) and in the not too distant future it should work ootb. For fingerprint readers it is a different story though, as there are many different ones, so that one is on Dell indeed
Fuck Dell with the rust backend of a sword.
I experienced the same shit with their dumb hardware. Honestly, I don’t know why they are Ubuntu Certified. It feels more like a cash grab from Canonical for non-linux vendors to be able to target corporate customers who only buy “linux certified” stuff. Then they pay off a few mainstream tech bloggers or tech “newspapers” to write a raving review about it and non-corporate people purchase it thinking they’re getting good linux hardware.
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev gave a good recommendation: tuxedo computers. They do linux hardware well - albeit it’s pricey.
And of course Linux Preloaded is a great page to find other vendors.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
backend of a sword
You mean the hilt?
Hilt is unspecific. Any weapon can have a hilt.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
