Overview
I decided to give Pop!_OS 20.10 a try on the new Dell XPS 9310 laptop.
Normally I go with the most recent Ubuntu LTS which is what gets the stamp of approval from Dell and Canonical.
I don't live in a country that has the Developer edition of the XPS pre-loaded with Ubuntu so I have to buy the Windows Home version and install Linux myself.
Here is how I have setup my machine.
Buying Decision
When you do a search online for Linux on the XPS 9310 you will find a mixed bag of people who have a fully working setup and people who haven't been so lucky.
My Specs:
| Option | My Choice |
|---|---|
| Processor | 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1185G7 Processor (12MB Cache, up to 4.8 GHz) |
| RAM | 16GB 4267MHz LPDDR4x Memory Onboard |
| SSD | 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive |
| Display | 13.4" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge Non-Touch Anti-Glare 500-Nit Display |
| Wireless | Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.1 |
Reasons I made these choices:
- Some of the 32gb RAM configurations will give you the AX500-DBS wireless card. That is the card that most of the people online seem to have problems with. From what I read, this should be resolved in future kernel releases and might be fine by 21.04 releases of Ubuntu
- I always choose 1080p for longer battery life. I also don't think a screen that small needs the upgrade.
BIOS Options
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version
Shows me that I am currently running BIOS version 1.1.1
There is a newer version of the BIOS 1.1.4 that was released on December 10 2020 but I haven't tried to download/install it yet. You still get firmware and system updates in Pop!_OS just like Ubuntu so there is still no need to dual boot.
These are only the options that I have changed.
| Option | My Choice | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Secure Boot | Off | When you download the .iso System76 says to turn this off |
| Storage Mode | AHCI | Have always run into problems in the past if this was set to RAID |
| Power Battery Configuration | Primarily AC Use | Make battery last a little longer(not sure if true) |
| Intel Speed Shift | Off | |
| Security Absolute | Off |
Pop!_OS Install 20.10
Get your base OS installed.
- Download the .iso from System76
- Create a bootable USB-c stick(or normal USB if you want to use the adapter)
- Boot from the USB stick
- Choose erase everything install + encrypt option
- Get the Dell repos added to your apt sources. This gets fingerprint and facial login working. Source link: Post By DanielNTX. This also allows you to pull updates from Dell. I haven't tested using howdy and facial login because i don't have a need for it.
- Settings > User > Add Fingerprint. The new fingerprint you setup wont work for login and sudo until you run the below command.
8.
sudo pam-auth-updatespace-bar to add fingerprint option. Now you should be able to use fingerprint to login as well as sudo. - Settings > Power > Turn off automatic brightness. I find this really annoying so I turn it off
OS Extras
These are some of the other things I installed and configured on my machine that are part of my workflow.
Settings > Power > Show Battery %
Keyboard Shortcut > Change Window Launcher to Super + space-bar
Add my SSH keys and config file from my old laptop and chmod 400 them
Start ssh-agent:
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
Add SSH key to agent:
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
- Config Git:
git config --global user.name "DevOpsEnv"
git config --global user.email email@example.com
git config --list --show-origin
- Install openvpn and configure my VPN:
sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn-gnome
###Open network manager and create VPN connection from .ovpn script###
Install VSCode - Login to github to sync settings and extensions
Install Google Chrome - Login to sync extensions
Install Zoom
Install Slack
Install DBeaver(Flatpak) - Add Db connections
Install FileZilla - Add SFTP connections
Install Spotify
Install Alacritty - Pull down my config file
Install Remmina - Setup RDP connections
Install Postman(Flatpak)
Install Password Manager Of Choice
Install Authy - No .deb or flatpak and I don't want any snaps or snapd running on my machine so I will have to find an alternative to authy :(
Install Stacer
Install Docker:
Add repo:
sudo apt-get install \
apt-transport-https \
ca-certificates \
curl \
gnupg-agent \
software-properties-common
Add Docker GPG key:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Setup stable repository:
sudo add-apt-repository \
"deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(lsb_release -cs) \
stable"
Install Docker Engine:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
sudo docker run hello-world
Run Docker as non-root user:
sudo usermod -aG docker <your-user>
Reboot your machine to make this take effect
- Install Docker Compose
pip install docker-compose
- Install cfn-flip - Allows you to convert cloudformation templates from JSON <> YAML and convert join to sub functions
pip install cfn-flip
- Install cfn-lint - Linter for cloudformation templates
pip install cfn-lint
Install cfn-guard and cfn-nag (not yet complete)
Install aws-cli and add my config
Install awsume - Allows role switching between aws accounts under the same organisation
pip3 install awsume
###Add alias awsume=". awsume" to ~/.bashrc###
Install htop
Install fd - find replacement written in rust
Install figlet
Install tldr - quick easy manpage examples
clone cheatsheets repo - community driven cheatsheets for linux commands
Install Node.js - From Nodesource
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_15.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
Hardware Peripherals Compatibility
The XPS 9310 running Pop!_OS works with the following hardware
- Blue Yeti Nano
- Logitech MX Master3 Mouse
- Tethering to Samsung Galaxy S10+
- Cable Matters 10Gbps USB C Dock (USB Docking Station). I plug 2 external displays into the dock with the other peripherals mentioned and it has 1 cable that plugs into the XPS. Charging pass-through works so it is just the 1 cable required.
Problems
- No Authy deb or flatpak which is a disappointing
- If i want to close my laptop there is no way to authenticate with sudo as I need the fingerprint scanner. I haven't really tried to troubleshoot this one yet
That is everything that I can think of for now
Discussion (3)
Signed up here just to mention that this is an excellent guide and exactly what I was looking for.
I have a developer edition 32GB XPS 9310 OLED Dev Edition due to arrive this week and first thing I will do is follow your guide - many thanks for taking the time to share.
Did you ever solve or find a workaround for the 2 problems that you state? Any further improvements 1 year on?
Thanks for sharing the guide!
I used it too on my Dell XPS 9310 setup.
Did you set up any energy saving packages such as tlp or powertop?
No problem.
I have not installed powertop or tlp.
The battery life has been good enough for the short periods of time I am unplugged.