Dell XPS 13 ultrabook compatibility

[Paerez]

yup. There are 3 modes that it cycles between via the key. High, Low, Off.

[erlguta]

Paerez thank you for your information.
How long is the battery life with ubuntu?
Have you tested the minidisplay to vga/dvi port yet?

Thank you

[Paerez]

You are welcome!

I'm still not sure about the battery life. I've been sleeping it, charging, rebooting, so nothing "clean".

My estimate is 5h of "normal use". I'm in Xubuntu and I use powertop.


I just tested minidisplay to vga, and it works perfectly. No setup needed. Just go to ubuntu's display config and the external monitor works great.

I bought the dell adapter (item 331-2972).

[Boumy]

Quick Thanks to Paerez for tests and backlight commands, everything runs great on my new machine !

Just for information on my side the battery was around 3 hours without the backlight command, surely more now !!

[Dell-Bill B]

It does not seem to hibernate out of the box. The pm log shows it hibernating but then waking right back up. Doesn't crash it or anything. Just doesn't work.

Hi all. I'm not a Linux expert, but while I was Googling around looking for posts about hibernate on XPS 13, I ran across this thread. Just wanted to drop in a note that may clear things up. I'm sure you all would have figured it out eventually if you haven't already.

We're marketing Intel Rapid Start pretty prominently in places for this platform. iRST will not wake a system from hibernate, hence a BIOS setting change is needed to re-enable hibernate in any OS. You can get to the setting from the Advanced screen in the BIOS via the "Intel Rapid Start Technology" sub menu. You just need to change the "iRST Support" value to Disabled. In Windows this brings the Hibernate option back automatically. Not sure what additional steps are needed in Linux.

Hope this helps in some way.

[Paerez]

Cool thanks Bill. I'll give it a shot. Although I prefer the sleep mode.

My guess is that just flipping that switch in the bios will make linux happy. Usually intel drivers are easy to get along with


Also I wanted to drop some of the benchmarks I took on startup:

Cold boot to stock windows 7 installed by dell: 12 seconds
Cold boot to ubuntu (mashing enter for grub): 10 seconds
Cold boot to windows 8 consumer preview: 6 seconds
Wake from suspend: 1 second or less (all oses)

Really, really impressive. Well done!

[erlguta]

Wow, i love this ultrabook.
I think I am going to wait for your news about touch pad issues. When they are resolved I will order mine instantly!

[daihard]

Glad I've found this thread. I am thinking about buying an XPS 13 and installing Kubuntu 12.04 on it. (I've always been a KDE guy.) Looks like I won't need to worry too much about compatibility issues. Thanks all for the useful information.

[ufrocks]

I'm on Gentoo but I have to enter:

echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

every time my XPS 13 turns off its screen for a bit. I'm not sure how to figure out what is causing this. Any ideas? I'm using xfce4.

[jayrod]

I have been watching and waiting for the release of the Dell XPS 13.

Paerez, thank you for sharing your experiences with it.

Bill B from Dell, thank you for your input. It is always nice to see Dell active on the Linux side of things.

I am not surprised there are touchpad issues. I expected this when I heard it was integrated. Hopefully, Dell can use their influence and help make some progress with Cypress touchpads on the Linux side of things.

According to AnandTech, the Dell XPS 13 gets 8.5 hours of battery life at idle, just over 6 on the internet, and just under 4.5 on H.264.

I am still undecided, and I will probably wait for Ivy Bridge availability.