Re: Ubuntu on Dell Xps 15 9550 new Infinity display (i7 6gen 16gbr UHD 4k touch

[fallenpwr]

Hey guys, I'm having serious issues with trying to dual boot:

My initial attempt to follow the #2 poster here resulted in this error when I tried to boot into my install:
ALERT! /dev/disk/... does not exist.
Dropping to a shell! Busybox v1.21.1 ...

BUT! Today I reinstalled, this time specifying swap and bios-grub partition. And it booted! Except, in AHCI, not NVMe (RAID in BIOS).
So I turned on RAID, and lo it gave me a Hard Drive Not Installed error (Dell SupportAssist). Whoo.

I then proceeded to delete the swap and bio_grub partitions and reinstall, and the same problem persisted (I was unable to get the first problem back). I also checked with `modinfo nvme` to see if I had an nvme driver, and it looked fine. I should mention that Windows won't boot in AHCI, which is also slower than NVMe.

I was so looking forward to having a nice dual boot workstation... This is so insanely frustrating and honestly makes me wonder why I'm even in tech.

I ran CrystalDiskMark before and after doing that; pretty sure it still uses NVMe since the benchmarks weren't affected.

[Annihil]

I ran CrystalDiskMark before and after doing that; pretty sure it still uses NVMe since the benchmarks weren't affected.

That's good news. And is it possible to switch back to Raid On and boot Windows ?

[fallenpwr]

Yes, that's what I've done.

[Annihil]

Yes, that's what I've done.

Cool. And are you also able to boot Ubuntu in Raid On mode ?
Basically you just used AHCI mode to install both OS, then you switched back to Raid On, am I right ?

By the way, do you know how to recover the Dell logo on Windows boot ?

[parallelo]

Regarding the questions/comments on dual-booting with Raid vs AHCI..

If you have a pre-installed Windows partition and a newly installed Ubuntu partition, then you are probably currently in AHCI mode. In this case, Ubuntu will boot fine, but Windows always gives blue-screen "unbootable" errors.

Here's the solution: leave it in AHCI mode and reboot Windows in Safe-Mode once -- only one time is necessary. When you are in Windows Safe-Mode, then simply restart. After that step, Windows will boot up fine regularly using AHCI.

Using this trick, I have a functional Windows 10 + Ubuntu 15.10 dual-boot that is selectable via the grub menu.

Credit: silverhaul from https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3r9a5t/linux_on_the_dell_xps_15_late2015/

[fallenpwr]

Hey, thanks for the reply, totes forgot about that thread. However, that solution means abandoning NVMe; would there not be a noticeable performance hit compared to NVMe?

I cannot boot Ubuntu in Raid On.

How do I get into Safe Mode if I can't boot Windows 10?

[Annihil]

Hey, thanks for the reply, totes forgot about that thread. However, that solution means abandoning NVMe; would there not be a noticeable performance hit compared to NVMe?

I cannot boot Ubuntu in Raid On.

How do I get into Safe Mode if I can't boot Windows 10?

You can try booting in secure mode under ahci.

• change to ahci
• intall linux and all
• boot windows - failed: not recognized boot partition something
• try booting into windows again(or several times) until windows try to find the boot error(of course it doesn't work), but on advanced boot options, you can set to reboot into safe mode: Troubleshoot - Advanced options - startup settings
• booting into windows - this time in safe mode - works fine
• normal reboot - voila, windows now can successfully boot!

Windows seems to be loading a preset list of drivers during boot every time, that is why drive are not recognized first. Safe mode will try to load more drivers, and then write to the loading list,
However, the is still a glitch. Windows freezes sometime, especially when I play Heroes Of The Storm: it will freeze every time when I'm ~ 9mins in game. I'm guessing it is possible that the Intel RST is messing up and deleting the driver or reinstalling windows may help, but I haven't tried either. Setting to RAID again will revert everything, have to go through all the reboots again to get Windows boot again.

Try booting into Windows again (or several times) until windows try to find the boot error(of course it doesn't work), but on advanced boot options, you can set to reboot into safe mode: Troubleshoot - Advanced options - startup settings.

By the way, are you sure you cannot go back to NVMe (RAID On) mode to boot ubuntu after that ?

[fallenpwr]

I am now running dual boot successfully under AHCI. No, I cannot revert to NVMe without breaking Ubuntu boot, even after my AHCI dual boot was working.

I Shift+Restarted Windows with Safe Mode options before changing to AHCI so I could easily boot into safe mode.

Findings on disk speed: With CrystalDiskMark and a Queue Depth of 32 and 1 thread, no noticeable difference was found. That being said, no idea how a larger queue depth might impact scores (I would assume AHCI would start losing), and I'm not even sure how that translates to real world usage.

[anhdle]

Hi, I just wonder if anyone manages to run a second screen via HDMI port. I can't get Ubuntu to detect my second screen even with the new NVIDIA driver and latest kernel.

[fallenpwr]

"prime-indicator" package that tells whether Intel or Nvidia is being used conflicts with google-chrome-stable for some reason. Dang.