Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 18.10 on Dell XPS 15 9570

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Recently I upgraded from Macbook Pro Mid 2012 to Dell XPS 15 9570, with a 8th Gen Core i7-8750H, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti this thing is straight up beast. I went with FHD version instead 4k and with 400nits screen brightness (> MBP 2018) and its get really bright.
Samples RED Blue Orange Mix
I will not be dual booting so we will wipe the the entire system clean so keep a backup of of your data .

Getting it ready

Update the BIOS

As of October 2018 the latest BIOS is version 1.5.0, make sure you update as it contains a lot of fixes for Ubuntu.

Prepare bootable Ubuntu USB

  • Download Ubuntu 18.04 or 18.10.
  • Flash the USB with Etcher.

    System Configuration

  • After flashing reboot & as you see DELL logo press F2 to enter Setup.
  • Go to System Configuration.
  • Then to SATA Operations.
  • Change it AHCI && apply .
  • Then go to Secure Boot and disable it and exit .

    Installing Ubuntu

  • As you see the DELL logo press F12 to enter one-time boot menu
  • Select the USB and proceed with installer.
  • On installation select Normal && Install third party software.. && configure secure boot enter the password and remember it.
  • Proceed to Installation type and select the erase disk and install ubuntu, encrypt it if you want.
  • Proceed with installation and reboot, you should see a blue screen.
  • Select enroll MOK–>continue–> enter the secure boot password from installer && enable secure boot && reboots.

After installation

Nvidia Drivers && Tweaks && Power Management

Open up a terminal && run the following

sudo apt install curl && sudo bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JackHack96/dell-xps-9570-ubuntu-respin/master/xps-tweaks.sh)"

Above are collection of scripts and tweaks to make Ubuntu 18.04 /18.10 run smooth on Dell XPS 15 9570 by JackHack96

Gestures (using libinput-gestures)

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sudo gpasswd -a $USER input

Log out && Log back in
Install prerequisite

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sudo apt-get install xdotool wmctrl libinput-tools git make

Install libinput-gestures

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git clone https://github.com/bulletmark/libinput-gestures.git
cd libinput-gestures
sudo make install

Configure and Start

The default gestures are in /etc/libinput-gestures.conf. If you want to create your own custom gestures then copy that file to ~/.config/libinput-gestures.conf and edit it. The available gestures are:

  • swipe up (e.g. map to GNOME/KDE/etc move to next workspace)
  • swipe down (e.g map to GNOME/KDE/etc move to prev workspace)
  • swipe left (e.g. map to Web browser go forward)
  • swipe right (e.g. map to Web browser go back)
  • pinch in (e.g. map to GNOME open/close overview)
  • pinch out (e.g. map to GNOME open/close overview)

Starting

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libinput-gestures-setup autostart
libinput-gestures-setup start
reboot

Conclusion

Battery life is great with 13-15 hour*(estimated i never went below 60% with full brightness and was up for 4-5 hours).

Almost everything works except the fingerprint scanner, performance is great too.



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