Dell XPS 15 9550

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General

This laptop is Dell's flagship on the market with 32GB RAM is really beast and ready for any type of development where one requires to run multiple virtual machines at once. I got working all the non-standard hardware including keyboard special Dell keys, 4k touchscreen. But there remain still few minor issues described in specific chapter.

Laptop Specification

Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) (One of many CPU models offered)
Up to 1TB Solid State hard drive (NVMe)
Up to 32GB (2x16GB) 2133MHz DDR4
15.6" 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge touch Corning® Gorilla® Glass or 15.6" HD (1920 x 1080) without touch
Dedicated NVIDIA GTX960M 2GB DDR5
Dell 56 WHr 3-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
Integrated WiFi DW1830 3x3 802.11ac 2.4/5GHz
Precision touchpad, seamless glass integrated button
Integrated Widescreen HD (720p) webcam with dual array digital microphones
Dell™ TrueMobile internal 4.1 Bluetooth Module - European
Ports: HDMI, USB 3.0 (x2) with PowerShare; Headset Jack (1); SD card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC); Kensington Lock slot; Thunderbolt™ 3 (1)
Thunderbolt™ 3 supports: Power in / charging, PowerShare, Thunderbolt 3 (40Gbps bi-directional), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps), VGA, HDMI

Hardware List

root #lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 191b (rev 06)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 1903 (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller #0 (rev 31)
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller #1 (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f1)
00:1d.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #15 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] (rev a2)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC (rev 01)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 525a (rev 01)

NOTE: I am in RAID mode instead of AHCI on SATA controller, but that shouldn't make big difference.

Hardware List with Details

root #lspci -kk

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
	Subsystem: Dell Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 191b (rev 06)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 06e4
	Kernel driver in use: i915
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 1903 (rev 07)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 06e4
	Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller #0 (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller #1 (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H LPSS I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode]
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #15 (rev f1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H PMC
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H HD Audio
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
	Subsystem: Dell Sunrise Point-H SMBus
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] (rev a2)
	Subsystem: Dell GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M]
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidia_drm, nvidia
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC
	Kernel driver in use: brcmfmac
	Kernel modules: brcmfmac
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 525a (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 06e4
	Kernel driver in use: rtsx_pci

USB Hardware List with Details

root #lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f3:21d5 Elan Microelectronics Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:6410 Broadcom Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 17ef:7205 Lenovo 
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1532:0032 Razer USA, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0c45:6713 Microdia 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

System Configuration

root #uname -a

Linux ares 4.8.6-gentoo #3 SMP Fri Nov 11 21:25:38 CET 2016 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Kernel

List of Kernel Configs

This kernel works is configured with packed firmware and initramfs inside, so able to boot on its own within UEFI. I use rEFInd as it detects and shows on boot all available operating systems/kernel versions. I don't use standard kind of loader like Grub or LiLo. I think that this kernel image is bootable directly from EFI bios itself without anything else needed.
I am still working on proper KVM configuration for PCI Passtrough on QEMU.

Portage and GCC

CODE make.conf with GCC 6 optimizations

# This is GCC 6 and later compatible configuration which supports Skylake processors.
# I continue with -O3 and -Ofast experiments, but on per package level.

CFLAGS="-march=skylake -mabm -maes -madx -mrtm"
CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -mavx256-split-unaligned-load -mavx256-split-unaligned-store"
CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} --param l1-cache-line-size=64 --param l1-cache-size=32 --param l2-cache-size=6144"
CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -O2 -pipe"
CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

MAKEOPTS="-j8"

# Compilation Cluster
#MAKEOPTS="-j88 -l8"
#FEATURES="ccache distcc distcc-pump"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"
VIDEO_CARDS="intel nvidia"

USE="acl alsa bindist bzip2 clacklib crypt policykit udev udisks \
     dbus -gnome -qt4 jpeg lock session startup-notification \
     thunar xinerama pulseaudio bluetooth networkmanager X"

# Media related switches
USE="${USE} ffmpeg a52 dts"

# Portage
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
DISTDIR="${PORTDIR}/distfiles"
PKGDIR="${PORTDIR}/packages"

# 16GB
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/tmp"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://mirror.dkm.cz/gentoo/"

# Desktop environments
XFCE_PLUGINS="clock multiload-nandhp power trash"

NOTE: I use latest GCC 6.2.0-r1. Tha

Issues

Audio

Audio basically works, but when the headphones are plugged in, it suddenly stops working. Neither reboot or disable->re-enable of audio in BIOS helped. I resolved by flashing the BIOS again :-) and the sound is back:

ALSA Detail Report

Update: It's also reported working if you make i915 a built-in kernel driver and not a module, but keep the sound driver as a module. It seems that some power setup that i915 does has to run before the sound stuff gets set up. When you do this, it seems to work. Remember to build-in all the required firmware for i915 (dmesg will tell you what you need).

There are multiple bugs reported in Arch and Ubuntu with this ALC3266 sound chip: Ubuntu bug

Arch wiki refer to some workarounds: Arch Wiki related resource

Hardware workaround: I have USB wireless headset and switching between internal and USB based headphones works like charm.

Wireless

There is some serious issue with the driver which works with some networks, but when connecting to others it causes kernel panic even on latest kernel (only seen on certain WPA2 network, maybe you are lucky with your wifi router):

brcmfmac issue report bug report at kernel.org

Notes

This device is supported by fwupd, so you can easily queue a BIOS update from within Linux.
You should use a new as possible kernel to get good USB-C support, e.g. HDMI out via USB-C did not start working on resolutions over 720p before around kernel version 4.12
The best acpi_osi option seems to be 'acpi_osi="!Windows 2012"'. This works with Optimus, and makes you able to turn of the discrete nVIDIA card off or on with e.g. bbswitch. "!Windows 2015" is supported by the ACPI DSDT, but it makes the touchpad report itself as a device with a bus id "DLL06e4 PNP0f13" according to the PS/2 synaptics driver, and no driver (except the aforementioned old Synaptics PS/2 driver) seems to support this. The old PS/2 driver uses more power, and does not support all multitouch features, so it shouldn't be used.