Dell XPS 13 (9300) - ArchWiki

# Dell XPS 13 (9300)

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Device | Status | Modules
Video | Working | i915
Wireless | Working | iwlwifi
Bluetooth | Working | btusb
Audio | Working | snd_hda_intel
Touchpad | Working | hid_multitouch
Card Reader | Working | rtsx_pci
Webcam | Working | uvcvideo
Infrared Camera Authentication | Working | N/A
USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 | Working | thunderbolt
Function/Multimedia Key | Working | ?
Fingerprint sensor | Not working | ?

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- Dell XPS 13 (9370)

The Dell XPS 13 Early 2020 (9300) is the eigth-generation model of the XPS 13 line.

The installation process for Arch on the XPS 13 does not differ from any other PC. For installation help, please see the Installation guide and UEFI.

## UEFI

Before installing it is necessary to modify some UEFI Settings. They can be accessed by pressing the F12 key repeatedly when booting.

- Change the SATA Mode from the default "RAID" to "AHCI". This will allow Linux to detect the NVME SSD. If dual booting with an existing Windows installation, Windows will not boot after the change but this can be fixed without a reinstallation.
- Disable secure boot to allow Linux to boot.

Booting and installing from a microSD card is possible, as long as SD Card and SD Card Boot are both enabled in the UEFI setup.

- For proper S3 deep sleep wakeup (see section #Power Management) disable Dell Logo Sign of Life under the POST behaviour category.

## Firmware/BIOS Updates

Dell provides firmware updates via Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS). Refer to Flashing BIOS from Linux#fwupd for additional information. A package is readily available at fwupd. As of 17/04/2020, firmware update v1.0.7 fixes a bug where the display would not turn on on its own after waking up form suspend after opening the lid.

Alternatively, for the BIOS update, you can simply copy the .exe file from the Dell Support page to any fat32 drive (even the boot partition seems to work). Then boot into the "BIOS Flash Update" utility by hitting F12 at boot time.

## Display

The video should work with the `i915` driver of the current linux kernel. Consult Intel graphics for a detailed installation and configuration guide as well as for Intel graphics#Troubleshooting.

If you installed xf86-video-intel and experienced hanging/freezing when launching Xorg, or when launching apps with GPU Acceleration (such as kitty and alacritty), try uninstalling xf86-video-intel and let Xorg fallback to modesetting driver.

When using modesetting driver, Backlight#xbacklight may produce `No outputs have backlight property`. Replacing xorg-xbacklight with acpilight fixes the problem.

## Power Management

If the laptop seems to have an high drain when in sleep mode. As a possible workaround, you can set the machine to enter S3 deep sleep mode. Add `mem_sleep_default=deep` to the Kernel parameters and disable "Display Logo Sign of Life" under POST Behavior in BIOS setup.

The touchscreen has been reported to stop working after waking up from S3 deep sleep mode.

For reducing drain while running on battery power, refer to Power management. TLP is a userspace tool that is popular and has been reported to work well.

## Wifi

The laptop comes with an AX1650 Killer wifi card soldered to the motherboard (not replaceable). It should work out of the box with kernel 5.6.2+. A reddit user reported that their card did not work with kernel versions 5.4.30 or 5.5.

## Infrared camera

The infrared camera can be used as an authentication method with howdyAUR.

Warning: As said in howdy documentation, "DO NOT USE HOWDY AS THE SOLE AUTHENTICATION METHOD FOR YOUR SYSTEM."

The configuration file is located at `/lib/security/howdy/config.ini`. The device should be configured like this : `device_path = /dev/video2` .

Please refer to Howdy to find which /dev/videoX corresponds to your IR camera and for troubleshooting.

Note: After installing howdy, you should tweak the configuration file to find the settings that work best for you. I personally found much better results by increasing `dark_threshold` all the way to 80 or 90. Please read the config file carefully.

## Thunderbolt

The following thunderbolt devices have been tested:

Device | Status | Comments
Dell DA200 | Working | -
Dell DA300 | Working | -
Dell WD19 130W | Working | -

## Fingerprint Reader

The Dell store page of the developer edition reports that linux support for the fingerprint reader will come mid-2020. When that happens, this section will be updated.

Category:

- Dell