Alienware 15 - ArchWiki

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# Alienware 15

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This article or section does not follow the Laptop page guidelines.

Reason: Hardware table needs IDs, an accessibility and a function keys sections should be added. (Discuss in Talk:Alienware 15)

Hardware | PCI/USB ID | Working?
--- | --- | ---
GPU (Intel) |  | Yes
GPU (NVIDIA) |  | Yes
Touchpad |  | Yes
Camera |  | Yes
Wireless |  | Yes
Bluetooth |  | Yes
Ethernet |  | Yes
Card reader |  | Yes

For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop. For the macro keys, see extra keyboard keys

## Networking

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: This seems to be included in linux-firmware now. (Discuss in Talk:Alienware 15)

Install the supported driver for the QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter.

Download the board.bin file and put it into your firmware library:

    $ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/2.0/board.bin[dead link 2024-07-30 ⓘ]
    # mkdir -p /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/
    # mv board.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/

then download the specific firmware binary and move it into your firmware library:

    $ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/2.0/firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1[dead link 2024-07-30 ⓘ]
    # mv firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin

a reboot is needed to load these files.

## Video

Nvidia & Intel video card configuration: NVIDIA Optimus

### NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 965M]

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: "Currently" was 2016-03-31: is this still relevant? (Discuss in Talk:Alienware 15)

Currently not supported by Bumblebee (Tested on Alienware 15 R2) Please install only Intel driver via xf86-video-intel

### NVIDIA Corporation GP104M [GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile]

Make sure nvidia is installed, and install optimus-manager-gitAUR (do not use nvidia-prime).

This configuration supports an external display at high refresh rate, as well as gaming using proton/steam.

Before installing optimus-manager, backup and clear out `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` and `/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*` to avoid user reported freezes when booting.

Optimus manager should generate approximately

    /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-optimus-manager.conf

    Section "Files"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib/nvidia"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib32/nvidia"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib32/nvidia/xorg/modules"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib32/xorg/modules"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib64/nvidia/xorg/modules"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib64/nvidia/xorg"
    	ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
    EndSection

    Section "ServerLayout"
    	Identifier "layout"
    	Screen 0 "nvidia"
    	Inactive "integrated"
    EndSection

    Section "Device"
    	Identifier "nvidia"
    	Driver "nvidia"
    	BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    	Option "Coolbits" "28"
    EndSection

    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier "nvidia"
    	Device "nvidia"
    	Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    EndSection

    Section "Device"
    	Identifier "integrated"
    	Driver "modesetting"
    	BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
    EndSection

    Section "Screen"
    	Identifier "integrated"
    	Device "integrated"
    EndSection

Then you can switch GPUs using

    $ optimus-manager --switch nvidia

You can set the default GPU by editing `/etc/optimus-manager/optimus-manager.conf` and setting

    startup_mode=nvidia

You can copy `/usr/share/optimus-manager.conf` as a starting point.

## Control of the light colors

- Currently unsupported by pyAlienFx and alienfx[1] have some diff from previous version.
- Probably supported by alienware-kbl, a software to manage the light colors with a graphical interface, python or bash commands.

## Issues

### Audio

To switch to headphones after plugging them, create:

    /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

    options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1

## Alienware m15 r5 Ryzen Edition

This article or section is a candidate for moving to Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen.

Notes: This is a late addition to this page but would be a better fit in a dedicated page even if it would probably be a little short with only this section. (Discuss in Talk:Alienware 15)

It is possible on this laptop — since it uses Ampere graphics and Optimus — to use hybrid graphics in a power efficient manner. In order to do so, use optimus-manager on "hybrid" settings to generate an Xorg configuration file. To do this, use the following (be sure to use AMDGPU graphics, i.e. xf86-video-amdgpu):

    optimus-manager.conf

    [optimus]
    startup_mode=hybrid

    [amd]
    driver=amdgpu

    [nvidia]
    dynamic_power_management=fine

You will then have to generate correct udev rules to ensure the dedicated GPU will completely turn off when unused:

    /lib/udev/rules.d/80-nvidia-pm.rules

    # Enable runtime PM for NVIDIA VGA/3D controller devices on driver bind
    ACTION=="bind", SUBSYSTEM=="pci", ATTR{vendor}=="0x10de", ATTR{class}=="0x030000", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}="auto"
    ACTION=="bind", SUBSYSTEM=="pci", ATTR{vendor}=="0x10de", ATTR{class}=="0x030200", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}="auto"
    # Disable runtime PM for NVIDIA VGA/3D controller devices on driver unbind
    ACTION=="unbind", SUBSYSTEM=="pci", ATTR{vendor}=="0x10de", ATTR{class}=="0x030000", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}="on"
    ACTION=="unbind", SUBSYSTEM=="pci", ATTR{vendor}=="0x10de", ATTR{class}=="0x030200", TEST=="power/control",    ATTR{power/control}="on"

You can confirm this is properly working by rebooting the system and running the following command:

    cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/runtime_status

    suspended

You can then install nvidia-prime and use prime-run to run programs on the dedicated GPU.

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