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XPS 9560 woes

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tl5k5
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XPS 9560 woes

#1 Post by tl5k5 »

So I'm able to get Debian 9 installed on my new XPS 9560, but optimizing the graphics so that nVidia doesn't suck the battery dry is proving to be a real pain in the rear!
Any hope is for an easier ways to get this done? I've read through most of the workarounds on the forum and I don't want to have to do this much work under the hood. I've distro hopped like crazy earlier this year, and I love Debian...but this may cause me to look elsewhere. :-(
Any one have an easier way to get this done?

Thanks!

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#2 Post by stevepusser »

The hardware? If you install inxi and then report the hardware parts of the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -F
it may help.
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tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#3 Post by tl5k5 »

I've already tried Manjaro...it works great without much fuss. I'll run with it for a while and see what happens.
When I have time, I'll send the inxi info.

Thanks!

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#4 Post by tl5k5 »

Ok...running this from Manjaro just so you can see the hw...please help me find an easy way to get back to Debian.
I think the biggest problem is bumblebee running on Debian. The Manjaro maintainers seem to have done a lot of work getting bumblebee optimized. I only had to add acpi_rev_override=1 to grub and it's running smooth as silk with great battery life.

System: Host: 9560 Kernel: 4.14.5-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.6 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine: Device: laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 9560 serial: N/A
Mobo: Dell model: 05FFDN v: A00 serial: N/A
UEFI: Dell v: 1.6.2 date: 11/12/2017
Battery BAT0: charge: 53.8 Wh 56.1% condition: 95.9/97.0 Wh (99%)
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-7700HQ (-MT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
clock speeds: max: 3800 MHz 1: 2800 MHz 2: 2800 MHz 3: 2800 MHz
4: 2800 MHz 5: 2800 MHz 6: 2800 MHz 7: 2800 MHz 8: 2800 MHz
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 591b
Card-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile]
Display Server: N/A driver: intel tty size: 85x40
Audio: Card Intel CM238 HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.14.5-1-MANJARO
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
driver: ath10k_pci
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: x.x.x.x.x
Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros
IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives: HDD Total Size: 512.1GB (5.3% used)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: A400_NVMe_SanDisk_512GB size: 512.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 452G used: 8.8G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: swap-1 size: 18.34GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
fs: swap dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 230 Uptime: 7 min Memory: 1112.6/15898.0MB Init: systemd
Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.53

tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#5 Post by tl5k5 »

Anyone have good success with Debian on this XPS yet?
I'm ready to come back to my fav distro!

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#6 Post by 4D696B65 »

Your hardware is very new. Try installing testing/Buster.

tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#7 Post by tl5k5 »

Thanks @4D696B65, that's what I was trying back in December.
I found this link: https://www.pcsuggest.com/install-and-c ... in-debian/
Anyone have success with this yet?
I think the hardware is a year old now.

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#8 Post by stevepusser »

Kaby Lake seemed to be OK on the 4.9 kernel. Or you can try the newer kernels in stretch-backports. However, the OP never said if he installed firmware-misc-nonfree, which is required to get any performance from the newer Intel chipsets.

Since this an Optimus system, it should be using the Intel graphics by default...I don't know what the OP did to make them say that the Nvidia GPU was sucking all the power. They left that all out.
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tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#9 Post by tl5k5 »

I'm the OP.
Sorry, I assumed it would be "normal" for all the basics to be done and move forward with troubleshooting. Yes non-free debian was installed and which included firmware-misc-nonfree.
I have left Manjaro and I'm now back on Debian Buster. I couldn't take the instability, even thought Manjaro has good Optimus support.
I followed the guide I listed earlier: https://www.pcsuggest.com/install-and-c ... in-debian/
For some reason when I get to the following step, my system freezes: sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings
So now I've stopped just shy of this step and running as-is. Here's what I've found.
1: I no longer have a faint buzz coming from the laptop when certain graphical things would happen on screen i.e. moving across animated plank.
2: I seem to have just shy of 4 hours of battery life under light use.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get more battery life? In Manjaro I was getting at least double that battery life, but still not worth the stability headache.
Thanks!

System: Host: host Kernel: 4.14.0-3-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.6 (Gtk 3.22.28-1) Distro: Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid
Machine: Device: laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 9560 serial: N/A
Mobo: Dell model: 05FFDN v: A00 serial: N/A UEFI: Dell v: 1.7.0 date: 12/15/2017
Battery BAT0: charge: 92.9 Wh 100.0% condition: 92.9/97.0 Wh (96%)
model: LGC-LGC8.33 DELL 5XJ2879 status: Full
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-7700HQ (-MT-MCP-) arch: Skylake rev.9 cache: 6144 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 22464
clock speeds: max: 3800 MHz 1: 1000 MHz 2: 1022 MHz 3: 1016 MHz 4: 1000 MHz
5: 1000 MHz 6: 1015 MHz 7: 1005 MHz 8: 1026 MHz
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 591b bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile] bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 1920x1200@59.95hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 630 (Kaby Lake GT2)
version: 4.5 Mesa 17.3.6 Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Intel CM238 HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Card-2 C-Media Multimedia Headset [Gigaware by Ignition L.P.]
driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-014
Card-3 Dynex driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-008
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.14.0-3-amd64
Network: Card: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2992.6GB (60.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: A400_NVMe_SanDisk_512GB size: 512.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 23G used: 6.3G (30%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
ID-2: /boot size: 237M used: 76M (34%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-3: /var size: 9.2G used: 499M (6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-2
ID-4: /tmp size: 1.8G used: 477M (28%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-4
ID-5: /home size: 419G used: 221G (56%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-5
ID-6: swap-1 size: 17.02GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 318 Uptime: 21:35 Memory: 4809.6/15894.3MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0 Client: Shell (bash 4.4.181) inxi: 2.3.56

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#10 Post by stevepusser »

For some reason when I get to the following step, my system freezes: sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings
nvidia-kernel-dkms does have to build the modules for the running kernel from source, and that takes a bit of time, even on a fast machine. Do you get any output in the terminal from that command, or are you saying the whole interface just freezes solid?

Tlp plus powertop may also help with the power consumption. You can try running powertop and adjusting the tunables to "good". Tlp usually helps with just the default settings.
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tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#11 Post by tl5k5 »

The whole interface freezes...no mouse or anything.

What should I tune:
Bad VM writeback timeout
Bad NMI watchdog should be turned off
Bad Enable Audio codec power management
Bad Enable SATA link power management for host0
Bad Enable SATA link power management for host1
Bad Autosuspend for unknown USB device 1-7 (138a:0091)
Bad Autosuspend for USB device USB PnP Sound Device [C-Media Electronics Inc. ]
Bad Runtime PM for I2C Adapter i2c-1 (i915 gmbus dpc)
Bad Runtime PM for I2C Adapter i2c-2 (i915 gmbus dpb)
Bad Runtime PM for I2C Adapter i2c-3 (i915 gmbus dpd)
Bad Autosuspend for USB device USB [Generic]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device Apple Keyboard [Apple, Inc]
Bad Autosuspend for unknown USB device 1-4 (8087:0a2b)
Bad Autosuspend for USB device USB CrypToken [MARX]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge [JMicron]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device Kensington Eagle Trackball [Primax]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device AX88179 [ASIX Elec. Corp.]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device EPSON Scanner [EPSON]
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation CM238 HD Audio Controller
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile]
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS525A PCI Express Card
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA Controller [AHCI m
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Sandisk Corp WD Black NVMe SSD
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #
Bad Runtime PM for PCI Device Intel Corporation Device 591b
Bad Wake-on-lan status for device enx0050b60ee049


BTW...the faint buzz is back. Seems to only be when the battery is fully charged.

tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#12 Post by tl5k5 »

@stevepusser ran powertop while on my battery and only had 6 entries that were "bad".
I changed them to "Good" and my battery time jumped +2.5 hours while being completely idle.

BTW...does tlp run automatically after it's installed or do I need to set up a cron job?

Thanks for all the help on this!

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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#13 Post by stevepusser »

Tlp seems to run automatically, but might need a reboot. You can also fiddle with some parameters by editing it in /etc/default/tlp.

I help with the development of the Debian derivative, MX Linux, and we ship with tlp installed by default. I suspect its one of the reasons it gets good battery life in all the review. It did seem to be causing some issues with turning off some Bluetooth devices, so we have a newer tlp 1.1 version with a bluetooth blacklist setting changed by default that seems to cure that problem in the upcoming MX 17.1.

I also suspect that the later the kernel you have, the better the power saving features will be for new Intel hardware, unless those fixes were backported to the 4.9 kernel. The latest kernel in stretch-backports is 4.14.3, but that does not have all the Meltdown and Spectre hardening that you get with the 4.9 stock kernel, or a backported 4.15 kernel from upstream Debian (which is what we are going with for MX 17.1).
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tl5k5
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Re: XPS 9560 woes

#14 Post by tl5k5 »

Thanks for all the help.
I'm running Buster/Testing and 4.14.0-3.

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