Alienware 15

Device	Status	Modules
Intel	Working	xf86-video-intel
Nvidia	Working	nouveau or nvidia
Touchpad	Working	xf86-input-synaptics
Camera	Working	linux-uvc
Wi-Fi	Working	iwlwifi
Bluetooth	Working	btusb
Ethernet	Working	alx
Card reader	Working	rtsx_usb

For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop

Networking

Wi-Fi & Bluetooth:

Intel Corporation Wireless 7265

Wi-Fi - Supported out-of-the-box Bluetooth - TODO Wired ethernet:

Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter

As of the main website you can install the supported driver for QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter.

First download the board.bin file via wget and put it into your firmware library:

$ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/2.0/board.bin
# mkdir -p /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/
# mv board.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/

and 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
# mv firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin

then reboot and you are good to go.

Input

Suported out-of-the-box

See more at: Synaptics

Keyboard: For Macro keys - see : Extra keyboard keys

NOTE: Keyboard does not have Menu key.

Video

Nvidia & Intel video card configuration: NVIDIA Optimus

NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 965M]

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^AUR (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 you should probably backup and clear out¹ /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*

Optimus manager should generate /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-optimus-manager.conf with contents similar to:

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 GPU's 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.

_{1. I experienced freezes when booting with existing X11 configuration. However after clearing these files and installing optimus-manager it was resolved.}

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

Sound do not switch to headphone, after plug jack

For fix: Add

'options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1' 

to

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

Alienware 15 R3

Xorg freezes when starting with discrete graphics card OFF.

For fix: Add

 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"

to Kernel options.

When booting mine did not freeze. However when trying to enable a second monitor, running xrandr, or anything related to low level display functionality it would. This fix makes multi-monitor work.

Alienware m15 r5 Ryzen Edition

It is possible on this laptop, since it uses Ampere integrated graphics and Advanced Optimus, to use hybrid graphics in a power efficient manner. In order to do so, I suggest using optimus-manager on "hybrid" settings to generate an Xorg configuration file. To do this, you should use the following optimus-manager.conf

Be sure to use amdgpu graphics (install xf86-video-amdgpu).

[optimus]
startup_mode=hybrid

[amd]
driver=amdgpu

[nvidia]
dynamic_power_management=fine

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

# 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"

This can be put as /lib/udev/rules.d/80-nvidia-pm.rules

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  

Which should return:

suspended

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