Dell Latitude 7490

From ArchWiki

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

Reason: Needs a hardware table and an accessibility, firmware and function keys section (Discuss in Talk:Dell Latitude 7490)
Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard Yes
GPU 8086:5917 Yes
Webcam 0bda:568c Yes
Ethernet 8086:15d7 Yes
Bluetooth 168c:003e Yes
SD-card reader 10ec:525a Yes
Audio 8086:9d71 Yes
Wireless 168c:003e Yes
TPM Untested


The Latitude 7490 is virtually identical to the Dell Latitude 7480 with the exception of an upgrade to Kabylake-R processors (8th gen).

What works

  • Basic hardware (display, touchpad, trackpoint, keyboard, WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, audio, hibernation, etc.)
  • Keyboard backlight control
  • Screen backlight control
  • Fn/Hotkeys, including Fn-lock
  • Contact SmartCard reader
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon X7 LTE Modem
  • USB-C (connected to Android phone, was able to charge phone and read files)
  • USB-C power delivery
  • DisplayPort Alternate Mode for USB-C
  • USB-C Display port with D6000 docking station (triple screen with dual 4k works) + power delivery
  • Thunderbolt 3.0 (shows up in gnome-settings, works with Dell TB16 dock (Ethernet, DisplayPort @120hz, USB, power delivery, etc))

What does not work

What was not tested

  • Contactless SmartCard (probably works since it was detected by pcsc_scan
  • TPM 2.0 (There is an error in the output of dmesg, tpm tpm0: A TPM error (2314) occurred attempting the self test)

Function keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
Fn+Esc No Yes Enables Fn lock
Fn+F1 Yes Yes XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2 Yes Yes XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3 Yes Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4 Yes Yes Mute Microphone
Fn+F5 Yes Yes Num Lock
Fn+F6 Yes Yes Scroll Lock
Fn+F7 No No Unobtrusive mode
Fn+F8 Yes Yes Inputs Super+p
Fn+F9 Yes Yes XF86Search
Fn+F10 No Yes Enables/disables keyboard backlight
Fn+F11 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F12 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessUp
Fn+Print Yes3 Yes XF86RFKill, will hard-block wifi and soft-block Bluetooth. Press again to disable
Fn+Ins Yes3 No XF86Sleep
  1. The key is visible to xev and similar tools
  2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function
  3. systemd-logind handles this by default

Bluetooth

Do not set control to auto for bluetooth module (0cf3:e007), otherwise sound via bluetooth headset may tear when wifi is actively used. If you have TLP, set USB_EXCLUDE_BTUSB to 1.

It helps in some cases, but with some devices (e.g. CMF Buds Pro) none of any troubleshooting tips helped. Sound is choppy and unstable all the time.

Better solution might be replacing WiFi card, for example Intel WiFi. Unlike thinkpads there is no device whitelist, so there will no difficulties with replacing network card.

Accessibility

Note: Blind users should request the help of a sighted person to change firmware settings.

BIOS Settings Overview

The "BIOS Settings" interface can be reached by pressing F2 during POST.

The BIOS settings page itself is GUI based, with black text on a white background. There is a panel taking approximately 20% of the screen on the left, containing various sub-categories of settings. The main panel takes 80% of the screen to the right, and contains the settings associated with each sub-category. The font is relatively large, and toggle switches will appear as light grey if set to 'off', and turn light blue if set to 'on'.

The GUI does not have any built-in screen reader or other accessibility settings, but due to its simple colour scheme, and relatively large text size, it should be somewhat accessible for partially sighted people using an external screen reader as an accessibility aid. However, it is a GUI-based interface with lots of available settings, and lots of visual clutter in text form. As such it is likely to be difficult to navigate for people with severe visual impairment or total blindness, who are using an external reader alone. It is possible to enable/disable "Help Text", and "Advanced Setup" using two toggle switches that appear in the top left corner of the screen; disabling them should help reduce this clutter and improve readability (but may also hide useful info/settings!).

There are "Show all" and "Search" functions available towards the top right of the screen, which can ease navigation considerably.

The BIOS can be updated through the "One-Time Boot Menu" (press F12 during POST).

BIOS Settings Navigation

The "BIOS Settings" interface can be navigated using a keyboard, or mouse - with mouse being the preferred mode. Keyboard navigation keys are as follows:

Key Effect
Up Moves to the previous field.
Down Moves to the next field.
Enter Selects a value in the selected field (if applicable) or follow the link in the field.
Space Expands or collapses a drop-down list, if applicable.
Tab Moves to the next focus area
PageUp Scrolls the currently selected view up.
PageDown Scrolls the currently selected view down.
Esc Moves to the previous page until you view the main screen. Pressing Esc in the main screen displays a message that prompts you to save any unsaved changes and restarts the system.