Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9365)

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Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard Yes
Touchscreen Yes
GPU 8086:591e Yes
Webcam 0bda:58c8 Yes
Bluetooth 8087:0a2b Yes
SD-card reader 10ec:525a Yes
Audio 8086:9d71 Yes
Wireless 8086:24fd Yes
Fingerprint reader 138a:0091 Yes

The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9365) is the early 2017 model. It can be used like a tablet when folding the display on the back. The touchscreen works out of the box.

Installation

BIOS configuration

Bios can be accessed with F2 or F12 on DELL logo boot screen.

With Bios version 1.1.0 or 1.3.1 to 2.1.2 you have to set sata operation to AHCI first and then uncheck in Advanced Boot options -> Legacy ROM.[1]

Note:
  • In RAID mode the BIOS/UEFI is able to see the internal drive and is able to boot from it. It is possible to boot Archiso in RAID mode, but it cannot see the internal drive.
  • In AHCI mode the BIOS/UEFI with Legacy ROM activated is not able to see the internal drive. If you try to boot it will fail and display an error that no harddrive is installed.
  • In AHCI mode the BIOS/UEFI with Legacy ROM deactivated is able to see the internal drive and therefore boot from it and Archiso is able to see the drive too. With these settings you can install and boot arch.

It is also needed to set the following settings [2] :

  • UEFI network stack - disabled
  • Secure Boot - disabled
  • SATA operations - AHCI
  • Legacy ROM - disabled
  • POST Behaviour : Fastboot - minimal (if not, BIOS is really slow, and cannot boot to any mediums)
Note:
  • Some changes in BIOS might reset other settings. Check your BIOS settings twice.
  • Those settings are working as of 2018/11/28

Accessibility

The UEFI settings menu requires the use of a mouse.

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

Firmware

fwupd does support this device.


Secure Boot

The UEFI supports custom keys.


Firmware data path

The BIOS stores logs in esp/EFI/Dell.

Logs

esp/EFI/Dell/logs contains XML files which contain diagnostics data (SupportAssist). It appears that there will only be two logs at the same time, diags_previous.xml and diags_current.xml. Those files will be created when an error happened.

Example log (diags_previous.xml): 

diags_previous.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
    <Schema>1.0.0</Schema>
    <LogNumber>47</LogNumber>
    <LogTimeStamp>03/07/2024 18:18:49</LogTimeStamp>
    <ePSA_Data>
      <Result>Not Reported</Result>
      <ReturnCode>BOOT_HOST_OS</ReturnCode>
      <ePSAFullVersion>2.27</ePSAFullVersion>
      <ePSAInvocationCount>1</ePSAInvocationCount>
    </ePSA_Data>
    <BIOS_Data>
      <ErrorCategory>BATTERY</ErrorCategory>
      <ErrorMessage><![CDATA[WARNING: Battery is critically low.
]]></ErrorMessage>
      <FRU_String><![CDATA[Unknown Battery]]></FRU_String>
      <SOS_Available>FALSE</SOS_Available>
      <TimeOutSeconds>0</TimeOutSeconds>
    </BIOS_Data>
  </SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>

Another example log (diags_current.xml): 

diags_current.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
    <Schema>1.0.0</Schema>
    <LogNumber>48</LogNumber>
    <LogTimeStamp>01/01/2012 00:00:44</LogTimeStamp>
    <ePSA_Data>
      <Result>Not Reported</Result>
      <ReturnCode>BOOT_HOST_OS</ReturnCode>
      <ePSAFullVersion>2.27</ePSAFullVersion>
      <ePSAInvocationCount>1</ePSAInvocationCount>
    </ePSA_Data>
    <BIOS_Data>
      <ErrorCategory>DISPLAY_ONLY</ErrorCategory>
      <ErrorMessage><![CDATA[Time-of-day not set - please run SETUP program.
]]></ErrorMessage>
      <SOS_Available>FALSE</SOS_Available>
      <TimeOutSeconds>0</TimeOutSeconds>
    </BIOS_Data>
  </SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>

Troubleshooting

Suspend issues

This model only supports the S0ix sleep mode, see Power management/Suspend and hibernate#Changing suspend method.

Screen not rotating

You need to install iio-sensor-proxy for automatic screen rotation to work.

Reduce throttling

Note: It is recommended to use the intel_pstate driver with active HWP which should be default. Passive mode with 'schedutil' governor can also solve the throttling issue but it tends to keep the CPU in high frequency states even while idle which increases power consumption.

On battery the device runs noticeably slower. This goes even as far as that scrolling a web browser can get stuttery while perfectly fluid when connected to a charger. It might be an issue with the performance preference of the CPU. If 

$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy?/energy_performance_preference

reports default or balance_power it can cause the CPU to be limited in its maximum clockspeed and performance. This is expected from 'balance_power'. 'default' means the manufacturer's own settings are active but those seem to limit performance on battery quite a lot. You can change it to 'balance_performance' or 'performance' to get a higher performance at a increased power consumption. When you try the different options and use a stress test you can observe that on 'default', 'balance_power' and 'power' the maximum CPU frequency is limited. 'balance performance' should still allow for maximum frequency while still allowing some power saving. You can change it permanently with 

/etc/tmpfiles.d/energy_performance_preference.conf
w /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy?/energy_performance_preference - - - - balance_performance

A way to save some power is to increase the energy performance bias. 

/etc/tmpfiles.d/energy_performance_bias.conf
w /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/power/energy_perf_bias - - - - 15

It controls how aggressive power saving mechanisms work without decreasing performance too much.

Function Keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
Fn+Esc No Yes Enables Fn lock
Fn+F1 No Yes XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2 No Yes XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3 No Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4 No Yes XF86AudioPrev
Fn+F5 No Yes XF86AudioPlay
Fn+F6 No Yes XF86AudioNext
Fn+F3 No Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F3 No Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F9 Yes Yes XF86Search
Fn+F10 No Yes Toggles keyboard backlight
Fn+F11 No Yes Print screen
Fn+F12 No Yes Insert
Fn+F12 No Yes XF86RFKill
  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

See also