nixos-hardware/dell/xps/15-7590
Jörg Thalheim 6587634ad8
xps/15-7590: don't enable unfree firmware by default
Also don't set nixpkgs.pkgs. Instead just add an overlay.
2020-02-09 08:40:38 +00:00
..
default.nix xps/15-7590: don't enable unfree firmware by default 2020-02-09 08:40:38 +00:00
README.wiki xps/15-7590: don't enable unfree firmware by default 2020-02-09 08:40:38 +00:00

= Dell XPS 15 7590 =
*Mostly copied from 15-9550

== Tested Hardware ==

* CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9980HK
* RAM: 32 GB
* HDD: 1 TiB SSD
* Screen: 15" 4k (3840✕2160)
* Input: Touchscreen and trackpad.

== Firmware Configuration ==

Not much tweaking of NixOS itself was needed. But we currently cannot automate the firmware setup, so this must be done by hand.

=== Before installation ===

These settings are needed both for booting the final install, and installer itself. Therefore, they must be done first.

* ''Disable Secure Boot (but keep UEFI Boot).'' Thankfully doing so is as easy as changing any other simple setting.

* ''Disable Intel hardware RAID and use AHCI instead.'' Intel doesn't seem to provide a working linux driver for this.  (If you just have SSD it's pointless and just slows things down needlessly anyways.)

=== Wifi ===
~~Wifi does not work with kernels older than 5.1 (firmware not present) or newer~~ (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=247705)

Update: The 48.ucode causes the Killer wifi card to crash. The iwlfwifi-cc-a0-46.ucode works perfectly. 
default.nix contains an overlay that removes the offending ucode from the linux-firmware bundle.
To use it one also needs to enable unfree firmware in their own configuration (<code>hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware = true;</code>)

```
  # Use the systemd-boot EFI boot loader.
  boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
  boot.loader.grub = {
    device = "nodev";
    efiSupport = true;
    efiInstallAsRemovable = true;
  };
  boot.loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
  boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_5_1;
```
Disable the `canTouchEfiVariables` after a boot or two to prevent NVRAM wearout.


=== After installation ===

* ''Add systemd-boot to UEFI boot list.'' The (uneditable anyways) settings mapping drive UUIDs to HD* work fine.

=== Optional ===

* ''Update BIOS.'' According to Reddit, this helps with battery life.

=== Troubleshooting ===