Translation(s): none

DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owners would know how get the best out of that hardware.

The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware.

Models covered
Inspiron 17 5765

Sub-models (i5765-2764) options :
- AMD A12-9700P Radeon R7 (two other options are available and may considerably alter configurations related to graphics)
- Screen size: 17.3"
- Wireless card: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377
- 1 or 2 TB disk
- 8 or 16 GB RAM

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{i}

LAN network card:

{OK}

Detect CD/DVD:

{OK}

Detect hard drives:

{OK}

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

{OK}

Hibernation

/!\

Sleep / Suspend

/!\

Xorg

{OK}

- OpenGL

{OK}

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

[?]

Switch to External Screen

[?]

Mouse

- Built-in (Trackpoint)

[-]

- Built-in (Touchpad)

{OK}

Modem

{OK}

Wireless/Wifi

[Untested with non-proprietary driver]

Keyboard's Hotkeys

[?]

Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Before Installing

To set up dual boot I recommend shrinking the pre-installed partition from within the Windows GUI to avoid clobbering an unmovable file.

Reboot and enter the BIOS with f2. Go to the Advanced tab, select ?SupportAssist System Resolution, and set Threshold to "off" and OS Recovery to "disabled". Otherwise the BIOS seems to try restoring the Windows boot manager on reboot.

Next, go to the Boot tab and disable secure boot, which appears to be unsupported.

During partitioning I just created a root partition and a swap space. No special care was needed to boot with EFI, Grub took care of everything. I chose to install the LXDE environment.

Booting

Once you try to boot you may see the messages: 

tmp_crb MSFT 0101:00 can't request region for resource
sps5100_tco I/O address already in use
kfd kfd initialized module fb: switching to amdgpudrmfb from EFI VGA

Followed by a freeze. The first message is related to the TPM module, and the third one seems to indicate a modesetting problem. To prevent the freeze, press e over the Debian option in Grub. Find the line that starts with the word "linux" and append the new word "nomodeset" to the end. Installing the proprietary firmware will make this step unnecessary.

If you choose to install proprietary firmware for this computer, begin by adding "non-free" after the word "main" in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Then run apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade and install the packages: firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-atheros firmware-realtek

CPU temperature is not accessible by normal means. The package i8kutils allows you to check the temperature with the command "i8kctl temp". This package may be necessary for automatic fan speed adjustments, as I did not hear them come on before installing it.

Configuration

Display

The display name is eDP. To save the battery you may want to lower the brightness: 

xrandr --output eDP --brightness 0.7

The AMD R7 Bristol Ridge graphics perform very well with the amdgpu driver which is automatically installed.

Audio

You may want to change the default port from laptop speakers to headphone jack with the command: 

pactl set-sink-port 0 analog-output-headphones

Add this somewhere that gets executed after Pulse Audio starts, such as your Window Manager's startup script.

Touchpad

If you do not have a suitable GUI available for configuring the touchpad, the following may be added to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-touchpad.conf 

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "touchpad"
    Driver "libinput"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    Option "Tapping" "on"
    Option "ScrollMethod" "edge"
    Option "AccelSpeed" "1.0"
    Option "TappingButtonMap" "lrm"
EndSection

Power Management

Suspend state is immediately woken up, I'm still trying to get this to work.

Keyboard backlight can be turned off with 

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness

See the "Booting" section above for information on fans and CPU temperature.

WiFi

The wireless card is in the ath10k family.

wicd failed to add the wireless interface name automatically. You must start wicd and add the wireless interface name before scanning for networks. One way to get the interface name is by running "iwconfig" as root.

Keyboard

Note that this keyboard is missible several common keys such as the menu key, which I had previously used in a number of key bindings. You may wish to use xmodmap to use caps lock as a replacement. An example of how to do this is included on this page: http://www.blogbyben.com/2016/08/tweaking-ratpoison-less-mouse-less.html

System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1576]
00:00.2 IOMMU [0806]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1577]
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Carrizo [1002:9874] (rev c9)
00:01.1 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini HDMI/DP Audio [1002:9840]
00:02.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157b]
00:02.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157c]
00:02.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157c]
00:03.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157b]
00:03.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157c]
00:08.0 Encryption controller [1080]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1578]
00:09.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157d]
00:09.2 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:157a]
00:10.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller [1022:7914] (rev 20)
00:11.0 SATA controller [0106]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [1022:7901] (rev 49)
00:12.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller [1022:7908] (rev 49)
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller [1022:790b] (rev 4a)
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge [1022:790e] (rev 11)
00:14.7 SD Host controller [0805]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SD Flash Controller [1022:7906] (rev 01)
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1570]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1571]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1572]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1573]
00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1574]
00:18.5 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device [1022:1575]
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 07)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0042] (rev 31)

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null 

Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0c45:6a06 Microdia 
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  iProduct                1 Integrated_Webcam_HD
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
  bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class
  bDeviceProtocol       255 Vendor Specific Protocol
  iProduct                2 USB2.0-CRW
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0438:7900 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                0 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         3 
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0cf3:e009 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.