Alienware 15

For a general overview of laptop-related articles and recommendations, see Laptop. For the macro keys, see extra keyboard keys

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
GPU (Intel)		Yes
GPU (NVIDIA)		Yes
Touchpad		Yes
Camera		Yes
Wireless		Yes
Bluetooth		Yes
Ethernet		Yes
Card reader		Yes

Networking

Install the supported driver for the QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter.

Download the board.bin file 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/

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

a reboot is needed to load these files.

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, backup and clear out /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/* to avoid user reported freezes when booting.

Optimus manager should generate approximately

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-optimus-manager.conf

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 GPUs using

$ optimus-manager --switch nvidia

You can set the default GPU by editing and setting

startup_mode=nvidia

You can copy as a starting point.

Control of the light colors

Currently unsupported by pyAlienFx and alienfx 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

Audio

To switch to headphones after plugging them, create:

Alienware m15 r5 Ryzen Edition

It is possible on this laptop — since it uses Ampere graphics and Optimus — to use hybrid graphics in a power efficient manner. In order to do so, use optimus-manager on "hybrid" settings to generate an Xorg configuration file. To do this, use the following (be sure to use AMDGPU graphics, i.e. ):

optimus-manager.conf

[optimus]
startup_mode=hybrid

[amd]
driver=amdgpu

[nvidia]
dynamic_power_management=fine

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

You can confirm this is properly working by rebooting the system and running the following command:

You can then install and use prime-run to run programs on the dedicated GPU.

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