Out with the old…

A few weeks ago, I started experiencing some issues with my five-year-old Dell XPS 13 9370 laptop. I had to start the machine with secure boot a couple of times, and the ekey was not very responsive anymore. Also, even though I had replaced the battery two years ago, its average lifetime was again starting to dwindle fast. Despite these issues, though, I had always been very happy with this machine, which is still a powerful model even by today's standards (Intel® Core™ i7–8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz x 4, 16 GB RAM).

However, my company has a policy that laptops can be replaced after five years. So, when my boss suggested I have some fun with the Dell catalog, who was I to argue? 😊

… in with the new

After some consideration, I ended up ordering a Dell XPS 15 9530:

which has really great specs:

• 13th Intel® Core™ i9–13900H (24 MB cache, 14 cores, up to 5,40 GHz Turbo)
• Windows 11 Home pre-installed
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070, 8 GB GDDR6
• 32 GB, 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 4800 MHz
• 1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
• 15.6", 3.5K 3456x2160, 60Hz, OLED, Touch, Anti-Reflect, 400 nit, InfinityEdge

Linux

I have been using Linux on my laptop ever since I got the XPS 13 some five years ago. In fact, it was the best piece of advice I got when I started my career switch to software engineering.

I have installed Linux Mint (and Ubuntu) on several machines in the past, including an old Macbook Pro (13", mid 2009) and my wife's HP 14s-dq1186nb, which I got to run Windows in dual boot. However, when installing the XPS 13, however, I messed something up (probably shrinking the Windows partition too much) and could only boot Linux after that.

That wasn't too bad, but I've had some pretty scary experiences too, including accidentally uninstalling the Windows boot loader (again messing up partitions, I presume) resulting in a laptop stuck in GRUB! Thanks to ye old Google, though, I was able to boot Windows from GRUB and then do a complete factory reset, wiping all drives.

Dual boot

So this time, I was determined to get the dual boot right, because even for a developer there is added value in having a Windows OS on your machine, namely for testing purposes and running proprietary software (like Belgium's eID card reader software which I wasn't able to run on Linux).

So I started the process following the official Dell installation manual for dual booting Windows 11 & Ubuntu:

Mistake #1: compatibility

However, as I read the Dell guide, I quickly realized my first mistake, i.e. not checking the Linux compatibility of my machine on the Canonical website. My heart sank when the XPS 15 9530 was not listed there and to make matters worse I found reviews on Reddit where several malfunctions were pointed out with Linux on the XPS 15:

Still, I soldiered on and began scouring the Internet for help with the installation. Luckily, I found this fantastic video by Alex Ziskind which took me through the whole process of the dual boot install:

Turns out, the installation itself wasn't too difficult, but still entailed some stuff I would not have gotten right by myself. I knew about having to disable secure boot, but what was certainly beyond me was having to change the BIOS storage settings from RAID (for booting Windows) to AHCI (for Linux), and tricking Windows in installing the necessary drivers to use AHCI!

So, thanks a million, Alex!

Mistake #2: panic

My second mistake involved another technical issue, but the main problem was me panicking, to be honest.

Having installed Linux, everything seemed to work fine (including audio which reviews had warned about — all be it with lesser quality), except for internet connection and hooking up an external monitor. Two rather crucial things, wouldn't you say?

As for the internet connection, after booting into Linux with an ethernet cable connected to the laptop, the "wired" protocol simply did not show up in the network settings (neither did wireless). At first, I tried setting up a Bluetooth internet hub to my phone, but then I had the good sense to unplug the ethernet cable and plug it back in — after which the OS picked up the signal and the connectivity issues were resolved! No biggie, but definitely a need to know thing…

By now, I was already sweating over this install more than a bit, but finally, the troubles seemed over. I casually hooked up my external monitor, only to find nothing happening. I quickly checked Mint's Driver Manager and installed the recommended Nvidia driver and rebooted … into a black screen.

I'm not afraid to admit that by now I was really panicking. The thought had crossed my mind before, but at this point I was really starting to fear I had broken this $2,500 machine…

Still, I pulled myself together and rebooted to an earlier kernel (luckily there was one installed!) in compatibility mode, which gave me the opportunity to uninstall the offending driver. But now I was stuck with using this beast of a laptop without an external monitor (and still no wireless either)…

Kernel upgrade

At this point, I knew I needed a time out. I've written about my struggles with anxiety and impostor syndrome before, so by now, I know when I've hit my limits and when I have to put in the emotional work, before I can tackle the technical.

So I talked to my wife and by chance I also had an appointment with my psychiatrist a day later. After taking a few days to work on my anxiety and calm down, I was ready to start again and, after some Googling, I found this advice on the Linux Mint Forums:

This pointed out that my hardware was too recent for the kernel I was using, so I promptly did a kernel upgrade (to 6.5). And as soon as it was finished my external monitor sprang into life. As did wireless, by the way…

So in the end, what I've learned most from this install is that sometimes you need a kernel upgrade, not only in software terms, but emotionally speaking too.

Working on software (and hardware!) can be a really stressful thing and it's that very stress that is our greatest enemy. It makes us doubt our own abilities and stifles our sense of adventure and creativity. Conquer stress and anxiety and you'll conquer any technical problem you want.

That's certainly my plan for future. What about you?

Hi! 👋R I'm Tom. I'm a software engineer, a technical writer and IT burnout coach. If you want to get in touch, check out https://tomdeneire.be