Laptop Config Process (Catness)

Submitted by code_admin on Wed, 07/25/2018 - 15:14

Steps I followed when setting up my Laptop.

Laptop: Dell XPS 15
Spec:
Processor: 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Quad Core (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Installed OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Monitor: 15.6" 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge touch
Ram: 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133Mhz (16GBx2)
Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe Solid State Drive (Dell Part number 400-AJBS)
Graphics Chip: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M with 2GB GDDR5
Battery: (84Whr battery version)
Wireless: DW1830 3x3 802.11ac 2.4/5GHz + Bluetooth 4.1
Webcam: ??

Setup:
Dual boot, Debian Linux and Windows 10

Initial Disk setup

Partitions: 4
- 500MB Healthy (EFI System)
- OS (C:) 941.35GB NTFS Healthy (Boot, Pagee File, Crash Dum...)
- 450MB Healthy (Recovery)
- 11.46GB Healthy (Recovery Partition)

Windows Initial Install

Go through initial windows setup
used microsoft account rmetcalf9@outlook.com
Register with dell - use google account
Type "Recovery" - "Create a USB Recovery" - Created Labled and put in box
After creation went to BIOS (F2 with DELL Logo) and made Crossair USB first boot. Rebooted to verify USB was fine.
Removed USB and put in BOX
Checked System and Graphics card
Ram correct, Processors correct, etc.

Boot Windows
In This PC right click on OS (C:) and Optimize it (Didn't change shrink space)
Shrink as much as I can in Windows
Reboot
Worked but I can't shrink more.
(http://superuser.com/questions/88131/how-to-shrink-windows-7-boot-parti…)
Turn off Virtual memory - No Paging File (Changed from System Managed)
Turn off System Restore (Disable system protection)
Now I could shrink drive to desired size
Shrunk OS (C:) to 307.67 leaving 633.68GB Unallocated
Reboot to check it is working OK
turn restore and recovery back on
Add remove programs and remove:
Get Office
McAfee Live Safe
Microsoft Office
Other apps uninstalled by right clicking on start menu
Type NVidia in and use GeForce Experience to install latest driver
In windows rename PC to CATNESS-WIN

Change RAID to AHCI in BIOS
Reboot - windows will crash
Reboot windows into safe mode
(F8 on logo until you see Preparing Automatic Repair -> Advanced Options => Continue)
Went to lots of advanced options (didn't record)
It rebooted and then finally offered me safe mode
I Logged in
Browsed the hard disk
Then restarted into normal mode
It now works

Ubuntu Setup

Note: I tried installing Debian but I found that it did not have a recent enough kernel version for the network card.

I ended up using ubuntu-15.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Create bootable USB the same way I create a raspbian SD card. (Raspbian SD Setup)
Boot, press F2, disable secure boot and put USB to top of boot order.

(http://askubuntu.com/questions/708745/dell-xps-15-9550-doesnt-boot-14-0…)
Select Install Ubuntu from the boot menu
Press e
add the following to the end of the linux line
nouveau.modeset=0
press F10

Installation type: Something else

Many problems getting grub working.
Used https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair#A1st_option_:_get_a_disk_…
booted in live, connected to network then ran the following in terminal:

  1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
  2. sudo apt-get update
  3. sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

Advanced repair
Set options I thought would work
followed all the instructions
Ran suggested commands

Ended up manually adding the following entry in BIOS:
\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

Windows command suggested by boot-repair:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi

Ubuntu steps

Ran 15.10 update
This broke grub and I had to go back to the previous step.

Customize grub

Ubuntu Resolution is 3840x2160

System settings -> Screen Display -> Scale for menue and titles = 2

Bigger cursor
dconf-editor -> org.gnome.desktop.interface -> Cursor Size = 48
Dosn't work in chrome

Install chrome by going https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/browser/ with firefox
Download 64bit Open with install manager

Java - Installed Oracle Java 8 as per Java install

  1. sudo apt-get install git
  2. ssh-keygen

put public key into gitlab

  1. cd ~/bin/bookmark
  2. git clone **bookmark gitlab url**
  3. mv bookmark src
  4. cd ~/bin/bookmark/bm
  5. git clone **bookmark_personal gitlab url**
  6. cd ~/bin/bookmark/src
  7. ./run.sh

Make chrome new tab page file:///home/robert/bin/bookmark/output/index.htm

/usr/share/applications/chrome.desktop file has chrome launch options

eclipse - download from eclipse site

  1. cd /opt/ && sudo tar -zxvf ~/Downloads/eclipse-*.tar.gz
  2. gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
  1. [Desktop Entry]
  2. Name=Eclipse 4
  3. Type=Application
  4. Exec=/opt/eclipse/eclipse
  5. Terminal=false
  6. Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
  7. Comment=Integrated Development Environment
  8. NoDisplay=false
  9. Categories=Development;IDE;
  10. Name[en]=Eclipse

Set up First workspace as /home/robert/eclipse/PersonalServicesWorkspace

Download and double click on deb file.
Click on drop box in launcher
Sign in and it sets itself up

Set up Encrypted Volume Steps

Other Ubuntu unity desktop tweaks:
Preformance

  1. sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

Clasic menu

  1. sudo apt-add-repository ppa:diesch/testing
  2. sudo apt-get update
  3. sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

Had to launch "System Load Indicator" the first time then after it came up on reboot.

Network setup:
Made sure hostname was correct "cat /etc/hostname"
Edited hosts file for my network "sudo gedit /etc/hosts"

SSH Server setup

  1. sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Edit /etc/hosts.deny

  1. sshd: ALL

Edit /etc/hosts.allow

  1. sshd: 192.168.1.*

webserver connection
Created file ~/bin/memset with command to ssh to server because I can never remember details

Minecraft
setup minecraft in bin
downloaded it's jar and let it install itself
copyed my save from old machine
downloaded icon

  1. cd /usr/share/icons
  3. sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop
  1. [Desktop Entry]
  2. Name=Minecraft
  3. Comment=
  4. Exec=minecraft
  5. Icon=Minecraft_Block
  6. Terminal=false
  7. Type=Application
  8. StartupNotify=true

Ubuntu Tweak installed to setup file associations
Goto http://ubuntu-tweak.com/
Download
Open Deb file
Press Install
In app searched for file types. Tried to change XML document but didn't work

Microphone Problem

The microphone didn't work until I updated the Kernel to 4.3
Command to get kernel version

  1. uname -r

Site with info on installing Kernel: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/11/linux-kernel-4-3-released/
Commands to update

  1. cd /home/robert/Downloads
  5.  
  6. sudo dpkg -i *.deb

This adds entries in grub for the new kernel but didn't change the current boot. I used Grub Customizer to switch these about.
I then installed Sykpe following instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Skype

Failed Steps

Debian

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3r9a5t/linux_on_the_dell_xps_15_…
Had a problem with getting network card to work.
Used lspci and the output for the network card:
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 43ba (rec 01)

When prompted for network card set: ***brcmfmac

Making my own theme

apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
run it from command line:
gnome-tweak-tool
goto windows -> Window Scaling and change to 2

apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
ccsm

Title bar size - not happy with so creating a theme /usr/share/themes

Backups

GParted Screenshot

Windows 10 might kill partitions. poss solution: http://askubuntu.com/questions/655011/windows-10-upgrade-kills-grub-and…

Partition outputs also stored in my dropbox under /catness_info

Tags

RJM Article Type
Work Notes