Defiance II (15.6 inch) with Ubuntu 15.10

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Mnemonic

Bronze Level Poster
I'm thinking of purchasing the Defiance II (15.6") with 32GB of RAM and a 480GB SSD (standard SATA SSD, not the M2). Just wanted to know if anyone has been able to install Ubuntu (preferably 15.10) on this laptop, and if so, how they did it, what problems were encountered (if any) etc...

Thanks in advance, any information would be really appreciated.

UPDATE: I have taken the plunge and purchased the Defiance II with the following spec:

Chassis and display: Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 3K IPS LED Widescreen (2880x1620)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6820HK (2.7GHz, 3.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM): 32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
Hard Disk: 500GB Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

I will fully detail my experience and provide a step-by-step guide on installing Linux on this unit here (if I'm successful).
 
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allanon1983

Member
I've recently ordered a Defiance II with similar specs ( currently in pre-production ). Mine is going to have a Samsung M2 nvme drive though.
I am planning to install either Manjaro, Korora, or Mint on it, depending on which works best.
Manjaro would be the best. They say on the forums that it will work if I use the latest kernel ( 4.4 ).
 
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TabascoJunkie

Member
I bought a Defiance II with similar specs a few months back and I just have to warn you that the 3K screen, while beautiful, has been an absolute nightmare for me using Linux due to the lack of high DPI support in many apps. The Desktop Environments themselves seem to handle things okay now but the problem is that many apps were built assuming a lower pixel density than what we have in our 3K screens and they don't scale properly when run. The following link explains this better and has some helpful tweaks:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2911...op-look-good-on-high-resolution-displays.html

Anyway had I known how much trouble this would cause I would have just got the regular 1080p panel.

Best of luck.
 
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TabascoJunkie

Member
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Mnemonic

Bronze Level Poster
TabascoJunkie said:
...I just have to warn you that the 3K screen, while beautiful, has been an absolute nightmare for me using Linux due to the lack of high DPI support in many apps...
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for sharing this! It's not too late for me to amend my order, so I might just do so. I have a Dell M3800 running Ubuntu 15.10 at the moment, so will set the resolution to 3K and see what it looks like (it's also a 15 inch display).

UPDATE: I'm typing this on my Dell M3800 in 2560 x 1620 resolution (15.6 inch display), and while it's small, it's still readable. I think I'm going to stick with the 3K display for now, and just use it in 1920 x 1080 mode if it gets too annoying (or I find myself visiting an optometrist within weeks of purchasing my laptop). Hopefully Linux will soon be able to handle high DPI screens.

As for Windows 7 - I have no need/desire whatsoever to install it.
 
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TabascoJunkie

Member
Mnemonic said:
Thanks so much for sharing this! It's not too late for me to amend my order, so I might just do so. I have a Dell M3800 running Ubuntu 15.10 at the moment, so will set the resolution to 3K and see what it looks like (it's also a 15 inch display).

UPDATE: I'm typing this on my Dell M3800 in 2560 x 1620 resolution (15.6 inch display), and while it's small, it's still readable. I think I'm going to stick with the 3K display for now, and just use it in 1920 x 1080 mode if it gets too annoying (or I find myself visiting an optometrist within weeks of purchasing my laptop). Hopefully Linux will soon be able to handle high DPI screens.

As for Windows 7 - I have no need/desire whatsoever to install it.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you just changed the resolution on a FHD screen? I'm not sure that's going to replicate what happens on a 3K screen without scaling but whatever. However, you should know that you can't just downscale your 3K screen to 1920x1080 because it goes blurry. You actually have to downscale the resolution by half if you want to downscale without it blurring, and then it looks horrible anyway. As I said before though, the Desktop Environments themselves scale pretty good on high DPI screens now so they will look fine once you enable their inbuilt DPI scaling. However, it's just many apps that you install that aren't DPI aware that will be a problem. I've attached a screenshot of the PlayOnLinux window as an example to show you the kind of thing you'll run into. But hey it might not be a big deal for you but just so you're aware.

PlayOnLinux.png

On a separate note, in reference to allanon1983's post above, I also have the Samsung NVME in my Defiance II and I can confirm it's all good. I haven't had any issues with it even prior to kernel 4.4 when using Arch and Linux Mint.
 
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Mnemonic

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks for all the info TabscoJunkie! In regards to my Dell M3800 - it has a 4K display. I just set it to 2K to give me an idea about how small the text would be in the terminal and other applications. After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to go with a full HD panel instead. I just don't want to go through the hassle of scaling issues. I have amended my order, I just hope it doesn't extend the estimated delivery date (which is already the 8th Feb, I ordered on the 16th Jan).

I'll stick with the standard SSD for now. I may upgrade in the future.

Quick question: what graphics driver are you running? The proprietary driver from nVidia? Are you able to swap between the nVidia GPU and the Intel graphics? Can you turn off the nVidia GPU to save battery?

Once again, thanks so much for sharing your experience with Linux and the Defiance II. I feel much less anxious now about my decision to purchase the Defiance II.
 
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TabascoJunkie

Member
Ah right so you're using the 4K version of the M3800. Have you not had high DPI issues already on Ubuntu then? Anyway you made a wise decision, Linux just isn't there yet when it comes to broad high DPI support. The good thing about these laptops is you can always buy a 3K/4K panel further down the line and swap the screen yourself when the situation becomes better. Personally I'm considering purchasing a FHD panel and shelving my 3K panel for a year or two until high DPI screens become the norm and Linux devs take them into account. At the moment though I've just got my Defiance hooked up to an external FHD screen so that gets around the issue.

Regarding the nVidia driver, I'm currently using the proprietary driver and using only the dedicated GPU. I had some issues using switchable graphics with bumblebee and nouveau due to the lack of proper support for the onboard Intel HD graphics which is why I just settled for the proprietary driver, however I think these may be fixed with the latest kernel and drivers. Also, with the proprietary nVidia driver you get a nice nVidia control panel with many tweaking options and it works well. I guess it depends how you use your machine though, if it's sitting in one place plugged in all the time then the dGPU option is the best, otherwise yeah you don't want to be burning through your battery during general usage.

Regarding the switching, yes you can actually switch in the BIOS between hybrid graphics and only dedicated GPU. This is also means btw that we should not have an issue using the Oculus Rift further down the line!

Anyway happy to help out mate so let me know if you have any more questions. It's a real nice machine, you'll love it!
 
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Mnemonic

Bronze Level Poster
Hi TabascoJunkie: How did you get the Defiance II working when the graphics was set to Hybrid mode? I can only get it working in "Dedicated GPU" mode. Whenever I switch to Hybrid in the BIOS, the OS soon freezes up. I couldn't even install Ubuntu 15.10 when the graphics mode was set to Hybrid in the BIOS. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use the Intel graphics when I need extra battery life.
 
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TabascoJunkie

Member
Mnemonic said:
Hi TabascoJunkie: How did you get the Defiance II working when the graphics was set to Hybrid mode? I can only get it working in "Dedicated GPU" mode. Whenever I switch to Hybrid in the BIOS, the OS soon freezes up. I couldn't even install Ubuntu 15.10 when the graphics mode was set to Hybrid in the BIOS. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use the Intel graphics when I need extra battery life.
Click to expand...

Yeah I had loads of problems with hybrid as well. What kernel version are you using at the moment? Can you try adding the following line to your boot parameters in GRUB and see if it helps:

i915.preliminary_hw_support=1
 
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