Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9365)

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Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
Touchpad
Yes
Keyboard
Yes
Touchscreen
Yes
GPU
8086:591e
Yes
Webcam
0bda:58c8
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:0a2b
Yes
SD-card reader
10ec:525a
Yes
Audio
8086:9d71
Yes
Wi-Fi
8086:24fd
Yes
Fingerprint reader
138a:0091
Yes
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9365) is the early 2017 model. It can be used like a tablet when folding the display on the back. The touchscreen works out of the box.
Installation
BIOS configuration
Bios can be accessed with F2 or F12 on DELL logo boot screen.
With Bios version 1.1.0 or 1.3.1 to 2.1.2 you have to set sata operation to AHCI first and then uncheck in Advanced Boot options -> Legacy ROM.
[1]
Note
In RAID mode the BIOS/UEFI is able to see the internal drive and is able to boot from it. It is possible to boot Archiso in RAID mode, but it cannot see the internal drive.
In AHCI mode the BIOS/UEFI with Legacy ROM activated is not able to see the internal drive. If you try to boot it will fail and display an error that no harddrive is installed.
In AHCI mode the BIOS/UEFI with Legacy ROM deactivated is able to see the internal drive and therefore boot from it and Archiso is able to see the drive too. With these settings you can install and boot arch.
It is also needed to set the following settings
[2]
:
UEFI network stack - disabled
Secure Boot - disabled
SATA operations - AHCI
Legacy ROM - disabled
POST Behaviour : Fastboot -
minimal
(if not, BIOS is really slow, and cannot boot to any mediums)
Note
Some changes in BIOS might reset other settings. Check your BIOS settings twice.
Those settings are working as of 2018/11/28
Accessibility
The UEFI settings menu requires the use of a mouse.
Note
Blind users should request the help of a sighted person to change BIOS settings
Firmware
fwupd
does
support this device.
Secure Boot
The UEFI supports custom keys.
Firmware data path
The BIOS stores logs in
esp/EFI/Dell
.
Logs
esp/EFI/Dell/logs
contains XML files which contain diagnostics data (SupportAssist).
It appears that there will only be two logs at the same time,
diags_previous.xml
and
diags_current.xml
.
Those files will be created when an error happened.
Example log (
diags_previous.xml
):
diags_previous.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
    <Schema>1.0.0</Schema>
    <LogNumber>47</LogNumber>
    <LogTimeStamp>03/07/2024 18:18:49</LogTimeStamp>
    <ePSA_Data>
      <Result>Not Reported</Result>
      <ReturnCode>BOOT_HOST_OS</ReturnCode>
      <ePSAFullVersion>2.27</ePSAFullVersion>
      <ePSAInvocationCount>1</ePSAInvocationCount>
    </ePSA_Data>
    <BIOS_Data>
      <ErrorCategory>BATTERY</ErrorCategory>
      <ErrorMessage><![CDATA[WARNING: Battery is critically low.
]]></ErrorMessage>
      <FRU_String><![CDATA[Unknown Battery]]></FRU_String>
      <SOS_Available>FALSE</SOS_Available>
      <TimeOutSeconds>0</TimeOutSeconds>
    </BIOS_Data>
  </SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
Another example log (
diags_current.xml
):
diags_current.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
    <Schema>1.0.0</Schema>
    <LogNumber>48</LogNumber>
    <LogTimeStamp>01/01/2012 00:00:44</LogTimeStamp>
    <ePSA_Data>
      <Result>Not Reported</Result>
      <ReturnCode>BOOT_HOST_OS</ReturnCode>
      <ePSAFullVersion>2.27</ePSAFullVersion>
      <ePSAInvocationCount>1</ePSAInvocationCount>
    </ePSA_Data>
    <BIOS_Data>
      <ErrorCategory>DISPLAY_ONLY</ErrorCategory>
      <ErrorMessage><![CDATA[Time-of-day not set - please run SETUP program.
]]></ErrorMessage>
      <SOS_Available>FALSE</SOS_Available>
      <TimeOutSeconds>0</TimeOutSeconds>
    </BIOS_Data>
  </SupportAssistPrebootDiagnosticLog>
Troubleshooting
Suspend issues
This model only supports the S0ix sleep mode, see
Power management/Suspend and hibernate#Changing suspend method
.
Screen not rotating
You need to install
iio-sensor-proxy
for automatic screen rotation to work.
Reduce throttling
Note
It is recommended to use the intel_pstate driver with active HWP which should be default. Passive mode with 'schedutil' governor can also solve the throttling issue but it tends to keep the CPU in high frequency states even while idle which increases power consumption.
On battery the device runs noticeably slower. This goes even as far as that scrolling a web browser can get stuttery while perfectly fluid when connected to a charger. 
It might be an issue with the performance preference of the CPU. If
$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy?/energy_performance_preference
reports
default
or
balance_power
it can cause the CPU to be limited in its maximum clockspeed and performance. This is expected from 'balance_power'. 'default' means the manufacturer's own settings are active but those seem to limit performance on battery quite a lot. You can change it to 'balance_performance' or 'performance' to get a higher performance at a increased power consumption. When you try the different options and use a stress test you can observe that on 'default', 'balance_power' and 'power' the maximum CPU frequency is limited. 'balance performance' should still allow for maximum frequency while still allowing some power saving. You can change it permanently with
/etc/tmpfiles.d/energy_performance_preference.conf
w /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy?/energy_performance_preference - - - - balance_performance
A way to save some power is to increase the energy performance bias.
/etc/tmpfiles.d/energy_performance_bias.conf
w /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu?/power/energy_perf_bias - - - - 15
It controls how aggressive power saving mechanisms work without decreasing performance too much.
Function Keys
Key
Visible?
1
Marked?
2
Effect
Fn+Esc
No
Yes
Enables Fn lock
Fn+F1
No
Yes
XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2
No
Yes
XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3
No
Yes
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4
No
Yes
XF86AudioPrev
Fn+F5
No
Yes
XF86AudioPlay
Fn+F6
No
Yes
XF86AudioNext
Fn+F3
No
Yes
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F3
No
Yes
XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F9
Yes
Yes
XF86Search
Fn+F10
No
Yes
Toggles keyboard backlight
Fn+F11
No
Yes
Print screen
Fn+F12
No
Yes
Insert
Fn+F12
No
Yes
XF86RFKill
The key is visible to
xev
and similar tools
The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function
systemd-logind handles this by default
See also
Official specification sheet:
https://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/XPS-9365-2-in-1-spec-sheet.pdf
Official service manual:
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/xps-13-9365-2-in-1-laptop_service-manual_en-us.pdf