Dell Latitude E7440

This article or section does not follow the
Laptop page guidelines
.
Reason:
Missing an Accessibility, Firmware and "Function keys" section + the last ID in the hardware table. (Discuss in
Talk:Dell Latitude E7440
)
Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
GPU
8086:0a16
Yes
Ethernet
8086:155a
Yes
Audio
8086:9c20
Yes
Wi-Fi
8086:08b1
Yes
SD Card reader
1217:8520
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:8000
Yes
Webcam
1bcf:2985
Yes?
Fingerprint reader
No
The Dell Latitude E7440 is a business Ultrabook™. Generally speaking, it has nice support of (Arch) Linux.
Installation
Update the firmware
The firmware update process does not need an operating system and it can be done with the BIOS utilities of the laptop. A USB flash drive can be prepared on another computer. The latest BIOS firmware, which is an
.exe
file, can be downloaded from the
Dell website
. On Windows, the firmware can be burned with
Rufus
into a bootable USB flash drive. USB Flash drive can be made UEFI/GPT bootable. After the USB flash is prepared, plug the USB flash stick, boot the laptop by pressing
F12
and follow the instructions to boot the USB flash. After the firmware update, during reboot press
F2
and check whether the shown BIOS version is the one which is burned.
Secure Boot
The Arch Linux kernel is not signed by default, thus it cannot be booted if
Secure Boot
is enabled in the BIOS. If you want to use the Secure Boot, see
Secure Boot
to prepare the kernel. The signed kernel itself can be booted by a signed boot loader, e.g.
shimx64.efi
from Ubuntu.
Drivers
Intel graphics
for HD4400 graphics card.
Wireless#iwlwifi
for Intel 7260 Wi-Fi card. This driver is from Intel and also part of the Arch Linux package repository.
Synaptics
for Touchpad
Fan speed control#Dell laptops
to control fan speed. There is only one fan on this laptop, detected on the right. Do not forget to disable BIOS fan speed control to be able to use custom fan speed config.
What does not work
Webcam does not work with Virtualbox (as of 4.3.6-1), but it works with native programs.
There is no driver for the fingerprint sensor.
Occasionally crashes/freezes/hangs when docked and then changing display modes
Tested with Dell E-Port Plus II, using two external monitors together with the laptop display (three displays total)
hddtemp
cannot read the temperature of the hard disk. Use
smartctl -l scttemp /dev/sda
instead.
As of August 2019, there is no known way how to update the firmware of the SSD. Also not known where to find the most up-to-date firmware.
Troubleshooting
"Invalid partition table!" when booting
If you use BIOS+
MBR
boot method and msdos partition table, the BIOS may show this error message before entering
Syslinux
or other
boot loaders
. To bypass it, press
Enter
. To prevent it, put the "boot" flag on a primary partition (instead of a logical partition). You may refer to the wiki page of your boot loader to see how this works. It may be a "kindly reminder" to Windows users, since Windows can only boot on primary partitions.
Freeze before going to suspend when lid is closed
This seems to be related to
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1301601
.
Workaround 2 helps decrease frequency of freezes.
Create
:
/usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/99switch_to_vt2
#!/bin/sh
# Possible workaround for bug:
#
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1301601
#
# Switch to a VT before suspending and back after resume 
case "$1" in
    post)
        /bin/chvt 1
    ;;
    pre)
        /bin/chvt 2
    ;;
esac
Wi-Fi problems with Bluetooth enabled
Severe Wi-Fi problems (decreasing traffic, connection drops) with Bluetooth enabled. Workaround is to switch it off when not needed. This bug seems to be router-specific (e.g. with a Fritzbox).
Wi-Fi problems when coming back from suspend state
When your Wi-Fi is gone after resume try going to BIOS and deactivate the functionality to turn Wi-Fi and WWAN down when an Ethernet cable is connected.
See also
Dell Latitude E7440 | Post-installation et optimisation (French)
(Archived. Original content was removed.)