Dell G5 SE 5505

Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
GPU
1002:731f
Yes
Wi-Fi
8086:2723
Yes
Bluetooth
8087:0029
Yes
Audio
1022:15e3
Yes
Touchpad
04F3:30CB
Yes
Webcam
0c45:671f
Yes
Ethernet
10ec:8168
Yes
This page describes the Dell G5 SE 5505 laptop in thorough detail.
Installation
Before booting into the installation media, disable
Secure Boot
in your BIOS. The BIOS is accessed by pressing the
F2
or
DEL
key during the POST screen. To access the boot menu directly, press
F8
during the POST screen. Install Arch Linux as usual with the UEFI installation method. It may be required to use the
amdgpu.runpm=0
kernel parameters
if GPU crashes are experienced. If there is an active Windows partition present,
disable fast startup
to prevent complications while installing Arch.
Accessibility
If you are an individual with accessibility needs, this will unfortunately not be a great device for you. The FN shortcuts, BIOS UI, thermal management quirks, basic display, and lack of error code beeps are not accommodating for those with accessibility needs. This device contains no diagnostic LEDs aside from the ambiguous status indicator LED near the charge port.
Firmware
There are a few ways to update the firmware on this device. Using Windows and the Dell provided tools on the support page for this laptop is certainly one of them, but that method often causes many issues.
Before we begin, make sure
UEFI Capsule Updates
is enabled in the UEFI settings. Passing firmware updates (especially UEFI or similar I/O updates) from an OS to the NVRAM (where firmware data is "physically stored" on the motherboard) is impossible to achieve otherwise.
Since we are downloading files to a storage medium with very limited storage capacity, it is important to make sure there is sufficient available space in the NVRAM partition. Often times the above referenced Dell support tools used to install capsule updates from Windows fills the NVRAM with dump logs.
Navigate to the
/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
and make sure to remove all
dump-*
files within this directory, if any.
Now there are no dump files, we can update the system firmware by running
fwupd
. When running
fwupdmgr update
your device may restart:
do not touch anything, especially the power button/AC adapter
and let the updates run their course.
Graphics and display
Drivers
By default, there is very basic graphical functionality and performance.
install
mesa
to run general 3D programs.  
See
AMDGPU
and
Vulkan
for full graphics installation information and instruction.
Screen tearing
There is no screen tearing out of the box for
Wayland
sessions, but for gaming (at the time of writing) Wayland has considerable render and input latency unless the game is running in exclusive full-screen mode.
To eliminate screen tearing on
X11
environments, see
AMDGPU#Tear free rendering
. This will also increase input and render latency unless pertinent display
environment variables
are explicitly configured.
Dedicated GPU override
Many programs will default usage to the integrated GPU. To force (almost) any program to take advantage of the dedicated GPU, run
DRI_PRIME=1
command
, where
command
is the desired process you want to launch with your dGPU. For steam titles, adding DRI_PRIME=1 %command% to the launch options will make that specific title launch with the dGPU. 
For further clarification, read
PRIME#For open source drivers - PRIME
.
Resizable BAR support
AMD's Smart Access Memory ("Resizable BAR") will not function on this device until it is manually enabled.
The default BIOS configuration does not have SAM enabled, nor does it have an option available to enable it. 
Use of a BIOS editing tool, such as Smokeless Runtime Efi Patcher (SREP) is required to enable SAM/Resizable BAR.
Warning
Do not configure any options you do not understand. Improper configuration can permanently brick your device. Not every setting or flag is supported.
Thermal and power management
Fan control
An easy way to manually control fans, or to manually create custom fan curves i to use a
this python script
which can more accurately push the fans according to CPU and GPU temperatures. This script also restores the defunct
Fn+F7
"boost" functionality by providing a command that manually activates the boost profile as defined by UEFI data.
Monitoring sensor data
By default, the kernel loads the
k10temp
module to check CPU thermals. To monitor GPU temperature and see fan speeds, you will have to force load the
dell-smm-hwmon
kernel module
(see
[1]
for its documentation), which is not loaded by default on this laptop.
# modprobe dell-smm-hwmon restricted=0 ignore_dmi=1
To make this setting permanent,
create
:
/etc/modules-load.d/dell-smm-hwmon.conf
dell-smm-hwmon
and
/etc/modprobe.d/dell-smm-hwmon.conf
options dell-smm-hwmon restricted=0 ignore_dmi=1
You should now see a dell result in the result of
sensors
.
CPU
The packages
ryzenadj-git
AUR
and
ryzen-controller-bin
AUR
(optional GUI for ryzenadj) should work out of the box to control maximum temperature and TDP of your CPU. For example, the following command will restrict your CPU TDP to 40 Watts and maximum temperature to 70°C (perfectly safe on this laptop).
# ryzenadj -a 40000 -b 40000 -c 40000 -f 70
Warning
Do not configure anything that you do not understand. If TDP or temperature are set too high it can permanently damage your hardware!
see
[2]
and
[3]
for detailed instructions on how to use these tools.
Frequency
Undervolting and overclocking are not conventionally possible on this laptop.
zenstates-git
AUR
does not seem to have any effect on zen2 processors.
[4]
acpi-cpufreq
is working down to 1.40 GHz.
amd_pstate
fails to load with BIOS Version 1.14.0:
kernel: amd_pstate: the _CPC object is not present in SBIOS or ACPI disabled.
This more than likely ties into the strange no sleep/hibernation issue.
The default BIOS lacks
CPPC
support and an option to enable it, leading to this error. To enable
CPPC
and subsequently allow the
amd_pstate
driver to load, a BIOS editing tool like Smokeless Runtime Efi Patcher (SREP) is required.
Warning
Modifying your BIOS can be dangerous and may permanently damage or brick your device if not done correctly. Proceed with extreme caution and only if you understand the risks involved.
GPU
It may be possible to use
corectrl
. Also see
AMDGPU#Overclocking
. Unknown compaitibility (2024-06-04)
While it increases performance, the battery lasts under two hours when
amdgpu.runpm=0
is used and the dedicated GPU never turns off.
Since Kernel Version 6.0.x and
BIOS Version: 1.13.0
amdgpu power management sees
fewer
GPU crashes.
Show power management profiles:
# cat /sys/class/drm/card?/device/pp_power_profile_mode
Enable power saving mode (as root):
# echo manual > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level
# echo "2" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/pp_power_profile_mode
See amdgpu kernel documentation
Disabling dGPU
To potentially reduce power draw by disabling the dedicated GPU, a
udev
rule can be employed. Create the following rule (e.g., at /etc/udev/rules.d/90-disable-dgpu.rules) :
/etc/udev/rules.d/90-disable-dgpu.rules
ACTION=="add", \
  KERNEL=="0000:03:00.0", \
  SUBSYSTEM=="pci", \
  ATTR{class}=="0x03[0-9]*", \
  ATTR{power/control}="auto", \
  ATTR{remove}="1"
For more context and discussion, refer to this
forum thread
.
Alternatively, the dedicated GPU can be disabled via a BIOS editor like Smokeless Runtime Efi Patcher (SREP), similar to enabling
CPPC
or
Resizable BAR
.
Warning
Exercise extreme caution when attempting BIOS modifications. Incorrect changes can render your device unusable or bricked. Ensure you understand the risks before proceeding.
System power states
Suspension and hibernation features simply do not work. You can try to enabling its support via BIOS injection, see
[5]
Keyboard
The keyboard for this device features a four section LED backlight with 18.7mm x 18.05mm keys. The keyboard by defauly features a QWERTY layout. The North American model contains 81 keys, the UK mod contains 82 keys, and the model released in Japan contains 85 keys.
Function key
This article or section does not follow the
Laptop page guidelines
.
Reason:
The description of the effect does not respect
Help:Laptop page guidelines#"Function keys" section
. (Discuss in
Talk:Dell G5 SE 5505
)
Input Key
Visible?
1
Marked?
2
Effect
Fn+Esc
Yes
Yes
Toggle Fn lock
Fn+F1
Yes
Yes
Mute audio
Fn+F2
Yes
Yes
Lower Volume
Fn+F3
Yes
Yes
Raise Volume
Fn+F4
Yes
Yes
Play previous track/chapter
Fn+F5
Yes
Yes
Play/Pause
Fn+F6
Yes
Yes
PLay next track/chapter
Fn+F7
Yes
Yes
Enables Game Shift Mode. OS dependent unless a
compatibility script
is installed.
Fn+F8
Yes
Yes
Switch to external display
Fn+F10
Yes
Yes
Toggle keyboard backlight
Fn+F11
Yes
Yes
Decrease brightness
Fn+F12
Yes
Yes
Increase brightness
Fn+PrtSc
Yes
Yes
Toggle wireless
Fn+ctrl
Yes
Yes
Open Application Menu
Fn+B
Yes
No
Pause/Break
Fn+insert
Yes
No
Sleep
Fn+S
Yes
No
Toggle Scroll Lock
Fn+H
Yes
No
Toggle between power and battery-status light
Fn+R
Yes
No
System Request
Fn+pg up
Yes
No
Page Up
Fn+pg dn
Yes
No
Page Down
Fn+home
Yes
No
Home
Fn+end
Yes
No
End
Fn+F9
No
No
Search
See also
The official DELL product specifications page
The Dell G series Wikipedia page
The Dell G5 SE Reddit board