Installation problems on Dell XPS 13 9310

User Support Hardware Issues
#1

Hi Cubes-Community,

I have problems with the Qubes installation on Dell XPS 13 9310. (probably because of the intel Iris Xe)
With default BOOTX64.cfg i had a blackscreen.
After hours of reading troubleshot and forums the qubes-verbose part is the following:

[qubes-verbose]
options=console=vga efi=attr=uc
#noexitboot=1
#mapbs=1
kernel=vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=Qubes-R4.0.4-x86_64 i915.force_probe=*
ramdisk=initrd.img

Now I see after starting the installer at least a mouse, but no GUI starts.
According to the notes from https://groups.google.com/g/qubes-users/c/P5oXyk7QOFE/m/hEROXm0tBQAJ

"make sure networking is attached to bring up GUI.

I had to combine sys-net and sys-usb in the install options because I was using a docking station for ethernet."

Is it really necessary to be connected to the internet for the gui? How can i combine sys-net and sys-usb to install with Network connection? (notebook has only usb-c inputs, ethernet only with docking station)

All other options like

nouveau.modeset=0 iommu=no-igfx

or

efi=no-rs

had no effect. Legacy mode is also not available.

I know 4.1.0 is only a test version, but would it be an alternative if necessary? There a GUI is displayed and I can install qubes. However, no templates are installed. In the Template configuration window all options are gray and not selectable. Default dropdown empty. Also under /mnt/sysimage…/ the template folder is empty.

Hope someone can help.

#2

Try 4.1 it works very well with dell xps 9310

#3

thank you for your answer. 4.1 installation works, but unfortunately there is also the network problem. The Ethernet port of the docking station is not recognized. With an offline installation there is no template available.

Qubes initial configuration failed. Login to the system and check /var/log/salt/minion for details. You can rentry configuration by calling 'sudo qubesctl --all state.highstate' in dom0 (you will get detailed state there).

that means after the installation there is no sys-net, etc. templates are completely empty.

could you solve the problem?

#4

try using fedora as default template.

#5

Maybe you have not finished your install properly…I installed it on a friends 9310 a few days ago and it was working perfectly…

Try to install it again…after the initial install it tells you to reboot…leave your usb in the computer…it then will walk you through the rest of the process…there you can decide which templates are to be installed, wether you want to use whonix for updates and you can decide upon you initial appvm setup…

#6

very strange, what am I doing wrong?

i have reinstalled it several times now but always with the same result (see picture). usb stick is connected all the time, docking station with ethernet too. partitioning was created automatically.

there is simply no template at all :frowning:

IMG_5108
IMG_51081920×2560 946 KB

#7

redownload iso, use automatic partitioning.

#8

That’s it! :astonished:

i have now reloaded the iso and changed the usb stick to a usb-3 32 GB stick. (i only had a usb-2 8GB stick before because the instructions said that bigger sticks could cause problems). isos have the same (correct) hash.

I don’t know what the problem was but it works now! Thank you both so much for your time and help.

#9

Thanks to you I tried it again to day and - IT WORKED!

The only downside is - no wifi. An no idea how to get it to work.

Have you managed to access to wifi on your 9310? I can only use the ethernet usb-adapter, but i need the wifi. Any ideas?

Best
J

#10

Qubes is not compatible with Dell XPS, I hope the developers will solve the problem.I don’t even want to install with a thunderbolt SSD

#11

Use a wifi dongle - that will probably work. It is related to the wifi adapter they are using in the xps. Unfortunately it is soldered to the main board so you cannot just change it. You will probably also have issues with your sound. This could be partly solved with a usb headset.

#12

Thanks, you reminded me to run the one test I hadn’t gotten to yet. Testing my 9510/Qubes 4.1 with my old TB16. Display functionality with the dock works perfectly driving onboard and two 29" ultrawides. But outside of that looks like a dud on the dock side. Which I can probably live with I guess. I don’t see any additional ethernet controllers from the dock listed in “devices” being picked of by sus-usb or in qvm-pci

Did you get full functionality on the dock eventually?

If so what dock are you using? One of the newer WD19TB’s? or just a standard WD15/19 (non-thunderbolt)
Did you do anything special on the 9310 in qubes or elsewhere?

I have the 3 usb controllers (2 Thunderbolt/1 usb 3.2) passed through to sys-usb no-strict-reset.
I see two PCI bridges for thunderbolt 4 listed in qvm-pci. I’m assuming those are the TB controllers themselves but somehow I doubt they were meant nor would react well to being passed through to sys-usb lol.
If you didn’t get it working then ignore my questions obviously and I can only say display functionality works with a TB16 and 9510 lol.

#13

Wifi and Dell USB-C dongle worked perfectly on my 9510, for what it’s worth.
If you installed with thunderbolt off like I did thinking it might cause complications (probably not but what the hell lol).
I had to remove and re-add all 3 usb controllers (no-strict-reset) from sys-usb after turning thunderbolt back on. Though the devices had the same name, id’s the whole nine yards however I guess for at least two of them the operating mode had changed.

I’d have to check the specs on our models so I’m not sure both of our machines use the same WiFi adapter.
My Wifi controller shows up as “Intel Corporation Tiger Lake PCH CNVi WiFi” if you run qvm-pci do you see that listed anywhere? Maybe it just needs to be attached manually.