Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal on Dell XPS 15 L502X

This Post discusses further information about installing Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal on a Dell XPS 15 L502X.

Following the former post “Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin on Dell XPS 15″, There is no need for redundancy, so we’d like to put only what might be different and mention some issues that come only with Quantal.

1- One can follow all information on the previous post that applies to 12.04. It also applies t 12.10 (Optimus Support by Bumblebee project, etc).

ISSUES

If you fresh-installed Ubuntu 12.10 ou just updated, you likely now have a sound issue.

AUDIO SOUND ISSUE

– When you open your user session, sound is enabled, but you hear nothing except sometimes, tiny power explosions that indicates, the internal speakers are powered. Besides, the sound is back only when you plug in your headphones. It’s a matter of plug/unplug and sound routing awareness.
You might experience this issue also after a wake-up from a suspend.

Fortunately you can work around it :

On TERMINAL type: alsamixer

an interface will be displayed showing volume bars. Check the last one if it’s enabled or not (AUTO MUTE MO). It should be disabled.

alsamixer

If enabled, disable it and exit.

Type again : sudo alsa force-reload

You’re done. SOund should be back to normal.

But what if the above does not work? Don’t panic, let’s try some more advanced commands:

Follow these commands one by one :

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

 sudo apt-get -y install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils libasound2

 sudo apt-get -y install gdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r`

 sudo apt-get -y --reinstall install libasound2 linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

 sudo apt-get -y --reinstall lightdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r`

 killall pulseaudio

 rm -r ~/.pulse*

 sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e '^pulse:' -e '^audio:' -e '^pulse-access:' -e '^pulse-rt:' -e '^video:' | awk -F: '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's:,$::g'` `whoami`

DISTORTED AUDIO SOUND

Some folks may encounter this issue: When playing audio files, sound gets distorted, chunky and creeky. You might not notice it untill you increase the volume of your speakers.
Even though they are JBL, sound might get distorted and ugly. It’s a software issue rather.

Solution 1:

On Terminal enter: gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
the alsa-base.conf will be opened in your Gedit text editor.
Then, add the following line to the content of the file:
options snd-hda-intel model=generic
At last, reboot.

Solution 2:

If you have VLC installed on your system, try playing your audio files in totem instead of VLC and see if the audio sound is still distorted. If not, then uninstalling VLC likely should fix the problem.
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HDMI Video/Audio Support

Thanks to ‘Reverse Prime’, HDMI Support for Nouveau Driver is now partially supported. It’s promised that it gets full support by the release of 13.10.
See:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/904476
See also Bumblbee Github Issue tracker for more information.
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CONKY

Conky on Ubuntu Quantal

1- First install conky
sudo apt-get install conky conky-all
2- Download the customized script: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6shmby2dm3ond2t/conky.tar.gz?dl=0
3- uncompress it and you should have a folder with the following content : two hidden folders (.conky & .lua) and a hidden file .conkyrc.
4- Copy these three files to your home directory.
5- then: killall conky && conky
6- open the DASH and type “startup“; this will open start up applications applet.
7- Add another entry for conky : conky -p 10
8- Now Conky should be launched on every login in (10 seconds of delay after user session is unlocked).
9- Optionally open the .conkyrc or lua scripts for more tweaking that suits your taste.

PS: Notice we modified slightly conkyrc script so that conky fits better in the xps 15 screen while you still have space for your desktop icons.
————————-BUGS ———————————————-
Intel GPU : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1140716

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We’ll continue soon, by adding other issues and tips.