Setting up OpenSuse on a Dell XPS 15 laptop model 9570 (2018)

After nearly a month of waiting I took delivery of a new Dell XPS 15 laptop model 9570 In July 2018. I use the OpenSUSE Linux distributions but am also learning C++ on Microsoft Visual Studio so I want to keep the Windows 10 installation.

What I should have done at first was go into the BIOS (F12 on the round Dell boot logo) and change the BIOS settings from Raid to AHCI. By default the laptop comes in Raid mode but the Linux kernel refuses to see the disk (at least out of the box.) I had lots of trouble because of this setting as Windows deployed itself using the Raid drivers which can't deal with AHCI mode when you switch it later. I ended up with a practically unbootable machine several times.

So I think if I had switched to AHCI mode from the start Windows 10 would have set itself up using the correct drivers.

After Windows 10 has set itself up and claimed all the hard disk use DiskManager to shrink Windows down and create space for your Linux partitions. "THINK" is not a four letter word and you want to plan your partition sizes carefully.

In the Bios "Secure Boot" needs to be off and "Legacy Boot" needs to be on to start the Linux installer from the USB stick.

I then had trouble with the EFI partition. On this generation of Laptops the bootloader needs to be Grub2-EFI.

OpenSUSE tells you not to use the Mesa-dri-nouveau especially not with KDE as it can lead to crashes and hangs! Install the NVIDIA drivers instead. https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

Pending issues:
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed doesn't shut down properly and the computer just hangs on shutdown. I've recently upgraded the Bios from 1.3 to 1.41 but haven't observed an improvement. I have to press the prower button for 20 seconds or so to shut down. The Nvidia driver doesn't seem to be helping much here either.


Useful links:
How to boot from a live medium and chroot onto the installed partition: https://forums.opensuse.org/content.php/146-Using-a-LiveCD-to-take-over-repair-an-installed-system

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/528400-Repair-a-broken-UEFI-GRUB2-openSUSE-boot-scenario

Thread at Dell support about Raid and AHCI: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General/Dell-M-2-FAQ-regarding-AHCI-vs-RAID-ON-Storage-Drivers-M-2-Lanes/td-p/5072571/page/3

Update April 2019

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed have upgraded to Kernel 5. I am most please to report that suspend and hibernate suddenly show up as options in KDE and work splendidly! These functions have always been a pain and I am super happy that this now works!

Also I discovered that KDE had a zoom in and zoom out function for the desktop which is also working perfectly.

The hanging shutdown where the shutdown would take like 20 seconds to actually shut off the power seems to have also been fixed now.

Very impressed!