Screen issues with the later Dell XPS 13 on Linux (software, not hardware)

[MagicPants]

Hi, I have purchased a Dell XPS 13 7390 Developer Edition, which came with Ubuntu. It had two screen issues, which I thought were the same. Basically, I would get flickering/distortion, as seen below in the YouTube video I linked. Funny enough, it was two seperate issues, because according to my research, Dell is shipping these devices with a Ubuntu version that has this issue with the screen, at least on these devices, but the flickering would also be triggered/worse when adjusting the screen, which means it was also a hardware issue. Upon getting a brand new replacement from Dell, while booting up, I was happy to notice there was no flickering whatsoever, however, once I got to the login screen, the flickering would start, and would get worse after logging in. I cleaned the drive and installed Windows 10, and the problem went away. It worked brilliantly in Windows 10, as it's supposed to. Now, I have tried dual booting it with Kali. I downloaded the latest version of Kali Live, and installed it alongside Windows 10, however, I still have the same issue as in the YouTube video, which is incredibly annoying. I'm not new to Linux, but I haven't used it enough to understand a lot of its things, so, if anyone was kind enough to help me sort this out, I would be very grateful. I bought this laptop with Linux out of the box, as it should have all the drivers and software from Dell to make the Linux experience smoother, and I could actually get into it, and learn something, but with this issue, I can't.


Many thanks,
Bruno


YouTube video:

 

[Deleted member 58530]

Open the terminal.
Copy and paste this command.

inxi -Fxz

Post its output.

 

[MagicPants]

Open the terminal.
Copy and paste this command.

inxi -Fxz

Post its output.

Thanks a lot for your reply. After Kali, I actually tried Ubuntu 19.10, and the result you see below, is in Ubuntu 19.10, after running apt-get update, upgrade, and dist-upgrade.

System:
  Host: bruno-XPS-13-7390 Kernel: 5.3.0-40-generic x86_64 bits: 64
  compiler: gcc v: 9.2.1 Desktop: Gnome 3.34.1
  Distro: Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 7390 v: N/A serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0G2D0W v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.4.0
  date: 11/25/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 25.9 Wh condition: 49.4/52.0 Wh (95%)
  model: SMP DELL G8VCF6C status: Discharging
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-10510U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
  arch: Kaby Lake rev: C L2 cache: 8192 KiB
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  bogomips: 36799
  Speed: 1070 MHz min/max: 400/1800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1000 2: 1000
  3: 1000 4: 1000 5: 1000 6: 1000 7: 1000 8: 1001
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.5 driver: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel UHD Graphics (Comet Lake 3x8 GT2)
  v: 4.5 Mesa 19.2.8 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
  bus ID: 00:1f.3
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-40-generic
Network:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Bigfoot Networks driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
  port: efa0 bus ID: 02:00.0
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 505.59 GiB used: 8.32 GiB (1.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: SSDPEMKF512G8 NVMe INTEL 512GB size: 476.94 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra USB 3.0
  size: 28.65 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 117.62 GiB used: 7.76 GiB (6.6%) fs: ext4
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 343 Uptime: 1m Memory: 15.34 GiB used: 1014.9 MiB (6.5%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.2.1 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3
  inxi: 3.0.36

 

[Deleted member 58530]

Everything looks ok from what I can see for the graphics driver.

That computer ain't even a year old yet going by the date listed in the output you posted.

It could be Ubuntu 19.10 .

I create a Live USB and try a different Linux distro say Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon.

Here's a way to test it out without installing it.

**How to TRY Linux Mint on your Windows PC**

First, you can -- __and should__ -- try Linux Mint before switching to it. Fortunately, unlike other operating systems, Linux distros like Mint make it easy to give them a test run before installing it. First you'll need to download a copy of Linux Mint, which comes with three different...

www.linux.org

Linux Mint 19.3

Download Linux Mint 21.3 - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.

linuxmint.com

Linux Mint Installation Guide — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation

linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io

 

[MagicPants]

Everything looks ok from what I can see for the graphics driver.

That computer ain't even a year old yet going by the date listed in the output you posted.

It could be Ubuntu 19.10 .

I create a Live USB and try a different Linux distro say Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon.

Here's a way to test it out without installing it.

**How to TRY Linux Mint on your Windows PC**

First, you can -- __and should__ -- try Linux Mint before switching to it. Fortunately, unlike other operating systems, Linux distros like Mint make it easy to give them a test run before installing it. First you'll need to download a copy of Linux Mint, which comes with three different...

www.linux.org

Linux Mint 19.3

Download Linux Mint 21.3 - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.

linuxmint.com

Linux Mint Installation Guide — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation

linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io

No, not at all, it's only a couple weeks old. It is a replacement that was sent by Dell. My first XPS 13, which is the exact same model, had a similar issue, however, I believe it was a hardware issue, as the distortion would happen when I physically touched the screen, by adjusting its angle, for example, however, with this one, the distortion happens on its own. I have tried Linux Mint, Ubuntu 18.04 and 19.10, Kali, Kubuntu, and even Intel's own Linux, Clear Linux. I have run out of things to test, and my limited knowledge in Linux does not help. With this laptop, I really wanted to take the opportunity to get into Linux, and the fact that it shipped with Ubuntu out of the box for a cheaper price, even, I was quite happy, but all I can do with it, is run Windows 10...

 

[Deleted member 58530]

I almost bet it's a driver issue as Linux drivers don't get released very quickly with new hardware.

The reason for this is the money for hardware and drivers is in the Microsoft OS that most of the world uses.

Unfortunate computers and hardware 1 year or less doubtful will have the right drivers needed and eventually the open source world will have drivers for your hardware.

Linux works best with computers 2 years or older as better chance of drivers being available.

Unfortunately this is no help for you at this time.