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Dell G15 5515

From ArchWiki
Hardware PCI/USB ID Working?
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard Yes
Keyboard Lighting 187c:0550 Partial
GPU(NVIDIA) 10de:2560 Yes
Webcam 0c45:6738 Yes
Ethernet 10ec:8125 Yes
Bluetooth 0489:e0c8 Yes
Audio 1002:1640 Yes
Wireless 14c3:7961 Yes
TPM Untested

Installation

As of Linux kernel 6.1, the backlight system was revamped, breaking compatibility with some NVIDIA Optimus compatible laptops. If omitting the acpi_backlight does not work, try setting it to nvidia_wmi_ec[1][2].

Fan control

Enable the dell_smm_hwmon module to enable fan control:

# modprobe dell_smm_hwmon 

Locate the hwmon path:

$ grep -l dell_smm /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/name

The fans can now be controlled:

# echo value > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmonX/pwmY

Where value ranges from 0-255, pwm1 is the CPU fan, and pwm2 is the GPU fan.

Game Shift Mode

Linux Kernel v6.13+

Since Linux v6.13 Game Shift Mode (G-Mode) is supported out-of-the-box and is automatically mapped to the power-profiles-daemon performance profile (used by most desktop environments to manage power profiles).

It can be manually selected (as well as other AWCC power profiles) using the legacy platform-profile interface:

Check available profiles:

# cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices

Select the performance profile (G-Mode):

# echo performance > /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile

Or the newer (Linux v6.14+) platform-profile interface:

Locate platform-profile device:

# grep -l alienware-wmi /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile*/name

Check available profiles:

# cat /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile-X/choices

Select the performance profile:

# echo performance > /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile-X/profile

Linux LTS Kernel

First install acpi_call-lts for LTS kernel (or acpi_call-dkms for other kernels) and load the kernel module:

# modprobe acpi_call

Turn on:

# echo "\_SB.AMW3.WMAX 0 0x15 {1, 0xab, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call
# echo "\_SB.AMW3.WMAX 0 0x25 {1, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call

Turn off:

# echo "\_SB.AMW3.WMAX 0 0x15 {1, 0xa0, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call
# echo "\_SB.AMW3.WMAX 0 0x25 {1, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call

For users of Dell G15 5520 (Intel version), you want to use these commands:

Turn on:

# echo "\_SB.AMWW.WMAX 0 0x15 {1, 0xab, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call
# echo "\_SB.AMWW.WMAX 0 0x25 {1, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call

Turn off:

# echo "\_SB.AMWW.WMAX 0 0x15 {1, 0xa0, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call
# echo "\_SB.AMWW.WMAX 0 0x25 {1, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}" > /proc/acpi/call

Alternatively, the power mode and fan speed boost can be set using dell-g15-controllerAUR

Accessibility

The appearance of the BIOS is pretty simple and not very colorful, so it might work well with OCR software. The use of a mouse is not required.

Function keys

Key Visible?1 Marked?2 Effect
Fn+Esc No Yes Enables Fn lock
Fn+F1 Yes Yes XF86AudioMute
Fn+F2 Yes Yes XF86AudioLowerVolume
Fn+F3 Yes Yes XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Fn+F4 Yes Yes XF86AudioPlay
Fn+F5 No Yes Toggles keyboard backlight
Fn+F6 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+F7 Yes Yes XF86MonBrightnessUp
Fn+F8 Yes Yes Inputs Super+p
Fn+F9 No Yes -
Fn+F10 Yes Yes Print
Fn+F11 Yes Yes Home
Fn+F12 Yes Yes End
  1. The key is visible via evtest and similar tools
  2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function