LinuxMint 19.3 – Dell Precision 7560

Challenge of the day: install LinuxMint 19.3 on a Dell Precision 7560.

Why LinuxMint 19.3? Because NVidia will most likely never release JetPack packages for Jetson TX2 for Ubuntu versions greater than 18.04. JetPack 4.5.7 (Ubuntu 18.04) is the last release for TX2.

Before you start, go to the UEFI/BIOS by pressing F12 during the early boot. Disable:

  • Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST): LinuxMint 19.3 installer doesn’t have support for it
  • Secure Boot: it is not possible to use proprietary drivers when enabled. We need for example CUDA
  • Hybrid GPU: the CUDA 10.2 and older didn’t support this.

Connect a USB <–> Ethernet or USB <–> WiFi adapter. The WiFi (Intel AX210) and LAN (Intel I219-LM) controllers don’t have drivers in the installer image and we need a network connection.

Install LinuxMint and reboot.

Don’t install any NVidia video drivers.

At this point you still don’t have the necessary network drivers. We need to update the linux-firmware and kernel.

Intel AX210 support was added in Linux 5.11, but even with this kernel version there are bugs in the linux-firmware package. So we need to build the kernel ourselves.

Let’s start with the linux-firmware package

sudo apt-mark hold linux-firmware
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
cd linux-firmware
sudo make installCode language: Bash (bash)

Now the kernel. I took the 5.15.0-25.25 from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux which is the latest 5.15 release version at the time of writing.

# Install pre-requisites
sudo apt-get install git fakeroot build-essential ncurses-dev xz-utils libssl-dev bc flex libelf-dev bison dwarves

# Fetch sources
mkdir -p ~/kernel-build
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/linux/5.15.0-25.25/linux_5.15.0.orig.tar.gz
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/linux/5.15.0-25.25/linux_5.15.0-25.25.diff.gz
mkdir custom && cd custom
tar -xvzf ../linux_5.15.0.orig.tar.gz
cp ../linux_5.15.0-25.25.diff.gz .
gunzip linux_5.15.0-25.25.diff.gz
cd linux-5.15

# Apply Ubuntu patches
patch -p1 < ../linux_5.15.0-25.25.diff

# some permission issues here
chmod +x ./scripts/pahole-version.sh
chmod +x ./scripts/pahole-flags.sh

# Take 5.4 config
cp /boot/config-5.4.0-105-generic .config
yes "" |make oldconfig

# The I2C HID driver has been split up in 5.12. oldconfig won't catch that and the touch pad will not work
# from make menuconfig > Device Drivers > HID support > I2C HID support > m
# or from script
scripts/config --enable CONFIG_I2C_HID_CORE
scripts/config --enable CONFIG_I2C_HID_ACPI

# Build
make -j$(nproc) deb-pkg LOCALVERSION=-25.25custom

# Install
cd ~/kernel-build
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-5.15.30-25.25custom_5.15.30-25.25custom-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-5.15.30-25.25custom_5.15.30-25.25custom-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-libc-dev_5.15.30-25.25custom-1_amd64.deb

# Reboot
sudo reboot nowCode language: Bash (bash)

Remove the USB network adapter. You should now have working:

  • WiFi adapter
  • Ethernet adapter
  • Touchpad
  • Screen brightness
  • Bluetooth
  • Audio

Mint still complains about fallback video drivers. Let’s install CUDA. I followed the instructions from https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads?target_os=Linux&target_arch=x86_64&Distribution=Ubuntu&target_version=18.04&target_type=deb_local, so

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu1804.pin
sudo mv cuda-ubuntu1804.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600
wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.6.2/local_installers/cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-11-6-local_11.6.2-510.47.03-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-11-6-local_11.6.2-510.47.03-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt-key add /var/cuda-repo-ubuntu1804-11-6-local/7fa2af80.pub
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install cudaCode language: Bash (bash)

Reboot to validate the installation

You will now maybe notice the screen is at full brightness and you cannot control it anymore. To fix that, reboot to UEFI config and re-enable the Hybrid GPU.

You can also re-enable Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) if needed.

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