Dell Precision 5510 Setup

This page provides a summary of how to install OpenSUSE (Leap 42.2) on Dell Precision 5510 laptop.

Update Firmware

If the laptop came with Windows as mine did then I recommend you first update firmware.

1. Plug in power cable.
2. Turn on laptop, boot Windows.
3. Open web browser and go to Support.Dell.com.
4. Click Detect Product or enter your Dell service tag. Once detected or Precision 5510 product found choose Drivers and Downloads.
5. Select BIOS firmware update, download and run if applicable. It will reboot Windows after the firmware applies.
6. After reboot, go back to Support.Dell.com.
7. Select SSD firmware update, download and run if applicable. Reboot Windows.
8. After reboot, go back to Support.Dell.com.
9. Select Intel(R) Thunderbolt(TM) Controller driver, download and run. With Windows 7 this driver needs to be updated in order for the associated firmware file to detect the controller. You do not need to reboot Windows.
10. Select Intel(R) Thunderbolt(TM) 3 firmware update, download and run if applicable. Reboot the PC.

UEFI/BIOS Settings

Here are the non-default settings I recommend in order to have the most secure and feature complete system.

Press F2 while the Dell logo appears when the laptop has first turned to enter System Setup.

Settings > General > Boot Sequence:

• Ensure Boot List Option is set to UEFI

Settings > General > Advanced Boot Options

• Unselect Enable Legacy Option ROMs

Settings > System Configuration > SATA Operation

• Select AHCI

Settings > System Configuration > SMART Reporting:

• Enable SMART Reporting

Settings > System Configuration > USB PowerShare

• Enable USB PowerShare

Settings > Security > Admin Password

• Enter a new password

Optionally set a System (boot-on password), HDD-1 and SSD-0 Password. Once you've set a password, you may need to reboot and enter that password before you can continue altering System Settings.

Settings > Security > Password Bypass

• Reboot Bypass. This is optional but personally I prefer not to enter my password when I'm simply rebooting the system.

Settings > Secure Boot > Secure Boot Enable

• Set Secure Boot Enable to Enabled.

Settings > Power Management > USB Wake Support Check the Enable USB Wake Support check box.

Settings > POST Behavior > Fn Lock Options

• Fn Lock check box should be checked
• Fn Lock disabled/Standard. This will allow Fn+Esc to enable the function lock but by default it will be disabled.

Settings > POST Behavior > Fastboot

• Auto

Settings > Virtualization Support

• Check the Trusted Execution checkbox
• All the other virtualization features should be enabled already.

Click Apply then Exit.

Choose under UEFI BOOT: UEFI: PNY USB 3.0 DF 1.0.0, Partition 1

Different models of USB sticks will be labeled differently.

Installing OpenSUSE Leap 42.2

1. Insert your USB stick with OpenSUSE 42.2 into a USB port.
2. Insert your USB-C to Ethernet Controller adapter into the USB-C port and plug an active Ethernet cable into the adapter.
3. Turn on the laptop.
4. While the DELL Logo appears press the F12 key to bring up a boot menu.
5. Choose the USB stick under the UEFI BOOT category. If a valid UEFI boot option for your USB stick does not appear you may need to rewrite your USB stick. You can simply use dd if=/path/opensuse42.2.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=10M on another computer if /dev/sdb is your USB stick and /path/opensuse42.2.iso is your openSUSE 42.2 ISO file.
6. The system will appear to reboot. You will see the Dell logo again. If you chose to have a hard drive password it will ask you for it.
7. A blue screen will appear that says, "Trust openSUSE Certificate", choose yes. This adds the SUSE public certificate whose private key pair was used to sign the GRUB2-EFI boot loader so that UEFI in secure boot mode will recognize the boot loader.
8. OpenSUSE 42.2 GRUB menu will now appear. Choose Installation.
9. Language, Keyboard and License Agreement. Click Next.
10. Under Network Settings, Overview tab, select your USB 10/100/1000 adapter, choose Edit, click Dynamic Address for DHCP or enter a static IP if applicable.
11. Under Network Settings, Hostname/DNS tab, enter your hostname then click Next.
12. Under Installation Options, click Add Online Repositories Before Installation.
13. Under Preparing Hard Disk, click Create Partition Setup.
14. Select 1, /dev/sda then click Next.
15. Click Use Entire Hard Disk.
16. Click Edit Proposal Settings.
17. Click Encrypted LVM-based Proposal.
18. Enter encryption password then click OK.
19. Click Next
20. Under Clock and Time Zone, Choose your Time Zone.
21. Click Other Settings, click Synchronize now then click Accept.
22. Click Next.
23. Under List of Online Repositories, select any additional repositories you want. Personally I like being able to easily get debugsource and debuginfo packages so I select all the DEBUG and Sources repositories.
24. Under Desktop Selection, choose your preferred desktop. Personally I choose the KDE Plasma Desktop. Click Next.
25. Under Local User, enter a Username and Password then click Next.
26. Under the Installation Settings summary it should report: Boot Loader Type: GRUB2 EFI Enable Secure Boot: yes
27. Personally I open the SSH port under Firewall but leave the SSH service disabled unless I need it.
28. Click Install then "I Agree" under additional Package License dialog boxes.

Setup SUDO to show X11 programs as root

1. Run sudo -i, type root password
2. Edit /etc/pam.d/sudo and uncomment the pam_xauth.so module.
3. Exit sudo and return to your normal user account.
4. Run sudo -i again and confirm you can run an X11 program such as yast2 or konsole.

Installing the NVIDIA drivers

1. Enable the NVIDIA repository: YaST > Software Repositories > Add Button, Community Repository, choose Nvidia Graphics Drivers
2. Install the NVIDIA driver:
3. sudo zypper -n in nvidia-computeG04 nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-default nvidia-glG04 x11-video-nvidiaG04
4. reboot