Install Linux on latest DELL laptops - I9 185h / 285h - Part 2

 Even if it is not about some real professional stuff, I already have posted this article on linkedin.

I have tried and tested every single option proposed by chatgpt, perplexity, deepseek, dell website, youtube, reddit, dell forums, laptop forums and the linux did not want to go up. I did the latest 1.15 bios update too a couple of days ago. I was on the verge of uploading a custom BIOS and probably doing irreversible damage to my PC, but Windows was driving me crazy. When you turn off your PC and it does 1hour of updates before you can close the lid, then doing the same when opening up, is just nuts. When your base memory is 5gigs, you don't do anything come back in an hour and it is 12 ? When running a VM and you have only 2 gigs of memory left ? When looking for a setting and windows property search is not indexing it ? I mean it is just endless pain in the back. You open your PC and want to work right away. When want to install, update, customize, download, launch, I don't want to think about that stuff. Just do it and if it does not work, I find another solution in seconds. Like I downloaded yesterday onto my linux an apt based keepass2 and it was buggy. I did the same with keepassXC and was perfect. Uninstalled keepass2. IT took me like 1min thirty. In win11 just to go to the website and download and install would take way more.
My new linux distro was also up in under 7minutes ! Windows still takes nearly an hour if installed from zero ! Anyways, just to show you how awesomely relieved I am that my win is off and my kubuntu is up !

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I tried at least 6 linux distros, custom kernels, custom drivers for intel and dell. It still did not went up. Normally, without messing around, a simple solution of secure boot off, disk management from RAID to AHCI swtich and a linux should go up on any PC. Intel, AMD, ARM what ever. No it did not ! 

We talk about a brand new PC Dell 14 Plus 7440 32gb lpddrx Intel I9 185h. The PC was produced this april 2025 ! When I went to the reddit forums, I found a lot of issues and complaints about these new intel Dell laptops. Especially the GEN1 GEN2 I7 I9 ones ! 13th and 14th gen I5 I7 I9s have no real issues nowhere and they are well supported by LTS distros too. 

So what was my problem  ?

 This is an SKHYNIX branded bloody expensive dell NVME. It costs 188€ on DELLs website. IT comes with a long heatsink, but the actual thermal sponge is glued to the dell sticker. Not sure what a BPA coated paper can do in case of heat transfer. Very funny ! Anyways, my laptop was having this as the original NVME. The original price of my laptop was 1299€ and with some discount it was sold for 999€. I also had some extra codes and DELL points so I paid 889€. If we followed the price tag of this SKHynix NVME and the price tag of Windows, I could have gotten this PC for under 600€ and by my own NVME.

This is what I did. I actually just bought a 990 Pro from Samsung, as this is the most reputable NVME on the current and past market. I have  an old 970 EVO in AMD PC and it runs like a Nordictrack treadmill. 

I installed it and there was no bios lag on recognizing it ! My windows install did not need extra RST driver load to recognize the NVME ! One point to that ! I did this just to test my theory !
I made a Kubuntu 25 USB with balena etcher, what has also actually failed on both of my Windows machines, so I went downstairs, onto my linux tower and burnt it on that one !

Guess what. I took 6minutes and 45 seconds to install Kubuntu on my new laptop, with absolutely zero hiccups ! No questions, no issues, no nothing !  
Since last night, I am relieved, that my laptop is blazing fast, with less heat, half the memory use, half the space use for the os and components, 1/50th of update and upgrade times and much more ! 

Thank you linux and thank you DELL !

 

PS.: I also recently purchased a replacement laptop for my wife. A Dell 16" Inspirion with Ryzen 7 8840. I turned simply off secureboot and the Kubuntu went up in even faster time than on the Intel ! Strangely from a less powerful PC with less and slower memory !

Install Linux on latest DELL laptops - I9 185h / 285h

Installing Linux is a pain in the back on these new machines. Here is what can prevent you from doing so and how to correct it. I am using a DELL Inspirion 14 Plus with I9 185H.

• Sata Mode
  
• Secure Boot
• Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority
  
• TPM 
• SMM
• WSMT
  

SMM and WSMT are both, features that you might find in BIOS. Often one or the other. Unless you custom load BIOS settings from skratch, or flash on total custom BIOS, these settings are not changeable. They also might prevent you from installing Linux, but newer Kernels support these. "Normally".

It is time consuming, but if it was me, to keep most of the possible security features on, I would start changing these settings one by one.

Step 1
Download Dell Command Configure

Step 2 - try it without at the beginning
Set BIOS admin password. You might need it, to accept changes. I simply would use either 4 digit pin or a a max 6character password for home users. For a pro environment I would definitely go with a classic 12 character, number, upper and lower case, Special Character option. Be careful with keyboard setup !

Step 3
Run Dell Command Configure Prompt. Start with setting your sata controller from Raid using Intel RST, to AHCI. Then try installing your linux distro. This is the most usual cause of Linux not going up on your new DELL Laptop.

Step 4
Ubtuntu, Fedora, Mint, but even Debian supports secure boot. Normally ! If it still is messing up your install: Turn off secure boot. This one can be done from BIOS itself. 

Step 5
Disable Windows UEFI Cert - Well, it might be necessary and most possibly just in case something went wrong, you won't be able to secure boot your deice, if you installed linux with these two features off. 

Summary of Commands

Add this before your commands, if you've set password:
cctk --valsetuppwd=MyBiosPass123

Your commands should look like that:

cctk --valsetuppwd=MyBiosPass123 --embsatara=ahci
cctk --valsetuppwd=MyBiosPass123 --secureboot=disable
 

SATA Mode → AHCI    cctk --embsatara=ahci
Disable Secure Boot    cctk --secureboot=disable
Disable MS UEFI Cert    cctk --securebootmode=custom
cctk --deletepk
Disable TPM    cctk --tpm=off
Clear TPM    cctk --tpmclear
Disable SMM / WSMT    cctk --smmsecuritymitigation=disable

At the moment of this article, I could disable everything I wanted. I did not find a way to disable security mitigation, without doing a drastic action on my BIOS. I will come back to see, if a new linux distro will go up flawlessly or not. I just have ordered a new 2TO 990pro from Samsung. I hope for the best, cause I can't get the use of Windows anymore....

Please note that Dell Command Configure is available on Linux. Except, that it also has a GUI interface on Windows and there are many many options that will be denied if you did not use that. Setting RAID sata mode to AHCI is straight forward, but all other functions might fail !
Why not just go with a R9 AI PC instead of Intel ? If you wanted to focus on virtualization projects, running multiple low level systems, you need a lot of cores. But we talked about a laptop, so when you need to run low level stuff, your battery life could be still excellent ! No thunderbolt port on AMD pcs  ! The new thunderbolt 5 can run 3 4K monitors at 144hz, while charging and having internet, headset, keyboard and mouse all plugged into one single dock ! Finallyggt now, DELL has limited options on R9 pcs not coming with LPDDR5 and without PRO feature ! Why Dell ? Cause I need physical quality and I have been seeing Lenovo, HP, Terra breaking like pretzels.