Installing Ubuntu on a 2018 Dell XPS 13 9370

I got my hands on an second hand 2018 Dell XPS 13 9370 and wanted to install Ubuntu on it. It was pretty straightforward, as soon as I got past a couple of BIOS configuration issues.

The laptop comes preinstalled with Windows 10 and some settings in the BIOS assume that this is what you want to use forever.

To be able to install Ubuntu on it, I had to change the following 2 settings in the BIOS:

• System Configuration > Miscellaneous Devices > Check off "Enable Secure Digital (SD) Card Boot".
• System Configuration > SATA Operation > Change the value from "RAID On" to "AHCI" to disable RST (Intel Rapid Restore Technology).

The first one is not strictly necessary, but I wanted to install from a micro SD card in the build-in card reader and initially couldn't get it to boot from that device. According to other posts in the Dell support forum, there might be similar issues booting from a USB device, depending on which side of the laptop you connect the device.

The other issue, I ran into while installing Ubuntu. I simply got a dialogue box telling me to disable RST.

To access the BIOS Setup and/or select another boot option than Windows, press F12 when the Dell logo shows, right after turning on the machine.

When these 2 things were in place, installing Ubuntu was a breeze. Eveything seems to just work. It's impressive how easy this is these days. And fast! It's all ready within 15 minutes.