Notes on using Debian GNU/Linux on a Dell Venue 8 Pro 5855

The following notes assume GNOME is used.

This is known to work with Debian Testing at the time of writing, other versions are unknown.

What Works

• Display
• Touch
• USB
• Battery
• Audio*
• Bluetooth
• LTE

Untested: NFC

Unsolved: Camera

*requires installing the firmware

Fixes

To get a button to close windows:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'minimize,maximize,close,appmenu'

Without this, one might get stuck because windows cannot be closed. (Why is there no button for closing windows by default?)

Required Packages

To get sound working, install the required firmware: firmware-intel-sound

Don't forget to reboot after installing it.

Other things that might be useful

Create .config/environment.d/envvars.conf and as content use MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1