Linux on Dell 7490

Don’t miss to add kernel options i915.enable_dc=0 and intel_idle.max_cstate=1, if you want to run a modern arch linux on your Dell Latitude 7490.

I started with a standard installation of EndeavourOS and ran into crashes with blinking caps lock (showing up on kernel panics IIRC), getting more frequent if a VM adds additional load to the system.

I ran the BIOS Diagnostics of the notebook, but that detected no problem. A combination of memtester and burnP6 from SystemRescue confirmed that.

I tested different kernels (standard, lts, zen) and the effect was similar, so I did some research about the support of Dell Latitude 7490 and found the kernel options for i915 and C states and in fact that helps a lot.

I installed the intel-ucode package first, which was somehow not included in my EndeavourOS installation, then proceeded with extending /etc/default/grub by GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i915.enable_dc=0 intel_idle.max_cstate=1 add_efi_memmap".

Beginning with the next reboot the system is now running stable.