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Prepping to buy a new laptop for travel, and the Dell Inspiron 14 5420 looks good (functional, small, and inexpensive), but it shows as certified for Ubuntu 20.04 and not 22.04.

The conversation at this link Upgrade Ubuntu on certified Dell laptops implies that it may work or may not - if I am reading it correctly.

Anyone with experience about installing 22.04 on the Inspiron 14 5420?

Any suggestions?

Thank you Benji for the details.

Notes: This was marked as as duplicate, but I think that's not quite correct. The question is not "Will Ubuntu work on this hardware?" The question is "If this hardware was certified for Ubuntu 20.04 then is it likely to work well for Ubuntu 22.04?" It sounds like the answer might be "Maybe it will work, but not if vendor specific drivers were included in 20.04 but did not make it into 22.04". Since I am deciding whether or not to buy this hardware, I cannot test it first. Based on the possibility of hardware arriving which won't work, it sounds like abandoning the plan and purchasing something on the "22.04" list is the best plan.

Thanks again, Benji for the details.

-Vik Solem

Vik Solem
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1 Answers1

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If it is possible with 20.04 it will definitely boot, but not all drivers may work.

As long as Dell does not provide specific drivers that are only available under 20.04 you should be fine.

Just start a live system from USB/PXE/DVD , see if "all things you need work", e.g. :

  • networking (wired)
  • networking (WiFi)
  • bluetooth ( at least pairing )
  • bluetooth ( maybe even audio playback and DUN/NAP )
  • touchpad/touchscreen working
  • webcam working
  • basic graphic functions ( many tabs open + e.g. playing a video in vlc)
  • advanced grraphic functions ( the live systems may not be able to run 3rd-party drivers in place, though it is possible e.g. with DKMS.. especially CUDA or HEVC hardware decoding might ONLY work with 3rd-party drivers )
  • standby/hibernate/resume might not be working in live systems , don't bother
  • NFC/fingerprint stuff might ( like the graphics) only work with 3rd party drivers

Things you should keep in mind:

  • proprietary drivers ( mainly graphic & WiFi cards ) sometimes lag behind with versioning , so you are often tied to specific kernel versions once they do not updated their driver code and there is no community-maintained version

  • If you use UEFI/ Secure boot installation ( the default nowadays) , you are only able to install signed kernels with their keys properly enrolled
    ( might not be the case for you , but there are flavours like xanmod and liquorix that have likeable features but need to be self signed + enrolled )

Regards ( just comment if you have futher questions )

Benji over_9000 'benchonaut'
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  • I have checked more than 10 of the certified laptops listed on this page https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops?q=&limit=20&vendor=Dell&release=22.04+LTS and I found some that are close, but nothing that matches on the Dell site.

    For example: Inspiron 14 5430 is not there but Inspiron 14 5420 is, as is Lattitude 5430. Lattitude 5340 is not there.

    It would appear that the Dell laptops certified for 22.04 are not available from Dell.

    Is this expected?

    Am I missing something about that list of certified laptops?

     – Vik Solem Mar 14 '23 at 22:42
  • To be honest , i would never care about "HELL Certified" , rack servers -> nice | business laptops (older) -> sometimes nice|all consumer and touchscreen stuff -> NOPE .. rare spare parts, long delivery time ... sometimes very loud by default .. battery issues .. the last stable lappy from them was a (loud) pentium4-somehing with high res but battery+noise issues as well .. a recent touch-screen-lap failed completely, bat+screen blackout etc. | my suggestion would be to look for the sound and graphics etc. card ,see if their drivers are freely available if there is trouble with them – Benji over_9000 'benchonaut' Mar 15 '23 at 11:47
  • I installed Ubuntu Mate 22.04. The only issue I have had thus far is the sound. – Vik Solem Mar 24 '23 at 17:22
  • I installed Ubuntu Mate 22.04. The only issue I have had thus far is the sound. A YouTube video plays sound, but when I go to the system sound properties doing the "Test" speakers has no result. Weird.

    From your list:

    Worked:

    • networking (wired) (with dongle adapter)
    • networking (WiFi)
    • touchpad/touchscreen working
    • webcam working
    • basic graphic functions

    Not tested:

    • advanced grraphic functions

    I don't use these, so I did not test them.

    • bluetooth
    • standby/hibernate/resume
    • NFC/fingerprint stuff might ( like the graphics) only work with 3rd party drivers
     – Vik Solem Mar 24 '23 at 17:35