Hi all, I just purchased the SC17 non-gsync with the nVidia 1070.  I plan on running Linux as my main OS (dual boot here so I can run Autodesk and Solidworks episodically) and am curious if anyone else is running Linux so we don't have to reinvent the wheel with support.
 
I installed Linux Mint 18.3, running kernel 4.13.0-36.  So any Debian based distro should be relevant here.
 
The install was easy, resize partitions and make room for your Linux install, boot the USB drive, and install.  You can follow this or any other similar guide:
 
**Edit, I can't post external links, so just search google how to install Linux alongside Windows 10.
 
After the install I  installed the proprietary nvidia and intel drivers, nvidia 384.111 and intel-microcode 3.20180108.0.   I haven't yet tested CUDA support.
 
There are a few issues that arose immediately:
1:  The ethernet doesn't work
2:  The hotkeys for adjusting monitor backlight don't work.
 
1: A quick google search shows it turns out to be a bug in either the intel drivers or the kernel, one solution:
 
dmesg | grep e1000 will show the error:
"e1000e 0000:00:1f.6: The NVM Checksum Is Not Valid"
 
solution is to comment out those checks from the driver and compile.
 
 ubuntuforums org /archive/index.php/t-2356217.html
 
2:  I didn't have time to find a proper fix, so I just did a quick work around.  
install xbacklight
this will let you control the backlight from the command line.  I note you can do this with xrandr using:
xrandr --output DP-0 --brightness .5
where the .5 can vary from 0 to 1, but you can't increment it up or down and was too lazy to write a bash script.
so you can bind these commands to the fn+brightness keys:
xbacklight -dec 10
xbacklight -inc 10
 
You can do this in the 'keyboards' settings if you are running cinnamon, and probably other windows managers.
 
So far things are looking good, cpu scaling works, battery status works (actually indicates longer life than windows did, but we will find out), I received the toshiba m.2 harddrive in my computer and not the samsung 960 so others reported, but I'm still getting an impressive 1400 MB/s reads with a quick hdparm check.  Will know more when I install more software, tests, and get this setup for work.  I really like this laptop, a good screen, full keyboard, fantastic hardware, and easily upgradable in terms of hard drives and ram.
 
Anyone else running Linux on this please share any advice.  ^^

ajiyengar
Could you please share any updates on how the dual boot has been working so far?

Sadly this laptop now serves as a desktop permanently connected to keyboard, monitor, and mouse and it is running only windows as a dedicated CAD and finite element simulation machine.  My daily driver for all other computing is my pre-touchbar macbook pro, upgraded with a Samsung NVMe drive, which runs only Linux with no issues.  I'm a slave to CAD, which there are no good Linux alternatives, and sadly Inventor no longer works well in a virtual machine, and my license of Solidworks blocks install in a virtual machine.  For finite element simulation, Ansys works natively in Linux, but I still need a CAD program to pair with Ansys.
 
When I was still dual-booting, Linux ran mostly well.  If didn't need CAD, I would definitely run Linux on it.  Hope it is working for you.

saccaed
If you could run windows through Linux(KVM) would you? Asking because that's something I'm working on.

You can install windows on a virtual machine using VirtualBox, it's free.  You can also try VMWare, it's not free, but seems to work a bit better than VirtualBox.  With either one, you will see a significant performance hit.  I used to run windows in a VM for when I needed to use CAD, but Autodesk Inventor no longer works well in a VM since a few updates ago, and Solidworks checks for a VM and won't let you run it in a VM.  For me, no, I wouldn't use windows in a VM.

saccaed
Interesting that solidworks decided to try to prevent VM installs. I brought up KVM because of it's near native performance(typically is around 95%). Going to have to look into how prevalent VM restricted software is.

I'll have to try again, what software are you using for KVM?