Out of date! These laptop tests are now out of date, for newer tests see the Laptop Testing Team pages

Notes on installation and compatibility of Ubuntu with Dell laptop computers.

See also http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html and http://www.tuxmobil.org/dell.html

Note: on newer laptops with ATA drives, if you experience random, non-reproducible, complete system freezes (i.e., mouse and keyboard are frozen; cannot ssh into the machine, must press the power button to reboot), and these freezes leave no messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/Xorg.0.log, you may want to try always leaving a disk in your CD or DVD drive. This has been known to cure the problem in at least two systems (Inspiron 9300 and Precision M70). See http://rtr.ca/dell_i9300/.

Summary

Details

Dell Inspiron 1100

• This is installation instructions for Hoary. I was unable to complete a successful install with Warty, and I looked, but was unable to find anyone else who had completed an install of Warty.

• You must first upgrade to BIOS version A32. The easiest way to do this is to run this file: ftp://ftp.dell.com/bios/I1100A32.exe (click to download) on a Windows partition. For information on doing this without a windows partition, go here: http://www.geocities.com/randomnumbergenerator2001/ . That page also has some other useful information if you do not have success with these install instructions.

• Insert the Hoary install disk. Type in at boot: linux pci=noacpi noapic to prevent it from freezing partway through install (this seems to be a recurring problem with Dell laptops).
• Run the normal install.

• Debian will detect the screen resolution incorrectly. The Inspiron 1100 comes with a 1024x768 screen by default, but it will set your screen to 800x600 and won't give you the option to change it under screen resolution. To fix this once everything has installed, boot to the Root Terminal or use Applications>System Tools>Root Terminal. Once logged in, type (without quotes) "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf". From nano, go down to where it says "Section "Monitor"". Delete everything after that and replace it with the following (which was generated by Red Hat Fedora Core):

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Generic Monitor"
        ModelName       "Dell 1024x768 Laptop Display Panel"
        HorizSync       31.5 - 48.5
        VertRefresh     59.0 - 75.0
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Videocard0"
        Driver          "i810"
        VendorName      "Videocard vendor"
        BoardName       "Intel 845"
        VideoRam                        10000
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubsection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

This configuration has been tested on three different Inspiron 1100s and works well. Now you should be able to go to Desktop>Administration>Screen Resolution and set your screen resolution to 1024x768.

It has come to my attention that some people have been having problems with the power management on this laptop. I haven't had any problems with that on any of the 1100s I have installed Ubuntu on, but if you have and know how to fix it, update this accordingly.

* Update 2005/05/09 - I installed Hoary 5.04 in an Inspiron 1100 with absolutely no problems. No freezes and the screen resolution was correctly detected at 1024x768. I personally never updated the BIOS, but I received the laptop second hand, so it may have been updated by the previous owner. I am having issues with the battery state being detected, however. The Gnome battery applet correctly identifies whether or not the AC is connected, but it says it can't detect the battery status.

EaldenEscanan - I helped a friend install 5.10 on her Dell Inspiron 1100 A32. Adding the HorizSync and VertRefresh to xorg.conf was enough.

ChrisCrane, Apr-2007, I installed Edgy Final on my Inpiron 1100 and it now works well. There were some issues (eg with the installation process, domain name resolution, application load time, power - different from the above). All issues and fixes are documented on the Inspiron 1100 Laptop Testing page.

Dell Inspiron 700m

I have a Dell Inspiron 700m which has 1280x800 LCD panel.

After install Hoary, starts up resolution 1024x768. To get X running in 1280x800, I installed 855resolution_0.3-1_i386.deb downloaded from http://www.debian.or.jp/~kmuto/855resolution/. Breezy users can find 855resolution in Universe.

Edit /etc/default/855resolution as follows :

{{{# # 855resolution default # # find free modes by /usr/sbin/855resolution -l # and set it to MODE # MODE=5c # # and set resolutions for the mode. # XRESO=1280 YRESO=800 }}}

To work hibernation, add 855resolution line to head of /etc/acpi/resume.sh.

invoke-rc.d --quiet 855resolution start

*snip*

To work mem suspend, uncomment follow line of /etc/default/acpi-support.

ACPI_SLEEP=true

An additional comment that applies to at least pre-release Breezy (and the 2.6.12 kernel): It may be necessary to add modules like uhci-hcd and b44 to the MODULES line. The b44 module is needed to make DHCP work after the computer has rewoken. The uhci-usb module may be necessary to prevent lock-ups depending on what USB devices are attached.

WiFi works fine, but wifi light won't turn on.

Dell Inspiron 1150

• The next line describe initial installation of Ubuntu 4.10 on DELL Inspiron 1150 (Intel Celeron 2.4MHz, 512MB RAM, AC27 Sound, i845 AGP, DELL 1300 Wireless MiniPCI card) with BIOS upgraded to A05 or A06.
• Sound module has been recognized without problem and works fine
• Touchpad works fine
• Video work fine under 1024x768
• MiniPCI interface not supported by Linux yet, thus wireless could not be identified, though you can configure it with ndiswrapper
• Battery monitor works perfect
• CPU temp. status works
• Closing the lid and power Button have no effect
• Buttons for volume and brightness are working
• Modem is not recognized even after installing softmodem
• Network card works fine

See LaptopTestingTeam/DellInspiron1150

Dell Inspiron 1300

• Installed with Ubuntu 5.10. No wireless card installed.
• Some feature buttons (sleep, suspend, cd-eject) not working on initial install.
• Touchpad works fine
• Volume buttons working
• Sound works
• Video ran at 1024x768
• Upgraded to Dapper around Flight 5, keeping updated since then.
• All items under Breezy seem to still work
• Sleep, suspend, cd-eject buttons now working
• Sleep and suspend working
• Found out about and installed 915resolution, now at 1280x800

(another experience)

• based on the French wiki page http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/materiel/portable/inspiron_1300

• Ubuntu 5.10 with ndiswrapper
• wifi works
• haven't tried all feature buttons (sleep, suspend, cd-eject)
• Touchpad works fine
• Volume buttons working (even better than in Windows!)
• Sound works BUT not after suspend-to-RAM; also, bug with headphone jack: the speakers still play when the headphones are plugged in
• Sound recording not tested thoroughly, but it seems it only comes on as line-in, not microphone
• Video ran at 1280x800 with 915resolution
• Suspend-to-RAM works well (from Log Out menu), but no sound after waking up; also, the wifi connection is slow to come back (compared to Windows, where Suspend/Wake up/Wifi Back On is so smooth
• Suspend-to-HDD seems to suspend (at least it is not the normal Shutting Down messages), but on the next boot it seems to be a normal boot and starts a new login session. The suspended session seems to get lost.
• I will try to complement the French wiki page and translate it.

Dell Inspiron 2600

• Normal install with angled lines during the install which is what I experienced could not eliminate them in console either.
• Could not get the X server to work at all I tried as the video was glitchy the entire time of execution.
• Everything works fine without modification in the console. The sound functions fine as well as the function key.

Dell Inspiron 5000e

• Black screen when starting X with the standard ati driver. I suspect the TFT screen is incorrectly detected as it works when an external monitor is connected. The vesa driver works with the TFT screen at 1280x1024 but not at 1400x1050 (may just be missing Modeline settings, I'll update this section if I fix it). I tried the fglrx driver (BinaryDriverHowto) but it doesn't support this particular ATI card. It works fine if the module vga16fb is loaded (don't ask me why), so an UGLY fix is to add an executable file /etc/rc2.d/S09vga16fb containing simply "modprobe vga16fb".

• Everything else appears to work fine without intervention (sound, synaptic drivers for touch pad, brightness keys).

Dell Inspiron 6000

No special tweaks needed.

Dell Inspiron 6400

Installed on an Intel Duo-Core 1.83 Ghz, WSXGA+ display. I did not get to test much else as the display would not work correctly.

Installed Breezy Badger though X died continuously with errors. Then installed Dapper Drake Flight 5 and updated to the latest fixes though the maximum resolution would only reach 1280x1024 (XGA), and the Inspiron 6400 is a wide screen display model. Laptop used featured the WSXGA+ screen which allows for a maximum resolution of 1680x1050, so everything was stretched.

All thus far.

Dell Inspiron 7500

• Had to use acpi=force in GRUB in order to enable battery monitoring and to let the computer power itself down. I can't tell if any sort of CPU throttling is working properly, but it's not an issue for me.
• No trouble with the onboard sound after I installed all the apt updates.
• Using the kernels compiled with 686 params seemed to be much faster for this Celeron based notebook. This is the only linux distro that I tried that is actually usable with my meager 128 Meg of RAM!
• Haven't played with the onboard modem, although it does seem to be detected.
• Starting with the first reboot after the install is finished, you might encounter a situation where the X server will display nothing but a blank screen. This can be remedied by adding vga=791 to the kernel's startup parameters in your GRUB configuration, which tells the Linux framebuffer to use a VESA video mode which is compatible with the Inspiron 7500. For a smaller font in text mode, vga=795 will also work.

• The following instructions can destroy all the data on your hard disk Booting from Breezy 5.10 installation disk stalled in partitioner, it displayed: ??? ??? <go back> <continue> and none of the buttons seemed to help. Apparently the disk geometry in the existing partition table causes parted to assert. I found this out by going to the bash console (alt+f2) starting parted and typeing 'p' to list the partition table. Parted asserts a couple of times in a function related to getting the partition geometry. I was able to fix this by using fdisk from the bash console to delete the existing partition and adding a new one. I then rebooted from the installation CD and it gave me the expected options at the partitioner menu.

Dell Inspiron 8000

* I8Ks with recent BIOS (A17 and later, apparently) will require a boot option or two to work with current Ubuntu kernels. nolapic seems to be sufficent post-install (possibly post-upgrade if you used an older install CD image?). There are reports that noapic is also needed at install time. I (MartinManey) can't speak to the latter, as I had an older BIOS version at the time of the original install, and only ran into this problem after updating the BIOS. And that's about the only problem I've had with the I8K and Ubuntu!

* I had the ATI Mobility video card in my Inspiron 8000 and the display came out garbled after initial install. I rebooted in recovery mode and "ran dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86" and changed my video settings to 16-bit, with Vertical Refresh rate between 58-62, and all seems fine.

* This did not help in ubuntu 11.10 install. Instead I had to create a new xorg.conf file in the directory /etc/X11. The file contains only the following lines:

Section "Device"
       Identifier "Card0"
       Driver "vesa"
EndSection

* to avoid freezing at install system startup, I had to boot the installer with the command : linux pci=noacpi, hope this helps

* I'm running BIOS A23, and used to get the lockups when not using the nolapic option. However on recent kernels (2.6.10) it works without this option. (kernel reports 'Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"')

* ACPI Problems : Closing the screen in X turned off the backlight only to turn it on again straight after. I made the following changes to make this work.

First of all I noticed that one of the functions in the acpi support scripts was returning the wrong values. This may be due to my login manager (kdm) ? In the file /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs edit the function getXuser to the following (add the -m 1 part)

getXuser() {
        user=`who| grep -m 1 " :0" | awk '{print $1}'`
        export XAUTHORITY=/home/$user/.Xauthority
        export DISPLAY=:0
}

also in the script /etc/acpi/lid.sh comment out the chvt lines. The screen was being turned off, but the chvt 12 ws switching to virtual terminal 12 which also turned the light back on. I'm not sure of the purpose of these to switch away from the X vt ?

. /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs

getXuser;

grep -q closed /proc/acpi/button/lid/*/state
if [ $? = 0 ]
then
        . /usr/share/acpi-support/screenblank
        echo `fgconsole` > $LIDSTATE
        #chvt 12
else
        grep -q off-line /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/*/state
        if [ $? = 1 ]
        then
                su - $user -c "xscreensaver-command -unthrottle"
        fi
        #chvt `cat $LIDSTATE`
        su - $user -c "xscreensaver-command -deactivate"
fi

and now your screen should go off.

1. For me, the Tv out of my Ati Moblity M4 does not work.

2. I cannot use the firewire, because it does not work.

Dell Inspiron 8100

Everything except irda seems to be working. Had to activate dma for dvd drive in /etc/hdparm.conf to get decent dvd performance. Needs nolapic boot parameter.

Getting to work multimedia keys:

1. Multimedia keys on Inspiron 8100 have these scancodes:

• play/pause: 0x81 stop: 0x82 previous: 0x83 next: 0x84

2. Assign these scancodes (known by linux) to keycodes (known by X). On a terminal, execute:

• $ sudo setkeycodes 0x81 129 $ sudo setkeycodes 0x82 130 $ sudo setkeycodes 0x83 131 $ sudo setkeycodes 0x84 132 (here, we're assigning scancode 0x81 to keycode 129 and so on).

3. Assign those keys to their desired functionality:

1. Click on Computer -> Desktop preferences -> keybindings (Not sure of these names, I'm using spanish locales) b. Go to sound section. Click on Play, and press your play multimedia key, and so on.

4. To assign automatically scancodes at boot time, edit /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh

• $ gksudo gedit /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh

• and append at the end of the file:
  • setkeycodes 0x81 129 setkeycodes 0x82 130 setkeycodes 0x83 131 setkeycodes 0x84 132

Dell Inspiron 8200

• X (1600x1200 display, Radeon M9) is nicely auto-configured

• Sound breaks due to Bug 1254 -- add acpi_irq_isa=7 to boot options

• Truemobile 1180 works with ndiswrapper

• Getting to work multimedia keys: Same procedure as Inspiron 8100, but scancodes are:
  • play/pause: 0x85 stop: 0x86 previous: 0x87 next: 0x88
• Using ACPI can cause high-pitched whining; use APM instead without making idle cpu calls.

Dell Inspiron 8500

• Everything seems to work except for the sound and wireless irq problems. Battery life is excellent and once the pci=noacpi was appended to grub, the Dell Truemobile 1150 worked flawlessly. Suspend (s3) even works out of the box!

• X starts with 640x480, put

  HorizSync 30-65
  VertRefresh 50-75

  in Monitor section, this resulted in 1280x1024. Added

  Modeline  "1680x1050"  147.14  1680 1784 1968 2256  1050 1051 1054 1087

  to Monitor section, resulted in 1680x1050, success!

• No sound, appending acpi=noirq in grub fixes (is this any different from pci=noacpi?)

Note: adding the module snd-intel8x0m to /etc/hotplug/blacklist will remove spurious mixer devices from GNOME Volume Control and leave just Alsa and OSS mixers

Dell Inspiron 8600

• After a fresh install of Ubuntu 4.10 everything works, except of X (starts up with a display resolution of 640x480), sound, wireless card (Dell Truemobile 1300), suspend to RAM (s3). On Hoary X and sound works out of the box.

• To get X running in 1680x1050 type sudo nano /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and edit the file like it is done above in Inspiron 8500.

• To get the sound running, type sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst and add acpi_irq_isa=7 to the boot options. (Is it the same bug like described in Bug 1254?)

For example, toward the end of /boot/grub/menu.lst you should see a section that looks something like this:

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda3 ro quiet splash
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

(Make sure you're looking at the *first* section that looks like this that doesn't have '#' symbols beginning each line...) If some of the numbers are different for you, that's fine. The line that interests you is the one that starts with kernel. You want to add acpi_irq_isa=7 at the end of that line, making sure that all the text stays on that line. For our example here, the new line is:

kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda3 ro quiet splash acpi_irq_isa=7

• Framebuffer works with a display resolution of 1280x1024 if you add vga=795 to your boot options.

• The wireless card (Dell Truemobile 1300) works with ndiswrapper. Install the package ndiswrapper and follow the installation description on their homepage at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net.

• Intel ProWireless on Hoary works out of the box.

Dell Inspiron 8600 on Breezy

Almost everything works in Breezy except scrolling with the touch pad. Wireless (ipw2100) work out of the box except wpa, you have to manually install wpasupplicant. (configuration is in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and /etc/default/wpasupplicant)

Here is how to get scrolling working: Modify these lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"

to

Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/event2"
Option          "Protocol"              "event"

The change of the protocol is due to auto-dev not detecting the right event device. A list of devices is found in /proc/bus/input/devices

Furthermore these lines must be added in the same section:

Option          "LeftEdge"              "120"
Option          "RightEdge"             "830"
Option          "TopEdge"               "120"
Option          "BottomEdge"            "650"

Example of /etc/default/wpasupplicant:

# /etc/default/wpasupplicant

# WARNING! Make sure you have a configuration file!

ENABLED=1

# Useful flags:
#  -D <driver>          Wireless drive, typically optional.
#  -i <ifname>          Interface
#  -c <config file>     Configuration file
#  -d                   Debugging (-dd for more)
#  -w                   Wait for interface to come up

# See the manual page wpa_supplicant(1) for more options and information.

OPTIONS="-Dipw -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -w"

# EXAMPLES:

# OPTIONS="-i wlan0 -D hostap -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
# OPTIONS="-i ath0 -D madwifi -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

Example of /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

# Minimal /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to associate with open
#  access points. Please see
#  /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.gz for more complete
#  configuration parameters.

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
        ssid="my ssid"
        proto=WPA
        psk="secretpassword"
        priority=5
}

### Associate with any open access point
###  Scans/ESSID changes can be done with wpa_cli
network={
        ssid=""
        key_mgmt=NONE
        priority=1
}

See also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/DellInspiron8600

Dell Latitude C600

Hardware

• video problem with X refusing to start, using default ati driver. Disable framebuffer to make it work in xorg.conf

Option          "UseFBDev"              "false"

Or even better, use the "r128" driver instead of "ati" in xorg.conf

• Sound card maestro3 detected without any problem, works with ALSA
• PCMCIA ok
• Network ok (3c59x)
• CD drive Hotswap ok (use the hotswap package)
• Modem not supported
• Ir: not tested

Power Management

• APM works better than ACPI. Disable acpi at boot by adding  'acpi=off apm=on'  to the kernel line in grub config.

• Use the i8kmon package to monitor temperature and trigger fans

ACPI

• Suspend to RAM doesn't work (leaves a white screen - all pixels on)
• Suspend to disk hangs sometimes on suspend
• CPU frequency scaling works (switch frequency back and forth - from 750Mhz to 600Mhz in my case), with a short but noticeable X freeze during the switch (use the speedstep-smi driver).
• All system Fn+? keys disabled
• Power button triggers normal shutdown
• AC online/offline state correctly detected

APM

• Suspend to RAM works (Fn+Esc available)
• Suspend to disk (using the special s2d partition) works (Fn+H works). Resume sometimes hangs.
• CPU frequency scaling not supported.
• AC online/offline state correctly detected
• Access to Bios Setup (Fn+F1)
• Power button uncleanly shuts the machine down

Synaptics touchpad

It is detected only if no external mouse plugged. At the time the psmouse driver is loaded:

• if an external mouse is connected: touchpad/stick use the PS/2 driver
• if no external mouse is connected: touchpad uses the synaptics driver, stick the PS/2 driver

Tip:

If you plug or unplug an external mouse while X is running, X might well not detect it, and you end up without a mouse in your X session (generally, unplugging is not a problem, though). Solution:

• put this script to dynamically detect which pointer you use in /etc/dev.d/default

• change X config to have touchpad bound to /dev/touchpad (created only when detected)instead of /dev/psaux (always present). The X config statement "SendCoreEvents" does the rest of the magic.

• Reload the driver after plugging/unplugging:

# sudo /sbin/rmmod psmouse
# sudo /sbin/modprobe psmouse 

Benefits:

If you just unplugged the external mouse, you can now take advantage of the excellent synaptics driver (otherwise you carry on with the lame PS/2 driver). If you plugged a mouse while you only had the touchpad/stick before, the external mouse is now detected and you can use it in X.

Might work for other models too, with minor adaptations. To check, see what /proc/bus/input/devices is showing after you plug/unplug the mouse and you reload the driver.

#
# /etc/dev.d/default/mouse.dev
#
# automatically creates /dev/touchpad and /dev/mousestick
# whenever the mouse driver (psmouse module) is reloaded
# It is called by udev, after an hotplug event.
# the key is /proc/bus/input/devices to see if the
# touchpad was detected
# usually devices are created as /dev/input/mouse*
#

mesg () {
    /usr/bin/logger -t $(basename $0)"[$$]" "$@"
}

TOUCHPAD=/dev/touchpad
MOUSESTICK=/dev/mousestick


# get the correct mouse type for this device/handler. puts it in an evil global var
# looks at /proc, which is sometimes not be fully available at boot
function getMouseType() {
    #mesg "getting mouse type for $1"

    # let's check if proc can help us
    if [ -e /proc/bus/input/devices ]; then
        STAT="`cat /proc/bus/input/devices  | grep -B 2 $1`"
    else
        mesg "mouse.dev: Default boot configuration"
        STAT="BOOT"
    fi
    [ -z "$STAT" ] && STAT="BOOT"

    mesg "STATUS: $STAT"
    if [ -z "`echo $STAT | grep TouchPad`" ]; then
        # it's not touchpad
        mesg "$DEVNAME is mouse/stick"
        CURRENT=$MOUSESTICK
    else
        mesg "$DEVNAME is touchpad"
        CURRENT=$TOUCHPAD
    fi
}

if [[ $ACTION = remove ]]; then
    case $DEVNAME in
        */mouse*)
            # DEVNAME -> mouse0 or mouse1 or mouse2...
            MOUSE=`echo $DEVNAME | cut -d/ -f4`
            # just  remove its link
            DEV=`find /dev -lname $MOUSE`
            if [ -n "$DEV" ]; then
                mesg "Removing $DEV"
                rm -f $DEV
            else
                mesg "No dev was linked to $MOUSE"
            fi
            ;;
        *) exit 0
        ;;
    esac

elif [[ $ACTION = add ]]; then
    case $DEVNAME in
        */mouse*)
            #mesg "DEVNAME is $DEVNAME"

            MOUSE=`echo $DEVNAME | cut -d/ -f4`
            getMouseType $MOUSE
            mesg "Linking $CURRENT -> $DEVNAME"
            ln -sf $DEVNAME $CURRENT
            ;;
        *)
           exit 0
        ;;
    esac

fi

exit 0

Dell Latitude D600

• Don't have dial-up, parallel-port, or serial devices, so those are untested

• Running into the not-powering off-at-shutdown bug (MattZimmerman: Have you tried the 2.6.8.1-9 kernel? It fixed a similar problem for someone else) (CarlosJHernandez Works fine with 2.6.10-5)

• Bluetooth works
• The modem needs driver from Linuxant (non-free in any sense). Demo version of the driver seems to work.
• BIOS problem, address space collision with IRQs and ACPI trouble. The solution about setting acpi=off makes soundcard and wlan work, but there are some bogus interrupts which will be handled by the wrong device driver. Better solution is to disable parallel port if possible, as BIOS sets it fixed on IRQ 7. Then ACPI (CPU scaling, battery charge indicator, shut down), sound and wlan will work.

• Neither wired nor wireless connection will stay enabled in the GUI network setup utility. It either hangs or unchecks the Active box every time. (PepeSánchez: With last Ubuntu kernel & packets versions, and an ipw2100 card, both work, even with WEP keys. Maybe you have to fix the BIOS issue first.)

• Automatic CPU throttling works beautifully.
• To get the Volume up and down buttons to work do the following:

  • Computer -> Desktop Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts Assign the volume up, down and mute buttons to the appropriate actions within.

• See too http://www.shahidhussain.com/wordpress/index.php?p=30#more-30

Dell Latitude D610

Using Hoary/Kubuntu

• Graphics, sound, WLAN, hibernate work out of the box,
• most of acpi seems to work (except suspend-to-ram), however
• the computer produces a high-pitched, drizzling noise (under Win it's much better), and
• copying large files or accessing the RAM causes the computer to freeze (hard reset necessary).

Fixing the problems:

• First, set the POST option in bios from "fast" to "thorough".
• Install the latest linux kernel (linux-image-2.6.12-3) from breezy (just download the corresponding .deb file from ubuntu.packages and use "dpkg -i filename.deb" to install). You may need to update initrd-tools in the same way.
• Use the following kernel parameters in /boot/grub/menu.lst: "pci=bios idle=halt". The first entry fixes the crashes, the second entry removes the high-pitched sound.

Using Hoary/Ubuntu on Dell D610 with Intel Corp. Mobile Graphics Controller

Works out of the box, but the resolution is a bit low, with a large black border around the screen. Fixed by installing 915 resolution , and running the following before starting X:

• /usr/sbin/915resolution 38 1400 1050

Dell Latitude D800

• Serial ports work as planned.
• CPU Throttling works as planned.

• Display needed some major tweaking to get working. Manual ModeLines had to be added.

• Other than that, pretty much the same as with D600.

• Suffers from irq problems but can be fixed with pci=noacpi in grub or by disabling the parellel port in the bios. -- https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1254

after fixing IRQ problems:

• WLAN Works, This version of D800 had an Intel WLAN card.
• Sound works.

Latitudes vary quite a bit, currently atleast display, WLAN and bluetooth are known to vary.

Dell Latitude 100L

On Hoary:

• used A06 BIOS.
• Ethernet works out of the box (Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01))
• Sound works out of the box (Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01))
• Video works out of the box: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
• Modem not tested. Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
• For CPU Frequency Scaling:

modprobe p4-clockmod or add it a /etc/modules. I user powernowd and CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor Gnome Applet.

• For monitoring the fans on gkrellm, Edit the /etc/init.d/i8kbuttons startup script and put in "modprobe i8k power_status=1 force=1". You need i8kutils, and gkrellm-i8k packages.

sudo apt-get install i8kutils gkrellm-i8k

• To enable support for ACPI functions, edit /etc/default/acpi-support and uncomment the line:

ACPI_SLEEP=true

• Suspend to RAM works after enable ACPI functions.
• Hibernate to Disk Works
• Keyboard Contrast Buttons work
• To get the Volume up and down buttons to work do the following:

  • Computer -> Desktop Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts Assign the volume up, down and mute buttons to the appropriate actions within.

• Gnome Battery Charge Monitor works, indicating time to charge, and time to discharge, but dosent realize when AC plug status change, even when ACPI gets it right.
• For Sound in Flash Player on Firefox:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1

• For the switch CRT/LCD Fn button, you need:

sudo apt-get install i810switch

• What i changed in my xorg.conf script for using the VGA port, with two monitors. The laptop, and a CRT monitor at the right of it.

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"
        Driver          "i810"
        BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
        Option          "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"  #this is the important option
        Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Device[1]"
        Driver          "i810"
        BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
        Screen          1
EndSection

####

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Generic Monitor"
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Monitor[1]" #CRT e70f
    HorizSync 30-70
    VertRefresh 50-150
EndSection

####

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier  "Screen[1]"
   Device      "Device[1]"
   Monitor     "Monitor[1]"
   DefaultDepth 24
   Subsection "Display"
       Depth       24
       Modes       "1024x768"
       ViewPort    0 0
   EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen 0        "Default Screen"
        Screen 1 "Screen[1]" RightOf "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

CategoryLaptop

Dell Inspiron e1405/640m

• Installation with Dapper Drake Flight 7 went smoothly. I had a problem with the screen dying during installation when X11 was configured. I restarted installation and selected 1024x768 from the Ubuntu boot screen and the screen problem didn't happen, don't know if it was related

• with a TrueLife display GDM won't start after installation, you must download and install 915resolution for it to work. It can be obtained from http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/. This program should be run before X is started. I put it at the beginning of the gdm script in /etc/init.d/ "915resolution 38 1440 900"

• Also there is an issue with the hard drive spinning down after 5 seconds if you are on battery, a fix for this is as follows:

in /etc/acpi/power.sh

change:

 function laptop_mode_enable {
$LAPTOP_MODE start

for x in /sys/bus/ide/devices/*/block; do
drive=$(basename $(readlink $x));
$HDPARM -S 12 /dev/$drive 2>/dev/null
$HDPARM -B 1 /dev/$drive 2>/dev/null
done

for x in /sys/bus/scsi/devices/*/block; do
drive=$(basename $(readlink $x));
$HDPARM -S 12 /dev/$drive 2>/dev/null
$HDPARM -B 1 /dev/$drive 2>/dev/null
done
}

to

function laptop_mode_enable {
$LAPTOP_MODE start
}

then, in /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

LM_AC_HD_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=7200 # change from 5, not needed if laptop_mode is
disabled while on AC
LM_BATT_HD_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=7200 # change from 5, the critical one!!!

• I have just started testing so there could be other problems, sound seems to work, DVD drive is available, onboard LAN works, most power saving features seem to work (battery life is good)

---

CategoryLaptop