DellLatitudeLS

  • Contact: cihtog Kahrn

  • Brand: Dell
  • Make : Latitude
  • Model: LS
  • Website:
  • S/N: Only needed if you have a Canonical supplied laptop

Issues with Gutsy

  • See notes below.

Issues with Edgy

Do all of the wireless setup from the command line, the tool kit does not work. Download all of the libs and g++ from the Synaptic Package manager, then download the newest version of ndiswrapper from sourcefourge. Follow the instructions in the install file, very simple to follow. The ACX driver must be blacklisted or removed with the rm command before you can load the windows driver. I had to edit the resolv.conf file on my systems - (2) of them to be exact, this laptop and a desktop. The IP of my router had to be removed and any missing DNS servers added to this file before DNS resolution would work correctly. I noticed that when I changed my connection type from PCMCIA to my EDGE card then back, my resolv.conf would be automatically changed back to the wrong settings, showing the router gateway and first DNS server instead of DNS 1 and DNS 2. As long as my PCMCIA card is in the slot at boot, my connection setting remain correct. I need to figure out how to get it to look at the right numbers when configuring the system automatically. Todays entries in this wiki were made from my fully functional wireless laptop. woohoo!

System Information

LS500

BIOS: A05
CPU: PIII-M 500MHz
RAM: 128MB
HDD: 30GB IBM Travelstar 4200RPM (7GB Windows 2000, 23GB Xubuntu)
PCMCIA Cards: None
Kernel: 2.6.22-14-generic

LS400

bios-version: A09(J3K13)
cpu: PIII 400MHz
RAM: 256 MB
HDD: 30 Gigabyte, W2K and ubuntu dual boot w/swap (stable so far)
PCMCIA cards: TRENDnet TEW-421PC 54Mbps 802.11g
              Sony-Ericsson GC-83 EDGE card (Cingular)

Hardware details

Edgy

Feisty

Gutsy

Installation works?

Yes

Untested

Yes

Hardware Information

Screen & Monitors

Device

Works?

Bug #

Edgy

Feisty

Gutsy

Screen

Yes

Untested

Yes

Correct resolution?

800 x 600, 640 x 480

Untested

Yes, 800x600/640x480

Correct refresh rate?

60Hz, 50Hz

Untested

Yes, 60Hz/50Hz

3D Acceleration

Untested

Untested

No

External monitor works?

Yes, clone only so far (push Fn+LCD/CRT button on keyboard twice), switching to External only gives poor display

Untested

Yes, clone only.

External monitor - mirrors

Yes

Untested

Yes

External monitor - extend desktop

Untested

Untested

Untested

Power Management

Battery detected?

Yes

Untested

Yes, but only after configuring APM. See configuring APM below. All power management features depend on APM.

Hibernates?

Untested

Untested

Yes

Standby

Untested

Untested

Yes, using 'apm -s'. See notes.

Dim monitor on battery

Untested

Untested

Yes

Blank monitor on inactivity

Yes

Untested

Yes

Lid Close

Standby

Untested

Yes

Cpu frequency scaling

Untested

Untested

N/A

Sound

Sound works?

Yes

Untested

Yes

Correct volume?

Yes

Untested

Yes

Hardware volume switch

Yes

Untested

No

Headphone jack

Yes

Untested

Yes

Mic jack

Untested

Untested

Untested

Networking

Wired NIC

Untested

Untested

Yes

Wireless NIC

PCMCIA

Untested

USB Belkin 7051 802.11g works fine after configuring drivers using ndiswrapper. See notes below.

PCMCIA NIC

Yes! TRENDnet TEW-421PC using ndiswrapper and the W2K driver on the manufacturers install CD.

Untested

Untested

Firewire

Untested

Untested

N/A

Bluetooth

Untested

Untested

USB Safecom (BCM92045DG Broadcom D-Link?) works fine by default.

Modem

Untested

Untested

Untested

Infrared

Untested

Untested

N/A

Touchpad & Mice

Touchpad

Yes

Untested

Yes

Touchpad - Doubletap = double click

Yes

Untested

Yes

Touchpad - Scroll down side

N/A

Untested

N/A

Touchpad - turned off while typing

No (hides cursor only)

Untested

No

External mouse - USB

Yes, w/scroll & wireless USB mouse.

Untested

Yes

External mouse - Serial

Untested

Untested

Untested

Docking Station/Port Replicator

AC through replicator

Yes

Untested

Untested

USB

Yes, with mouse and memory stick, so far.

Untested

Untested

Serial

Untested

Untested

Untested

Parallel

Untested

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - VGA

Same results as above.

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - DVI

N/A

Untested

Untested

Modem

Untested

Untested

Untested

NIC

Untested

Untested

Untested

PS/2

Untested

Untested

Untested

Additional Hardware

Fingerprint reader

Untested

Untested

Untested

CD/DVD drive

Yes

Untested

Untested

PCMCIA cards

TRENDnet TEW-421 PC

Untested

Untested

Parallel Ports

Untested

Untested

Untested

Card reader(s)

Untested

Untested

Untested

Function and other keys

Fn key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

Edgy

Feisty

Gutsy

+ Space

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ Esc

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F1

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F2

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F3

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F4

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F5

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F6

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F7

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F8

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F9

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F10

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F11

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ F12

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ ArrowUp

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ ArrowDown

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ ArrowRight

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ ArrowLeft

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ PgUp

Untested

Untested

Untested

+ PgDown

Untested

Untested

Untested

Other special keys

Key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

Edgy

Feisty

Gutsy

Fn

Yes, have not tested all combos yet, but basic Dell (purple label) functions do work.

Untested

Same as Edgy

Notes

  1. Sony-Ericsson GC-83 EDGE Card - Connection works, but needs tweaking, only able to browse Internet for a few minutes before booting me, then hard to re-establish, might be signal strength related, need to make it a little more patient.

  2. I have alot of PCMCIA gadgets I plan on testing; Adaptec SCSI interface, Cardbus DVD Drive, I have found that even though hot swapping these devices does work, the machine is happier if they are present before power up. The same goes for the IDE interface on the back of the laptop for drive swapping, they will be detected, but the machine is happier if you let it do the detection in boot up instead of hot. Sometimes, hot swapped devices are detected, but not accessible, and a re-boot is needed to use them.
  3. For some reason sending to standby using the GUI (in Xubuntu at least) does not work. To standby, you must issue the command 'apm -s'. Make sure you configured APM correctly too.
  4. Belkin 7051 USB Wi-Fi - Works perfectly using 2k/XP drivers with ndiswrapper. Make sure you have the usual tools installed (ndiswrapper, wpasupplicant, gnome-network-manager). Check out http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=304181 for configuration help.

  5. Upon resuming from standby or hibernation, USB Wi-Fi will not work. You will have to remove the device, reboot, and then insert once logged in again.

How to configure APM

By default, ubuntu has APM disabled by default. To enable APM you need to do the following (gnome-power-manager is optional):

Install all required packages: sudo apt-get install apmd gnome-power-manager

Configure grub: Edit your grub configuration file and add the following parameters to the 'kernel' line: acpi=off apm=power_off nolapic noapic

The final line should look something like this: kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=ba61f804-7306-40c7-a1f2-274897361ef0 ro quiet acpi=off apm=power_off nolapic noapic

Reboot. Now the system should reboot, shutdown and hibernate correctly. Suspend should also work but only if you issue the command "apm -s".. for some reason selecting suspend using the gui will fail. You should also be able to view battery status, and configure other power management settings by running 'gnome-power-preferences' from the command line (/usr/bin/gnome-power-preferences).


CategoryLaptop

LaptopTestingTeam/DellLatitudeLS (last edited 2010-03-01 21:53:15 by 94)