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• Contact: Jemore, Tas50, AlexeyBalmashnov, John Watts

• Brand: Dell
• Make : Inspiron
• Model: 640M / E1405

• Website: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_640m?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Current Issues

BEWARE: There is MediaDirect v3 stuff living on a hidden partition. Furthermore, there is also Dell Utilities partition that works together with MediaDirect and employs Vista, which is normally installed on a second partition. Ubuntu 7.04 installer did not recognize default drive layout as provided by Dell and I installed Ubuntu using "the whole drive". Recently, I accidentally pushed the MediaDirect button and it messed up the partition table. Thanks to the testdisk software I was able to recover Linux partitions and get my data. Unfortunately, I could not reproduce the problem completely, and finally I just wiped out the whole drive with dd and testdisk and reinstalled Ubuntu. After various checks I am sure that it won't happen again.

System Info

#(cd /var/lib/acpi-support/ ; grep . -r *-*)

bios-version:A10
system-manufacturer:Dell Inc.
system-product-name:MXC061
system-version:Not Specified

$>update-pciids && lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
0000:02:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0832
0000:02:01.1 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
0000:02:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
0000:02:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
0000:02:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0000:0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

Some builds of this same model (John Watts') have the following wireless adapter:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

A number of the other components have very slightly different output, but the differences seem inconsequential.

Hardware details

Notes

* Video resolution can be fixed by using 915Resolution application.

** Requires installation of SMP kernel

*** Requires loading restricted-modules for kernel

**** Tested with SD-card only

Dapper

After normal installation, you must install the SMP kernel to enable Core Duo processor :

sudo apt-get install linux-686-smp

restart computer, then install the intel i915GM video module (you must activate "universe" repository before) :

sudo apt-get install 915resolution

then you should have the full resolution 1280x800 .

Jemore's note : AIXGL and Compiz works fine. Tutorials (in french) : http://jemore.nerim.net/wordpress/index.php?p=44 or http://market.inattendu.org/article.php3?id_article=40

LucaManini :

Just installed Dapper from a "desktop" live/install CD.

The laptop has the 1440x900 resolution, so you need to boot in "safe mode" otherwise X crashes on startup.

Then install linux-686-smp and 915resolution, run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-org and reboot. Hibernate worked out-of-the-box.

Suspend seemed to be unavailable, I edited /etc/default/acpi-support uncommenting line ACPI_SLEEP=true as suggested on some sites with no result. Then I opened the Preferences panel of the GnomePowerManager (the icon with the battery) and select "Suspend" from the "Running on AC tab" (the first one) and Suspend start working (an item appeared in the GnomePowerManager and on the "LogOff") also just by closing the lid.

Feisty

Sonal :

Feisty Herd 4 : alternate CD is often suggested. i didn't try with the live-cd.

screen resolution problems until 915resolution is installed : you should force 1024x768 before you can install 915resolution.

linux-686-smp useless if use of linux-image-generic (proposed by default in my case).

restricted-modules needed for wifi. wifi refuses to switch on if switched off before standby

lid close : the screen doesn't switch off when the lid is reopened. choose an other alternative than "switch off screen" on "system/preferences/energy" (i don't know exactly the path because i have the french version

Zenith2 :

I had problems getting the 6.10 installer to work, X crashed, so I had to fix xorg.conf to a proper resolution first, before being able to boot X and then get the install rolling. Explanation found here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1710384&postcount=1

For the WLAN, I had to add the bcm43xx repository and install the bcm43xx module and then load it. Then it worked very well, except that it only runs at about 30 kb/sec. Link to instructions are here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2344658&postcount=1

Alexey Balmashnov:

Feisty: Everything tested looks to work out of the box. Except 915resolution fix, which is still required. Intel wi-fi is perfect. Basically: fast and smooth install.

Hardy

Alexey Balmashnov:

Everything tested works out of the box. Suffers from LoadCycleCount bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695

Intrepid

Alexey Balmashnov:

At the moment (alpha4) Desktop CD only runs with the splash disabled. Partitioner in installer looks broken to me. Installation from alternate disk went smooth, although after install had to switch off splash.

John Watts:

Broadcom wireless works fine with b43 and fwcutter. DRI is only enabled when running as superuser. Odder still, glxgears gets ~300 FPS with DRI on and ~425 FPS with DRI off.

CategoryLaptop