Ubuntu Wiki

• Contact: Victor39,ConstantineEvans,BrunoAbinader,Huygens,soren121

• Brand: Dell
• Make: Latitude
• Model: D600

• Website: http://support.dell.com/ (No URL for info, badly built site)

Current Issues

CPU scaling (Ubuntu 6.06)

CPU scaling works OK for most people with released version of Dapper, but some people have problems. There are however other kernel problems with Irda and some strange hald-addon-storage lock-ups preventing correct suspend/resume for some people. See below. These problems may be dependent on the BIOS version. (Updated - 2006-Jun-15)

CPU lock-up (Ubuntu 6.06 resolved)

Using first Kernel release of Dapper Flight5, I encountered some unexpected CPU soft lock-up. This was regularly happening after a long period (1 hour) of not using the laptop, or when the network goes up.

• What sort of CPU lock-up? Did the laptop overheat (eg. from not having the fan running, but having the screensavers run at full speed. -PaulSladen

• --> Perhaps better discuss it in a forum thread, check it here: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=151829 -Huygens

• It seems that others do have the problem also, a bug has been opened #50683 -Huygens

• Seems it was a hardware problem in the end. I had to replace my motherboard. Since then, the bug was never again encountered. - Huygens 2007-04-13

ATI driver & 3D acceleration

Also, the ATI driver support is not good. I cannot for the moment activate the composite extension of the X server. The screen is then unreadable with lots of strikes on it. Video performance are not fantastic

• Is this the open-source one, or the binary driver? -PaulSladen

• I see a distorted display too since last open source ati driver update. See https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-driver-ati/+bug/36887 - AchimBohnet

• --> I am using the binary driver from Dapper repository, and I have been following this forum thread to install it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=143283 -Huygens

• OK, this is "normal", I have a Radeon Mobility 9000, and here you can find that this is not supported with composite extension or compiz : Cards seemingly unsupported for Xgl -Huygens

• 20060909: I have Xgl and Compiz working on Ubuntu 6.06 If you are interested about the method, follow this thread and perform step 1 even though it could be recommended in the thread that you skip directly to step 2. Also, you will have to start manually compiz (compiz-start) once logged in. Note that it is using the open source driver, as I am not aware that Radeon Mobility 9000 can work with ATI's proprietary drivers and Xgl/compiz. -Huygens

• 20091229: This isn't a problem anymore, as the open-source ATI driver included with X in Ubuntu 9.10 has full 3D acceleration support for the Mobility Radeon 9000. -Soren121

ACPI supports for LCD brightness is not yet supported

I was fiddling around with the Gnome Power Manager (GPM) and found out that it has brightness control capabilities. After a while, when the computer enter the idle state, GPM can dim the screen (decrease the brightness). Well, I never saw it working from Ubuntu 5.10 to Ubuntu 6.10, and it won't probably be working in the coming Ubuntu 7.04 release. However, there is an upstream fixed version, so hopefully for Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon we will be able to have dim on idle facility on Dell laptop. There is already a bug reported: Bug #43572

Basically and to summarise the upstream discussion and the launchpad bug report: GPM uses the HAL abstraction layer to change the brightness. HAL uses the ACPI facility in the end. However, Dell does not provide ACPI interface to access the LCD brightness, but a kind of user space BIOS access via SMBios. A new release of HAL is ready upstream which includes a specific add-on to handle the SMBios command for the Dell laptops.

Good news, a work around has been found, see Note 7.

• 20091229: I can confirm this has been fixed in Ubuntu 9.10, but clearly it has been fixed for a while. :P -Soren121

Hardware details

• The bugzilla URL for the battery key is out of date, please update if this is still an issue -PaulSladen

• Battery Key information is working on the Dapper LTS - BrunoAbinader

Additional Comments

As of 2006-Jun-15

• Sleep works only couple of times before hald-addon-storage process locks up on I/O (and so becomes zombie process, impossible to kill). After this it is not possible to suspend a computer - the suspend script is executed, but kernel is not able to stop all processes and enter S3 state. There are reports that sticking a CD in the CD drive sometimes helps in such situations but not always. As a workaround: "sudo killall hald-addon-storage" before entering first suspend (after boot up) - but this probably disables CD insert/eject notification capabilities. Another work around is to remove your CD/DVD module. Then you can sleep as many times as you like without remembering to kill anything.

PARTIAL SOLUTION FOUND: I noted there were two hald-addon-storage processes going, and there is even a Ubuntu bug on this (#58935). See: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/58935 I edited out the following lines:

<match key="storage.media_check_enabled" bool="true">

• <append key="info.addons" type="strlist">hald-addon-storage</append>

</match>

in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-storage-methods.fdi

and restarted. Then there is only one hald-addon-storage process and it doesn't seem to get into the uninterruptible sleep mode as often, so you can often suspend a number of times before it happens. (You can check using ps aux | grep hald.) Then you must reboot if you want to suspend again.

This also helps a problem I was having with the Dell D600 freezing if I removed the CDRW/DVD drive (hotswapping it) with hald-addon-storage in the uninterruptible sleep mode. I hope they put this in the Dapper release. Even though bug 58935 was listed as fixed. My machine did not have that problem fixed as of 9/23/2006, and it is totally updated. Perhaps this was only fixed in Edgy.

MORE FULL SOLUTION FOUND: Suspend will work by having the kernel module "cdrom" removed from the kernel before suspending and after waking, having it reinserted. To do this: Edit /etc/default/acpi-support. Find the MODULES section and make it look like this:

# Add modules to this list to have them removed before suspend and reloaded # on resume. An example would be MODULES="em8300 yenta_socket" # # Note that network cards and USB controllers will automatically be unloaded # unless they're listed in MODULES_WHITELIST #MODULES="" MODULES="cdrom"

• IRDA does not work at all, after installing irda-utils you can see error messages in dmesg and strange things start happening with networking etc.
• I observed some glitches with external display at highest resolution - but these could have been related to my projector
• A week ago I had several lock-ups obviously related to 3D acceleration (using radeon driver), it *seems* that these have been fixed probably, but caution is recommended (esp. regarding 3D screensavers).

Strange, I have no problem with sleep or 3D acceleration lock-ups. What BIOS version do you have? On the other hand, I have the CPU frequency problem, which seems to be caused by a problem with the information given to the ACPI processor module, and so might be dependent on the BIOS version. -- ConstantineEvans

To discuss about this, I have created a forum thread (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1144903) See you there! -- Huygens

Testing run on 2005-08-28:

• tests are being run on Colony 3 LiveCD, this is just to make sure that everything works out of box too.
• DRI used to work in the past, now it doesn't work anymore.
• Wireless works with ndiswrapper and the proper ndis drivers.

Testing run on 2005-12-21:

• tests are being run on Dapper Flight2 by Victor39

• Hello,SamiHaahtinen.I have done a testing for flight2 on dell latitude d600.Would you please add a column on the table? so I can fill my result in it.If you are ready,mail to me please.Thank you! jianggw@bsw.net.cn

Testing run since 2006-03-15:

• tests are being run on Dapper Flight5 by Huygens, this was a clean install (apart /home) over a Kubuntu Breezy Badger. Since then, this version has been updated almost daily on internet.

• My Dell Latitude D600: Centrino 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, CD/DVD Combo, 40GB HD, ATI Radeon Mobility 9000

• Extra hardware: Palm Tungsten T5, Logitech Wheel Mouse USB, Canon PowerShot A70, HP Scanjet 4470C (unsupported by Sane)

• Partition schema: /boot ext3 -- swap -- LVM2: system (/) XFS & home (/home) JFS

• (updates from 20060401) test with an external monitor on-going, however, if someone knows how to extend the desktop to 2 screens, I am willing to know how to do this! --> See Note1 below.

• (updates from 20060414) the system starts to be pretty stable now. Almost no crash to report. I have got my wireless connection working straight out of the box. The only configuration required was setting up the password Then, I have been able to plug, review, download and manage my pictures taken from my Canon Powershot A70, without any configuration change really great. For the scanner, no luck, it is not supported by Sane

Testing run on 2006/09/09:

• tests run on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS + all updates as of today by Huygens.

• Updated partition schema: /boot ext3 -- swap -- LVM2: system (/) ext3 & home (/home) JFS

• Almost all issues have been solved by a clean install and using ext3 instead of XFS for my system partition. I have no more CPU lockups or crash (by the way, this was due to some hardware problems on my motherboard which are fixed now). The hard disk constant access has been solved now, I am not sure whether this was due to XFS... Xgl/compiz is working using the open source drivers. And I do not have issue anymore with the network (probably the same hardware problem that I had on the mother board).

• My only issues left, the proprietary ATI driver is worth nothing with my Radeon Mobility (most 3D applications will not work, and impossible to have Xgl/compiz) and I will have to dig further to make my Palm synchronise with Evolution

• tried out the Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) Knot 2 (still in alpha): cannot launch it using either the normal mode (the one by default) or the safe graphics mode. I get a blank screen after a short while during the boot process. There is no activity on the CD, and the only key combination working is Ctrl+Alt+Del

Testing run on 2007/01/21 (Huygens):

• tests run after upgrading an up-to-date version of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
• upgrade was near perfect, the first boot did not work, but pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del did work, and after that the boot was ok
• no other problem. The new system - Ubuntu 6.10 - is pretty neat and functionnal. All my settings are still there without a glitch.

Testing run on 2007/02/28 (Huygens):

• tests run after upgrading to Feisty Fawn an up-to-date version of Ubuntu 6.10 Desktop x86
• I use the following command to do it: gksudo "update-manager -c -d"
• Upgrade was perfect. It even prevent me to perform it because I was lacking enough disk space (it even told me how much I had to free and on which place)!! I was pretty impress and after freeing the required space I proceeded again with the upgrade.

• After a few hours downloading (it was pretty slow), installing and rebooting my system was working perfectly. I have launched Synaptic though and performed some clean up (see Clean-up residual files after upgrade)

• For the moment, I'm discovering my new environment before I start tweaking it...

A few comments

• Running the latest Dapper, the DRI works for me, as does the suspend to RAM, and have not been broken in the recent past. Should I add this to the Flight 2 column? This is with a clean install except for the /home partition. Also, I have an Intel 2200 mini-pci instead of the standard Dell card, and this works as well. The wireless toggle shortcut works with this card. - ConstantineEvans

• I did a clean flight4 install a few weeks ago, and have updated the tests. - ConstantineEvans

• Sleep works on my D600 in Flight 5 - JohanrammEricson

• Needs updated information for latest Dapper release - BrunoAbinader

Notes

• Note 1: Support for big desktop (2 screen with an extended desktop) works at least in the following case: having ATI binary driver (fglrx) installed and configure, and executing the aticonfig command line (make a back-up of /etc/X11/xorg.conf before using this tool). However, I did not manage to have the laptop LCD set to 1024x768 (my max resolution) with the external screen set to a different resolution.

  • If you have your 2nd screen on the left of your laptop, execute: sudo aticonfig --dtop=horizontal,reverse
  • If you have your 2nd screen on the right of your laptop, execute: sudo aticonfig --dtop=horizontal

• Note 2: Support of Kubuntu 6.06 for the multimedia keys seems buggy or not implemented.

  • I just installed Kubuntu 6.06 on a D600 and the special volume keys where not working, causing the Yes / No above (in the Other special keys section). Same goes for the mute key. -Freddy Martinez

• Note 3: Autodetection of DisplaySize Failing The right number of pixels is found, but the resolution was never correct with radeon driver (Horay to current Feisty Herd2). It was always necessary to set DisplaySize in the Monitor section of xorg.conf. After setting Display size, xdpyinfo shows the correct settings:

  $ xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimens|resolu'
    dimensions:    1400x1050 pixels (287x215 millimeters)
    resolution:    124x124 dots per inch
  $ grep DisplaySi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
          DisplaySize     286 214

  On my wiki page you find some more infos why correct resolution (in dpi) is important. --- AchimBohnet

  • In reply to Note 3: it seems that you have a more recent Latitude D600 than I have. My LCD is not able to display more than 1024x768 for the screen resolution. And therefore the test was correct in my case. Perhaps we should split the answer, depending on the screen definition. In addition and just in case, could you confirm that you have a Latitude D600? --- Huygens

    • Yes, it's a D600. Last installation feisty herd2 last Thursday on a D600 from model from 2003-Jul. As far as I remember the D600 was always available with 1024x768 or 1400x1050. The xorg ati/radeon detects the 1400 resolution for a long time. Problem is and was the physical displaysize in mm necessary to compute the correct dpi value. Does xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimens|resolu' in your case show the correct size in mm? (compare with a ruler).

    • Ok, you are right. I have launched the command, and the dimension of the display are not the correct one. But then I misunderstood the term "correct resolution", as the resolution is correctly set to 1024x768.

      $ xdpyinfo | egrep 'dimens|resolu'
        dimensions:    1024x768 pixels (347x260 millimeters)
        resolution:    75x75 dots per inch

      --- ["Huygens"]

• Note 4: Tip External Beamers Most beamer can't handle the 1400x1050 pixels in mirror mode. Turning of autoexpand in the bios has the effect when one changes the root window size with via xrandr extention (e.g. via krandrtray), that the external monitor no longer always received a 1400x1050 signal, but the one given by xrandr. --- AchimBohnet

• Note 5: After sleep mode, the screen is a bit buggy for a short while (some black square zone here and there). But it is back to normal after just a few moment. Some tiny bugs still like the power icon is not displayed any more (but still here and active) and the sound is displayed as mute whereas it isn't. But if you press twice the mute button, the icon is displayed again correctly, and if you change the power (remove the wire so you are on battery) the icon is displayed again. --- Huygens Update 2007-04-13: a bit late, but this problem has been corrected.

• Note 6: After sleep mode if a USB storage device was plugged a warning is displayed after resume: the device was unsafely removed... See Bug #92091.

• Note 7: I have found a work around for the brightness problem with Dell laptops. It allows Ubuntu to control the brightness via Gnome Power Manager (GPM) or the Gnome Brightness Applet. It is now also possible to use the function to dim the screen when the computer is idle. I have written a small article, hopefully explaining this clearly. As this is a temporary hack, I have hosted the guide on my own server rather than here: How to activate the LCD brightness control. This guide applies to Ubuntu 7.04, it might work for earlier version but it has not been tested. In addition, hopefully Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon will have this problem solved.

CPU frequency issues

It appears that CPU scaling does not work with Dapper. The frequency sticks at the lowest value. See bug #36014, but note that this now happens with the 386 kernel as well. - ConstantineEvans

CategoryLaptop