Dell vostro with linux

Ubuntu Wiki

InstallingUbuntuOnADellVostro1500

Introduction

The company i work for, recently bought some Dell Vostro 1500 for our technical staff, and luckily i was allowed to do some tests on them for this wiki. I hope it helps someone out there.

Installing Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 on a Dell Vostro 1500 is straightforward. This time i took two different approaches, one using Dell Reinstallation ISO, the other one using Ubuntu standard ISO. Both aproaches seem to work well, if you use the Dell ISO you’d save some time solving the audio issue and the flash player bug ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flashplugin-nonfree/+bug/173890 ) , the other problems seem to be there, but as i’ve said in my previous post these are not showstoppers in any way.

About Dell Reinstallation ISO

As Dell kindly provided some OS Reinstallation ISOs for Inspiron 1420n, 530n and the XPS M1330n i’ve decided to give them a try. As I’ve previously used the Inspiron 1420n fixes for my Vostro 1700 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallingUbuntuOnADellVostro1700) i’m using the 1420n intel x3100 DVD ISO image for the install. You can grab your copy here:

WARNING: If you push the Windows Media Direct Button after installing the Dell OS Reinstallation DVD you would lost the GRUB start, i’m just looking at this issue so i can provide a workaround. If you push it back after power off the laptop it seems to solve or restore the previous partition. But every time you push this button when the laptop is powered off you’ll lost your partition table. I’m working in this issue in order to find and acceptable workaround.

About Dell Vostro 1500

The specs for the laptop are:

• 15.4″ WXGA+ (1280×800)
• 2GB DDR2 667Mhz SDRAM

DVD+/-RW 8X IDE (HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GSA-T21N, FwRev=A102 ) Hitachi LG drive

MK1246GSX, FwRev=LB212D 120G TOSHIBA Hard Drive

Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g)

Broadcom Corp BCM2045 Dell Computer Corp Bluetooth (ID 413c:8126)

Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (03:01.1)

Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller

List of bugs affecting this system

Wireless subsystem (Dell’s ISO & Ubuntu’s ISO)

With the ipw3945 driver:

With the iwl3945 driver:

Audio subsystem (Ubuntu’s ISO)

Hard Disk Drive (Dell’s ISO & Ubuntu’s ISO)

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695 [Click Noise in HDD, excessive load/unload cycles may shorten your hdd lifetime]

Dell’s ISO details of Installation

You’ll have three option for starting the DVD, a simple ENTER would let you go with the Dell automated install. live would let you start a traditional Ubuntu Live CD and hd would let you start from the Disk Drive.

With the ENTER option the Live Desktop would not start but an automated install would be held. Take into account that as this ISO is a Reinstallation media, it would WIPE OUT totally your hard drive. Also you wouldn’t have the chance to adjust your partitioning schema as is by factory default’s (I don’t like it very much, but it’s minded for a general audience so probably is the simplest one). At the end of the automated install you’ll be asked for language, keyboard and user data.

Restart your system and you’ll be ready to go.

Be sure to apply all of the updates, also it’s a good time to enable all the repositories.

As soon as it’s finished you’ll want to solve the Wireless and Hard Disk Drive issues.

Ubuntu’s ISO details of Installation

The major issue at install time is the repartitioning of the Dell System. Mine had Vista Home Basic and Dell Media Center (Xp embebed). Sadly the partitioning scheme was really awful, there was 3 primary partitions (Dell Utility, OS for Vista, Recovery for the Factory Image) and a tiny extended partition for Media Center. Besides all my effort to repartitioning the drive with a sane scheme without losing the system i was forced at the end to wipe out the system and install Ubuntu alone. On a side note i was pretty amazed with the capabilities of Gparted it really worked really well.

For Internet access during install you can use the Wireless or the Wired card, you only have to make sure with the wireless that you’re connected to the access point.

You’ll notice that the system has no audio at all, but don’t worry that this would get solved after install

Solving the issues

AUDIO

This is completely solved with the Dell ISO, so this only applies to the normal installation.

Before solving the audio issue, please make a full update. In my testings if i didn’t update the system i wasn’t able to solve the audio issue.

Now with the missing sound. There are several bug reports about this, and there are multiple problems also.

There are two possible workarounds for this problem, one is to install the Ubuntu’s linux-backports-module but this seems to give low volume and needs some hacks to solve the volume issue that i didn’t test, the other one is to install the Conexant HSF Driver and the modified Linux Backport Module kindly provided by Dell. With this two drivers the volume is perfect (at least for me).

In order to install it go to Dell’s wiki

And install the l-b-m and hsfmodem deb packages from there.

It seems that this packages solve the external mic not working (i haven’t tested it yet). However there’s another problem with no sound after standby mode.

I’ve solved this issue with:

and installing the l-b-m provided by Dell. However there’s another solution (not tested by me) provided by Dell at this wiki

HARD DISK DRIVE

(Dell’s ISO & Ubuntu’s ISO)

It seems to be some issues with the NCQ (some hard drive sata new technology) implementation in Linux Kernel. The problems seem to be solved for upstream and probably for Hardy but Gutsy would not have (at this time) a solution but a workaround.

Also it seems to no affect all hard drivers. You’ll know that you have this issue if you hear clicks in your hard drive from time to time. The fix is this:

Sadly, the infamous hard drive killer (that should be noted is not Ubuntu’s fault at all and it’s present in Suse, Mandriva, Fedora, Windows -yes windows- and Mac OS X). Please check the bug report #5695 to find out if your system is affected, it seems to be directly related to your Hard Disk Drive Model and FIRMWARE revision (so you can check if your hard drive has a firmware update pending to solve the issue. At this time there’s none for Dell Vostro 1500 nor Toshiba HDD)

More information here:

However after some testing i’ve modified the 128 from line 24 to 192. It seems that this value is directly related to the disk and battery type. And in this Vostro the 192 value was most quieter than 128.

So download the 90-hdparm.sh file

WIRELESS

(Dell’s ISO & Ubuntu’s ISO)

Wireless has some issues here. Gutsy by default uses the ipw3945 driver. This driver is actually depreciated by intel and is replaced by the iwl3945 (hardy’s default). There’re some issues with the ipw3945 driver a driver crash when transfering big files and suddenly disconnections. The solution is to replace (in Gutsy) the ipw3945 for the iwl3945.

However there’re still some issues with the iwl3945 driver.

1. Replace the ipw345 with the iwl3945 driver.

2. Solve the iwl3945 issues

Suspend issue (caused by an incomplete rename of the interface):

After this changes reboot your system. Take into account that the Wireless connectivity after suspend or hibernate would take a few moments to start over again.

I haven’t confirmed yet the throughput issue nor found a workaround for it.

Also another annoyance is that the iwl3945 driver doesn’t light up the wifi led with the gutsy version.

COMPIZ FUSION

The Intel Graphic Card is blacklisted by default by Compiz. The problem is related to Video Playback and Compiz Fusion on Intel 965GM. If you enable Compiz Fusion you won’t get Video Playback. This problem is related to the inner works of the intel driver as far as i understand, so it won’t get solved pretty soon.

However, there’s a workaround for this, open up a terminal and execute this command:

For the Video Playback the suggestion is to run gstreamer-properties and change the Video output to No XV, this didn’t worked for me quite well so whenever i’m gonna play videos i must disable compiz.

FIRMWARE UPDATES

Dell is developing an update firmware system, here are the instructions to use it with Ubuntu. This is taken directly from Dell’s Linux Wiki

SENSORS AND FAN CONTROL

I like to monitor my systems for temp, fan, etc. So in order to get this working in the Vostro i had to do this:

1. For Hdd monitoring

I choose to let the daemon running. For checking purposes i ran:

2. For CPU Temp monitoring

3. For CPU, Fan and Temp monitoring

The options i8k force=1 is needed because the Vostro is not in the i8k module list for supported systems.

4. For FAN Control

You would need to compile a litle piece of software: dellfand

For testing purposes:

For installing it and enabling for default

With dellfand the fan in your system would cool it when the temp is higher.

5. Visually Addons

Add it to your panel and adjust it according to your needs. There are other monitoring software available that probably could take this info and show it graphically, i choose this one, you’re free to check others. (gkrellm, gdesklets, superkaramba for kde, and probably others)

BLUETOOH

I haven’t worked a lot with this, but i know about some problems in gutsy, so you must check this links in order to workaround any issue you could find.

What i know at this point is that you must install gnome-vfs-obexftp in order to transfer files.

Also there’s some GUI usability problems with the Bluetooth applet that you must be aware off.

Other Stuff

About Suspend, Standby and Hibernate issues i must say that up to this point everything works like a charm, a big exception is the audio output problem after standby in fact i didn’t noticed it until i made this wiki page.

I hope this helps some people out there, i ‘d be adding more relevant info into this wiki for further reference.

Regards

Andres Mujica SEAQ

InstallingUbuntuOnADellVostro1500 (последним исправлял пользователь localhost 2008-08-06 16:33:26)

The material on this wiki is available under a free license, see Copyright / License for details.

Источник

Dell Vostro V13 тонкий недорогой ноутбук с Linux на борту

>Тем, кому пока не по карману ультратонкие ноутбуки Adamo и Adamo XPS, компания Dell решила предложить более доступную альтернативу в виде портативного компьютера Vostro V13, толщина корпуса которого составляет всего 19,7 мм.

Данная модель весом 1,58 кг «упакована» в элегантный серебристо-чёрный корпус и оборудована 13,3-дюймовым ЖК-дисплеем с разрешением 1366 x 768 пикселей, экран которого снабжён светодиодной подсветкой.

Новинка может комплектоваться процессором Intel Celeron 743 (1,2 ГГц), Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 (1,4 ГГц) либо Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1,3 ГГц). За обработку графики отвечает интегрированное в чипсет видеоядро Intel GMA 4500MHD. Объём оперативной памяти может достигать 4 Гб, а SATA-винчестера – 500 Гб.

Помимо всего прочего, в арсенале машинки присутствуют сетевая карта Gigabit Ethernet, модули Wi-Fi и Bluetooth 2.1, встроенный кардридер 5-в-1, слот ExpressCard Slot, а также внешний пишущий оптический DVD-привод.

Энергию для автономной работы ноутбук черпает от 6-элементного перезаряжаемого аккумулятора, тогда как в качестве операционной системы может выступать платформа Windows 7, Windows Vista или Ubuntu.

Стартовая цена на изделие для рынка США установлена в размере $450.

Данный ноутбук уже присутствует на dell.ru тоесть в Россию поставляться будет, однако судя по сайту dell для США c убубунтой поставляется только самая простая комплектация с процессором Intel в более богатой комплектации и с процессором Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 (1,4 ГГц) либо Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1,3 ГГц)предустанавливается только винда и цена от 450 баксов

Видемо придется делать все по старой схеме:

1 Покупаем в магазине ноут

2 Тут же отказываемся от предустановленого офтопика

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Linux Mint Forums

Welcome to the Linux Mint forums!

No WiFi — Dell Vostro 1000

No WiFi — Dell Vostro 1000

Post by kludge » Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:58 am

I have been using Linux Mint 9 for about a year with no problems, but I’m still a n00b so bear with me, and don’t assume that I will understand what’s going on with all of these terminal commands.

Last week my computer crashed (would not boot) so I reinstalled Linux Mint 9. No WiFi. WiFi was working perfectly at the time of the crash.

My Dell Vostro 1000 has no hard switch, it uses Fn+F2 to turn WiFi on and off, but that combination does nothing.

Oh, well. I saw that Linux Mint 11 is available so I installed that. After booting the first time — No WiFi. But I noticed an icon and when I clicked on it, it installed the Broadcom driver. Still no WiFi.

If I go to Menu>>Administration>>Additional Driver I can see the driver there for my BCM4311 and that it’s activated and in use. I’ve also tried removing it and activating it again, and rebooting. Nothing.

When I click the network connections icon at the lower right is shows «Wired Network» but not «Wireless Networks».

I’ve searching forums for a few days and so far nothing I have found has worked. Here’s what I have:

I opened the file NetworkManager.state and it looks like this:

$ rfkill list all
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

$ sudo modprobe wl

$ dmesg | grep -e wl -e b43
[ 18.995904] wl: module license ‘MIXED/Proprietary’ taints kernel.
[ 20.229943] wl 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 20.229952] wl 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 20.378659] b43-pci-bridge 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network
description: Network controller
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
resources: irq:18 memory:c0200000-c0203fff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:19:b9:80:18:73
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.45 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:21 memory:c0300000-c0301fff

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