History of DellInspiron6000

Anyway, being the geek that I am, I of course want GentooLinux on my DellInspiron6000. I use this page and some page to keep track of all the things I've done and how I got everything working:

== Description ==

* Pentium M 1.60GHz

* 1.25GB RAM

* Intel 915 graphics

* 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD (1680x1050)

* 80GB hard drive

* DVD burner

* Intel PRO/wireless

* 10/100 ethernet (Broadcom)

* Modem (never used)

* SD/MMC card reader (Ricoh)

* Scrolling trackpad

== Working ==

* DVD drive (was trickier than it sounds)

* CPU throttling

* Suspend to RAM

* X at native LCD resolution with i810 driver

* Screen blanking (both console and X)

* Trackpad scrolling

* Multimedia keys with hotkeys

* MMC/SD card reader

* Wireless

* Ethernet

* Disk spindown

* ALSA dmix sound mixing

Overall, this is a very good Linux machine and I'm pretty happy with it. Most things work well (as you can see above) and the battery life is usually more than 5 hours. The machine is a little big, but I really like the nice big screen, so it's worth it for me.

== Things TODO ==

* Setup X so that I can use video out easily

* Setup X so that I can disable screen blanking, eg. for presentations

== HOWTO ==

=== Gentoo install ===

I did a stage 3 install using the pentium3 tarball. CFLAGS are -march=pentium3 -O2 -pipe; I like to keep it simple. Remember that the Pentium M really is a P3 derivative, not a P4.

If you need to do the install over wireless and you need NdisWrapper, get the RR4 livecd (even if you don't want Reiser 4) since it has NdisWrapper on it. Before wiping the Windows NTFS partition that was on the disk, I mounted it and copied the wireless drivers off to get NdisWrapper going during the install:

* mkdir /mnt/winxp

* mount -t ntfs /dev/sda3 /mnt/winxp (It may have been /dev/sda2, I can't recall exactly, but a quick fdisk will tell you.)

* cp -r /mnt/winxp/drivers/wireless /tmp (The path may have been slightly different, but only slightly.)

* ndiswrapper -i /tmp/wireless/bcmwl5a.inf

* modprobe ndiswrapper

Of course, if you have the Intel PRO wireless or you're doing the install over ethernet then the standard Gentoo ISO will be fine.

=== Kernel ===

My [kernel .config] file (for 2.6.17.11). In addition to that, I use some [patches], containing bugfixes to various drivers and suspend-related issues.

If you don't use my config file, make sure you enable SATA in the kernel, with the Intel PIIX controller. I just compiled it into my kernel, because I like to avoid dealing with initrd whenever I can. Note that because the system uses SATA, your hard disk will be accessed via /dev/sda, and the DVD drive via /dev/scd0.

Apply the patches as follows:

* cd /usr/src

* tar -zxf /path/to/patches-2.6.17.1.tar.gz

* cd linux-2.6.17.1 # the patches may work against other versions of 2.6.17

* for i in ../patches-2.6.17.1/*.patch; do patch -p1 < "$i"; done

Then configure, compile and install your kernel as usual.

=== CPU throttling ===

* emerge cpufreqd acpid

* vi /etc/cpufreqd.conf

Here's my file:

<code>

[General]

pidfile=/var/run/cpufreqd.pid

poll_interval=2

verbosity=4

[/General]

[Profile]

name=On Demand High

minfreq=50%

maxfreq=100%

policy=ondemand

[/Profile]

[Profile]

name=On Demand Low

minfreq=25%

maxfreq=75%

policy=ondemand

[/Profile]

[Profile]

name=Powersave

minfreq=25%

maxfreq=50%

policy=powersave

[/Profile]

##

# Basic states

##

# when AC use performance mode

[Rule]

name=AC Rule

ac=on # (on/off)

profile=On Demand High

[/Rule]

# conservative mode when not AC

[Rule]

name=AC Off - Low Battery

ac=off # (on/off)

battery_interval=0-30

profile=Powersave

[/Rule]

# conservative mode when not AC

[Rule]

name=AC Off - Medium Battery

ac=off # (on/off)

battery_interval=30-70

profile=On Demand Low

[/Rule]

# stay in performance mode for the first minutes

[Rule]

name=AC Off - High Battery

ac=off # (on/off)

battery_interval=70-100

profile=On Demand High

[/Rule]

##

# Special Rules

##

# CPU Too hot!

[Rule]

name=CPU Too Hot

acpi_temperature=55-100

cpu_interval=50-100

profile=On Demand Low

[/Rule]

# use performance mode if I'm watching a movie

# I don't care for batteries!

# But don't heat too much.

[Rule]

name=Movie Watcher

programs=xine,mplayer,gmplayer

battery_interval=0-100

acpi_temperature=0-60

cpu_interval=0-100

profile=On Demand High

[/Rule]

</code>

* rc-update add cpufreqd default

* rc-update add acpid default

* modprobe speedstep_centrino

* modprobe cpufreq_userspace

* modprobe cpufreq_powersave

* modprobe cpufreq_ondemand

* echo speedstep_centrino >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo cpufreq_userspace >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo cpufreq_powersave >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo cpufreq_ondemand >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo battery >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo ac >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* /etc/init.d/acpid start

* /etc/init.d/cpufreqd start

=== Suspend to RAM ===

Once you have a kernel with the above patch installed, this is actually pretty easy to set up. First you'll need vbetool installed, to reset video after resuming:

* emerge vbetool

Then, you'll want the following in /usr/local/sbin/acpi_sleep:

<code>

#!/bin/sh

FGCONSOLE=/usr/bin/fgconsole

MODPROBE=/sbin/modprobe

VBETOOL=/usr/sbin/vbetool

KILLALL=/usr/bin/killall

UMOUNT=/bin/umount

UNAME=/usr/bin/uname

CHVT=/usr/bin/chvt

SYNC=/usr/bin/sync

FIND=/usr/bin/find

GREP=/bin/grep

AWK=/usr/bin/awk

CUT=/usr/bin/cut

SED=/usr/bin/sed

MEDIA=/media

IFACES="eth0 wlan0"

ACTION="$(basename $0)"

KMAJOR=$($UNAME -r |$SED -re 's/(^[0-9]\.[0-9]).*/\1/')

MODLOAD=/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-$KMAJOR

# determine current console number

currentvt=$($FGCONSOLE 2> /dev/null)

# switch away from X11, to avoid touchpad lockup on resume

if [ ! "$currentvt" = "12" ]; then

$CHVT 12 2> /dev/null

fi

# flush buffers to disk

$SYNC

$SYNC

# unmount media and nfs filesystems

$UMOUNT -aft nfs

for i in $($FIND $MEDIA -type d |$GREP -vE "^\\$MEDIA\$" 2> /dev/null); do

$UMOUNT $i 2> /dev/null

done

# stop network

for i in $IFACES; do

/etc/init.d/net.$i stop > /dev/null 2>&1

done

# in case network was started outside scripts

$KILLALL -HUP dhcpcd > /dev/null 2>&1

# unload modules (except sound and vmware)

for i in $($AWK '{print $1}' /proc/modules |$GREP -vE "^(snd|vm)" 2> /dev/null); do

$MODPROBE -r $i 2> /dev/null

done

# flush buffers to disk

$SYNC

$SYNC

# go into standby

case "$ACTION" in

suspend)

echo -n mem >/sys/power/state

;;

hibernate)

echo -n disk >/sys/power/state

;;

*)

echo "Unknown sleep action $0"

;;

esac

# emerge from standby on resume

# load modules

for i in $($GREP -vE '^(#|[:space:]*$)' $MODLOAD |$CUT -d '#' -f 1); do

$MODPROBE $i 2> /dev/null

done

# reinitialize video to get text console working again on resume

$VBETOOL post

# switch back to original console/X11 screen

if [ ! "$currentvt" = "12" ]; then

$CHVT $currentvt

fi

</code>

You might ask "do I really need all this junk?" I find it is generally a good idea to shut down network interfaces when suspending; you will probably not be on the same network when you wake up anyway. Similarly, unmounting nfs and local media makes sense; they may not be available when you wake up. Unloading and reloading modules, however, isn't strictly necessary. However, I have found that doing this improves the stability of suspend. Some modules apparently still don't play nice with suspend, so the fewer you have loaded when you suspend, the more likely it is that resume will succeed.

Now symlink this to the suspend and hibernate actions:

* cd /usr/local/sbin

* ln -s acpi_sleep suspend

* ln -s acpi_sleep hibernate

Now edit /etc/acpi/default.sh to have an entry for the "sleep" button:

<code>

#!/bin/sh

# Default acpi script that takes an entry for all actions

set $*

group=${1/\/*/}

action=${1/*\//}

case "$group" in

button)

case "$action" in

power) /sbin/init 0

;;

sleep) /usr/local/sbin/suspend

;;

*) logger "ACPI action $action is not defined"

;;

esac

;;

*)

logger "ACPI group $group / action $action is not defined"

;;

esac

</code>

Finally, you'll need the button ACPI module loaded (if you did indeed compile it as a module; my .config does have it as a module):

* modprobe button

* echo button >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

Now when you push Fn-Esc, which is the "stand by" key, your laptop should go to sleep! Pushing the power button will (hopefully) bring it back. For me, everything worked after resume; wireless, sound, touchpad, etc. were all fine. I was pretty surprised; I expected it not to work.

=== Xorg @ native LCD resolution ===

* modprobe intel-agp

* modprobe i915

* echo intel-agp >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

* echo i915 >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-1.6

* vi /etc/portage/package.keywords

Add the following:

<code>

# Sketchy x11 because stable one is slooooow

media-libs/mesa ~x86

x11-base/xorg-server ~x86

x11-drivers/synaptics ~x86

x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev ~x86

x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard ~x86

x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse ~x86

x11-drivers/xf86-video-i810 ~x86

x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa ~x86

</code>

* vi /etc/make.conf

Add the following:

<code>

# Xorg features

VIDEO_CARDS="i810 vesa"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev mouse keyboard synaptics"

</code>

* emerge x11-xserver

* vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Here are the relevant sections of my file:

<code>

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Dell 1680x1050 LCD"

HorizSync? 31.5 - 100

VertRefresh? 60

DisplaySize? 320 200

Option "DPMS"

EndSection?

Section "Device"

Identifier "Intel i915"

Driver "i810"

EndSection?

Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen 1"

Device "Intel i915"

Monitor "Dell 1680x1050 LCD"

DefaultDepth? 24

Subsection "Display"

Depth 8

Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

ViewPort? 0 0

EndSubsection?

Subsection "Display"

Depth 16

Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

ViewPort? 0 0

EndSubsection?

Subsection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

ViewPort? 0 0

EndSubsection?

EndSection?

</code>

Note that this will leave X displaying rather large fonts. To make things a bit more sane, I modified the startx script to pass -dpi 100 to the X server:

<code>

defaultserverargs="-dpi 100 -nolisten tcp -br"

</code>

=== Screen blanking ===

I didn't do anything fancy to have different delays blanking the display when plugged in vs. on battery. That would be a good idea if I were, for example, planning to give a presentation with this machine :) Right now, it just blanks (and by "blank" I mean VESA standby mode, not drawing black) after 5 minutes in.

First, we modify /etc/conf.d/local.start to do a setterm so consoles blank properly:

<code>

# Set terminals to VESA powerdown after 5 minutes to save batter power.

/usr/bin/setterm -blank -powerdown 5 > /dev/null 2>&1

</code>

And then the following in /etc/X11/xorg.conf does the same in X11:

<code>

Section "ServerLayout?"

...

Option "BlankTime?" "0"

Option "StandbyTime?" "5"

Option "SuspendTime?" "10"

Option "OffTime?" "15"

...

EndSection?

</code>

=== Trackpad scrolling ===

If you have a recent kernel (recent >= 2.6.11.x, I believe) no kernel patching is necessary. Make sure you have evdev built. Then you'll need the synaptics X driver:

* emerge synaptics

* vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Here are the relevant sections of my config:

<code>

Section "Module"

...

Load "synaptics" # probably not strictly necessary

...

EndSection?

...

Section "InputDevice?"

Identifier "ALPS GlidePoint?"

Driver "synaptics"

Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"

Option "LeftEdge?" "120"

Option "RightEdge?" "830"

Option "TopEdge?" "120"

Option "BottomEdge?" "560" # comment out this entire line to disable horizontal scroll/click ability

Option "FingerLow?" "14"

Option "FingerHigh?" "15"

Option "EmulateMidButtonTime?" "70"

Option "VertScrollDelta?" "20"

Option "HorizScrollDelta?" "20"

Option "MaxTapTime?" "0" # 0 disables tap-to-click, set it to 100 to re-enable

Option "MinSpeed?" "0.3"

Option "MaxSpeed?" "0.75"

Option "AccelFactor?" "0.015"

Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed?" "200"

Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed?" "200"

Option "UpDownScrolling?" "1"

Option "LeftRightScrolling?" "1"

Option "CircularScrolling?" "0"

EndSection?

Section "InputDevice?"

Identifier "External Mouse"

Driver "mouse"

Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

Option "Protocol" "imps/2"

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"

Option "Buttons" "5"

Option "ZAxisMapping?" "4 5"

EndSection?

...

Section "ServerLayout?"

...

InputDevice? "ALPS GlidePoint?" "CorePointer?"

InputDevice? "External mouse" "AlwaysCore?"

...

EndSection?

</code>

Adding in both mice lets you just plug in a USB mouse and have it work right away, in addition to the touchpad, which is handy.

=== Lazy? ===

For the lazy, here is a link to my [complete xorg.conf].

=== Multimedia keys ===

If you are using [GNOME] or [KDE] then there is probably already a method for you to setup special multimedia keys in that environment. I use [Ion] on my laptop, so I need something else. hotkeys fits the bill nicely:

* emerge hotkeys

* vi /usr/share/hotkeys/inspiron6000.def

Here's my file:

<code>

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<definition>

<config model="Dell Inspiron 6000 Keyboard">

<PrevTrack? keycode="144"/>

<Stop keycode="164"/>

<Play keycode="162"/>

<NextTrack? keycode="153"/>

<VolUp? keycode="176" adj="2"/>

<VolDown? keycode="174" adj="2"/>

<Mute keycode="160"/>

</config>

<contributor>

<name>Some Guy</name>

<email>someguy@foo.com</email>

</contributor>

</definition>

</code>

Now we need to edit /etc/hotkeys.conf and set Kbd=inspiron6000.

Finally, edit /etc/X11/Sessions/ion2 to make sure hotkeys is started whenever an [Ion] Xsession is started:

<code>

#!/bin/sh

HOTKEYS="$(which hotkeys 2> /dev/null)"

if [ -x "$HOTKEYS" ]; then

"$HOTKEYS" -o 1 -F 1 -Z > /dev/null 2>&1 &

fi

# Below: poor man's gnome-session :P

DBUS_LAUNCH="$(which dbus-launch 2> /dev/null)"

if [ -x "$DBUS_LAUNCH" ]; then

GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER="$(which gnome-volume-manager 2> /dev/null)"

if [ -x "$GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER" ]; then

"$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER" > /dev/null 2>&1 &

fi

GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON="$(which gnome-keyring-daemon 2> /dev/null)"

if [ -x "$GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON" ]; then

eval "$("$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON" 2> /dev/null)"

export GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET

export GNOME_KEYRING_PID

fi

BEAGLED="$(which beagled 2> /dev/null)"

if [ -x "$BEAGLED" ]; then

"$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$BEAGLED" > /dev/null 2>&1

fi

GNOME_SERVERDIR="$(pkg-config --variable=libgnome_serverdir libgnome-2.0)"

GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON="$GNOME_SERVERDIR/gnome-settings-daemon"

if [ -x "$GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON" ]; then

"$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON" > /dev/null 2>&1 &

fi

else

DBUS_LAUNCH=""

fi

SSH_AGENT="$(which ssh-agent 2> /dev/null)"

"$SSH_AGENT" "$DBUS_LAUNCH" /usr/bin/ion2

</code>

This session script launches the dbus session bus, gnome-settings-daemon (useful if you want your gnome settings to actually be applied), gnome-volume-manager, gnome-keyring-daemon, beagled and ssh-agent. Obviously if you don't want any of those things running you should remove them.

=== MMC/SD card reader ===

This is working via the sdhci kernel module; it is enabled in my config file, and there is a bugfix in my patchset (though the driver is now included in mainline 2.6.17). I haven't used it extensively, but it does seem to work. You will need to modprobe sdhci and mmc_block. The device appears as /dev/mmcblk0, with the first partition being /dev/mmcblk0p1.

=== Wireless ===

I recently purchased an Intel PRO/wireless 2200bg card and have been using the in-kernel ipw2200 module. The only small piece of configuration work I did was to install ipw-firmware and use udev to ensure the interface always gets named wlan0:

* emerge ipw2200-firmware

* vi /etc/udev/rules.d/99-local.rules

* add the following line:

<code>

KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:00:00:00:00:00", NAME="wlan0" # you will need to fill in your own MAC address

</code>

The stock kernel module is now working very reliably, as of 2.6.17. I would recommend buying an Intel PRO/wireless card if you got stuck with the Broadcom one; they're only about 30USD and the Linux support is much better.

There is also now an open-source native driver for the Broadcom cards, available in gentoo as bcm43xx. I tried it briefly and didn't have much luck, but it is always getting better. The following information about NdisWrapper is now no longer relevant for me, but it might be useful for some people:

Note that I was experiencing intermittent lockups when modprobing ndiswrapper on battery power. Upgrading from kernel 2.6.11.7 to 2.6.11.10, adding kernel parameters pci=bios and setting the BIOS boot mode to "thorough" seems to have stopped the lockups. However, I'm not sure which of these 3 things actually fixed it, since they all happened at roughly the same time. I'm betting it's the pci=bios kernel parameter, though.

Anyway, aside from that caveat, getting NdisWrapper going is pretty easy:

* emerge ndiswrapper

* ndiswrapper -i /path/to/bcmwl5a.inf

* modprobe ndiswrapper

* ndiswrapper -m

* echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

=== Ethernet ===

Just Works. Use b44 module.

=== Disk spindown ===

If you use the kernel patch posted above, you can set some parameters with hdparm, including in particular the spindown time. You'll obviously need hdparm

* emerge hdparm

* vi /etc/conf.d/hdparm

My file has only one uncommented line

<code>

sda_args="-S36" # set spindown time to 3 minutes

</code>

You'll also probably want to use laptop-mode. It's pretty simple to get going (I didn't modify the default configuration):

* USE=acpi emerge laptop-mode-tools

* rc-update add laptop-mode default

=== ALSA dmix sound mixing ===

Edit /etc/asound.conf and add the following:

<code>

pcm.dsp0 {

type plug

slave.pcm "dmix"

ctl.mixer0 {

type hw

card 0

pcm.!default {

type plug

slave.pcm "dmix"

</code>

Now set every application you use for sound to use alsa. Fortunately, this isn't too bad because many applications use [GStreamer] and you can set alsa for all those applications all at once using gstreamer-properties. Then I also set beep-media-player (set in the GUI preferences), mplayer (set ao=alsa in /etc/mplayer.conf) and mplayerplug-in (set ao=alsa in /etc/mplayerplug-in.conf) manually.

For applications that only support oss, you can still make them use dmix:

* emerge alsa-oss

Now put this wrapper script in /usr/local/bin/aoss_wrapper:

<code>

#!/bin/bash

EXC_DIR_REAL="$(dirname $0)"

EXC_DIR_LINK=""

if [ "$EXC_DIR_REAL" = "." ]; then

EXC_DIR_REAL="$(/bin/pwd)"

EXC_DIR_LINK="$(pwd)"

fi

PATH_LIST="$(echo "$PATH" |perl -pe 's/:/ /g')"

PATH_SAFE=""

# clean the script directory out of path

for i in $PATH_LIST; do

if [ "$i" = "$EXC_DIR_REAL" -o "$i" = "$EXC_DIR_LINK" ]; then

continue

fi

if [ -z "$PATH_SAFE" ]; then

PATH_SAFE="$i"

else

PATH_SAFE="$PATH_SAFE:$i"

fi

done

PATH="$PATH_SAFE"

APP_NAME="$(basename $0)"

APP_REAL="$(which "$APP_NAME")"

export LD_PRELOAD="libaoss.so"

exec "$APP_REAL"

</code>

Now to run those pesky oss-only applications using dmix, all you have to do is:

* cd /usr/local/bin

* ln -s aoss_wrapper oss_only_app_name

Unfortunately, this doesn't work properly with quake 3. If I use the wrapper the sound is all messed up. However, it does work for firefox. That way flash can still play sound if another app has /dev/dsp open. A lot of media players keep /dev/dsp open even when they're not playing music or, so this is useful. Having flash be able to play sound is somewhat dubious.