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nlabadie
n00b
Joined: 18 Jul 2002
Posts: 17
Location: Detroit, MI
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 Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:36 am Post subject: HOWTO: Dell E521: Sound, IVTV, and USB |
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After much hair pulling, cursing, and eyeball gouging, I've finally got Gentoo running on the Dell E521. For anyone such as myself that made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing one, you've more than likely encountered IRQ conflicts, sound issues, USB freezes, etc. Anyways, here it goes:
In The Beginning:
Dell created the E521, and it was good. At least that's what the Q&A retards at Dell thought. If you consider a USB freeze every two minutes as good, then this computer is awesome.
You'll need to pass these options on the AMD64 LiveCD to boot properly:
| Code: | | gentoo noapic pci=nomsi |
Subsequently, you'll need to add the same kernel options to the grub.conf file after the install:
| Code: | | noapic pci=nomsi vga=791 |
And until Dell comes out with a BIOS update to fix the massive IRQ conflicts, I would highly recommend disabling all of the onboard USB and installing a 4 or 5 port PCI USB card. I went with the Belkin Components 5PT PCI CARD USB 2.0 for $20 USD. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
The Hardware:
[NOTE: A Hauppage WinTV-PVR-500 MCE has also been installed]
| Code: | 00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)
00:0a.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a3)
00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7300 LE (rev a1)
04:07.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
04:09.0 PCI bridge: Hint Corp HB6 Universal PCI-PCI bridge (non-transparent mode) (rev 11)
05:08.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)
05:09.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01) |
The Kernel:
I had all kinds of problems with the default AMD64 kernel. This is no fault of Gentoo. The E521 ships with a funky combination of hardware that needs to be beaten severely in order to function properly. The latest kernel at the moment is 2.6.18.3, but I'm sure these same instructions will apply. You could go with something higher, but I'm using IVTV which requires 2.6.18.
| Code: | #cd /usr/src
#wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.18.3.tar.bz2
#tar jxf linux-2.6.18.3.tar.bz2; rm -f linux; ln -s linux-2.6.18.3 linux; cd linux
#wget http://home.comcast.net/~n.labadie/E521/config-2.6.18.3 -O .config
#make -j2
#make modules_install
#cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot |
In the relevant section of /boot/grub/grub.conf:
| Code: | | kernel /boot/bzImage noapic vga=791 pci=nomsi |
Now, the fun part. The onboard sound has some rather funky issues with MSI, as in it won't work. This is fixed upstream in the kernel by disabling MSI specifically for snd-hda. You'll get all kinds of errors trying to use the default modules included in the kernel, and for some reason or another I was getting all kinds of errors after emerging alsa-drivers. Prior to doing this, run alsaconf as root, go with the defaults, and add alsasound to the default runlevel. Back to a bit of manual compiling.
| Code: | #cd /tmp
#wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.13.tar.bz2
#tar jxf alsa-driver-1.0.13.tar.bz2; cd alsa-driver-1.0.13
#./configure && make && make install
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Now install IVTV:
The reboot was more or less necessary because of my laziness. At this point you should have IVTV and the onboard sound working. I hope this saves someone from the pain I've put myself through.
Seriously, if you have a choice, buy a different system. |
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RealityMage
Apprentice
Joined: 15 Dec 2003
Posts: 151
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| Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for warning me off. I was about to buy this system. It is still a really good value for the hardware though...
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nlabadie
n00b
Joined: 18 Jul 2002
Posts: 17
Location: Detroit, MI
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| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:04 am Post subject: |
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| RealityMage wrote: | | Thanks for warning me off. I was about to buy this system. It is still a really good value for the hardware though... |
It is a good system, if you don't mind springing for a PCI USB card. Disappointing that Dell certified this as "100% Linux compatible" without noticing the USB issue that everyone seems to have. |
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StinkyLou
n00b
Joined: 13 Aug 2003
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:03 pm Post subject: Updated E521 BIOS? |
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| Has anyone tried the new e521 BIOS Dell posted on their site on 1/1/2007? I'm interested in upgrading but am worried about causing more problems. Any experiences with it? |
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GeneChip
n00b
Joined: 16 Jan 2007
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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I have a question: what happens if I disable my built-in USB ports (as instructed) and then need to re-enter BIOS for some reason? My E521 doesn't have the traditional keyboard/mouse ports and uses a USB keyboard instead. I plugged in a spare USB PCI card I have lying around, and it didn't allow me to input anything until after the kernel booted and loaded the USB drivers.
Is this a shortcoming of my USB PCI card? Will I be totally screwed if I disable the built-in ports and then need to change something in BIOS? Does your USB PCI card accept input from the USB keyboard during BIOS boot up?
Thanks. |
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cvweiss
n00b
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 67
Location: Detroit!
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| Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject: Re: HOWTO: Dell E521: Sound, IVTV, and USB |
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nlabadie, I'm taking a chance and hoping you're monitoring your old posts....
I'm attempting to follow your instructions, but am having a bitch of a time getting the sound to work.
did you compile your kernel with genkernel? I don't really want to use your config (no offense) so I was hoping you could tell me what you enabled,disabled, etc.
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If at first you don't suceed, try again does NOT apply to skydiving. |
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reabust
n00b
Joined: 11 Jul 2006
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:32 am Post subject: |
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Hi everyone.. I am running the newly available BIOS from Dell and it works fine. No mouse disconnects.. feels weird since I've gotten used to unplugging and replugging every 5 minutes and now nothing...
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hit nail here [x] for new monitor |
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cvweiss
n00b
Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 67
Location: Detroit!
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| reabust wrote: | | Hi everyone.. I am running the newly available BIOS from Dell and it works fine. No mouse disconnects.. feels weird since I've gotten used to unplugging and replugging every 5 minutes and now nothing... |
Which BIOS version?
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If at first you don't suceed, try again does NOT apply to skydiving. |
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