Dell Inspiron 8500

int1 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Posts: 139

Having trouble with this new hardware? Here are some notes I've found that might help solve some problems in the short term.

1. See these GREAT sites:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/G.Wilford/Inspiron8500/
and:
http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/i8500/

Note the kernels they refer to are different than the one I'll be using, so keep that in mind.

My CFLAGS:
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fforce-addr -falign-functions=4 -mmmx -msse -msse2 -mfpmath=sse -fprefetch-loop-arrays"

A couple of programs didn't like all these options so I tended to override this as needed with a more conservative one:
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -msse -mfpmath=sse"

2. emerge ac-sources
This will install the latest Alan Cox kernel (currently 2.4.21-ac1). We need some of his patches to make life easier.
- They support the IDE chipset out of the box
- Be sure to select Pentium 4
- Compile speedstep_ich in as a module
- Don't use the kernel sound driver, use ALSA
- You must use ACPI. APM is not supported on this laptop
- Leave the kernel PCMCIA unselected if you plan on using the pcmcia-cs drivers.
- Use the EHCI HCD 2.0 and UHCI (Intel PIIX4, ...) USB modules.
- Use the IEEE1394 and OHCI-1394 Firewire modules.

[only required for ac kernels pre 2.4.21-ac1]:
Patch the Speedstep file
- Copy the Speedstep patch and apply it
- Use Speedstep module (older name for speedstep_ich)

4. Patch ACPI DSDT table (for the more adventurous)
- Copy the acpi_dsdt.c file from the G.Wilford site and put it in the drivers/acpi/tables directory.
- Copy the G.Wilform Custom-DSDT.diff patch and apply it.

Note there is a problem in older ACPI code with the battery code, and will cause major system slowdowns after a short period of time if you are monitoring your remaining power. Please use the latest ACPI patches (included in the latest ac-sources). You have been warned!

I modify the kernel Makefile manually and change HOSTCFLAGS to:
HOSTCFLAGS = -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O3 -march=pentium4 -mmmx -msse -msse2 -mfpmath=sse -fforce-addr -falign-functions=4 -fomit-frame-pointer
and CFLAGS to:
CFLAGS := $(CPPFLAGS) -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -O3 \
-fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -march=pentium4 -mmmx -msse \
-falign-functions=4
Build kernel and modules and reboot.

[Following step not necessary for ac-sources 2.4.21-ac4 (and possibly some of the others post ac1), as Alan merged my kernel patch into his source tree.
5. Grab the bcm4400-2.0.0 driver off G.Wilford's site, untar it, build the bcm4400.o module (I changed -O6 in the Makefile to -O3 manually, but this is automatic in gcc now I believe), and put it in /lib/modules/####/net/
Then you can add it to /etc/modules.autoload and set it up.

6. Install sound card drivers
ALSA_CARDS='intel8x0' emerge alsa-driver
emerge alsa-lib alsa-utils
Follow the steps on G.Wilford's site

7. Install video card driver and setup X
emerge nvidia-kernel
emerge nvidia-glx
Use the XF86Config off G.Wilford's site
- Comment out the DevInputMice line at the top of the file if you don't have a /dev/input/mice.
- Change the keyboard layout in the file appropriately (for me, "us")

8. Hdparm
In /etc/conf.d/hdparm, set all_args to "-d1 -u1 -c1"
Then add hdparm to the default runlevel.

If anyone is interested, I can throw up a website with some other patches I use (bootsplash, cryptoapi).

I'll try to post more as things come along. Comments appreciated!

Good luck!
int1

Edit: Added hdparm info
Edit 2: Removed some duplicate instructions in step 3
Edit 3: Modified battery warning to note it works now.
Edit 4: Fixed to note speedstep changes in latest ac kernel
Edit 5: Fixed kernel version references to 2.4.21-ac1
Edit 6: Noted bcm4400 driver merged into 2.4.21-ac4

KeithReuters · Posted: Mon May 26, 2003 8:06 pm Post subject:

Someone on the forum (nrl) once told me :

KeithReuters · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 12:23 pm Post subject:

Well, I finally have 2 questions :

How do you configure X to run in 1920x1200? It just ignores it and falls back to the next available resolution, which is a standard 1600x1200. I had to disable video extension in the bios to get a display that has a correct ratio.
Also, using either ac or gentoo-sources with the ACPI patch disables the fn+F1, F2 and F3 keys (meaning no battery information available, since I am not crazy enough to use the buggy support mentionned on G. Wilford's page). Has anyone found a work around?

Everything else works fine.

hjlane3 · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 8:09 pm Post subject:

I followed the directioned, and when i compiled speedstep into i noticed the entries that werer suppose to be in /proc weren't there. So, i recompiled the kernel, but i compiled speedstep as a module instead. But when I try to load the module, I get this error....

KeithReuters · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 8:54 pm Post subject:

hjlane3 · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 11:52 pm Post subject:

Another issue i'm having is that the screen doesn't turn off when i close the lid. How do i set it up so it does this?

int1 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Posts: 139

int1 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Posts: 139

hjlane3 · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2003 6:01 pm Post subject:

The patch applied fine, no problems. But dmesg didn't have any output for it. :-\ I'm not too worried about this tho, I don't really have my laptop off AC power long enough to have to worry about adjusting the cpu. Another problem I have is that the screen doesn't turn off when i shut the lid. How would I get it to do this? Also, I installed i8kutils successfully and the fan adjustment and temp readings work, but for some reason i8kbuttons thinks the sound down button is being held down, which makes these buttons not usable. My wireless nic in it doesn't work. It's a truemobile 1300, which doesn't seem to be supported by linux as of yet. :-(

hjlane3 · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 6:02 am Post subject:

KeithReuters · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:07 pm Post subject:

Messed around a lot until I got 1920x1200 working, then used xvidtune to generate a working and nice modeline, then added it to my /etc/X11/XF86Config file, and finally posted it here.

To turn off the screen when you close the lid, you can do this (dirty, but kinda works).
emerge acpid

/etc/acpi/events/closelid :

hjlane3 · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:54 pm Post subject:

hjlane3 · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 12:26 am Post subject:

Ok, nm, i'm stupid i realised the xset will do it. But, taht method isn't working, the screen won't shut off when the lid is closed...

KeithReuters · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 6:48 am Post subject:

Hello,

Really? Have you started acpid? /etc/init.d/acpid.

You can either do an
xhost +localhost
as root, but BEWARE, this will give access to the X server to anyone capable of logging in to your machine, even with SSH. However, in the case of a laptop, it might not be important.

Or you can try to add the line
su [userrunningX]
before the "xset" line.

What happens when you run xset dpms force off in an xterm/eterm/konsole?

edit :
sudo -u (user) xset -display :0 force dpms off

mshaneck · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 10 Location: UMN

I tried all the steps above and everything works except that when I shutdown, the power doesn't turn off and the power button no longer works, so that I can't even turn it off manually... I am using the ac sources with speedstep compiled in as a module and using acpi. I emerged acpid and have it running... Is there something I am missing?

int1 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Posts: 139

mshaneck · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 10 Location: UMN

I am running the 2.4.21-rc2-ac3 kernel. I compiled Intel Speedstep (under Processor type and features -> CPU Frequency Scaling) in as a module. It doesn't load unless I apply the speedstep patch from G Wilford's site. I have the speedstep module autoloaded. I'm not sure what the speedstep-ich module is or if it is different than what I am using. The name of the module that i am loading is speedstep.o ...

hjlane3 · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:21 pm Post subject:

Ok got the lid closing working, thanks :-)

Now, could you guys do a "hdparm -t /dev/hda" and post the output?
I get....

mshaneck · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 10 Location: UMN

I got:

hjlane3 · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2003 11:39 pm Post subject:

KeithReuters · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 9:10 am Post subject:

hjlane3 · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 12:39 pm Post subject:

From what I Ican tell Dell only ships the 4200rpm drives w/the 8500. But still, why am I not getting that speed ?

KeithReuters · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 1:00 pm Post subject:

Send the output of hparm -i /dev/hda

hjlane3 · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 1:08 pm Post subject:

KeithReuters · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 10:11 pm Post subject:

I have the hitachi one, that might explain the difference. Also, and most importantly, I have more buffer... 2048kb I believe. since hdparm benchmarks buffered access, that might be why.