| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
BradB
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 190
Location: Christchurch NZ
|
 Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 10:34 pm Post subject: Dell 500m |
 |
|
I'm in the market for a new laptop, my requirements are
- cheap (sub $3000NZ, or ~$1300USD)
- linux compatible
- >=30gb HDD, >=256Mb RAM, DVD drive
- >= 1800ALthon equivalent
- prefer Pentium-M class CPU
- would be nice to have an OK 3D graphics card, but not really a big deal
It looks like the new Dell 500m fits the bill quite nicely, does know how well it runs under linux?
Anybody have recommendations for other laptops that might fit my bill?
Cheers
Brad |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
doggy
n00b
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 21
Location: Thailand
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 4:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
yesterday i spent exactly that (1300 USD after rebate) on dell 600m. i'm not sure the deal that i had is still going but for this price i got 1.3ghz, 384mb, ati redeon 32mb, 14.1"sxga+ screen, dvd+cdrw combo drive.
from what i heard linux is fine on them except no support (yet) for the wireless centrino stuff. IIRC there's a link to someone's writeup of linux on his dell at http://tuxmobil.org. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
BradB
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 190
Location: Christchurch NZ
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 9:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks for the link. I'd appreaciate it if you let me know how you get on with your 600m.
Cheers
Brad |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
eee
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 29 May 2003
Posts: 115
Location: MD
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 12:37 pm Post subject: Quite happy with 600m |
|
|
I've been running Gentoo on my 600m for about a month now and have been quite happy with it. doggy is correct that the centrino (or any 802.11g) wireless doesn't work, but I've got a Netgear 802.11b card that works just fine.
DRM (for 3d) works fine with the upcoming 2.4.21 kernel + the xfree-drm ebuild. ~1400 in glxgears IIRC.
I haven't had much luck with ACPI. Mostly I run without it because it only succeeds in preventing the display from turning off when I close the lid. It's been a while since I played with that, so I'm hopeful that I'll get it to work at some point.
Battery life is good ~2 hours with the netgear card in, more without it.
All in all, I am extremely pleased with it and it's ability to handle Gentoo. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mb
Guru
Joined: 25 Apr 2002
Posts: 355
Location: Hessen | .de
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
BradB
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 190
Location: Christchurch NZ
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 8:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Great - does anybody know how well the 855 chipset is supported in terms of graphics? The Dell 500m doesn't have a radeon, instead relies on the integrated graphics.
Brad |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
techmetal
n00b
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 17
Location: Switzerland
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi,
I have a Dell 500m, the 855 chipset is supported under XFree86 4.3 but you can only get 16bit depth and 640x480 resolution max using the current drivers and kernel when running X.
ACPI is supported, as well as the NIC. The wireless card, a Dell Truemobile 1300 isn't. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
BradB
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 190
Location: Christchurch NZ
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
ich - 640x480?
How fast do you think other resolution will be gotten ready?
Brad |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
doggy
n00b
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 21
Location: Thailand
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 2:06 am Post subject: |
|
|
fyi, if u are still considering the inspiron m, there's a better deal than i said earlier  . there's a 15% off with a coupon (code 17AF8E48BFD) if your order is over 1499 in the "small business" section. i configured the m600 w/ 1.4ghz 14"svga+, 512MB, 40 GB, 32MB ATI Redeon and combo cdrw+dvd that came out to be $1220 a/f rebate/tax. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
techmetal
n00b
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 17
Location: Switzerland
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
| BradB wrote: | ich - 640x480?
How fast do you think other resolution will be gotten ready?
Brad |
Franky I don't know. And I don't have time to find out--busy studyin. For the moment I'm installing GNU/Linux as a hobby. Check out the developer's webpage for more info:
http://www.xfree86.org/~dawes/845driver.html
I suggest considering buying a laptop with at least one Linux success story. I can't call mine one yet. But let me know if you insist with the 500m, I'll keep you posted on any updates regarding installation. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
BradB
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Jun 2002
Posts: 190
Location: Christchurch NZ
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 2:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | I suggest considering buying a laptop with at least one Linux success story. I can't call mine one yet. But let me know if you insist with the 500m, I'll keep you posted on any updates regarding installation. |
Yeah - I agree with that. I think I'm actually going to go away from the Centrino laptops - the extra money you pay for 1 or 2 hours extra battery life isn't that important to me.
Cheers
Brad |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kamikaz3
Apprentice
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Posts: 187
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 7:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well I find dell rather expensive for what you get.
If I configure
D600 1.6ghz 512MB Radeon 9000 bluetooth DVD/CDRW
I pay 3199,24 EUR
(600m isn't for sale in belgium/europe)
Then I look at acer travelmate 803lcib, which has the same specs and I can buy that one for 2200 EUR
From what I've read that acer is a damn good notebook. So why should I pay 1000 extra for a dell? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flokno
Apprentice
Joined: 18 Dec 2002
Posts: 185
Location: graz/austria/europe
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 6:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
for dell 500m:
try adding | Code: | | Option "VideoRam" "32768" |
to XF86Config.
see http://www.xfree.org/current/i810.4.html.
the dell500m seems quite cheap here in europe.
-- flo |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 7:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
If this works for someone, let me know... I'm expecting my D400 within a week or so, and I think it has the same problem (since it has to do with the 855GM chipset).
I *think* this may not work because of an issue with Dell's BIOS... but I may be wrong (hopefully =)...
Also, if you try this, perhaps try with a newer kernel as well... specifically one with agpgart support for the 855gm (2.5.64+)... or 2.4.21 ac (I think, something like that). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ypok
n00b
Joined: 31 May 2002
Posts: 14
Location: switzerland
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
I've got a 500m. ACPI and SpeedStep works with a 2.5 kernel. In X i only get 640x480 too  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:52 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ypok wrote: | | I've got a 500m. ACPI and SpeedStep works with a 2.5 kernel. In X i only get 640x480 too |
I believe the C400's had the same/similar problem and a workaround was written by Abraham vd Merwe. Unfortunately, I emailed him and he said he did not have the time to work on XFree86 drivers anymore.
David Dawes (the guy who handles these drivers for XFree86) says he does not know of a work around (on his page: http://www.xfree86.org/~dawes/845driver.html )... but perhaps he is not aware of the C400 work around? I'll try emailing him...
It could be that although similar, the solution for the 500m/D400 is different than the C400. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Just an update... I got an email back from Manuel Chakravarty who wrote this page: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/linux/c400.html and he says that if the 855GM is not radically different from the 830M (which it might be, I don't know) then the C400 fix should work for our laptops.
Here's what he said:
| Quote: | The current release of XFree86 does support the C400
out-of-the-box and current Linux distributions (such as Red
Hat 9.0) include this support. The fix for the problem
included there is rather generic (by circumventing the
broken BIOS and directly programming the I/O registers of
the chipset). If the 855GM is not radically different from
the 830M, I would imagine that not much change is needed to
support your hardware. Possible problems might be that
* the chipset is simply not recognised by the existing code
because of the new model number (very easy to fix) or
* that a few registers needed to be handled in a slightly
different way (might be easy to fix, too).
I would recommend to have a look at the Xpert mailing list
at <www.xfree86.org>, which is read by the maintainers of
the code in question. If there is no posting concerning the
855GM yet, you might want to ask on this list. (Chances are
that there is already some code in CVS that has not yet
propagated into the main distributions.)
Good luck with this,
Manuel |
I went ahead and fired off an email to the XFree86 devel list (is that the Xpert mailing list?) so we'll see how that goes. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 2:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I got a patch from David Dawes that he said to try which enables the old 830M work around for all platforms. Since I haven't gotten my D400 in yet, if someone wants to try it out and report back, that'd be great.
| Code: | Index: i830_driver.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/x-cvs/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers/i810/i830_driver.c,v
retrieving revision 1.27
diff -u -r1.27 i830_driver.c
--- i830_driver.c 14 Feb 2003 17:12:42 -0000 1.27
+++ i830_driver.c 17 Jun 2003 20:11:55 -0000
@@ -1039,7 +1039,7 @@
return TRUE;
#endif
- if (IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) {
+ if (1 || IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) {
pI830->useSWF1 = TRUE;
pI830->saveSWF1 = INREG(SWF1) & 0x0f;
@@ -1084,7 +1084,7 @@
}
#endif
- if ((IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) && pI830->useSWF1) {
+ if ((1 || IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) && pI830->useSWF1) {
swf1 = INREG(SWF1);
swf1 &= ~0x0f;
swf1 |= (pI830->saveSWF1 & 0x0f);
@@ -1111,7 +1111,7 @@
}
#endif
- if ((IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) && pI830->useSWF1) {
+ if ((1 || IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830)) && pI830->useSWF1) {
CARD32 newSWF1;
/* Need MMIO access here. */ |
Unfortunately, he said that if this doesn't work, we'll have to take it up with Dell. =( |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
techmetal
n00b
Joined: 08 Jun 2003
Posts: 17
Location: Switzerland
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 4:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I'd like to try this one. But how do you actually proceed? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 6:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| techmetal wrote: | | I'd like to try this one. But how do you actually proceed? |
I've never actually patched something before... I'm fairly new to this whole "linux" thing... haha 
I believe you can save that up there into something like... maybefix.diff
copy that and cd into the directory with the i830_driver.c file
then...
| Code: | | patch -p0 <maybefix.diff |
Again, I'm not 100% sure if this is the correct way to do this... someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, I'm not sure if the first four lines (the lines above "diff -u -r1.27 i830_driver.c") should be in the .diff file or not.
You may even be able to edit the i830_driver.c file manually and add the "1 ||" to all the places you see IS_I830(pI830) || IS_845G(pI830) as that seems to be only changes he made to the file (makes sense to me at least, hehe...)
anyhow, after you do that, you should be able to recompile your kernel/modules and that is it... I think?
Good luck! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 6:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| oh also, techmetal (or ypok or anyone else who's installed Gentoo on the 500m or D400), were there any peculiars to your Gentoo install on your 500m? I just wanna get an idea of what I'll have to do to my D400 to get it to work when I get it in. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 1:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
A guy from the Dell forums said he tried the patch and it didn't work... just to let you guys know. =(
You can still try it, but it prob won't work... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ypok
n00b
Joined: 31 May 2002
Posts: 14
Location: switzerland
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 1:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Owiber wrote: | A guy from the Dell forums said he tried the patch and it didn't work... just to let you guys know. =(
You can still try it, but it prob won't work... |
i'll try it  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 1:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Also, I thought it patched one of the files that comes with the kernel, but I was wrong... I think the driver is with XFree86.
Just in case others want to try their luck... heh =) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Owiber
n00b
Joined: 01 May 2003
Posts: 38
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Out of curiousity... if none of this turns out to work, does anyone know what would be involved in modding the BIOS?
ie... grabbing the image and looking for where the 832KB or whatever is specified and changing it, then reflashing?
Of course, that would probably require sifting your way through lots of assembly or something like that... I've never done anything like this, so I was just asking if it's possible or achievable... legal?
I'm not sure if the assembly Dell uses in their BIOS is standard though, so we may not even be able to see that? Just a bunch of bits? (if that's the case, then it's probably impossible for us without some kind of documentation). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Kernel & Hardware
