# Alienware 15mx pure gentoo help

## dustfinger

System Details

I just purchased an alienware m15x.

i7 quadcore cpu.  

8GB of RAM

GeForce GT 240M

The Problem

I love it!  I only want Gentoo on it.  The problem is that the alienware laptop has a USB Composite Device for controlling the lighting affects of the keyboard, glowing alien heads and ALIENWARE branding.  The settings for this device cannot be changed in the Bios, the system must have the command center installed.  It seems that this is only available to windows.  Has anyone ever tried running this from wine?  Is there another way?  I don't want to dual boot, but I would really like to control the lighting of the laptop.  I hate dual booting :S

Other concerns

Another concern is that the drivers have to be installed in a very specific order, I think this is because the command center flashes the firmware of the composite USB device and all dependencies must be satisfied???.  I do know, already from experience, that If the drivers are not installed int the following order, then when the command center is installed and the composite USB controller is flashed it can set an incorrect IRQ causing the lighting system to fail (no lights at all).  When that happens a new motherboard may be required as was the case for my system.

Chipset

media card reader

 video card

 audio

all other drivers

OSD

command center

I worry that when installing gentoo I may run into the same problem complicating the installation procedure.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I am very nervous about moving forward with the installation risking hardware problems with the lighting system.

Sincerely,

dustfinger.

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## elgrande71

 *dustfinger wrote:*   

> System Details
> 
> The Problem
> 
> I love it!  I only want Gentoo on it.  The problem is that the alienware laptop has a USB Composite Device for controlling the lighting affects of the keyboard, glowing alien heads and ALIENWARE branding.  The settings for this device cannot be changed in the Bios, the system must have the command center installed.  It seems that this is only available to windows.  Has anyone ever tried running this from wine?  Is there another way?  I don't want to dual boot, but I would really like to control the lighting of the laptop.  I hate dual booting :S
> ...

 

Hello,

I have also an Alienware M15X but with the gtx260m graphics chipset and only 4Go RAM.

For your lighting affects, you can first look at this link http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/alienware-lighting-controls-alienfx-810687/

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## dustfinger

To elgrande71,

That is wonderful news.  I am going to try the java program out this weekend.  If this works I will be so happy  :Smile: 

dustfinger.

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