# The Dell Inspiron 8600 "get everything working" thread

## roguetoad

I had this laptop for a year, and there are several things on it I just cannot get to work right. There seems to be enough anecdotal evidence from other Dell sufferers, um... users, that it seems much of this stuff is on the verge of working with perhaps a little coaxing and tweaking. So, as much as to keep track of what I am trying as to see what others have done or are trying, I've started this little thread. 

First, the hardware. Dell Inspiron 8600 WXGA (1680x1050) BIOS A13, with nvidia GeForce 5200, Pentium-M processor at 1.4GHz, built-in Centrino ipw2200 wireless, Broadcom b44 10/100 ethernet.

Now the software. suspend2-sources on kernel-2.6.14-rc4, patched nvidia-7676 driver, framebuffer splash, and Xorg-6.8.2. GLX enabled, RenderAccel on, but no Composite.

Major gripes/non-functioning items:

1. Suspend to disk (even after following the gentoo-wiki) dies horribly for me on resume.

2. Suspend to ram gives the infamous black screen of death on resume.

3. Special function keys (the blue Fn-X) keys give off no ACPI events or xev detectable keycodes, so I cannot map them to anything

4. DPMS doesn't seem heed the suspend/standby times in xorg.conf. The backlight stays on forever. I pretty much have to force it with a 

```
xset force dpms off
```

, before the screen will go off.  

5. Hotswapping the cdrom with the battery pack pretty much guarantees a hang. 

I realize that 1 and 2 may just be problems with the nvidia driver. I have not yet tried backtracking to older drivers, although I have tried patching the current 7676 driver with a patch posted on the nvnews.net forums which supposedly fixes suspend. Since new nvidia drivers are due out end of October I will wait to see if these help with the suspend/resume issues. 

On 3. The special keys don't give off any events I can see thru xev and they don't trigger any ACPI events like some other laptops.  Anybody know what they need to get going?

On 4. Is this an nvidia thing again? The Xorg.0.log claims DPMS is enabled, but it never does anything. Screen stays fully lit all the time. 

On 5. There is some evidence people have gotten this working by using idectl commands. But there is no way to notify the kernel of the existence of a hotswapped cdrom/dvd if it was not present at kernel boot. Any way around this?

Things I have checked and/or have working. 

1. I have extracted and compiled the DSDT for the A13 BIOS to see if there were any errors. There were none, so there was no need for a specialized initrd like with earlier bioses. 

2. Both firewire and usb2 ports work fine with the standard ohci1394 and ehci-hcd kernel drivers

3. The Centrino ipw2200 works with the intel drivers and firmware (available in portage as ipw2200) and now even has the ability to go into sniff mode, so all that kismet wardriving stuff now works too. Have not tested wpa abilities yet.

4. Broadcom b44 driver mostly works well. A few times it has gone belly-up after dumping some esoteric kernel messages in the log. But since 2.6.11, those seem to have died down 

5. Widescreen resolution of 1680x1050 works fine with the nvidia driver and in the framebuffer with the vesa-tng driver. Just need a modeline in xorg.conf and you're good to go.

6. Multimedia keys give off keycodes. I have them mapped in FVWM to do the "right" thing

7. ACPI events like the lid, power button, ac-power, battery, and thermal are detected correctly by acpid.

8. CPU frequency scaling works well. I use the ondemand governor, but have switched to the others and they all seem to do what they're supposed to. 

9. Sound works fine with the intel8x0 alsa driver. Now with alsa-1.09 dmix is standard and it auto mixes from several apps simultaneously fine. 

10. Alps touchpad works fine including tapping, side-scrolling, and circle-scrolling. Just need some extra lines in xorg.conf to configure it right. No longer needs the set of alps kernel patches with newer kernels. 

11. Combo CD-writer/DVDROM works fine, except you cannot hotswap it for the 2nd battery pack without incurring a full-system hang

12. 2nd battery is detected and gives off correct ACPI events.

Things I haven't checked yet.

1. No clue if the modem works or not. 

2. Haven't checked the TV-out on the SVIDEO port, nor have I tried the external monitor vga port

3. PCMCIA drivers load with no errors, but I don't have any PCMCIA card to try out. Is there any useful cards in PCMCIA format? Best  I could find was a TV-tuner card. 

Things that seem flakey:

1. Using the i8k control makes the video card fan spin up and down far more often than w/o using i8k

2. On older kernels, the b44 driver would flake out sometimes and stop working. 

3. Of course, the suspend2disk and suspend2ram don't work well

So, if anybody needs info on my setup to get some of the things working, I'm happy to help out. If you know how fix any of the stuff on my list, I'll give you big kudos and much praise on the forums.

-A

----------

## grx

I'm working on getting things set up on my i8600 as well.  We'll see how things go soon enough.  I think I'm going to start the install this afternoon.

My configuration is similar, but with WSXGA+ (I think that's what you have too, since you said you have the 1680x1050) and a P-m 1.6 GHz processor.

----------

## roguetoad

Yup,  your correct about the screen. I typed it in wrong in my first post; WSXGA+  

If you're doing a stage1 compile, pentium-m is actually supported mcpu option.

----------

## grx

I thought pentium-m isn't support until the 3.4 branch?  Running the bootstrap right now--I think it compiles with 3.3.x.  It did emerge 3.4.4, and I'll change to -march=pentium-m and emerge -e system when it's done.

I've actually been trying to bootstrap since about 4:00 this afternoon.   :Confused:  I've not been satisfied yet with the way I'm trying to do it, but I think I've finally got the idea.

----------

## grx

I got a complete install done (just the basic install--nothing with X or anything yet.)  I may actually re-do it.  I'm going to think about what I did and try to decide if I'd like to do it differently.  Basically I did a cross between a stage 1 and a stage 1/3 install.  I included this in portage:

```
/etc/package.keywords

~sys-devel/gcc-3.4.4 ~x86

sys-libs/libstdc++-v3 ~x86

--------------------------------------

/etc/portage/package.use

sys-libs/glibc userlocales

sys-devel/libperl ithreads

dev-lang/perl ithreads
```

Then bootstrapped, emerged libstdc++-v3, updated make.conf, and did an emerge -e system twice.  I finished with installing ccache, syslog-ng, xinetd, grub, vixie-cron, reiserfsprogs, sysfsutils, dhcpcd, hotplug, coldplug, acpid, gentoolkit, and ntp.  I'm looking for a way to put my kernel configuration up somewhere.  By the way, is it normal for bootstrap to ignore userlocales and install all of them?  I haven't checked to see if that changed in the emerge -e system yet.

I did find that the 2005.1 Universal Install disk doesn't like sandbox at all.  I used a 2005.1 stage, but did the install booted from the 2005.0 disk.

Anyway, this is the make.conf I ended up with (after compiling 3.4.4 in).  What do you think about the install?  What would you do differently?

```
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"

CXXFLAGS=${CFLAGS}

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR=/var/tmp

PORTDIR=/usr/portage

DISTDIR=${PORTDIR}/distfiles

PKGDIR=${PORTDIR}/packages

PORT_LOGDIR=/var/log/portage

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=/usr/local/portage

PORTAGE_NICENESS=3

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.iawnet.sandia.gov/pub/gentoo http://mirror.usu.edu/mirrors/gentoo http://gentoo.osuosl.org"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

RSYNC_RETRIES="3"

RSYNC_TIMEOUT=180

RSYNC_EXCLUDEFROM=/etc/portage/rsync_excludes

FEATURES="ccache distlocks sandbox userpriv usersandbox"

CCACHE_SIZE="512M"

USE="nptl acpi nvidia gtk qt gnome -kde"
```

----------

## grx

Quick update--

the whole system is up and running, and I can confirm most of what you've got listed as "working".  There were some goofy issues with getting nvidia to work right, and I ended up using the same drivers you have listed up there.  I noticed that the 1.0.8174 driver is now in portage, though I haven't tried anything with it.  My next task I think is getting software suspend to work.

Also, I haven't checked the others, but the Fn-x buttons work for the keypad (the 7,8,9,u,i,o,j,k,l keys that is).

----------

## sevo

 *roguetoad wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I realize that 1 and 2 may just be problems with the nvidia driver. I have not yet tried backtracking to older drivers, although I have tried patching the current 7676 driver with a patch posted on the nvnews.net forums which supposedly fixes suspend. 
> 
> 

 

What exactly did you patch? You cannot go by the line numbers mentioned on most patch recommendations, as these usually refer to older drivers!

Sevo

----------

## raf

Hi,

I have a Inspiron 8500 which is very similar to the 8600. I have both suspend to RAM and suspend to disk working fine*. To get suspend working you DO need to patch the driver. I made a portage overlay for the latest nvidia driver. You can find the ebuild and patch on my website: http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~rafal/ look in the news section.

* Upon resume the system is about 10% slower. This can be traced back to nvidia. If you kill xdm unload nvidia driver, load the nvidia driver again, and restart xdm you'll see the system is back up to full speed. I have no idea how to fix that. I will start a new thread on that to see if anyone has any ideas.

----------

## roguetoad

grx: good that your sys is up and running. you're right, the Fn+keypad buttons work (and even the monitor brightness), but the Fn+Special blue Keys like audio up/down, wireless, eject, and suspend do not give any acpi actions which can be triggered on. Some do give out keycodes which I have mapped (let me dig out my local.start and post when I get home) but not all.

sevo: the patch i'm talking about is found in 

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98859 The line numbers sort of get ignored by patch -p1 unless there is a hunk in there that doesn't match. Besides, even using this patch, suspend to ram and suspend to disk do not work for me.Also I think the new 8174 drivers will supercede the need for it 

raf: Thanks for the link and patch. Will try it out in a bit

Now running 2.6.14-suspend2-r5 sources with nvidia-8174 patched with Zander (from nvidia) power management fix. If you want I will post my nvidia-kernel overlay for this.

I have not yet tested suspend to disk or ram with it, since I'm now struggling with 2.6.14 having killed my ipw2200. 

Argh.  :Mad: 

----------

## grx

Can you give us any details of your ipw2200 problem?  I had a bit of a time making sure it worked properly when I was installing, and I hope I can remember what I did.  If it sounds familiar, maybe it'll trigger my memory.  I'm using 2.6.14-r2, ieee80211-1.1.6, wireless-tools-28_pre10, ipw2200-firmware-2.4, and ipw2200-1.0.8-r1.  Did you remember all 4 of the cryptographic libraries it needs in your kernel?  Also, I know it didn't like the ieee80211 that comes with the kernel, but it has a script you can run to remove the old one.

----------

## raf

No prob. If you do use the patch I linked to, you need to add a use flag "supend2". BTW I'm going to try a new patch that someone gave me which is suppose to work even better. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

----------

## slithy

I have the Inspiron 8600 with ATI Radeon 9600 PRO, 1.6Ghz Pentium M with WXSGA (the 1680x1050) and the Dell 1450 WiFi.

Here are the problems I have:

1. I can't adjust the contrast on X with the ATI drivers, thus the display doesn't look quite as good as in Windows.

2. Can't get widescreen framebuffer...would use radeonfb, but fglrx breaks it.

3. I have the ATI drivers installed, but the performance is alot slower than windows, but still better than no 3d acceleration.  Quake III runs about 30-40FPS slower than windows.

4. Display won't turn off by self and when I had DPMS on in xorg, the lappy would royally screw up when it tried to turn the display off. i.e the screen would go funny colors and I would have to reboot it by holding down button.

5. Fn + (anything other than the brightness) doesn't show anything in dmesg.

Sorta working /w Hacks

1. The wireless works with ndiswrapper and the windows driver, but apon cold boot and on battery, the BIOS has to be set to maximum post, or the system will completly lock when modprobing ndiswrapper.

 Works:

1. Lid button works with ACPID and radeontool

2. Sound (alsa with dmix)

3. Integrated NIC

4. ATI Radeon 9600 PRO with fglrx 8.19.10 (but see problems)

5. Headphones port.

----------

## raf

Well the latest 8XXX driver has done it for me! Forget the patch I posted above. I can now suspend to both disk and RAM, and upon resume the system is as fast as it was before! I now have everything on my laptop working!

----------

## grx

raf: could you make a quick post explaining how you set up suspend?  At least a link to a howto or something.  I'll look around for more info when I get the chance, but if you have the time we could compile what we need right here for others with the 8600.

----------

## roguetoad

grx: got almost the same packages as you except i'm using suspend2 sources 2.6.14-r5 and wireless-tools-28_pre13. I did remove the iee80211 older package per the instructions. If I modprobe -r ipw2200 and then modprobe ipw2200 a lot of times, I can sometimes get it to come up. But usually I get

as dmesg shows:

ipw2200: ipw-2.4-boot.fw load failed: Reason -2

ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2

ipw2200: failed to register network device

ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:02:03.0 disabled

ipw2200: probe of 0000:02:03.0 failed with error -5

some other forums posts point to udev as the culprit here. I have tried their fix: doesnt work for me. 

Without the firmware loading properly, of course, no eth1 device exists. 

I saw that udev-77-r1 is out, I will try that out at home and see if it fixes my ipw2200

raf: Cool. First I've heard of these working well. I'm guessing you are using suspend2 sources or patches. Can you post your hibernate.conf file? I am wondering if the vbestate tool, dummy x server and vt switching hoohaw is needed to make the suspends work flawless. 

slithy: Don't know anything about the radeon's so I can't help you with the display probs. But about the Fn keys: I've put this in my local.start file. It makes some of those Fn+ blue keys actually put out keycodes you can then map to whatever you need. 

 #e005=Darker; e006=Lighter; e007=Battery; e008=WiFi; e009=Eject;

setkeycodes e005 133 e006 134 e007 135 e008 136 e009 137

----------

## roguetoad

Forgot to ask raf,

Are you using vesafb or vesa-tng? These would always bork my suspend attempts in the past.

----------

## grx

Don't know if you've seen this fix or not, but this worked for me at the time:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-366966.html

With the 2.6.14 kernel and udev-073 it works alright for me, though if I leave it idle enough, it stops working for a time.  If I try to use it, it won't work, but if I wait for a bit afterward it works fine again.  Don't know yet if this is an issue with the card or the router I'm using.

----------

## raf

Hi,

I don't really remember the exact details of getting suspend (ram/disk) to work as I have had it working for months. The only problem I had was after resuming the system was a bit slower due to nvidia. This problem has been fixed in the 8XXX drivers.

Some things I do remember. I do not use the AGP in the kernel, instead I use the nvidia one by setting it in xorg.conf. The two USB drivers need to be compiled as modules. Then the last problem I had was my text terminals vt1-6 would not wake up. They would just have a black screen. I was able to fix that using vesa fb. 

Following are some snips from the relavent files (.config, hibernate.conf):

```
raf@linux>grep "FB" .config

# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set

CONFIG_FB=y

CONFIG_FB_CFB_FILLRECT=y

CONFIG_FB_CFB_COPYAREA=y

CONFIG_FB_CFB_IMAGEBLIT=y

CONFIG_FB_SOFT_CURSOR=y

# CONFIG_FB_MACMODES is not set

CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS=y

# CONFIG_FB_TILEBLITTING is not set

# CONFIG_FB_CIRRUS is not set

# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set

# CONFIG_FB_CYBER2000 is not set

# CONFIG_FB_ARC is not set

# CONFIG_FB_ASILIANT is not set

# CONFIG_FB_IMSTT is not set

# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set

CONFIG_FB_VESA=y

# CONFIG_FB_VESA_STD is not set

CONFIG_FB_VESA_TNG=y

CONFIG_FB_VESA_DEFAULT_MODE="640x480@60"

# CONFIG_FB_HGA is not set

# CONFIG_FB_NVIDIA is not set

# CONFIG_FB_RIVA is not set

# CONFIG_FB_I810 is not set

# CONFIG_FB_INTEL is not set

# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set

# CONFIG_FB_RADEON_OLD is not set

# CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set

# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set

# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set

# CONFIG_FB_SAVAGE is not set

# CONFIG_FB_SIS is not set

# CONFIG_FB_NEOMAGIC is not set

# CONFIG_FB_KYRO is not set

# CONFIG_FB_3DFX is not set

# CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1 is not set

# CONFIG_FB_CYBLA is not set

# CONFIG_FB_TRIDENT is not set

# CONFIG_FB_GEODE is not set

# CONFIG_FB_S1D13XXX is not set

# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set

# CONFIG_FB_SPLASH is not set

```

```
raf@hibernate>cat hibernate.conf

# Example hibernate.conf file. Adapt to your own tastes.

# Options are not case sensitive.

# 

# Run "hibernate -h" for help on the configuration items.

##############################################################################

### Choose your Suspend method. You currently have 3 choices:

###

###    suspend2            Software Suspend 2 (requires kernel patches from

###                        http://www.suspend2.net/)

###

###    sysfs_power_state   Uses /sys/power/state to suspend (activates pmdisk

###                        on kernels < 2.6.8, or vanilla swsusp otherwise).

###

###    acpi_sleep          Uses /proc/acpi/sleep to activate swsusp, or other

###                        ACPI sleep state supported by your machine.

###

##############################################################################

### suspend2 (for Software Suspend 2)

#UseSuspend2 yes

#Reboot no

#EnableEscape yes

#DefaultConsoleLevel 1

#Compressor lzf

#Encryptor none

# ImageSizeLimit 200

## useful for initrd usage:

# SuspendDevice swap:/dev/hda2

## Powerdown method - 3 for suspend-to-RAM, 4 for ACPI S4 sleep, 5 for poweroff

# PowerdownMethod 5

## Any other /proc/software_suspend setting can be set like so:

# ProcSetting expected_compression 50

## Or traditionally like this:

# Suspend2AllSettings 0 0 2056 65535 5

## Or even from the results of hibernate --save-settings with this:

# Suspend2AllSettingsFile /etc/hibernate/suspend-settings.conf

## For filewriter:

# FilewriterLocation /suspend_file 1000

# VerifyFilewriterResume2 yes

### sysfs_power_state

## To use /sys/power/state to suspend your machine (which may offer

## suspend-to-RAM, suspend-to-disk, standby, etc) comment out all the options

## above for Software Suspend 2, below for acpi_sleep, and uncomment this line.

## You may replace mem with any one of the states from "cat /sys/power/state"

# UseSysfsPowerState mem

# PowerdownMethod shutdown

### acpi_sleep

## To use ACPI to suspend your machine (via /proc/acpi/sleep), comment out

## all the options above for Software Suspend 2 and sysfs, and uncomment this

## line. The number refers to the ACPI sleep state - 3 is suspend-to-RAM and

## 4 is suspend-to-disk.

UseACPISleep 3

##############################################################################

### Some global settings

##############################################################################

Verbosity 1

LogFile /var/log/hibernate.log

LogVerbosity 1

# AlwaysForce yes

# AlwaysKill yes

# HibernateVT 15

Distribution gentoo

# XDisplay :0

##############################################################################

### Scriptlets

###   Scriptlets provide support for doing all sorts of things before and after

###   suspending. The defaults settings here should work for most people, but

###   you may wish to edit these to taste. Consult "hibernate -h" for help on

###   the configuration settings.

##############################################################################

### bootsplash

## If you use bootsplash, also enabling SwitchToTextMode is recommended if

## you use X, otherwise you may end up with a garbled X display.

# Bootsplash on

# BootsplashConfig /etc/bootsplash/default/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg

### clock

SaveClock restore-only

### devices

# IncompatibleDevices /dev/dsp /dev/video*

### diskcache

# DisableWriteCacheOn /dev/hda

### fbsplash (enable SwitchToTextMode if you use this)

FBSplash on

FBSplashTheme suspend2

### filesystems

# Unmount /nfsshare /windows /mnt/sambaserver

# UnmountFSTypes smbfs nfs

# UnmountGraceTime 1

# Mount /windows

### grub

# ChangeGrubMenu yes

# GrubMenuFile /boot/grub/menu.lst

# AlternateGrubMenuFile /boot/grub/menu-suspended.lst

# BackupGrubMenuFile /boot/grub/menu.lst.hibernate.bak

### hardware_tweaks

# IbmAcpi yes

# RadeonTool yes

### lilo

# EnsureLILOResumes yes

### lock (generally you only want one of the following options)

# LockConsoleAs root

# LockXScreenSaver yes

LockKDE yes

### misclaunch

# OnSuspend 20 echo "Good night!"

# OnResume 20 echo "Good morning!"

### modules

# UnloadModules snd_via82cxxx usb-ohci

# UnloadAllModules yes

UnloadBlacklistedModules yes

LoadModules auto

# LoadModulesFromFile /etc/modules

### modules-gentoo

GentooModulesAutoload yes

### network

# DownInterfaces eth0

# UpInterfaces auto

### programs

# IncompatiblePrograms xmms

### services

# RestartServices postfix

# StopServices alsasound

# StartServices aumix

#RestartServices alsasound hotplug cpudyn hdparm

### vbetool

# EnableVbetool yes

# RestoreVbeStateFrom /var/lib/vbetool/vbestate

# VbetoolPost yes

### xhacks

SwitchToTextMode yes

UseDummyXServer yes

### xstatus

## This can be set to gnome, kde or x:

# XStatus gnome

# XSuspendText Preparing to suspend...

# XResumeText Resuming from suspend...

## When using XStatus x, and you have xosd installed:

# XosdSettings --font -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--*-120-*-*-c-*-*-* --colour=Green --shadow 1 --pos bottom --align center --offset 50

```

----------

## roguetoad

Neither of these is working quite right for me yet. 

I switched to the newest nvidia-driver 8178

suspend to disk works, except that it kills all the consoles on resume. They just become garbled bands of color. 

suspend to ram goes into suspend but only gives a black screen on resume. 

I have tried every combination in the hibernate-ram.conf file and still can't get it to work. 

Even dropping down to console only mode, I cannot resume from ram correctly without a vbe post. And even that doesn't work all the time. 

So, at least in my case, suspend to ram is still not ready for prime time. Will keep trying and posting progress (or lack of)

----------

## grx

I'm having the same issues using 8174-r1.  Hopefully we can get this one figured out!

----------

## roguetoad

grx: nvidia-8178 is supposed to have a power-management patch supplied by zander from nvidia corp. This is why I gave it a shot. It may give u better results than me.

I've also upgraded to Dell's A14 bios, but there nothing in their changelog that indicates they've mucked with power managment. 

I tried applying the patch in http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Get_Suspend_To_RAM_working_on_a_Dell_Inspiron_8600c_laptop

but it dies against suspend2-sources-r7. But I'm beginning to think this is probably to only way (near term) to get suspend to ram working correctly. Not being a code monkey, I'm not sure how to modify the patch to make it work with my kernel. 

Anyways, more posts, more info, and maybe we'll get this working after all.

-A

----------

## grx

OK, I think the only thing left on my to-do list is the suspend issue.  I do have some questions about the kernel config for the processor, though.  I've done some searching, and can't seem to find the information I need.

I have HPET Timer Support enabled.

I have Local APIC support disabled.

I have the Timer frequency set at 250 Hz.

I have Power Management Timer Support disabled.

I would imagine the pentium-m has APIC, and I don't know how changing the timer frequency to 1000 Hz would affect things.  How do y'all have yours configured?

I should also mention that the line  *Quote:*   

> Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency changed.

  appears a few times in my /var/log/messages.  Should I be worried about this, or is it just a symptom of the frequency scaling?

----------

## roguetoad

I haven't heard anywhere that HPET or Frequency=1000 prevents suspend from working correctly

?I think the Power Management Timer applies to wakeup sequences only? 

Whenever I have force local APIC on my kernel line (using GRUB), it has caused hard computer crashes on this model. I currently don't use it

-A

----------

## grx

 *Quote:*   

> I haven't heard anywhere that HPET or Frequency=1000 prevents suspend from working correctly
> 
> ?I think the Power Management Timer applies to wakeup sequences only? 

 

I was actually wondering just more in general.  Do any of you have these options enabled in your kernel config?

Another thing I just got curious about is the modelines and device options you've used in xorg.conf.  Here's what I have:

```
Section "Monitor"

        Identifier   "Monitor1"

        VendorName   "Dell"

        ModelName    "WSXGA+ LCD"

        HorizSync    31.5-100

        VertRefresh 30-90

        UseModes     "16:10"

        Option       "dpms"

EndSection

Section "Modes"

        Identifier   "16:10"

        Modeline     "1680x1050" 147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087

        Modeline     "1680x1050" 188.07 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1096

        Modeline     "1680x1050" 214.51 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1103

        Modeline     "1680x1050" 256.20 1680 1808 1992 2304 1050 1051 1054 1112

EndSection

Section "Device"

        Identifier  "Card0"

        Driver      "nvidia"

        VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

        BoardName   "GeForce FX Go5200"

        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"

        Option      "NoLogo" "true"

        Option      "NvAGP" "1"

EndSection

```

I don't even remember where I picked up these modelines.  How does all this compare to what others have done in their configurations?

----------

## grx

In case anyone's interested, I've managed to find some time to set up some webspace at school and get some things put up:

make.conf

.config

xorg.conf

Any comments would be appreciated!  BTW, what version of udev is everyone using, and did they change any of the udev-rules files?

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## slithy

Does no one else with this laptop have the display problem of the contrast/brightness not being the optimal setting be default??  BTW I am not talking about gamma.  I have the WSXGA 1680x150 display with the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro card.  In windows, under the ATI driver, all the sliders, but the brightness one, are set to the default level.  Dell for some reason has tweaked the contrast setting threw their software and since contrast can't be adjust in linux, the display looks better in windows.

EDIT: I just did a test in windows, I moved the brightness level from -34(the current setting), to 0(the default and what it would be in gentoo).  And the display looked the same crapiness as when in Gentoo.  From what I have read, this brightness is different from the one that you can control with the up and down arrow keys(and changing the brightness setting with the up and down arrows doesn't solve my problem).  I would love nothing more than to get the displayed optimzied.

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## slithy

Serious, no one has this problem or can solve it?

This problem has eaten away at my linux experience on my laptop and I have now resorted back to windows on my laptop.  Good money was paid for that laptop and there is no reason why I should experience the display looking that shit!

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## grx

I haven't had any problems like that at all, but can't help anyway because my video card is an nVidia.  (Which came with its own set of problems!   :Razz:  )  Are you sure there's no way to adjust video settings in linux?  I think nVidia provides some kind of interface that does that for my card.

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## slithy

Yeah there is an ATI GUI config tool, but it only has gamma in it  :Sad: .  Guess my only options are, wait for ATI to implement brightness & contrast adjustment in their drivers, or if Xorg implements this feature also.  And finally, I could always swap out the video card for an nvidia one, but since my ATI 9600 Pro is better (for gaming when in windows), than the nvidia models offered for the Inspiron 8600, I would lose out on performance.

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