Saturday, October 15, 2005
Gentoo Linux on Dell Inspiron 9300
I recently became the owner of a Dell Inspiron 9300. This was a replacement laptop for my old Dell Inspiron 8600. Inspiron 9300 is a great desktop replacement laptop with a huge 17 inch display. Its slightly on the heavier side, that is something you have to make do with for the 17 inch display. I am running a dual boot of Windows XP and Gentoo Linux on this laptop. In this post I will try to cover the installation of Gentoo on this laptop.
Basic Installation
I use gcc-3.4 as my compiler as it supports Architecture specific optimisation for the Pentium M processors. To install from stage1 using gcc-3.4 you need to add the following lines to your /etc/portage/package.keywords
Additional features for Gentoo Linux
The DVD drive by default runs without DMA. By editing the kernel headers you can enable DMA. Edit the file/include/Linux/libata.h, change the line
Unresolved issues
E-mail: bharathblog at gmail dot com
Last updated: Sunday, February 22, 2006
Hardware component | Status | Comments |
---|---|---|
Pentium M Processor 750, 1.86GHz | Works | |
17 WUXGA TFT Display | Works | |
128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300 | Works | Requires ATI Linux drivers. |
1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512) | Works | |
60GB (5,400 RPM) Hard Drive | Works | |
NEC ND-6650 8X DVD+/-RW Drive | Works | DMA requires libata support. |
Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base | Works | |
Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini PCI Wireless | Works | Requires Intel ipw2200 drivers. |
Internal Intel AC'97 56k Modem Controller | Don't know | Haven't tried. |
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth 2.0 | Works | Tested with Plantronics bluetooth headset. |
Intel AC'97 Audio Controller | Works | |
PCMCIA Cardbus: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II | Seems to work | Haven't tested, dont own any hardware. |
FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 | Seems to work | Haven't tested, dont own any hardware. |
SD Card Reader: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 | Not supported |
Basic Installation
- I installed my system from stage1 using the 2005.1 Universal CD.
- For installation documentations use the Gentoo installation handbook.
- The hard drive is a regular IDE drive but accessed as a scsi device using the libata ata_piix sata driver.
- For ATI driver emerge ati-drivers, followed by opengl-update ati.
I use gcc-3.4 as my compiler as it supports Architecture specific optimisation for the Pentium M processors. To install from stage1 using gcc-3.4 you need to add the following lines to your /etc/portage/package.keywords
sys-devel/gcc ~x86Then run the bootstrap.sh script. Once gcc-3.4 has been installed edit your make.conf to change the arch type as pentium-m from whatever you were using earlier.
sys-libs/libstdc++-v3 ~x86
source /etc/profileYou need to re-source /etc/profile so that you use the gcc-3.4 as the default compiler. Re-emerge glibc and gcc-3.4. Unmerge gcc-3.3 and then proceed from stage2 to stage3.
Additional features for Gentoo Linux
The DVD drive by default runs without DMA. By editing the kernel headers you can enable DMA. Edit the file
#undef ATA_ENABLE_ATAPIto
#define ATA_ENABLE_ATAPIEnable scsi cdrom support if you hadn't enabled it earlier. Recompile your kernel and reboot, you need to pass ide1=noprobe to the kernel. The DVD drive will now appear as a scsi device /dev/sr0 and not as a IDE device /dev/hdc. hdparm doesn't work with scsi devices without the libata passthru patch from Jeff Garzik.
Unresolved issues
- Internal Modem
- Firewire
- SD card reader, doest not work as it is not supported.
- Cardbus/PCMCIA
- lscpi
- Kernel .config
- xorg.conf
- make.conf
- kernel-2.6 (list of modules that I load on boot. I use a modular kernel hence a lot of modules are loaded.)
E-mail: bharathblog at gmail dot com
Last updated: Sunday, February 22, 2006
Comments:
<< Home
Just a FYI, bluetooth works great on the 9300. You need to patch the kernel with the patch at bluez.org, and then emerge bluez support (There should be a little doc on gentoo about it).
Yes, I'd like to see your lsmod output or /etc/modu..../kernel-2.6 as well. I have everything working, but waaaaay too many modules bieng loaded. I want to trim down a bit.
thought I would chime in with my kernel 2.6.15-r1: you cannot follow these instructions to change #undef to #define as that line was apparently updated in this kernel. However I found that if you add libata.atapi_enabled=1 AND ide1=noprobe to your kernel boot options or in grub.conf the kernel loads the cdrom as sr0
Thats true becaude from 2.6.14 onwards libata directly supports ATAPI devices which wasn't the default behavior and hence you needed to change #undef to #define. If you compile the piix as a module then you just need to use libata.atapi_enabled=1 and there is no need to use ide1=noprobe as the ide drivers arent loaded.
Okay, everything for me works on my Inspiron 9300 (except the SD reader of course), only thing is, with the 2.6.15 kernel, the ati drivers don't work properly, but using the 2.6.12-r6 kernel, it works perfectly. Any idea why?
The problem is actually in the ati-drivers. Its a documented bug, if you apply the following patch to your ati-drivers and then recompile it you should be all set to use the 2.6.15 kernel series.
Thanks for all the info here, but no matter what I do I can't get my 9300 to boot from the CD I burned from the iso!
I have tried everything, I made sure it was a bootable CD, I set it to boot from CD, I burned it to another CD with another download thinking it might be corrupt (the file), but NOTHING! ahh!
I would be eternally greatful for any help...
Thanks in advanced
I have tried everything, I made sure it was a bootable CD, I set it to boot from CD, I burned it to another CD with another download thinking it might be corrupt (the file), but NOTHING! ahh!
I would be eternally greatful for any help...
Thanks in advanced
If you have tried everything probably something wrong with your CD Drive... Might want to contact Dell. Try the CD in another computer to see if it works before calling Dell.
Your links are no longer working. Did you take your lsmod and xorg (etc) off the server or what? Just curious. Thanks
Has anyone had success with suspend-to-ram. I have this laptop, except it has an NVIDIA card instead of ATI, and I've yet to be able to succesfully suspend, and then bring it out of suspend mode. Any one else?
I am having troubles with a Creative Labs Jukebox Zen Touch Ultra. I can get my dmesg to recognize when it is on and off, but I can't find what /dev address it is being mapped to. Everything I have seen says it maps it to sda1 but considering that is our hardrives, and sdb doesn't work. Help?
Posting more information helps, dmesg surely would help.
The other thing that you might want check is if you have included Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device.
The other thing that you might want check is if you have included Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device.
It would be better if we use Bluetooth headsets instead of carrying mobile every place at home no need to check for mobile in dilemma about where i left my mobile oh God! thansk to blue tooth headsets latestone.com is the recent website where i ordered one bluetooth headset very cheaply
Post a Comment
<< Home