Dell Inspiron 2500
Hello,
I've just subscribed to this mailing-list after havin read the thread
about the Dell Inspiron 2500 about a month ago.
This mail has to goals:
- provide my own experience with my Inspiron 2500
- ask some questions :)
Here we go:
1) My Inspiron 2500:
--------------------
I have to say that even if now it works pretty well with most of the
functionnalities ready, it has not always been true.
Many trouble with ALSA, X, APM, ACPI, PCMCIA ...
My advices:
About ACPI: just forget 2.2.x kernels since it is now reliable (>= 2.4.16
from my point of view). So don't use APM but ACPI has someone
previously said, since Bios releases > A06, APM is buggy :(
ACPI can switch off completly my computer (switch off the power I mean).
It seems some people still have some trouble about it ...
Furthermore, I don't know why, WITHOUT ACPI, if I activate the DRI
support via my XF86Config-4 configuration filer, the machine just
hangs. I fortunately discovered that with ACPI, it does not hang anymore
(great ! because without DRI, it is veeeryyyyy sllloooowwwwww, forget
Quake 3, while with DRI, that's ok in 640x480).
But there is still one main problem: it seems ACPI really hates to share
its IRQ (9) with any other devices. Unfortunately, the PCI management
system also gives this IRQ to the PCMCIA/Cardbus driver :(
Which makes the machine hanging. Not always crashing, but most of the
time, it does crash :(
So I traced a little, read the doc to find a way to say the kernel to
provide it another IRQ as Windows does (it gives IRQ 5 to the PCMCIA
driver). Nothing available it seems. So I wrote a very dirty patch, but
which makes me happy. That's the first time I "read" some kernel source,
so please don't shout on me :):
http://babou.org/ls/sources/patch-2.4.16-inspiron2500
Works at least for 2.4.16 and 2.4.17
You have to say to apply the patch via make config/menuconfig/...
About the sound: the OSS driver is obviously not efficient at all,
supporting only 48Khz. Since ALSA > 0.9.0beta6, I have a good support.
One comment about it: I use artsd (and "artsdsp -d esd"). Use sudo
to nice -n -10 them, or whenever you move a window under X, the music
stops and goes on :( I prefer artsd even it uses more CPU as esd tends
to scratch the sound (asd does it too).
About the extra keys: I use the package hotkeys. It can run some
commands, and do some basis stuff. I personally use it to set the
sound level, play/stop/prev/next with xmms
Here is my /usr/share/hotkeys/di2500.def:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<CONFIG model="Dell Inspiron 2500 keyboard (laptop)">
<PrevTrack keycode="131"/>
<Stop keycode="130"/>
<Play keycode="129"/>
<NextTrack keycode="132"/>
<VolUp keycode="176" adj="2"/>
<VolDown keycode="174" adj="2"/>
<Mute keycode="160"/>
</CONFIG>
To run it: /usr/bin/hotkeys -t di2500 -b -Z
To use the switch off button, as a shutdown, I use the package acpid.
It watchs /proc/acpi/event to discover what happends with ACPI,
including the suspend and power buttons. So XDM is enough to power off
properly. No need to do a shutdown -r now manually or to use KDM or GDM
if you don't like them.
About the touchpad: my /etc/gpm.conf:
device=/dev/psaux
responsiveness=
repeat_type=raw
type=ps2
append=""
sample_rate=
and XF86Config-4:
...
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/gpmdata"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
...
I prefer to say it as I personaly spent sometimes on it.
Also, I experienced NO problem about 16bit mode under XFree86.
If you want my complete XF86Config-4 to test, just ask me.
For additionnal information about it (french/english):
http://babou.org/equipment/lebanon.fr.html
http://babou.org/equipment/lebanon.en.html
2) My questions:
----------------
About this famous suspend-to-disk partition, actually I directly put
another hard disk in the laptop (from my previous one) exchanging the
two hard disks. So I didn't even look what were on the original disk.
Just formatted it for my older laptop.
I created a IBM Thinkpad hibernation partition, FAT16/32 partitions,
at the beginning and the end of the disk, as primary and logical
partition. Nothing happened.
However, dmesg tells me:
ACPI: System firmware supports S0 S1 S4 S5
So ! It is available, but ?
I gave a look at the suspend-to-disk patch, because I experienced how
Windows 2000 does suspend-to-disk: it actually uses its own filesystem,
creating a hiber....sys file. But I use ext3, and the patch does not
handle the corresponding kernel threads (kjournald), so it does not work
So, here I would be very happy to get any information about it.
Also, I cannot switch off the display. I mean, it is always powered or I
have to close the laptop. xset dpms force off just does nothing.
Do you experience the same problem ? Does it work fine for someone else?
It also does not switch off on the text console.
Last question: I saw that under windows, the touchpad driver can make the
right side of the pad working as scrolling wheel. If anyone knows to do it under
Linux with a detailed explanation (programs, conf files ...) ?
Thank you.
--
Baptiste Malguy | Mel: baptiste@malguy.net
_____________________| Web: http://baptiste.malguy.net
USA = stupid kids | IRC: #mds on IRCNet (Babou)
with big bombs |
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