Dell Inspiron 640m Linux support getting “a little” better
Today I upgraded my kernel, so am running 2.6.20-1.2944.fc6 and am pleased to announce that on the Dell Inspiron 640m, brightness control works. Well, sort of. I can reduce brightness and increase brightness, but increasing brightness (Fn+ UpArrow) while in X, still causes X to crash. All that’s recorded is:
Apr 18 11:54:23 hermione kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x8b on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 18 11:54:23 hermione kernel: atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e00b <keycode>' to make it known.
As long as video.ko is loaded, I can hit Fn+F8 quite successfully, and get video out working now. Its in mirror mode as opposed to a stretched desktop, but I’m somewhat thankful as GNOMEs panel is still retarded when it comes to shrinking down (watch it go apeshit on you). However, repeated attempts (say, 8th time pressing the Fn+F8 key combo and it cycles between displaying on the onboard LCD, mirroring, just the external LCD, and so on) will cause the entire display driver to crash. Nothing will then be viewable, so a reboot is in lieu.
The sound control via hardware buttons still do not work (they used to back in the 2.6.18 days, afaik). Both the hardware and the Fn-key combos don’t work.
So I decided I need to be a good open source citizen, and report some bugs. #236866, #236867. I also updated the Fedora on the Dell Inspiron 640m wiki page.
For what it is worth, Desktop Effects has decided to stop working (to amuse myself I tried to enable it today). Its now nice to note that I can give presentations using my Linux box again, and things will be working (quite unlike my last experience) . I’m also excited to note that Ubuntu Feisty Fawn is coming out tomorrow, and at the same time annoyed that I’ll be travelling and don’t want to futz with my main work machine. Rob Weir will be glad to note that its only taken 2 years for me to start seeing the light.
Technorati Tags: linux, fedora, dell, dell 640m, inspiron 640m, xorg, crash, brightness control, video out, sound, hardware buttons,
Can I take this to mean you’ve decided to switch to Ubuntu? :P
No, not quite. But when I moved away from Mac OS X for daily laptop use, I became spoiled for choice with the just works scenario there.
Its embarassing giving a presesntation to a predominantly large Linux crowd, using Windows, because your laptop crashes everytime you try to get external video working. And its a pain in the arse, to have to carry 2 laptops (one solely for presentation work).
I’m looking for a solution in where things just work. I’m getting too old and tired to be doing things that are out of my problem domain, per se
i’m planning to buy it… have you noticed if the “hvm enable/disable” option is in the bios?
bye
@spiri: disabled in bios by default, but its just an option to turn it on. works a charm :-)
I use ubuntu dapper 6.06 LTS for 64-bit PC on DELL 640m, i have good results, but present bugfix on xserver-xorg to update , and too at connect my AC adapter crash, download Festi faun and dont work the X. i waiting for solutions.
@lin: consider Feisty Fawn. It works just fine here, on my 640m.
I have written a detailed guide to this laptop. I don’t know if it would help your issue.
http://tstotts.net/linux/gentooinsp640m.html
Note: You should use a minimum of xorg-server 1.3 and xf86-video-intel 2.0 if possible for this chipset; otherwise these types of issues are common. (Of course, I think these have been released since your post.)
You should use the latest `xrandr’ to configure the LCD and 2 video ports; not the BIOS.
well, I just got a new 640m inspiron as well. Gonna go Feisty Fawn on it soon once my PC stuff is fixed and I can backup all my stuff over there.
Feisty Fawn has been getting fairly good reviews so far. Btw, u tried doing a dual monitor setup (for presentations)? does the function keys work for that too?