dreamscan

Ahh.. 4 day weekend… and my laptop running Archlinux (seriously, it’s my icon theme that set the menu bar icon to the ubuntu logo - meaning to change that ;))

Dell XPS M1530 & Arch Linux
This page details my success with running Arch Linux (2008.4 release) on the Dell XPS M1530. I have included copies of configuration files where appropriate. You will need to know how to compile and setup your own kernel to enable some of the features of this laptop. If you need anything else you can leave a message or contact me via email at dom at dreamscan dot net.

Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn 2.6Ghz, 6MB L2 Cache
Although the Core 2 Duo is a 64-bit processor, I opted to go with a 32-bit release of Arch Linux. I personally do not have any needed for the 64-bit processing at this point, and none of the applications I use would justify the use of it. In General Options you will need to change the processor type to CORE 2/XEON.

4GB DDR3
Thanks to PAE (Physical Address Extension), we can use all 4GB in a 32-bit environment. Unfortunately, this is not enabled in the default kernel. When compiling your own kernel, change the HIMEM option to 64GB (not 4GB! – this confused me too.), which will automatically enable PAE.

Here’s an output of ‘free’:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4150660 3973060 177600 0 110864 3387192
-/+ buffers/cache: 475004 3675656
Swap: 265064 0 265064

320GB 5400RPM SATA
Honestly I don’t remember the partitioning scheme of the laptop with Vista on it. When I got the laptop, I booted Vista to make sure it worked then burned the latest copy of Arch, and installed it. My partitioning scheme ended up being like this:

Filesystem Size Mount Point
/dev/sda1 38M /boot
/dev/sda2 256M swap
/dev/sda3 39G /
/dev/sda4 257G /home

256MB nVidia Geforce 8600M GT
I tried using the nvidia driver in the Arch repositories, which was 169.12-4. a bit dated and I couldn’t get it to work. I then downloaded the latest version, 173.14.05 from nvidia.com. After attempting to run the binary, I realized I had to remove nvidiafb support from the kernel. Once that was gone, the install went smoothly. I then simply ran nvidia-xconfig and I was ready to go, mouse, direct rendering, and resolution worked perfectly.

8x DVD+/-RW Slot Loading
As of today, I have only used it for moving software from my other PC on a DVD. Will update as I try writing to it.

Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g
I must say, whoever came up with ndiswrapper is a god. Simply downloaded the 1395 driver from http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/Dell_multi-device_A17_R174291.exe. You can either extract it on a windows box by running the exe, or using wine. Wine ran it just fine. The .inf file I used is located in the DRIVERS_US directory. I then had to install ndiswrapper, and since I had no internet connection without the wifi, I downloaded ndiswrapper (v1.53) from their site. After installing, simply ran ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf and then modprobe ndiswrapper. A new device was created, wlan0, and then I used wpa_supplicant to connect to my network. Nothing special.  Update:  The .exe is just a zip file, unzip handles it just fine.

Finger Print Reader XPS M1530
Haven’t tried this yet. Will update when/if I do.

Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
Works great, Intel HD Audio in ALSA kernel configuration.

15.4” WX+ LED TrueLife LCD
Simply stunning. I got the LED version which only comes in 1440×900. Good enough, beautiful.

2.0 MP Camera for XPS M1530
Haven’t tried this yet, will update when I do.

My new baby arrived yesterday. Dell was able to get it out for their end of month sales on May 29th and I got it 2 days (not counting weekend) later. Not too shabby.

Initial thoughts. Well packaged, lots of neat little accessories that I wasn’t expecting, like the remote, cover for the laptop, and carrying case for other items. Beautiful screen. When I look from the XPS to my Macbook, the Macbook looks like it is tinted yellow. Very vibrant colors on the XPS, nice keyboard, and I love the touch LED buttons for eject, play, etc. Too cool.

Boot up was quick, as was the format of Vista. I had a little trouble getting everything working in Archlinux (32bit) last night, and haven’t had a chance to make sure sound works. Stayed up until 1am just to get to a beautiful GNOME/Compiz desktop. I will create a page dedicated to Arch on the M1530 when I have a chance, but for now, here are the problems I ran into and how I solved them.

1. Graphics card - nVidia - I tried what was in the repositories and it gave me lots of grief. I then downloaded the latest driver from nvidia.com, and ran it - it informed me that I needed to remove nvidiafb from my kernel, which I recompiled my own kernel trying to remove as many modules that are preloaded with Archlinux as possible. The build still took a while because I didn’t get them all. That will be next on my list, to clean up the unneeded modules.  After the setup and installation of the nVidia binary, I just ran nvidia-xconfig and it set up my Xorg configuration perfectly.

2. 4GB ram shows up by default as about 3.2GB. I was a bit confused as the default kernel says that HIGHMEM is enabled at 4GB. I read around the interwebs and found that you need to enable 64GB support which in turn enables PAE (Physical Address Extension), and allows you to use the full 4GB in a 32bit environment.

3. Wifi -Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g - This doesn’t work out of the box, I needed to use ndiswrapper with this dell driver. I extracted the files with wine just fine.

Can’t wait to get home and finish setting everything up and testing games as well. Will be posting more tonight and put up a detailed how-to in the following few days.

New Laptop on the way.  It’s in production right now, and I keep refreshing in hopes there won’t be a delay and it will get out sooner than the anticipated 6/5 ship date.  I really wanted to keep an Apple at hand, but I wanted something that had more graphics power than the Macbook but was also not too expensive like the Macbook Pro.  I settled for the Dell XPS M1530.  I specced it out nicely and got a decent price, $1,800 with tax - 12 months no interest on payment.  Easy enough.

Of course it will run Linux (Archlinux) exclusively, with VirtualBox for Windows when I need it.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9500 (2.6GHz/800MHz FSB, 6M L2 Cache)
Midnight Blue Casing With Microsatin Finish XPS M1530
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ TrueLife LED LCD with Camera
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Finger Print Reader

I’m rethinking what I want to do with this site.  Not sure if I want to keep it as a blog right now or try to build up some freelance work in PHP and Perl.  Stay tuned kids.