Dell XPS M1530 and OEL 5.3

Kent — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:31:42 +0000

Well why make a post about this?

OEL does not seem to be a complete operating system – it feels like Linux 5 years ago with loads of drivers missing and command line fiddling.

One chapter for each part…

Graphics

This does work out of the box but the built in driver is not great and make the fan run at full all the time.

If you installed in Virtualbox then fix the graphics card by getting this driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_180.51.html

You have to install it outside X11 so issue this command:

$ init 3

To exit X11 and login to a command prompt.

Then run the Nvidia install script:

$ ./NVDIA*run

When done then:

$ init 5

To get X11 back.

Network

Should work. Ensure that \System\Administration\Network has a entry using Marvell network driver.

Wireless

I configured the network is two steps.

First ensure you got a wlan0 device in \System\Administration\Network in Devices and Hardware tab.

Next ensure you have define wlan security in \System\Preferences\More Preferences\Network Connections in Wireless tab.

After all this wireless still doesn’t work but try these two lines:

$ chkconfig NetworkManager on
$ service NetworkManager start

This starts the wireless service and now it should work.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth does not work immediately – for some reason it does not detect any devices. You normally get this:

$ hcitool scan
Scanning …
Inquiry failed: Connection timed out

First reset Bluetooth to enable discovery:

$ hciconfig hci0 reset

If the Bluetooth does not discover after reboot try to add the reset to /etc/modprobe.con

options hci_usb reset=1

Then scan for any devices:

$ hcitool scan
00:1D:D8:98:6F:23 Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

Bingo – things start to work now…

Next configure the security settings by editing /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf and change to (in bold):

# HCId options
options {
# Automatically initialize new devices
autoinit yes;

        # Security Manager mode
        #   none – Security manager disabled
        #   auto – Use local PIN for incoming connections
        #   user – Always ask user for a PIN
        #
        security auto;

        # Pairing mode
        #   none – Pairing disabled
        #   multi – Allow pairing with already paired devices
        #   once – Pair once and deny successive attempts
        pairing multi;

# Default PIN code for incoming connections
passkey "";
}

device 00:1D:D8:98:6F:23 {
name "Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000";
}

Then ensure the Bluetooth manager discovers the device by editing /etc/default/bluetooth:

# Defaults for bluez

# start bluetooth on boot?
# compatibility note: If this variable is not found bluetooth will
# start
BLUETOOTH_ENABLED=1

# This setting will switch HID devices (e.g mouse/keyboad) to HCI mode, that is
# you will have bluetooth functionality from your dongle instead of only HID.
# Note that not every bluetooth dongle is capable of switching back to HID
# mode, see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=355497
HID2HCI_ENABLED=1
HID2HCI_UNDO=1
HIDD_ENABLED=1
HIDD_OPTIONS="–connect 00:1D:D8:98:6F:23 –server"

Then restart Bluetooth:

$ /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

Connect to the new device using:

$ hidd –search
Searching …
Connecting to device 00:1D:D8:98:6F:23

And everything should work now!!!

At least my MS BT mouse did except for the scroll wheel.

MS BT Mouse – Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

First get the Bluetooth to work as above.

Touchpad

When touching my touchpad it is erratic.

First get hold of your input devices.

Probe the mouse devices using this command:

$ udevinfo -a -p `udevinfo -q path -n /dev/input/mouse1`

And change the mouse# until you get an output like:

looking at device ‘/class/input/input2/mouse1′:
KERNEL=="mouse1"
SUBSYSTEM=="input"
SYSFS{dev}=="13:33"

looking at parent device ‘/class/input/input2′:
ID=="input2"
BUS=="input"
DRIVER==""
SYSFS{modalias}=="input:b0011v0002p0008e7321-e0,1,2,3,k110,111,112,145,14A,r0,1,a0,1,18,mlsfw"
SYSFS{uniq}==""
SYSFS{phys}=="isa0060/serio1/input0"
SYSFS{name}=="AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint"

The ALPS is your touchpad.

Update your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include mouse1:

…

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "single head configuration"
    Screen      0 "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # KWI: Synaptics
    Identifier     "Mouse1"
    Driver         "synaptics"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
    Option "LeftEdge" "120"
    Option "RightEdge" "830"
    Option "TopEdge" "120"
    Option "BottomEdge" "650"
    Option "FingerLow" "14"
    Option "FingerHigh" "15"
    Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
    Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
    Option "ClickTime" "0"
    Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
    Option "VertScrollDelta" "10"
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
    Option "MinSpeed" "0.45"
    Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
    Option "AccelFactor" "0.020"
    Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
    Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
    Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
    Option "CircularScrolling" "0"
    Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

Now we need to fix the erratic behaviour.

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and include “i8042.nomux=1” when starting Linux:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda1
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Enterprise Linux (2.6.18-128.el5)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet i8042.nomux=1
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-128.el5.img

Reboot and the touchpad should work now.

R12 – Hardware and Software

Kent — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:11:49 +0000

This is the hardware and software I use for the R12 Laptop.

I recommend you to start with this article to get R12 up and running.

Laptop

My laptop is a Dell XPS M1530 with the following specs:

CPU	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)
Memory	3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
Video Card	NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256Mb dedicated graphic memory
Hard Drive	500Gb (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
OS	Microsoft VISTA SP1
LCD	15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440×900) TFT Display with TrueLife™

Virtualbox

Get it from http://www.virtualbox.org

I have tried to run EBS from Vbox both using a VDI and direct to EXT3 however it just doesn’t perform on a laptop.

I even tried to use my eSATA as well to no avail.

Ubuntu

Get it from http://www.ubuntu.com/

Using Virtualbox you install Ubuntu to a VDI and when booted into this you can install it onto a USB stick attached with a USB Vbox filter.

If you then boot into Ubuntu using a USB stick file transfers is much faster. Very useful indeed when transferring Oracle files from NTFS to the external OEL USB disk.

KentW Limited » Dell XPS M1530