Linux on Inspirion's/XPS Notebooks?

Question

Hello everybody, I'm new here;)   I have a question concerning Linux (namely Debian or Ubuntu) on other Dell Laptops like the Inspiron 1720 or XPS machines.   Will it work without any bigger problems?   I'm asking this because I had some problems with a Toshiba Satego P100-10U High-End notebook, the sound did not work with the original kernel as well as my TV USB Stick. But the worst thing was the overheating of the GPU as the fan did not worked under Linux at all....well, acpi was working but not really good...could not suspend the notebook or else...   So,is there any chance that Linux will work on the Inspiron 'from box', without having to compile an custom kernel or stuff like that?   Would be great if anyone could help, thx!     Regards,   NeO

mhill8 · Answer

I probably should have been a little more specific. I haven't gone to the trouble to configure sleep/hibernate on any of my systems yet, so I can't say if that will work on this system under Linux. But X11 gives me a great 1920x1200 display, and the Intel 3945 card works perfectly on my WPA2 wireless network. Those are the main subsystems I can think of--I have a DVD/RW burner, but I don't think I've used it yet because I tend to use my desktop system's burner for that.

mhill8 · Answer

I'm running Gentoo Linux on an Inspiron 1720. Everything works great except the sound--Linux's ALSA drivers don't appear to recognize the Intel (Sigmatel) chipset. Of course, I do build my own kernel--but pretty much any major distro's standard kernel should work. Hope that helps!

mhill8 · Answer

Thanks to the little piece of information I got from Dell Support last night, and Google, I found the solution. My Dell contact told me the 1720 is using the Sigmatel STAC9205. Armed with that critical little piece of information (something which neither lspci nor lshw could tell me), I found the following page:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=55c4ec53518db8c2ed18d2ebddb6dbe4&t=579559

I added the "option" line to /etc/modules.d/alsa and /proc/asound/cards went from showing "no soundcards" to:


 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel 
             HDA Intel at 0xfebfc000 irq 21

I then had to manually load a few more snd-* modules (which I added to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6), and suddenly /dev/sound/ was populated with the expected devices! Now I have MP3 playback working. Yaaayyyy! :^D

xmNeO · Answer

That's great=) What about suspend,standby? Is it working?

Linux General

Linux on Inspirion's/XPS Notebooks?

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