Debian an Dell Latitude D830
Random January 12th, 2010
The Dell Lattitude D830 is a quite capable business notebook. While the notebook itself is not considered high-end it still allows for good configurations. A definite downside is the battery which lasted only for 1 year and had to be replaced with a new battery pack (not part of warrenty of course).
All the following descriptions refer to the current Debian Squeeze (testing) using Linux Kernel 2.6.32 (trunk-5) from unstable repository.
As Dell allows different setups of the same hardware model here are the specs:
| Hardware | Status |
|---|---|
| CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz) 2MB/4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB |
Works All cores recognized. Hardware Virtualisation (VT extensions) working (must be enabled in the BIOS). |
| Memory: 2GB (2x1GB) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM | Works |
| Storage: Intel SATA IDE Controller | Works Using ata_piix module. AHCI untested. |
| Graphics: Nvidia Quadro NVS 135M | Works Using binary nvidia driver (nvidia-kernel-source from testing) |
| LAN: Integrated Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet | Works Uses in kernel tg3 driver. |
| WLAN: Broadcom BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless | Works Uses broadcom-sta module, also working with ndiswrapper |
| Audio: Intel HD Audio Controller | Works Works using ALSA |
| Keyboard: Hotkeys | Partially Working Most Fn keys work, except those not producing key codes (Volume, Display Highlight, Sleep is working) |
For a different hardware configuration see this post.
Hardware List (as shown by lspci):
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 135M (rev a1) 03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Cardbus bridge (rev 21) 03:01.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Firewire (IEEE 1394) (rev 02) 09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
As most stuff works out of the box I will refer here only to the setup of the graphics controller and the wireless device.
Setup Nvidia Quadro NVS135M
First install the required packages (as root):
sh# aptitude install nvidia-kernel-common nvidia-kernel-source nvidia-glx
Then create the required kernel module (this assumes you have booted into the kernel already):
sh# m-a a-i nvidia sh# modprobe nvidia
Be sure to configure your X server accordingly (here is a shortened xorg.conf):
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 28.0 - 84.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Seiko"
HorizSync 30.0 - 75.0
VertRefresh 60.0
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "Quadro NVS 135M"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "1680x1050 +0+0; 1280x800 +0+0; 1024x768 +0+0; 800x600 +0+0; 640x480 +0+0"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Setup Broadcom BCM4328 driver
First install the required packages (as root):
sh# aptitude install broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
Then create the required kernel module (this assumes you have booted into the kernel already):
sh# m-a a-i broadcom-sta sh# modprobe wl
This will install and enable the broadcom-sta driver, which is known as the “wl.ko” kernel module. Be sure the unload all drivers using the device (e.g. ndiswrapper) beofre loading the wl.ko module.
Using the network-manager package a good mobile network configuration utility is available for CLI and desktop (system tray).
Enjoy!
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