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Ubuntu Feisty on Dell Latitude D820

Tue, 2007-11-27 21:16 — elliot

I recently got a Dell Latitude D820 at work, and spent about 10 days pulling my hair out using Windows XP on it. Once I'd run out of hair, and after clearing it with the technical support people and my bosses, I persuaded them to let me install Linux (though they insisted on me keeping a small Windows boot partition).

Anyway, I've been using it successfully for the last 6 weeks or so, and it's been working great. Today, I worked from home for the first time, and wanted to get a few other things working:

  • I wanted to be able to move the machine around the house (wireless).
  • I wanted to get the touchpad working properly (i.e. scroll when I slide my finger down the side, and turn off taps being translated to mouse clicks).
  • It would be nice to get suspend to RAM working, so I can close the lid when I'm having my lunch and save some electricity.

In summary, I managed to get this lot working fine, and would say this machine is a nice one for running Linux. I don't like it quite as much as my old Thinkpad Z61t (keyboard isn't quite so nice), though I've never managed to get the wireless working on that.

Wireless

The wireless worked fine, but for some reason the network applet just refused to allow me to connect. Eventually, I managed to get it working by hard-coding the IP address into the network config., and setting up the router to assign a static IP to the wireless card. But there was no need to install any drivers or anything: all of that was just working out of the box.

Touchpad

The touchpad was another matter, and took me about half an hour to figure out. In the end, after having read about 6 different articles on installing various shades of Linux on this model of laptop, I came across this extremely useful article, which enabled me to fix it definitively.

Eventually, I had to make two edits to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (as root). First, I added a line to the ServerLayout configuration element:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen "Default Screen"
        Inputdevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        Inputdevice     "Configured Mouse"
        # HERE'S MY EDIT
        Inputdevice     "Touchpad"      "AlwaysCore"
        Inputdevice     "stylus"        "SendCoreEvents"
        Inputdevice     "cursor"        "SendCoreEvents"
        Inputdevice     "eraser"        "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Then I added a new section for the touchpad itself:

Section "InputDevice"
         Driver "synaptics"
         Identifier "Touchpad"
         Option "Device" "/dev/input/event3"
         Option "Protocol" "event"
         Option "LeftEdge" "130"
         Option "RightEdge" "840"
         Option "TopEdge" "130"
         Option "BottomEdge" "640"
         Option "FingerLow" "7"
         Option "FingerHigh" "8"
         Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
         Option "MaxTapMove" "0"
         Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
         Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
         Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
         Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
         Option "MinSpeed" "0.70"
         Option "MaxSpeed" "1.20"
         Option "AccelFactor" "0.080"
         Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
         Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
         Option "SHMConfig" "on"
         Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
EndSection

The important bit is where I specify the Device as /dev/input/event3. Also note I set MaxTapTime to 0 to turn off taps acting as mouse clicks. You may have to muck around with the *Speed and AccelFactor settings to suit you: there is a GUI client called gsynaptics which can configure scroll speed and taps; and there is a more comprehensive command line application synclient which helps if you want to fiddle around with the settings in real time.

Suspend to RAM

I found this article which provided the necessary settings. After I'd made the changes suggested, everything worked brilliantly: even the wireless came back from suspend. (Note that I use the proprietary NVidia drivers, so the instructions are specific to that.)

First off, I edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf, adding a couple of settings to the NVidia driver setup:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "nVidia Corporation G72M [GeForce Go 7400]"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        Busid           "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option          "UseEDIDDpi"            "False"
        Option          "AddARGBVisuals"        "True"
        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"     "True"
        Option          "NoLogo"                "True"
        Option          "NvAGP"                 "1"
EndSection

Then I edited /etc/defaults/acpi-support (in all cases, the default setting was true):

SAVE_VBE_STATE=false
POST_VIDEO=false
USE_DPMS=false
LOCK_SCREEN=false

Comments

Mon, 2007-12-17 03:19 — Matt (not verified)

Suspend to RAM

Thanks for the helpful entry. I've been running Debian Sid on the 820 for almost a year now and just finally got around to tackling the suspend to ram problem. Following your tips, I've had a good deal of success, but it doesn't always work. About half the time when I come back from suspend I just get a mouse cursor on a black screen, the mouse moves fine so X is loaded to some degree, but my desktop never comes back. My comment turns into a question at this point, has this ever happened to you?

Also, how are you invoking the suspend? I just echo "3" > /proc/acpi/sleep and i'm wondering if that's part of the problem.

Thanks again for taking the time to post about your experiences and your solutions, it really does make the web a better place.

Mon, 2007-12-17 19:11 — elliot

Hello Matt. I have to admit

Hello Matt. I have to admit I'm lazy, and just use Ubuntu, which has built-in scripts for this stuff. If there's anything you want me to send (e.g. scripts from particular locations), I'd be happy to send you copies for reference.

Wed, 2007-12-05 16:32 — Patrick (not verified)

Exact answers to exact questions

Ths post was right on time. I just reformatted from a Vista Ultimate install and installed Fiesty on an 820. I am the exact same trouble with the touchpad and suspend. I will try these tonight. Peasle keep posting on this topic. You have at least one reader in the exact same boat.

Wed, 2007-12-05 19:01 — elliot

Excellent, glad it was

Excellent, glad it was useful. I've been running this for about a week, and things are going great. The only glitch I've noticed is with the wireless coming back from suspend: I thought it was working previously, but today I've had to manually reconnect a few times. I don't think it's quite sorted out. But it is fairly painless to go into the network applet and restart the wireless. If you find a better solution, please let me know too :)

Sat, 2007-12-01 17:09 — Chris (not verified)

Ubuntu on Laptops

I've installed Ubuntu on two laptops, and have always loved it. Its so much more stable than Windows, provided you can get all of the software you need. On an old Dell Inspiron 7500 I got everything to work without difficulty. Wifi, DVD's, suspend to memory, etc, these things were all detected and they just worked. And then again on a Sony Viao (not sure which model), I had to spend a bit of time with the wifi, but otherwise everything worked. One note, I never did worry about the touchpad slider, but now that I've read your post I'll be making sure that works on future linux laptops, too. At any rate, thanks for your post. I'm glad that your work allowed you to run linux.

Sat, 2007-12-01 22:51 — elliot

Hi Chris, thanks for

Hi Chris, thanks for stopping to comment. I'm glad work let me install Linux. Other issues were working with the Active Directory and Exchange (which work uses), but even that isn't too hard, once you work out the software you need.

Touchpads are normally a cinch on Linux, provided they are proper Synaptics ones, which are properly supported. I think the one on the Dell D820 is an ALPS model, which doesn't work seamlessly. But the instructions above and the links should help.