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The Funky Pkunk
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

VinzC wrote:
I don't take Winbloze as a reference anymore but in both cases (i.e. Gentoo and Win) the fan on the rear left is always on. The air is cold indeed and it never stops. I don't know if Dell was lazy on this one and "forgot" about turning the fan off.

IMHO a fan that is always spinning - even cold air - is better than a fan that starts only when the air is hot. I prefer this. Of course it makes a little noise (I can hardly hear it but my ears might not be 100% efficient anymore :-) ). Note the fan is still spinning even after I installed Dell utilities (which control the fan too).

Just my 2c to say I can live with it.

EDIT: I think the BIOS is not supposed (designed) to turn it off but the choice is left to the application.


Hmm. Can you set the "fan on" temperature in the Dell Utilities? (I deleted that partition when I installed Gentoo)

If I'm surfing the net, or word processing, or some other light use, the fan shouldn't need to come on at all. While noiselevels are subjectively judged, and I admit that I'm possibly less tolerant of noise than most, but I don't feel the fan is quiet in any way. With the fan off you can hear some low-freq swooshing on the right side, I think this is a low-rpm fan for the HD - that's ok with me. High-pitch swooshing like the left-rear fan is a bummer - the way it is now I wouldn't bring this thing into a library or a lecture, both of which were things I intend to do with this computer.

I got i8kutils working and could turn the fan off - tbh I'm shocked that the thing would ramp up to 50-60 degrees idling (and every minute or two after passing 45 degrees the BIOS seemed to start thinking "shit, I'm on fire" and start the fan again). Still 50-60 degrees is well within the parameters of what the CPU can handle (Pentium Ms will operate up to 100 degrees celsius - putting the fans on at 70 will keep it safe). I'm a little disappointed that I don't seem to be able to find any way to sense GPU / System / HD temperatures. lm_sensors will get me two unknown EEPROMS, both of which belong to the memory modules in the computer. SMART doesn't work because the HD is SATA, and the libata driver isn't talking.

So I'm faced with several possibilities:

1) Somehow convince the BIOS never to start the fan before temp hits 60-70 degrees. (Can this be done in Dell Utilities?)
2) Somehow convince the kernel and CPU that it can speedstep below 800MHz (I'll bet it doesn't need a fraction of that for my general use)
3) Underclock the Radeon (Linux underclocking utilities seem about as abundant as icicles in hell) to lower general system temperature
4) Replace and/or undervolt the fan itself (but knowing how mod-happy laptops are in general, this one is probably also a little difficult)
5) Call Dell support and cry
6) Call Dell support and get my money back
7) A combination of the above
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PolarXL
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:40 pm    Post subject: xorg.conf for ATI x300 Reply with quote

Can any of you with an Inspiron 6000 with the ATI x300 card working (hardware acceleration and all) post your xorg.conf?
I'm pretty new at linux, and I'm having a lot of trouble getting that one file right.

Much appreciated.
-Alex
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VinzC
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
Hmm. Can you set the "fan on" temperature in the Dell Utilities? (I deleted that partition when I installed Gentoo)


No, I couldn't. However Dell utilities allow you to set to nominal spin speed. IIRC there are four of them. Off, low, medium and high. When it's high it's incredibly loud. I have set it to Low. But I could as well have turned it off, I think.

What I'm sure of is that the fan is controlled by the temperature (oh, my! you wouldn't have believed it...) . What I mean is that the fan speed increases with temperature, probably by steps. I once put my laptop in its case and didn't see it didn't shutdown. When I took it off, the fan was spinning at high speed but the temperature didn't rise that much. It's a proof-of-concept if you like...


The Funky Pkunk wrote:
If I'm surfing the net, or word processing, or some other light use, the fan shouldn't need to come on at all. While noiselevels are subjectively judged, and I admit that I'm possibly less tolerant of noise than most, but I don't feel the fan is quiet in any way. With the fan off you can hear some low-freq swooshing on the right side, I think this is a low-rpm fan for the HD - that's ok with me. High-pitch swooshing like the left-rear fan is a bummer - the way it is now I wouldn't bring this thing into a library or a lecture, both of which were things I intend to do with this computer.

Try reducing the fan speed with Dell utilities from the CDROM then.

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
I got i8kutils working and could turn the fan off - tbh I'm shocked that the thing would ramp up to 50-60 degrees idling (and every minute or two after passing 45 degrees the BIOS seemed to start thinking "shit, I'm on fire" and start the fan again).

LOL

I think one has to try...
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

VinzC, as you have a dual boot system, would you mind checking out i8kfangui (http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/) on Windows. What I'm interested in is what temperature sensors it can read (ie, CPU? GPU? HD? DIMM? Other?) and whether or not "Enable hardware sensor support" works (this makes 64 different fan speeds available according to the docs). The Linux i8kfan utility only allows me to set it to 0 (Off), 1 (Slow) and 2 (Fast). Sometimes the BIOS will ramp up to Medium. I find all of them too noisy, but Medium and Fast is just unbearable.

If it's possible to get a finer level of control of fan speed then a newer port of i8kfangui's fanio is definetly going to appear on a todo-list near me.

I'm really stumped as to the seeming(?) lack of sensor support in Linux. At least I've found close to nothing about it when trying to search about it.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
VinzC, as you have a dual boot system, would you mind checking out i8kfangui (http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/) on Windows. What I'm interested in is what temperature sensors it can read (ie, CPU? GPU? HD? DIMM? Other?)...

Sure. It can read CPU temp and HD temp only. There is only one fan. Setting the second fan speed results in an error message.

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
... and whether or not "Enable hardware sensor support" works (this makes 64 different fan speeds available according to the docs). The Linux i8kfan utility only allows me to set it to 0 (Off), 1 (Slow) and 2 (Fast). Sometimes the BIOS will ramp up to Medium. I find all of them too noisy, but Medium and Fast is just unbearable.

There is no (supported) hardware sensor. Controlling the fan speed has only three levels: Off, Slow and Fast 8O. I hope Off won't be too noisy for you ;) Naaa, just kidding.

Either there is poor hardware support for power saving in i6k or hardware sensors are of a completely different chipset so that i8kfangui doesn't completely supports them. I doubt but I don't know.

However you can enable temperature control. Doing that will disable manual speed setting.

EDIT: did you experience that kind of speed oscillation you described (I mean with i8kutils)?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 4:13 pm    Post subject: Re: xorg.conf for ATI x300 Reply with quote

PolarXL wrote:
Can any of you with an Inspiron 6000 with the ATI x300 card working (hardware acceleration and all) post your xorg.conf?
I'm pretty new at linux, and I'm having a lot of trouble getting that one file right.

Much appreciated.
-Alex


Ask and ye shall receive:

my xorg.conf wrote:

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# DRI Section
# **********************************************************************
Section "dri"
# Access to OpenGL ICD is allowed for all users:
Mode 0666
# Access to OpenGL ICD is restricted to a specific user group:
# Group 100 # users
# Mode 0660
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga"
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx" # libglx.a
Load "dri" # libdri.a

# Synaptics driver
Load "synaptics"

# Others
Load "xtrap"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

# Option "NoTrapSignals"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

# Option "DontZap"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.

# Option "Dont Zoom"

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

# Option "DisableVidModeExtension"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.

# Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings.

# Option "DisableModInDev"
# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

# Option "AllowNonLocalModInDev"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Input devices
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Core keyboard's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to "Standard").
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris),
# uncomment the following line.

# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"

Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"

# Option "LeftAlt" "Meta"
# Option "RightAlt" "ModeShift"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"

# These are the default XKB settings for XFree86
# Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
# Option "XkbOptions" ""

# Option "XkbDisable"

Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "dell101"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Core Pointer's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "ALPS Glidepoint"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "120"
Option "RightEdge" "830"
Option "TopEdge" "120"
Option "BottomEdge" "650"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.5"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.8"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.04"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "LeftRightScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
HorizSync 27-110
VertRefresh 50-160
Option "UseEdidFreqs"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling=aspect=scaled"
ModeLine "1680x1050" 214.51 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1108
# Option "DPMS"
UseModes "16:10"
# DisplaySize 332 205
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "16:10"
ModeLine "1680x1050" 214.51 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1103
ModeLine "1280x800" 83.5 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# === ATI device section ===

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"
BoardName "ATI Radeon Mobility x300"
# ### generic DRI settings ###
# === disable PnP Monitor ===
#Option "NoDDC"
# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "no_dri" "no"
# === misc DRI settings ===
Option "mtrr" "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its own code for mtrr
# ### FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ###
# === Screen Management ===
Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000100"
Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, AUTO"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "off"
Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"
# === TV-out Management ===
Option "NoTV" "yes"
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "TVHSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVVSizeAdj" "0"
Option "TVHPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVVPosAdj" "0"
Option "TVHStartAdj" "0"
Option "TVColorAdj" "0"
Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x06419064"
Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000000"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
# === OpenGL Overlay ===
# Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
# will be disabled automatically
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
# === Center Mode (Laptops only) ===
Option "CenterMode" "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
# === QBS Management ===
Option "Stereo" "off"
Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
# === FSAA Management ===
Option "FSAAEnable" "no"
Option "FSAAScale" "1"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
# === Misc Options ===
Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0" # vendor=1002, device=5460
Screen 0
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
#Option "backingstore"

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1680x1050"
ViewPort 0 0 # initial origin if mode is smaller than desktop
# Virtual 1680 1050
EndSubsection
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Server Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen.

Screen "Screen0"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".

InputDevice "ALPS Glidepoint" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

### EOF ###
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The Funky Pkunk
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

VinzC wrote:
The Funky Pkunk wrote:
VinzC, as you have a dual boot system, would you mind checking out i8kfangui (http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/) on Windows. What I'm interested in is what temperature sensors it can read (ie, CPU? GPU? HD? DIMM? Other?)...

Sure. It can read CPU temp and HD temp only. There is only one fan. Setting the second fan speed results in an error message.

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
... and whether or not "Enable hardware sensor support" works (this makes 64 different fan speeds available according to the docs). The Linux i8kfan utility only allows me to set it to 0 (Off), 1 (Slow) and 2 (Fast). Sometimes the BIOS will ramp up to Medium. I find all of them too noisy, but Medium and Fast is just unbearable.

There is no (supported) hardware sensor. Controlling the fan speed has only three levels: Off, Slow and Fast 8O. I hope Off won't be too noisy for you ;) Naaa, just kidding.

Either there is poor hardware support for power saving in i6k or hardware sensors are of a completely different chipset so that i8kfangui doesn't completely supports them. I doubt but I don't know.

However you can enable temperature control. Doing that will disable manual speed setting.

EDIT: did you experience that kind of speed oscillation you described (I mean with i8kutils)?


I'm not entirely sure I get what you mean. In general, the lappy starts with "Slow" fan speed, and then sometimes will automatically ramp up to "Medium". Sometimes it will ramp down after a while. Other times it'll just keep going. I can use i8kfan from the i8kutils package to set the speed to either Off, Slow or Fast. Off is just about right for my ears. Slow is too noisy. Medium and Fast are both unbearable.

I'm assuming that enabling Temperature Control using i8kfangui@win32 is only going to set the speed to either off, slow or fast... Or does it ramp smoothly?
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Last edited by The Funky Pkunk on Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:30 am; edited 1 time in total
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PolarXL
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks! I'm still having one problem, though-
x crashes at having "synaptics" for the mouse driver. It says it can't find it, even though I've emerged x11-misc/synaptics.

The mouse works fine if I just have "mouse" as the driver, but I'm led to believe that it's better with the synaptics driver installed.
Did any of you run into this? And how would I go about fixing it?

Also, I read the faq over at http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/gentoo-radeon-faq.html#2_kernelopts,
and got DRI working (i.e: glxgears gives me over 1000 fps, and glxinfo | grep direct gives a "yes" result), but games like tuxracer or supertux still run super-sluggish.
Is it possible to play TuxRacer smoothly on this laptop, or is it a limitation of the x300 linux drivers available?[/u]

-Alex
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
I'm not entirely sure I get what you mean. In general, the lappy starts with "Slow" fan speed, and then sometimes will automatically ramp up to "Medium". Sometimes it will ramp down after a while. Other times it'll just keep going.

That was what I meant. It looks like the fan lives its own life and doesn't spin at the same speed in the same circumstances.

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
I'm assuming that enabling Temperature Control using i8kfangui@win32 is only going to set the speed to either off, slow or fast... Or does it ramp smoothly?

I think its speed is set to either of these three levels. It must not ramp up smoothly.

OTOH I never heard the fan go faster than "Slow" in any circumstance except that time I left the laptop on in the case. Then the fan was running "Fast". Otherwise it always runs "Slow".

Maybe the thermal sensor is out of order on your laptop? Have you tried to upgrade the BIOS to A05?
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does flashing the BIOS need Windows?

The CPU thermal sensor is fine, I think. It reads values that correspond to the workload. The issue isn't really whether it ramps up, tbh, as it very very rarely ever does that. The problem is that Dell's idea of "Slow" is well within my idea of "Too much noise". *sigh*

I'd actually expected far more from a Pentium M system. I though "power efficiency" was kinda the idea here.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Funky Pkunk wrote:
Does flashing the BIOS need Windows?

Apparently no. The BIOS update file is said to be also MSDOS executable.
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PolarXL wrote:
Thanks! I'm still having one problem, though-
x crashes at having "synaptics" for the mouse driver. It says it can't find it, even though I've emerged x11-misc/synaptics.

The mouse works fine if I just have "mouse" as the driver, but I'm led to believe that it's better with the synaptics driver installed.
Did any of you run into this? And how would I go about fixing it?


Don't recall running into that.

Quote:
Also, I read the faq over at http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/gentoo-radeon-faq.html#2_kernelopts,
and got DRI working (i.e: glxgears gives me over 1000 fps, and glxinfo | grep direct gives a "yes" result), but games like tuxracer or supertux still run super-sluggish.
Is it possible to play TuxRacer smoothly on this laptop, or is it a limitation of the x300 linux drivers available?[/u]

-Alex


I don't have TuxRacer installed, but I am running NeverWinter Nights at full 1680x1050 just fine.
One thing I've noticed: the mouse is sluggish when starting up the game, but when I finally get into the gameplay section, everything is peachy.

I'll have to try some other games and see what's up. But I think you can count on improved x300 support in the next driver revision. (Although I hesitate to say you can "count on" anything good from ATI relating to Linux drivers)


EDIT: Are you using the latest (~x86) version of ati-drivers? If not, I would suggest doing so.
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:38 am    Post subject: Inspiron 6000 Reply with quote

AvantLegion,
would it be possible for you to also provide a link to your kernel config file. I've used the kernel config provided at the start of this thread, and your xorg.conf (I have the Radeon Mobility x300), when I startx the screen goes blank and I am not able to recover without a reboot.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I intend to get an Inspiron 6000 within the next couple of months (with any luck it'll be ordered soon) and I'll open the box on the 28th June when my exams are over, I'll leave it till then because installing gentoo is a big operation for my last experience, and I guess I should probably revise.

Could anyone suggest if it is going to be possible to run this beast (or maybe it'll be a pussy cat) properly with everything that I'm going to need by that time (e.g. Xorg drivers etc) Or might I have to run windoze for a bit on it?

Thanks,
Alex
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VinzC
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AlexCPU wrote:
Could anyone suggest if it is going to be possible to run this beast (or maybe it'll be a pussy cat) properly with everything that I'm going to need by that time (e.g. Xorg drivers etc) Or might I have to run windoze for a bit on it?

I would suggest (or warmly recommend) not to select the built-in Intel 915GM chip but an ATI instead. If you can, of course.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

VinzC wrote:

I would suggest (or warmly recommend) not to select the built-in Intel 915GM chip but an ATI instead. If you can, of course.


Unfortunatly that's not going to be an option, as it's going to be bought through a lease scheme that only offers a number of set bundles. It's this thing the UK government are doing to get computers in every house, where you pay for it from your pre tax salary, e.g. higher rate tax payers get 41% off the price and don't have to pay VAT on it.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AlexCPU wrote:
Unfortunatly that's not going to be an option, as it's going to be bought through a lease scheme that only offers a number of set bundles. It's this thing the UK government are doing to get computers in every house, where you pay for it from your pre tax salary, e.g. higher rate tax payers get 41% off the price and don't have to pay VAT on it.

So welcome to the clan, then ;) Just hope that X-Org will have proper i915 support at that time.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay- I've got 3D acceleration working (I can play tuxracer, w00t!!) enabled for my x300 card.... I have the synaptics driver, the wireless card, all up and running... I've just got two things to fix before I've got a flawless Gentoo installation.

1) Whenever I try to play a game fullscreen, it goes into what looks like windowed mode, with the rest of the screen black. It doesn't crop off any of the playing area within the game, it's just that the window I'm working with is much smaller than it should be. This occurred after I set the kernel to agpgart and ATI chipsets as modules, and loaded agpgart, ati-agp, and flgrx to the modules loaded on boot. If I switch back, I get fullscreen, but no hardware acceleration.

2) The game Chickens crashes, after the same changes I've described as leading to problem 1), so I believe they're of the same source. This isn't necessarily a problem on it's own, I don't care much about the game, but the crash data might be useful if any of you have seen this before. It gives:
Code:

bash-2.05b$ /usr/games/bin/chickens
warning: leaving MCOP Dispatcher and still 146 types alive.
Shutting down Allegro due to signal #11
Segmentation fault


If anyone knows what's going on, You'd be my hero for the day :P
-Alex
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:02 am    Post subject: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

My Inspiron 6000 arrived this morning and I've been trying to get everything working for about ten hours straight- mostly doing kernel recompiles trying to get genkernel/framebuffer working. I eventually gave up on genkernel and, wth the help of this thread, I got a bootable system with working ipw2200 wireless.

My remaining headache is that when I close the lid the screen blanks and does not come back unless I reboot. Pressing fn+F8 does nothing, although I can run `reboot` so I know the console is there, even if I can't see it. I'm compiling X now, so I don't yet know if it's the same. I do know that this problem did not exist on Ubuntu (but on Ubuntu I couldn't get the wireless up).

Has anyone tackled this?

edit: my screen stays blank in X as well :cry:
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:28 am    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

garris0n wrote:
My remaining headache is that when I close the lid the screen blanks and does not come back unless I reboot. Pressing fn+F8 does nothing, although I can run `reboot` so I know the console is there, even if I can't see it [...]

Has anyone tackled this?

I'm getting this too. I thought upgrading the BIOS would do the trick but... no :( Wait, I've not typed 'reset'; have you? I hope this can be solved with something like an ACPI event handler (module or tool).
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

VinzC wrote:
garris0n wrote:
My remaining headache is that when I close the lid the screen blanks and does not come back unless I reboot. Pressing fn+F8 does nothing, although I can run `reboot` so I know the console is there, even if I can't see it [...]

Has anyone tackled this?

I'm getting this too. I thought upgrading the BIOS would do the trick but... no :( Wait, I've not typed 'reset'; have you? I hope this can be solved with something like an ACPI event handler (module or tool).


'reset' doesn't do it, but if you switch from X to console mode or vice versa the LCD will come back alive. I'm sure that means that a workaround could be done with an event handler and a tool...
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:15 pm    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

Parabola wrote:
'reset' doesn't do it, but if you switch from X to console mode or vice versa the LCD will come back alive. I'm sure that means that a workaround could be done with an event handler and a tool...

In my case switching from X to text mode also blanks the screen :( . In the worst case it is completely corrupt, probably due to VESA mode (I'm booting with framebuffer console). For now X uses only VESA. Don't know if anything else is possible for now.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

Parabola wrote:
'reset' doesn't do it, but if you switch from X to console mode or vice versa the LCD will come back alive. I'm sure that means that a workaround could be done with an event handler and a tool...


Parabola you genius! The following code in /etc/acpi/actions/lm_lid.sh works for me:

Code:
grep -r open /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        /usr/bin/chvt 12 && /usr/bin/chvt 7
fi


NB: I have laptop-mode-tools installed.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:22 pm    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

garris0n wrote:
Parabola you genius! The following code in /etc/acpi/actions/lm_lid.sh works for me:

Code:
grep -r open /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        /usr/bin/chvt 12 && /usr/bin/chvt 7
fi


NB: I have laptop-mode-tools installed.

This probably means there is a way to reinitialize the screen (or display chip) since switching between text and graphics modes does the same. I'm almost sure laptop-mode-tools provide such a thing...
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:51 pm    Post subject: Re: Inspiron 6000 blank screen on lid open Reply with quote

VinzC wrote:
This probably means there is a way to reinitialize the screen (or display chip) since switching between text and graphics modes does the same. I'm almost sure laptop-mode-tools provide such a thing...


I don't see anything in the laptop_mode and laptop-mode.conf man pages about it. Even if there was, it's nothing more than a workaround- a fix would seem to require an ACPI kernel patch. It wouldn't be the first vendor-specific kernel option. Aesthetics aside, I'm quite happy not to have to do the Ctl+Alt+Fx finger dance anymore.
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