Bloghardt's Reflector


“If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there… But I will find in the sacrament or Gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me that forgiveness which was won on the Cross.” (AE 40, 214)

May 26th, 2008

Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Posted At: 3:45am by Bloghardt

Ubuntu's Hardy Heron is out!!!  Here is the updated guide that I wrote for my Dell XPS m1330.  One of the most popular articles on my blog and not even theology!  So... here's a how-to on how to get your M1330 running with linux.  You won't have to be a slave to Vista any more!

Device

Compatibility

Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz

Works

Slim and Light LED Display with VGA Webcam

Works

DVD+/-RW, 8X

Works

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS

Works

Sound - Built in sound and speakers

Works

Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card

Works

USB

Works

Firewire

?

Express Card Slot Reader

Works

Remote Control

Works

Biometric Finger Print Reader

Works*

VGA Web Camera         

Works*

Media Keys

Works*

Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)

Works

Integrated 10/100 Network Card

Works

HARD DRIVE, 160G, Serial ATA, 9, 7.2, SE080

Works*

Headphones – both jacks!

Works

ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi® Xtreme Audio Sound Card

Not Yet

Hibernation

Works*

Suspend

Works*



Notes:

Install Ubuntu's Hardy Heron. It's stable and a very good operating system for a new linux users. It offers support.  Dell loves it.  We love it.   It's got great helps and a bleeding edge kernel that you'll need for Dell's latest computer.

The m1330 has the Intel Core2 Duo. 
You want to get the 64-bit Ubuntu Hardy Heron cd.  You've got the dual core.  Use it!

Hard Drive Partitioning & Media Direct

Gotta partition your drive.  You just do.  If you don't and hit that Media Center key, bad things happen!  

Here's a guide to how to shrink your drive and keep the media center stuff working. There is a guide here. It involves a fresh install of Vista. You'd do that anyway, wouldn't you? Who wants all that Dell stuff slowing down your system? 

Moving Your Home Directory

I would move your /home directory to a different partition.  This will preserve it in case of problems.  SUSE does this on install.  Ubuntu can do.  Manually partition your drive and select a different disk for "/home." 

If you can't figure that out, no fears!   Partition a separate drive. I suggest this guide..

Wireless - Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card

The biggest problem with new users and linux is that the wireless doesn't work out of the box.  We gotta fix that.  It's not that hard.

Ndiswrapper is the way you wanna go. There's a great guide here.   

Or you can simply do this...  If you don't have internet near you, load synaptic (System-->Administrative tools-->Synaptic).  Go into Settings-->Repositories.  Check the Ubuntu Hardy Heron install cd.  After you get wireless working, uncheck it.


sudo apt-get install ndisgtk ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9


Then, download this file.  Extract it on your desktop. 

cd Desktop/bcmwl5/
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -m

Then, we need to make a few changes to ensure that this will work afterward we reboot... 

sudo gedit /etc/modules

The file will open and add ndiswrapper to the bottom of the file.  Then, one other thing... 

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Make sure that you see... 

# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx


This will ensure that bcm43xx isn't going to mess up ndiswrapper.  Reboot and enjoy wireless!  Don't forget remove the CD repository if you had to add it.

Graphics - 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS

Envy is your friend.  It's located in the repositories for Hardy Heron. .. 

sudo apt-get install envyng-core envyng-gtk envyng-qt 

Then Applications-->System Tools-->EnvyNG.  Install NVidia's latest drivers.  If you have problems running EnvyNG, go into synaptic and Settings-->Repositories-->Updates.  Click Pre-released updates (hardy proposed)and unsupported updates (hardy-backports).  Update and booyah!  3dfx!

Compiz Fusion Icon

You are gonna want Compiz Fusion activated and installed.  Hardy Heron. .. 

sudo apt-get install fusion-icon compizconfig-settings-manager emerald

Now, we need to make it so the icon starts every time we boot up.  So.. System-->Preferences-->Sessions.  Hit the "Add" Button.  In the Name field put "Fusion Icon."  In the command field put fusion-icon.  

When the icon loads on reboot, right click on it.  Go to Compiz Options.  If you have an Nvidia card select, "Loose Bindings" and "Indirect Rendering."  If you want to try Emerald, make sure to select it in the options.

Webcam

There are some guides that talk about how to get this to work, but my webcam worked out of the box with Gutsy. I use kopete and amsn.

sudo apt-get install amsn kopete libjasper-runtime 

Biometric Finger Print Reader

The m1330 can also be configured with a fingerprint reader. There's a Ubuntu guide here.  I've been told that fprint is much better.   I'm gonna try it soon and post and see.

Dell Award Winning Support

I was almost seduced by my friend Lemon to the dark side (Mac), but Dell's award winning support is why I have a Dell.  I dropped my computer last week on a Wednesday night.  Dell had support here on Friday night to put in a new LCD.  Gotta love Dell.  

When Dell asks for your service tag number, resist the temptation to turn the computer upside down.  Yes, it weighs less than 4lbs.  But, really...  this
guide suggests...  Now that's just cool!

sudo dmidecode -s system-serial-number

Suspend & Hibernation

Suspend and Hibernation are just buggy in linux.  Period. After much work, I have it working perfectly.  It just requires a bit of tweaking. 

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

Change the following settings...

# Note that network cards and USB controllers will automatically be unloaded
# unless they're listed in MODULES_WHITELIST
MODULES="uvcvideo"

# Should we attempt to warm-boot the video hardware on resume?POST_VIDEO=false

# Should we save and restore state using VESA BIOS Extensions?SAVE_VBE_STATE=false

# Add services to this list to stop them before suspend and restart them in
# the resume process.
STOP_SERVICES="networking"



That should make everything work perfectly.  If you have a problem with the wireless not reconnecting on resume, the same fix for Gusty, works here...

sudo gedit /etc/acpi/resume.d/99-reload-wireless.sh

Paste the following into the editor window...

#!/bin/sh

# Stop NetworkManager
/etc/dbus-1/event.d/25NetworkManager stop

# Unload the ipw3945 driver
/sbin/modprobe -r -f ndiswrapper

# Reload the ipw3945 driver
/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

# Restart NetworkManager
/etc/dbus-1/event.d/25NetworkManager restart

Then, we have to make it executable...

sudo chmod 755 /etc/acpi/resume.d/99-reload-wireless.sh

This unloads ndiswrapper and reloads it after resume and thus resets your wireless nic.  It's crude, but effective. 

Now, finally, we have this annoying bug.  When you return from suspend, you get the a white screen.  Sure, you can type your password blind and the computer will unlock.  But, who really wants to do that?  Answer is right here.

Go to System --> Administration --> Software Sources and select the Third-Party Software tab. Click on Add and enter the following line:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/superm1/ubuntu hardy main

Then click on Add again and enter the following line:

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/superm1/ubuntu hardy main

Click on Close, then on Reload. Shortly your software updater will indicate that there are updates available for compiz. Install them, restart your machine and you are done.

Audio - Sound - ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi® Xtreme Audio Sound Card

The super duper Sound Blaster X-Fi card isn't supported yet.  The internal sound card now works out of the box.

Audio - Second Headphone Jack and Microphone

It works.  There is a great guide here for the m1530.  It'll work for m1330 too.  To get the microphone to work do..

   1. Double-click the volume control icon in the top right of the screen.
   2. Select Edit / Preferences.
   3. Add "Digital" and "Digital Input Source" to the list of visible tracks.
   4. On the Options tab, select "Digital Mic 1" for "Digital Input Source".
   5. On the Recording tab, set the input volume of the microphone.

Headphones work.  You'll find the audio for both in the preferences as well.  Enjoy. 

Audio - Pulseaudio

One of the coolest additions to Hardy Heron is PulseAudio.  I suggest using it!  It allows you to control the volume on each individual application!  There is useful information about individual applications in this guide.  To install the pulseaudio applet, type...

sudo apt-get install padevchooser

Hard Drive:  Is my Hard Drive cycling itself to death?

The relevant bug information is here.  There's been much written about this and it is marked as critical on the fixes.  There is dispute about whether this bug actually kills your hard drive. The hard drive in our computer is designed for more cycles. In fact, cycles may not hard it all!  But, to feel safe and sound, The relevant fixes and will be moderating hard drive temperatures. To be safe, I applied the relevant fixes and will be moderating what is written on the subject.

Whether you have this problem or not depends on which hard drive you purchased.  The fix and explanation is located here

Brightness Key-Fix

For some reason the brightness keys lower and raise the brightness keys four levels.  The fix provided by Dell is...

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Then add the following last line..

#brightness
blacklist video

CPU Fan Constantly Runs:  "My Fan won't stop!!!"

There are fixes here and here.  I haven't installed them so I cannot verify them.  I will revisit this on a future revision of this blog.

32-bit Applications and other Media Applications

If you want to install some familiar applications or 32-bit versions applications, I would suggest these....

Firefox - If you find firefox now really working well, I suggest this page.

Adobe Acrobat Reader - If you miss the adobe pdf-reader, do this...

sudo apt-get install acroread

DVD's and restricted windows applications - This guide by Ubuntu.

Handbrake - Download the source from Handbrake's website.  After the install, you can use the following presets.

sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev jam build-essential
tar -xzvf HandBrake-0.9.2.tar.gz
cd Desktop/HandBrake/
./configure
jam
sudo cp HandBrakeCLI /usr/bin/


Amarok - The absolute best media player for linux.  It's for KDE, so make sure after you install it you install the Gnome-Multimedia-Key script (tools-->script-manager)

sudo apt-get install amarok

Samba (Windows Networking): 
So, if you want to access windows networks and have them access your computer, you'll need Samba installed.  Follow this guide here.

Flash 10-Beta For Linux - The following guide is all you need to install Flash 10.


Conclusion

I love this laptop.  I love linux on this laptop.  If you need help, contact me. 

If you have any questions about this guide, please let me know.  It's going to be for me a work in progress.  I'm very happy with my laptop and really like the way its running. installed.  Let me know what you think.

 



Edited on: June 05th, 2008 1:14 pm
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Comments

Re: Ubuntu Hardy Heron on Dell XPS m1330

brilliant article. as really helped me get my feet wet with linux.

i have same laptop but can't seem to get the mic working at all. Am i doing something wrong? I have fiddled with the settings but to no avail.

Regards,

Matt.

Re: Ubuntu Hardy Heron on Dell XPS m1330

brilliant article. as really helped me get my feet wet with linux.

i have same laptop but can't seem to get the mic working at all. Am i doing something wrong? I have fiddled with the settings but to no avail.

Regards,

Matt.


You want to click on that volume icon. Go to properties and check everything in every section. Then, by the process of elimination, you'll find which one is the microphone. Microphone works perfectly.

I have to update this in the next few days to include pulseaudio stuff. Pulse audio rocks.

EDIT: I included the exact instructions on the latest edit of the blog


Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

I installed Kubuntu Hardy with the new KDE4 interface, and sadly I was underwhelmed because there is still a lot of stuff missing. KDE3 is still in the Kubuntu repositories and I installed the ubuntu-desktop meta-package to get the standard ubuntu desktop along with the Kubuntu desktop. I like Hardy as well, and I am thrilled with the new features in Gnome such as merging directories in Nautilus. My only gripe is that I wish Compiz was disabled by default as my Nvidia card doesn't work well with it even with hardware acceleration turned on.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

"blacklist video" is not an adequate solution for the fn brightness keys, because it causes other, more serious video problems, at least on my laptop (low-end xps m1330, integrated intel graphics).

if people are still having trouble with the intel 3945abg wireless networking and iwl3945 driver:
create /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945
add the following lines:
alias wlan0 iwl3945
options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1

save and close, run update-modules or sudo modprobe -r iwl3945 and add it back or just reboot

this fix solved all of my remaining wireless networking woes

lastly, pm-utils instead of acpi handles suspend and resume on my computer, so suspend and resume fixes need to go in /etc/pm/power.d/ (e.g., hdparm ugly fix) and /etc/pm/sleep.d/

add "uvcvideo" to /usr/lib/pm-utils/defaults SUSPEND_MODULES="uvcvideo"

hope this helps

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

"blacklist video" is not an adequate solution for the fn brightness keys, because it causes other, more serious video problems, at least on my laptop (low-end xps m1330, integrated intel graphics).

if people are still having trouble with the intel 3945abg wireless networking and iwl3945 driver:
create /etc/modprobe.d/iwl3945
add the following lines:
alias wlan0 iwl3945
options iwl3945 disable_hw_scan=1

save and close, run update-modules or sudo modprobe -r iwl3945 and add it back or just reboot

this fix solved all of my remaining wireless networking woes

lastly, pm-utils instead of acpi handles suspend and resume on my computer, so suspend and resume fixes need to go in /etc/pm/power.d/ (e.g., hdparm ugly fix) and /etc/pm/sleep.d/

add "uvcvideo" to /usr/lib/pm-utils/defaults SUSPEND_MODULES="uvcvideo"

hope this helps


Good stuff... very good. So you are using pm-utils instead of acpi. Do you mind walking us through how you did that?

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

I have a dell xps 1530 but the same card dell 1505 wireless n.

I followed your wireless guide but no wireless light...and not wireless.

I have tried other fixes but nothing has got my wireless light on.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

I have a dell xps 1530 but the same card dell 1505 wireless n.

I followed your wireless guide but no wireless light...and not wireless.

I have tried other fixes but nothing has got my wireless light on.


I would install ndiswrapper.

If you did install ndiswrapper, do this..

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

That should cause the light to come on. Let me know...

Hibernation Audio Problems

HI,
Really informative blog. thanks.
After wake up from hibernation My audio simply does not work.I always have to restart. I have a dell inspiron 531, on board sound. Dual boot with Vista. My vista audio drivers a realtek.
Any Thoughts ?

Many Thanks.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

In the wireless instructions above, it says "download this file", but I don't see a URL or filename. Where do I get the appropriate bcmwl5.inf and other required driver files?

Many thanks - I love this xps m1330 and the wireless is the only hiccup.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

http://blog.higherthings.org/borghardt/files/bcmwl5.tar.gz

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Thanks - didn't realize that "this" was a link Blogger Smiley. 2nd question. On the Dell site, the default wireless card is listed as a Dell 1395, not a 1505. The bcmwl5 driver did not work for me. Is there another driver I could use? Note also that the ubuntu 7.10 which came pre-installed from Dell uses an ipw3945 driver, which shows up under Restricted Drivers. It worked fine out of the box, but I had to do a clean install because this is a work laptop and our company requires full-drive encryption - so I use the alternate 64-bit iso and encrypt the entire drive with dmcrypt/LUKS (which, btw, is far superior in my mind to Windows encryption schemes which my workplace enforces). I would love to just pull off whatever I need to do to get that ipw3945 driver working on a clean install of 8.04 just as it did under 7.10. Dell support wasn't too helpful as they didn't like it that I immediately changed the configuration.

Thanks again - very helpful instructions here

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 XPS m1330 wireless

Regarding my comment above for my wireless setup. The device is actually an Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 3945ABG and uses the iwl3945 driver by default under Hardy. I was updating my home wireless router anyway and with a Linksys WRT160N router (802.11n, but connects using 801.22b), the iwl3495 driver works perfectly out of the box without resorting to ndiswrapper. The only downside of the driver and/or network-manager is that it evidently could not switch to the old 802.11b protocol with my old 802.11b wireless router.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 XPS m1330 wireless [typo]

... I was updating my home wireless router anyway and with a Linksys WRT160N router (802.11n, but connects using 801.22b),..

TYPO: it connects as 802.11g (not .22b Blogger Smiley )

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Did you get Libronix working in Wine???

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

hi nice work, i just buy my m1330 with linux, it have the x1330 video card and don't know why, the desktop effects doesn't works, do you know if i can install beryl with this video card?? thanx a lot!!!

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Thanks for these tips, many of them proved very useful :)

As for my wireless, it somewhat started working after I installed automatic updates (as in the wireless was recognized and can detect different networks around), but still I can't connect (I think I may be just setting something incorrectly though, because when I created a network on my laptop, I could connect to it successfully from another laptop).

Anyway, there's another issue I'm still having, which wasn't covered above. When I plug in my SanDisk memory stick nothing happens. I read at some other site to check whenever there appears an additional /dev/sd* device, but no change happening there, there are just the usual sd1+ hdd/partitions. Halp?

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Thanks for this! Very handy for my new Vostro!

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

I can't seem to get the HDMI working in Ubuntu....any ideas

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Thanks for these tips, many of them proved very useful :)

As for my wireless, it somewhat started working after I installed automatic updates (as in the wireless was recognized and can detect different networks around), but still I can't connect (I think I may be just setting something incorrectly though, because when I created a network on my laptop, I could connect to it successfully from another laptop).

Anyway, there's another issue I'm still having, which wasn't covered above. When I plug in my SanDisk memory stick nothing happens. I read at some other site to check whenever there appears an additional /dev/sd* device, but no change happening there, there are just the usual sd1+ hdd/partitions. Halp?


I never was able to get my wireless to work apart from the use of ndiswrapper. I look forward to it working out of the box in later additions of Ubuntu. It finds, but doesn't connect.

Admittedly, I haven't taken the time to play with it to make it work out of the box. It works with ndiswrapper.

As for the SD card, mine works. I wonder..

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

hi nice work, i just buy my m1330 with linux, it have the x1330 video card and don't know why, the desktop effects doesn't works, do you know if i can install beryl with this video card?? thanx a lot!!!


Sorry for the late response.. been busy busy..

You might consider going to appearance and modifying effects.

I would install compiz fusion's icon...

sudo apt-get install fusion-icon

That'll get those effects sweet!


Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330


I never was able to get my wireless to work apart from the use of ndiswrapper. I look forward to it working out of the box in later additions of Ubuntu. It finds, but doesn't connect.

I have been pretty careful to only use the package manager for installs and updates and the iwl3945 wifi driver works great for me in all but a few instances. I have taken it on the road, connected in cafes, libraries, motels, ... The only problem I had was with my original old linksys router [see post above ]http://blog.higherthings.org/borghardt/article/3633.html#comment8084] Once I updated that to an 802.11n router all was fine (it connects as 802.11g). I also had a no connect in one airport. So although not perfect I think it's close.

Very useful!

THANKS SO MUCH!
Got my 1330 about a month ago and had been fiddling with a lot of this (Hardy x64) for about two weeks. Found this site, and now everything seems to be working much better. The only issue i'm still having is with extended displays (laptop and a 19" dell lcd) on either the vga or hdmi. I can get the external working as a clone of the laptop, but I cant get both working in extended mode. BTW, I have my vista running inside of virtualbox on top of my hardy... while it is marginally slower, I love having my work OS (Vista biz) running on something mature, stable and reliable.
Cheers
Mo

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Great guide I have just bought the same laptop and I love it too, your guide helped me sort the microphone out simply. I am dual booting with vista, as a bit of a newbie, but love linux. Really like the blog too. Nice to come across the spiritual things whilst looking for a linux solution. Uplifting. combining the love of linux and Jesus,


Many thanks, Best wishes to you and your family.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

Hi,
I'm using the ndiswrapper, it seems like its OK, but my wireless still not working... It was using the proprietary driver "wl", but its the most strange thing ever... Just connects to my router without ANY cripto and if I try to use SSH under this connection it won't work. So, it sux. =(

I did the steps using the driver "bcmwl5.inf" but didn't work. I boot my machine using Win Vista (snif) and found that it uses the driver "bcmwl6.inf". So I got it and did the same steps using this driver. Now the ndiswrapper tell me that the hardware is present, but I boot my machine and I don't have any wireless...

ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl6 : driver installed
device (14E4:4315) present (alternate driver: wl)


Any ideas? My XPS M1330 has the: Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card


Thank you very much! Great article!!!

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on Dell XPS m1330

got my mic working from your article

now the two buttons on my touch pad mouse do not work?

the touchpad works fine, but the right and left buttons do not work...

any ideas on what files to look at?

i have turned on/off the touch pad from system > pref> mouse and rebooted

no luck...any help..

thanks..

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