“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)
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
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..
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.
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. ..
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. ..
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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
Posted On: May 28th, 2008 at 10:18am by Jason[ + ]
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.
"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"
"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?
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 ?
Posted On: June 19th, 2008 at 1:27am by Karl Rudnick
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.
Posted On: June 19th, 2008 at 7:53pm by Karl Rudnick
Thanks - didn't realize that "this" was a link . 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.
Posted On: July 08th, 2008 at 1:03pm by Karl Rudnick
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.
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!!!
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?
Posted On: August 22nd, 2008 at 4:42pm by Bloghardt
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.
Posted On: August 22nd, 2008 at 4:43pm by Bloghardt
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.
Posted On: August 24th, 2008 at 5:18pm by Karl Rudnick
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.
Posted On: September 13th, 2008 at 7:54pm by mohan
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
Posted On: September 14th, 2008 at 5:05pm by Hazel Needham
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,
Posted On: October 02nd, 2008 at 6:23pm by Tiago Durante
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...
Posted On: October 25th, 2008 at 5:15am by Fernando
after initiating the one ubuntu Connector the monitor external at the vga out and Fn+F8+ but the monitor not detected all by oneself is detected/all by oneself is detected as you reinicia the one ubuntu did not it can being equal to the Windows vista?as a I do for functioning the one FnF8+?
THANKS SO MUCH!
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
Mo,
I would love to know how you got Vista running in a virtual machine. The only way I can figure to do this is with a complete reinstall inside the virtual machine, but if there is some way to just run the install already in the other partition (dual boot), I would rather do that. Can you point me to an explaination?
Guys,
I did the upgrade to 8.10 (Intrpid Ibex) last night, and now my formerly rock-solid m1330 is a shell of its former self. Issues started with the keyboard input not working (then after 4 reboots, magically came back) wireless working intermittently and the fan blowing on x-tra high all the time. If you have 8.04 (Hardy) running, I would recommend waiting to do the upgrade. Good Luck!
Ubuntu's Hardy Heron is out!!! Here is the updated 
. 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.
