Dell Laptops Compatibility?

[0x00FE]

Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 510m, but with a Latitude D505 motherboard, it's a long story how that happened.
Anyway,
I've been using Kubuntu 7.10 & it has been working so fine except for couple of things.

1. Cannot close my laptop's lid, otherwise it will hang, the screen will turn black but not off & the mouse cursor will stop moving "Alt + Ctrl + Backspace" will do nothing, its a complete stuck. I also think it utilizes %100 of CPU power.
Note that I've tried searching for a solution for the problem for ages, found many complains, specially Dell laptops, but couldn't find anything that might help.
In case some people would say things about enabling hibernation, it is enabled & I can hibernate my laptop or suspend it trouble free, but I just cannot close the lid.

2. The sound that comes out of speakers is played as a single channel "although coming out of both speakers", which means it's mono. No matter whether am using ALSA or other's "don't remember" it still does the same. "The sound card is Sigma tell" My cousin has a Dell Laptop Inspiron 9600. He tried to set the PCM volume as the default when pressing the "Fn +- pageup/pagedown" & worked for him. But not for me.

As for the 1st problem, some ppl report that Dell laptop's hang when closing lid while running MAC as well, so it might be a Dell's laptops issue.

So, as for Kubuntu 8.04, I hope such problems would be solved, although it might be late to suggest so : P

14 days to go, cannot wait!

[Linuxgirl]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know I've been there - take a look at this thread, maybe something will work for you.
And just to make sure - do you have "do nothing" checked in the Power Manager ( the battery next to the clock).
I am running HP 6710b laptop and a friend noticed the same thing on his Asus EEEPc as stated in the thread above, so I don't think it's strictly a Dell issue.I am running 7.10 like you as well.

Sorry, can't help you with sound either.
Like you said- hopefully Hardy saves us the trouble.

Bye

[dibl]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

Maybe a little help here on the sound thing:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086812.0

[0x00FE]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

Thnx for the replies, although I was posting here hoping the problem would be solved in 8.04.
As for me, I'm sure I'll be updating in a couple of weeks & would like my system to work better.

As for the "do nothing" in the Power Manager, I've already checked that box very long time ago & gave it a try, unfortunately, still hangs.

As for the sound issue, didn't help, no success.

And BTW, I'm thinking getting myself an ASUS EEE 900 maybe, if that's the 2nd generation. So you never know, might install 8.04 if I didn't like the pre installed OS "Eited Xandros + KDE", it would be depressing having problems though.
So if other Laptops have the same hang issue, then I'm sure that 8.04 should have a solution. Or @ least that's what I hope.

Thnx again for your replies.

[dibl]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

You could make a Hardy Heron (Beta) Live CD today, and find out how well (or not) it finds your sound system.

You could also take it (the Live CD) to your favorite computer shop and see if they'll let you boot it on that Asus or any others you may be interested in.

[clownius]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

I suscessfully installed on my Dell Vostro 1500. Display was impossible to get working until i used envy but everything else seems to be fine. Wireless apears to be working but would not connect to my router. That said its rare i use wireless anyways and i didabled it again on my router after i found it was a pita to get working.

[0x00FE]

Re: Dell Laptops Compatibility?

Hi again,

At last, downloaded Kubuntu 8.04, unfortunately am a little bit disappointed because of few things.

Since I've already mentioned two issues of my concern, let's talk about them.

Am currently running the Live CD. I'm still suffering of the Mono thing, although my computer seems to differentiate between both speakers.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ speaker-test -c2

speaker-test 1.0.15

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Using max buffer size 16384
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 16384
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 5.644269
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 5.972562
 0 - Front Left

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci -v | grep audio
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH
4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_intel8x0     35356 3
snd_ac97_codec    101028 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus        3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss      42144 0
snd_mixer_oss     17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm        78596 4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy     4868 0
snd_seq_oss      35584 0
snd_seq_midi      9376 0
snd_rawmidi      25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event   8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq        54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_m          idi_event
snd_timer       24836 3 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device     9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmi          di,snd_seq
snd          56996 15 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mix          er_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_d          evice
soundcore       8800 1 snd
snd_page_alloc    11400 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

So I keep getting Mono sound instead of Stereo, although connecting headphones would give a Stereo sound. But laptop's speakers will output a Mono audio.
Note that am using a Dell Ispiron 510m with Latitdue 505 motherboard. So for Latitude 505 soundcard is Sigmatel STAC 9750 AC97.

As for the other problem, when closing my lid, the computer is still running "I was playing a song using Amarok, after closing the lid it continued playing".
However, after opening the lid, the system crashed. Sound stopped with black screen & no response whatsoever. "Power management set to do nothing when lid is closed"

Any bright ideas?