Ubuntu Linux on a Dell Latitude D610
Page started: Sunday August 14, 2005
Last update: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Current Distribution: Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn”
Notebook acquired on: Thursday August 11, 2005
This is my work notebook, provided by my employer. I’m dual-booting with XP pro (standard image), but spend 95% of my time using Linux.
I’m coming from the Debian world, so I’m quite confortable with Ubuntu, which I chose for its more polished desktop and more recent packages (kernel, x.org, GNOME, etc…). The Ubuntu kernel guys even managed to produce the first 2.6 kernel I tried that made my Firewire disk work for any period of time!
Everything works under Linux on that machine!
So I will not spend pages and pages explaining how to make things work from scratch, it would be quite useless. I removed all the info for the previous releases of Ubuntu and left only a few configuration specifics.
- Hardware specifications
-
- Model: Dell Latitude D610
- Processor: Intel Pentium M 760 – Dothan – 2 GHz – 2 MB Cache – 533 MHz FSB
- Chipset: Intel 915GM – ICH6 – Sonoma Centrino
- Memory: 1 GB 533 MHz DDR2 Dual Channel in 2 SDRAM modules
- Hard-drive: 80 GB – 5,400 RPM – Fujitsu MHV2080AH – UDMA133 via S-ATA controller
- Optical drive: Single Layer DVD±R/RW burner – Sony DW-D56A (OEM Liteon SOSW-852S) via S-ATA – 8X DVD – 24X CD
- Wired network: 10/100/1000BaseT Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
- Wireless network: Intel PRO/wireless 2915 A/B/G
- Bluetooth: Dell Truemobile 350 via USB
- Video:Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 with up to 128MB shared1 graphics memory
- Display: 14.1″ SXGA+ (1400×1050) active matrix (TFT)
- Audio: Intel AC’97 with Sigmatel STAC9750/51
- Internal modem: Intel AC’97 with Conexant chip
- Ports: 4 USB 2.0; S-Video; VGA; Serial; Parallel; Infrared; Ethernet(10/100/1000); Modem; Audio In/Out; 1 Type I/II PCMCIA
- Security: Integrated Smart Card Reader and integrated TPM Security Chip
- Desk docking: D-port with DVI video and D-view
- External screen: Dell 2405FPW LCD, 1920×1200
- Getting the correct resolution
The Intel video BIOS is buggy and doesn’t have the 1400×1050 mode available by default. So, if you want to use the internal flat panel correctly, you will have to use a tweak to patch that correctly.
You have to use 915resolution, available in Universe. It comes with full complement of documentation, configuration files and startup scripts, even with an automatic mode.
Because I had already some legacy and I am running 2 screens and need to patch 2 modes, I have built my own configuration files and startup scripts. You do not need them, just edit the files provided by the package, but here are my configurations files, for information:
You will notice that I am changing two modes, one for the built-in screen, one for the wide 24″ external LCD.
- Dual displays
Xinerama works! I have 2 screens: built-in LCD at 1400×1050 and a Dell 2405FPW 24″ LCD at 1920×1200 on the D/Port’s DVI port, both 24bits.
Then, in order to get the panel’s native resolution I had to use the following Monitor section, with a custom Modeline, like in the good old days…:
Section "Monitor" Identifier "2405FPW" DisplaySize 519 324 HorizSync 30-81 VertRefresh 56-76 Option "DPMS" Modeline "1920x1200" 154 1920 1968 2000 2080 1200 1203 1209 1235 EndSection
I came up with this Modeline after reading an article in the x.org Wiki. I only understood why it is needed and what it does when reading Tucker Sylvestro’s comment. Thanks!
Xinerama disables DRI, though, and it doesn’t desactivate properly when the laptop is undocked. I have kept a separate xorg.conf file for single screen/DRI.
- Automatic discovery of docked and undocked status
This status is quite practical to know, especially at boot time, before X starts, in order to adjust its configuration with or without Xinerama.
There is no meaningful or consistant hardware difference between the two states that an lspci -vvv can show.
This is where the package read-edid becomes handy. It provides tools (get-edid, parse-edid) that can query attached monitors using DCC.
A friend (Thanks Guillaume!) created a startup script that will query for an external monitor and link the /etc/X111/xorg.conf file to the correct one (single or dual screens).
Copy the script to /etc/init.d/ and register it
$ sudo update-rc.d amidocked defaults 12
As root run the following command:
# get-edid 2>/dev/null | parse-edid 2>/dev/null | grep Identifier
and edit the startup file with the proper string.
You need to have generated the proper xorg.conf-something for single or dual-screen setups.
The startup script can be used for many other things depending on the docking status, or not… I extended the startup script to change the background, for example.
Does Fn combinations works out of the box?
You talk only about volume special keys.
What’s about brightness keys?
What’s about battery life?
Fn keys, out of the box… I do not know.
At least they are working at this moment (brightness, suspend, hibernate, wireless toggle).
Battery life is above 2 hours, with wireless active. The laptop-mode works, at least for the cron hold, screen brightnes and other visible stuff. I have to check for the hard-drive activity (hdparm stuff dependant on the kernel ATA passthrough on SATA controllers), on other laptops I know it is working as I do not hear the HDD so much once un-plugged, the D610 HDD is quite silent, it is hard to notice the difference. I’ll have to look at the logs and watch the light.
Does Fn key to switch to the external video works?
Thanks for give me attention:)
I have tried Ubuntu on my D610, but only got the 1280×1024 resolution. Dell have released a new bios (A05), I tried to flash it to A05, but then the X server will not start. I tried to reinstall Ubuntu and got an option to select resolution during install but still no luck. Have you tried the A05 bios upgrade?
Anders,
I only got the 1280×1024 resolution out of the box. As explained in the doccument above, I had to use the 915resolution tool in order to patch the video BIOS with the 1400×1050 resolution.
Further down the line, I had to use the latest snapshot of the kernel/X/DRI drivers plus commons. That may help you fixing your X after the BIOS upgrade.
No, I haven’t tried BIOS A05 yet.
Francesco,
Fn to external video appear to work, AFAIK.
Just be careful, the video driver may have issues resetting a few things, though, once a video mode is set.
I’ll have to confirm that, when/if I get the chance.
I tried ubuntu on d610 with BIOS A05,just like Anders I am not able to get the
X server to work with any resolution.
Kalyan,
As I said, I’m still in A04, and all works fin, but I have to use “915resolution” and the latest DRI snapshots.
Nico
Hi, without all the eye-candy, how does the Intel Graphics chip work? Slow, or fast enough?
Games like ut2004 wouldn’t work fast enought, do they?
I have tried the Breeze Preview version and now the X server starts, but still in 1280×1024 with the A05 Bios. I will use this resolution until (hopefully) an official support for the resolution. I have tried the 915resolution, but no luck so far. It patches the bios, but i can not select a higher resolution.
I have only tried Linux in testing and do not know too much about it, google is a nice tool
. By the way, it is a nice little Ubuntu Guide you have here 
Robbert,
Well, it is fast enough to make it a nice demo to your entourgae, but slow enough that you are still keeping it off when you need to do serious work….
Anders,
OK, you do the 915resolution thing, but I’ll also ask, just in case, did you modify your
/etc/X11/xorg.conffile to tell X to use another resolution?Thanks for the nice comment!
Nico
No, during the installation Ubuntu found 1400×1050 resolution during install (A05 bios). Inside Ubuntu i try to set the resolution to 1400×1050 but the only option is 1280×1024 @ 60hz.
The 915 resolution script works, when I run 915resolution -l it lists up 1400×1050…
In another words, in the xorg file it says resoultion 1400×1050 at 24 bit/pixel
I would like to know if you have some problem with close/open the lid. after close the lid, if you open it again, the lid turns on, under linux?
Hallelujah! I suddenly got the resolution correct. I changed my rc.local file, and inserted /usr/sbin/915resolution 38 1400 1050 into it.
It is a new world with this great resolution
I am very happy with Ubuntu right now 
It must seem like I am spamming this webpage but one last note from me:
As I am in a “testing Linux mode” i reinstalled my D610 today with Ubuntu 5.10 Preview release. As usual the resolution was wrong, but this time i immediately used your description. This time it worked after the next restart. I thought I should mention this to you, and other readers of this page
I used the script that you made and did the chmod 755 the file etc/init.d/915resolution
This time i ran “sudo update-rc.d 915resolution defaults 19″ immediately too. Maybe this is what I did wrong the first time.
Have a nice day! In Norway the autumn is coming
First off thank you for getting this to work and posting it!! I am farther along now on getting proper suspend on my D610 than I have ever got since getting it in May.
Did you have any problems with USB coming back from standby? My USB is dead after coming back from standby (used for external mouse). I am using the stock 2.6.12.9 kernel from Breezy. (The person you got the patches from in Canada states on his web sight now that his patches are included in it now).
Thank for setting up this page. The info has been extremely helpful.
I have working on the Laptop display, but I can not get the dual head working.
I am using Kubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog). I have installed the 915Resolution and DRI files. Using your xorg.conf blank screens or random garbage on the CRT. With a little tweaking, I can get the CRT to display the right side of the expanded desktop, but the Laptop LCD display remains blank.
Do you have any suggestions on what else is needed? Is the Breezy Kernel (2.6.12) required to make the dual head display work with the i810 drivers?
Each time I try to use a custom kernel, I loose the wireless interface. the system message indicates that the driver cannot load the firmware.?! Everything works fine with the default kernel and I am using the ubuntu sources as a starting point (using make oldconfig). The only thing I am doing is changing the default CPU to pentium M and removing the generic x86 option to optimize for the laptop.
Did you run into a similar problem and if so how did you fix it?
I also have a D610, and bought a Dell 2001FP 20″ flat panel monitor along with it (and the docking station which provides a DVI output). However, I’ve got the ATI card (Radeon Mobility X300, M22) and it was a real pain to get it working at 1600×1200 resolution with the DVI out, so I thought I’d seed google with my solution. Please note that these steps are ONLY for running the external monitor at 1600×1200 with the D610’s ATI card, the laptop monitor maxes out at 1400×1050.
Begin by downloading and installing the fglrx drivers. This isn’t a big deal, they’re in the universe (or multiverse, one of those two):
apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)
apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
Then set up your xorg.conf file to use the “fglrx” driver in the “Device” section and “1600×1200″ in the resolutions section. There’s a lot of info out there on how to do this, google around.
If all goes well your shiny new 2001FP will be filling its 20 inches with… only 1280×1024. Hmm… The problem is that the DVI pixel clock in the X300 (or in the docking station) maxes out at 160MHz, and running 1600×1200 with the standard blanking intervals assumed by the fglrx driver requires 162 MHz. The trick is to add the following modeline to the “Monitor” section:
Modeline "1600x1200" 130.25 1600 1648 1680 1760 1200 1203 1207 1235
This uses a shorter blanking interval for the 1600×1200 resolution that only requires a 130.25 MHz clock speed. I found that after setting these modelines it still took a reboot to get them to take. I’m not sure why that is, but if you’re doing tests by running “startx” a bunch of times and your newly added Modeline is being ignored (as in, you don’t see it in the logs), try doing a reboot.
Good luck, and these resources proved helpful if this doesn’t quite solve your problem:
Reduced blanking times to handle slower pixel clock
Apple monitor with a similar problem
Ubuntu wiki page
fglrx debian wrapper page (didn’t use, but informative)
Thanks for this useful info!
Everything works nicely on the D610 but I have problems with the screen resolution. I installed 915resolution and added it at runlevel 19 as descirbed above. It worked perfectly for a couple of days but now the resolution is changed back to 1280×1024 after I login with login and password. I can see when it changes resolution. It doesn’t seem to help with removing and then reinstalling the 915resolution script and links in /etc. Any ideas?
Another question: Has anyone been able to connect a projector to the graphics port on the back and switch the gfx card to send the signals there (by pressing the “fn” + “CRT/LCD” buttons on the D610)? Nothing happens when I do this. Anyone knows how to setup this to work properly?
I was wondering if some of the many knowledgable participants in this thread would be willing to help me out on a problem that I’ve posted on the Ubuntu Forum. I really appreciate it.
Jim – I do not see any reference to your usage of the 915resolution BIOS patching tool in your BB post. Are you using it?
Robert – Did you try stopping X/GDM, running 915resolution manually, with manual parameters, and then restarting it? As dor the Fn
+F8 for screen switching, it works on my machine, without any specific setup.
Tucker – Thanks for the tip dor ATI users.
Berb – Well, my wireless driver has just started complaining about firmware. I’ll try to check on what is in my directory and what files revision are expected.
Nico: I found my problem with the resolution. Even though 1280×1024 was not in the xorg.conf the System->Preferences->Screen Resolution previously only showed one option (1280×1024) but now it suddenly shows both 1400×1050 and 1280×1024 and the latter one was chosen. After choosing 1400×1050 it now seems to work. I’m not sure why it worked in 1400×1050 when it previously showed 1280×1024 in that prefs setting but never mind; I’m happy it now works…
As for fn+F8 it does not work for me. Maybe it is a bios problem; I see I’m still on A03 and A05 is mentioned above. I’ll have to look for the update…
Sorry for the noise and thanks again.
Berb,
I finally used the latest Intel ipw2200 driver (1.0.8), ieee802.11 driver (1.1.6) and firmware (2.4).
All is working, no more complains about firmware.
I agree, this is a bit of squashing the bug with a sledgehammer without trying to understand what was happenning…
Nico
Nico:
I have posted some more details there. After running 915resolution, setting up the service, and trimming your xorg.conf of the extra monitor, I tried restarting X and restarting the computer. No apparent changes. I retried the instructions on the fixres wiki page and again, no changes.
Thanks so much for your help, seriously. I will sing your praises far and wide!
Jim: You have installed the scripts so that 915resolution runs on every boot, right? I’m sure you have but it is unclear from your latest post and if you haven’t it won’t work.
Just a note that I can now attach projectors and it works right out of the box. This is after upgrading the bios to A05, with A03 it did not work.
Having tried to install Suse 10.0, Debian and now Ubuntu on my Dell D610, one common problem is that in no cases,do I get sound working. Have looked at the volume control and that seems to be OK. Any suggestions?
Charles – That is weird. The sound is a basic thing recognized as an i810 card. Are you sure that your BIOS settings are OK? Do you see the modules loaded (
lsmod)? Do you see the sound card (lspci) What does acat /proc/asound/cardssay?On another topic, I will soon be testing the dual display (Xinerama) with the internal display and an external 24″ LCD using DVI. The required resolution (1920×1200) is not listed in the BIOS, I will probably have to play with
915resolutionsome more…Nico
Thank you for your help.
It is dual booting (with XP) and the sound works in XP so I think the bios is OK. I am not entirely sure what to look for in the results of your suggestions…
The output of lsmod (at least the relevant part) is as follows:
snd_intel8×0 30144 1
snd_ac97_codec 72188 1 snd_intel8×0
snd_pcm_oss 46368 1
snd_mixer_oss 16128 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 78344 3 snd_intel8×0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 21764 1 snd_pcm
snd 48644 6 snd_intel8×0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9184 2 snd
snd_page_alloc 10120 2 snd_intel8×0,snd_pcm
The result from lspci is:
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC’97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
cat /proc/asound/cards
produces the following:
0 [ICH6 ]: ICH4 – Intel ICH6
Intel ICH6 with STAC9750,51 at 0xdfebfe00, irq 16
Charles
Charles,
You have all you need, and all is recognized properly. All kernel modules are there, alsa recognizes your card.
I would look now at your mixer settings. Lauch alsamixer in a terminal window. Check the Master and the PCM levels.
Nico
Ah!
This is the result:
alsamixer: error while loading shared libraries: librasound.so.2 cannot open shared object: no such file or directory.
I have checked whether librasound.so.2 exists and it does.
Charles
Charles,
$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall libasound2 alsa-baseBut your thing is weird. What does the Gnome mixer say ?
Nico
Nico
I did sudo etc and it reinstalled alsa-base and libasound and after it had reconfigured various programs completed. I then tried alsamixer again and got the following:
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default : No such file or directory.
I should also have said before that I have switched to the KDE desktop.
I have just tried to revert to the Gnome and it crashed out.
Perhaps I should reinstall from scratch?
Charles
Charles,
Good. This cannot hurt.
What do you mean by “various programs completed”?
That’s not good.
It should have no impact on sound provided by Alsa.
That’s not good either…
Generally not needed. But your systems looks broken in more than one place. It’s difficult to analyse remotely with such info. So, if you have nothing on your system, I’d say, go for it, you will probably win some time.
Nico
Nico
Quite right. I reinstalled and sound works. How embarassing.
Charles
I too installed Hoary on my D610 and upgraded to Breezy. Problem is I can’t get hibernate to work. Which kernel do you use? I’m currently at the 2.6.12 from Ubuntu and it keeps telling me “Your kernel does not appear to have Software Suspend 2 support compiled in.”
thank you.
And BRAVO, I had so much troubles before finding this well documented solution
Jacques
Okay, I have hibernation working, with adding resume=/dev/sda8 to my grub kernel line, and using the original software suspend built into the kernel (UseSysfsPowerState), not software suspend2. The names were similar and confused me
Now, has anyone had this problem before? Infrequently my system locks up completely, leaving the caps lock and scroll lock LEDs flashing. The display remains visible, but hd spins down and no further activity is possible – must hard power off and reboot. No message written to system log before crash either.
Hi,
thanks for your nice webpage which helped me alot. I’m going to buy a Dell D610 with the 1400×1050 resolution and an external 20″ TFT with a resolution of 1680×1050. I’m not sure about the part with 915resolution. As I understand you change two modes, one for the native resolution of the laptop and one for the widescreen monitor. So, I will have to do this, too and it should just work. Or will I probably run into problems with that?
TIA,
Peter
Upgaded to the latest Dell BIOS, the latest 2.15.1 kernel, with the ipw 1.0.8 wireless drivers and the kernel hang with the flashing LEDs has gone away.
I also installed the SoftwareSuspend2 patch and am using it instead of the UseSysfsPowerState and that is rock solid. I have been suspending and resuming twice a day for over a week now and have not had a single issue.
The Latitude D610 doesn’t support dual-channel mode.
Just for the protocol:
using the Dell 20″ wide-screen monitor (1680×1050 resolution) works using the VGA plug as well as using DVI
However, one has to define a modeline for the resolution and use 855resolution to patch the VBIOS as described. Weirdly, one has to call 855resolution twice (with the same arguments), otherwise the mode is not recognized by Xorg.
Hello, I don’t know if this page is viewed anymore, but would you please provide a link to the screenshot and wallpaper, a full size screenshot and wallpaper, from the xinerama thumbnail screenshot? Looks very cool. Very helpful site with some nice hints. Have a nice day
Bonjour,
J’ai un Dell D910 avec carte graphique Intel 915GM.
La carte graphique n’est pas reconnue par le CDlive dapper drake !
Mon but est de faire tourner Compiz ! Est-ce possible ?
Hello, I have a Dell D910 laptop with a intel 915GM graphic card. I tried the ubuntu dapper drake with no success to run compiz. problem with this graphics card not recognize. Do you have any stuff ?
Hello all,
I hope this site is still being read by people who got things working with the DELL Latitude D610 and Ubuntu Breezy.
I just installed it, X only started in resolution 1024×768 and so I found this website with the detailed instructions on how to fix this problem.
However it still does not work for me.
I managed to have 915resolution start automatically and this is the output from it during startup of the laptop:
—————————————————————————————————-
Starting 915resolution: Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
Chipset: 915GM
BIOS: TYPE 1
Mode Table Offset: $C0000 + $269
Mode Table Entries: 36
Patch mode 3c to resolution 1400×1050 complete
915resolution.
—————————————————————————————————-
I used the xorg.conf file from above (single internal screen).
When starting X it shows up in the usual low resolution 1024×768 and also the Gnome Screen Resolution Settings only allow to set this single low resolution.
Any ideas what I could still be missing here?
blubalu,
is 915resolution started before or after GDM in rc.d?
If you stop gdm and restart it, do you get your resolution?
What is the mode list when you execute 915resolution manually?
Nico
A bit absent fron this these days
Inertie,
Let’s keep it in English…
What do you mean by “not recognized”?
Is the correct driver (i810) not used, and vesa used instead?
Or is it just a resolution problem ?
If it is the later, see the 915resolution trick, which may be a bit painful to use in Live mode.
I assure you, this graphic card is perfectly supported, including DRM, using an open driver.
I have run XGL/Compiz from a Dapper Live CD too, no problem, other than what can be expected from what I would call a very nifty technology preview. I would not use it on a production system, though.
Nico
I just reread the ipw2200 docs and
echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/0000\:03\:03.0/ledwill turn on the WiFi led, and 0 will turn it back off.
Anyone know how this hooks into the Fn-F3 hotkey? I’ve tried
insmod ipw2200 led=1to “enable the experimental led code” but it seems to have no effect on the software rf_kill.