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[edit] Summary

Dell XPS M1330 works quite well out of the box with Arch and GNU/Linux in general, just like his big brother Dell XPS M1530. Here you can find (or put !) information to configure your laptop and become a mobile Archer.

[edit] Sound

For some users, sound doesn't appear to work with Alsa 1.0.16 and kernel 2.6.24.4. You can do an ugly fix by recompiling alsa-drivers : first download alsa-driver (for alsa 1.0.16 ONLY), extract them and in alsa-driver folder do :

./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --with-card-options=hda-codec-sigmatel
make
sudo make install-modules

Reboot and your sound should be working ! See related post in Archlinux forum.
This has been reported as a bug.

[edit] Touchpad Synaptics

To configure the touchpad, you can refer to: Touchpad Synaptics Page.

[edit] Fingerprint reader

As of today, the device manufacturer is SGS Thomson Microelectronics (you can check with a "lsusb"). Install it using ThinkFinger.

[edit] Network

[edit] Ethernet Setup

the ethernet card is recognized by the kernel, simply load the network module to use it, or use a connection manager (see Wireless Setup for a list of programs)

[edit] Wireless Setup

• Intel chipset : 4965agn

This is the most common chipset, the correct wireless driver to install is iwlwifi-4965-ucode.
To get the wifi LED working, you can install compat-wireless from AUR. See this forum thread (some versions can freeze your system !).

NOTE: I ran into some trouble with the 2.6.25 Kernel: I couldn't logon to any wireless network. Some people suggested using the compat-wireless package from AUR, but that didn't really help. When using the package dated 2008.05.26. it found my wireless card, but I still couldn't connect. The newest version(2008.06.11.) didn't find my card, so i couldn't even see any wireless networks. Only thing that helped was reverting back to kernel 2.6.24.4-1.
- Nihathrael 07:53, 11 June 2008 (EDT)

NOTE: I'm running 2.6.25 fine with module 'iwl4695' version 1.2.23k (according to dmesg), which is obtainable from core/iwlwifi-4965-ucode 4.44.1.20-1.
- Oblong_Cheese 09:11, 18 June 2008 (AEST)

• Intel chipset : 3945abg

The correct wireless driver to install is iwlwifi-3945-ucode.

• Broadcom chipset : bcm43xx or b43

See this or this.

[edit] Bluetooth

Install bluez-utils & bluez-libs from extra repository:

pacman -S bluez-utils bluez-libs

Edit /etc/conf.d/bluetooth:

DAEMON_ENABLE="true"
HIDD_ENABLE="true"

Restart bluetooth service:

/etc/rc.d/bluetooth restart

A list of utilities for bluetooth managing is present in AUR database

[edit] nVidia Graphics

For those of you with the nVidia 8400GM chipset, using the nVidia driver package works fine.

[edit] Compiz Fusion

Works just great with the nVidia chipset. You might like to tweak the nVidia Powermizer for maximum battery life. I have forced my graphics chipset to the lowest performance level and Compiz-Fusion runs satisfactorily with a little slowdown here and there. See this part of the Arch nVidia wiki for more details on how to set this up.

To have better performance with nVidia drivers, you should use "loose binding" in Compiz Fusion (bug with Geforce 8 series). If you use Fusion Icon, just right click it, then "Compiz Options"->"Loose Binding".

[edit] Suspend

With acpi-freq running, you might notice that CPU1 is deactivated after using pm-suspend. To fix this you have to unload acpi-freq module each time pm-suspend is called.

Put this in /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy :

#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
    suspend)
        rmmod -f acpi_cpufreq
        ;;
    resume)
        modprobe acpi_cpufreq
        ;;
    *)  echo "somebody is calling me totally wrong."
        ;;
esac

Then make it executable :

chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy

Solution was provided by this forum topic.

[edit] Hard Drive

If your hard drive clicks regurlarly, you may suffer from this problem. To fix it, add those lines to your /etc/rc.local :

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sdX >> /dev/null

or :

hdparm -B 224 /dev/sdX >> /dev/null

(replace X in "sdX" by the letter of your drive, e.g : sda)

When resuming from a pm-suspend, you might notice that this damn hard drive is clicking again. To fix this, modify your /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy to put the lines above. Following the last example in previous suspend section :

case $1 in
    suspend)
        rmmod -f acpi_cpufreq
        ;;
    resume)
        modprobe acpi_cpufreq
        hdparm -B 224 /dev/sda >> /dev/null
        ;;
    *)  echo "somebody is calling me totally wrong."
        ;;
esac

If not already done, make it executable.

[edit] SD Card Reader

The device is recognized by the kernel. The Adapter module is: sdhci

[edit] Webcam

You have to install linux-uvc drivers to have it working (works for both VGA webcam from LED display and HD webcam from CCFL display apparently) :

pacman -S linux-uvc-svn

Then you have to load corresponding modules :

modprobe usbvision
modprobe uvcvideo

If you want them to be loaded at startup, put usbvision and uvcvideo in the MODULES section of /etc/rc.conf.

[edit] Sensors / Hardware info

Install i8k packages :

pacman -S i8kmon i8kutils

This will provide many useful information (temperature, fan speed, bios...) and utilities (fan monitor, bios update...).

[edit] Extra media keys

• They are recognized by default with evdev so you can directly bind them.

If you use Gnome, go in System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts.

The remote control should work fine too.

• If you are not using evdev you can still map those keys with xmodmap.

First you need to identify the corresponding keycodes, for instance, running xev, and map them with an ~/.Xmodmap file. Here is my ~/.Xmodmap file that you can copy:

keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPause
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 222 = XF86PowerDown

You can now load the mappings with:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

If you are running XFCE, you'll notice that XF86AudioLowerVolume, XF86AudioRaiseVolume and XF86AudioMute are binded to the aumix command. So you'll need to install it:

 pacman -S aumix-gtk

Or remap them to something like this "amixer sset PCM 5+" for instance.

[edit] Bios update

You can perform bios updates under GNU/Linux ! Just install i8kutils :

pacman -S i8kutils

Download latest bios (A11) here (.hdr file). This bios is for device ID 0x0209. You can check your device ID by installing libsmbios :

pacman -S libsmbios

and then :

getSystemId

You can find other bios fitting your system ID there.

Then go in the directory where you downloaded the bios and type as root :

modprobe dell_rbu

dellBiosUpdate -u -f ./bios.hdr

Reboot, stare at the white frightening screen saying "Bios update" for an endless minute. Listen to the sweet vacuum-like full speed sound of your fans just before it reboots automatically. Then observe the boot screen with Dell logo displayed much longer than usual. Sweep the sweat on your forehead. You're done !

A10 : The only enhancement I noticed with this bios is that you can now eject a CD/DVD without freezing your system (this was really a weird behavior !).

A11 : Fixing overheating issues introduced with A10 bios. Please upgrade to A11 if you are currently using A10 !

[edit] External Resources

This page describes all of the various driver modules required to make the hardware in the XPS M1330 work.
French speaking people can also refer to these articles.