UPDATE: Since I originally posted this, I have managed to get everything working well. This notebook gets an A+.
The initial install went ok.. but no DMA on the CDRW/DVD.
SUSE 9.2 runs a 2.6.8 kernel.... I updated everything via YOU... no problems. I even got the Nvidia 6629 driver going.. enought to play a little UT2004.
However, the DMA thing really got to me... without it, no DVD movies, etc.
So I used SUSE's Kernel of the Day (at 2.6.11rc5).
That also went ok (had to upgrade udev, hwinfo and the other items mentioned at the SUSE kernel of the day site). HOWEVER my CD was no longer recognized.
What you have to do ... for now is load piix and ide_generic and ide_cd first (put those into my initrd). But of course, with the CD using ide_generic, no DMA... so that didn't fix the problem. This is a SATA/PATA combined issue supposedly... happens when you use both kinds of devices on the controller. However, my HD is PATA... and, in case it matter, there is no way to force the controller into some kind of legacy PATA mode like there is in other BIOS's. More work needs to be done to handle the ICH6M style SATA controllers, especially for CDROM (I want my DMA).
Using the Nvidia 6629 patch at:http://unixforge.org/~matthias-chris...ay_driver.diff
I was able to patch the 6629 and get those to compile under 2.6.11rc5 . SUSE was able to configure for 1920x1200... everything works fine... but seems a bit slow. nvclock is still broken (with regards to 6000 series cards), though it will allow you to tweak the memory speed... but not the core. I was able to do Doom3 1024x768 HQ at 56fps, which does indicate that we're getting some acceleration.
2.6.11rc5 updated the ifw2200 module forcing me to get the 2.2 firmware updates for the wireless. The wireless appears to work.. I was able to do a scan and see some of my neighbors, but I don't have anything I can personally connect to... I'm assuming it works.
CPU frequency... well it kind of works. Now uses centrino-speedstep with the newer kernels. However, when I unplug/plug, it seems to not want to adjust the frequency levels up to the performance level (even though I told the powersaved config to do so). If I start out unplugged, and then plug in, seems that the current frequency, whatever it was becomes the high frequency. When I configure powersave to set at the lowest it reports an impossible frequency of 300Mhz or some such... something is broken there. Have to reboot plugged in to get everything back to 2Ghz.
I noticed a problem in Windows that also seems to be Linux. UT2004 will stutter a bit every so often and seems to be related to using an external mouse with the touchpad enabled. Under Windows, turning off the touchpad made a huge difference. Under Linux, AFAIK, you can't disable the touchpad (I tried the synaptics driver even). Again, unlike other BIOS's, you can't disable the touchpad via the BIOS.
So....
Laptop works... 7200rpm drive is slow through the ICH6M SATA controller, CDROM can be used, but WITHOUT DMA, Nvidia driver can be patched to work with 2.6.11rc5 and runs fine at 1920x1200, can be a bit jerky due to my suspicion that the touchpad is getting in the way somehow... seems a bit slow, and maybe not quite right (we need Nvidia to supply an official update). Sound works, ethernet works. Mplayer, etc work fine. All in all... I give the Dell M70 a C+. No better or worse than my old Toshiba 3000-S304 was. In comparison, I give the Dell D600 an A.... pretty much everything works well there. My guess is that the D610 might present some issues just like with the M70 though.
I know this isn't a lot of detail. I'll gladly help out with any questions if I can about Linux on the M70.
The initial install went ok.. but no DMA on the CDRW/DVD.
SUSE 9.2 runs a 2.6.8 kernel.... I updated everything via YOU... no problems. I even got the Nvidia 6629 driver going.. enought to play a little UT2004.
However, the DMA thing really got to me... without it, no DVD movies, etc.
So I used SUSE's Kernel of the Day (at 2.6.11rc5).
That also went ok (had to upgrade udev, hwinfo and the other items mentioned at the SUSE kernel of the day site). HOWEVER my CD was no longer recognized.
What you have to do ... for now is load piix and ide_generic and ide_cd first (put those into my initrd). But of course, with the CD using ide_generic, no DMA... so that didn't fix the problem. This is a SATA/PATA combined issue supposedly... happens when you use both kinds of devices on the controller. However, my HD is PATA... and, in case it matter, there is no way to force the controller into some kind of legacy PATA mode like there is in other BIOS's. More work needs to be done to handle the ICH6M style SATA controllers, especially for CDROM (I want my DMA).
Using the Nvidia 6629 patch at:http://unixforge.org/~matthias-chris...ay_driver.diff
I was able to patch the 6629 and get those to compile under 2.6.11rc5 . SUSE was able to configure for 1920x1200... everything works fine... but seems a bit slow. nvclock is still broken (with regards to 6000 series cards), though it will allow you to tweak the memory speed... but not the core. I was able to do Doom3 1024x768 HQ at 56fps, which does indicate that we're getting some acceleration.
2.6.11rc5 updated the ifw2200 module forcing me to get the 2.2 firmware updates for the wireless. The wireless appears to work.. I was able to do a scan and see some of my neighbors, but I don't have anything I can personally connect to... I'm assuming it works.
CPU frequency... well it kind of works. Now uses centrino-speedstep with the newer kernels. However, when I unplug/plug, it seems to not want to adjust the frequency levels up to the performance level (even though I told the powersaved config to do so). If I start out unplugged, and then plug in, seems that the current frequency, whatever it was becomes the high frequency. When I configure powersave to set at the lowest it reports an impossible frequency of 300Mhz or some such... something is broken there. Have to reboot plugged in to get everything back to 2Ghz.
I noticed a problem in Windows that also seems to be Linux. UT2004 will stutter a bit every so often and seems to be related to using an external mouse with the touchpad enabled. Under Windows, turning off the touchpad made a huge difference. Under Linux, AFAIK, you can't disable the touchpad (I tried the synaptics driver even). Again, unlike other BIOS's, you can't disable the touchpad via the BIOS.
So....
Laptop works... 7200rpm drive is slow through the ICH6M SATA controller, CDROM can be used, but WITHOUT DMA, Nvidia driver can be patched to work with 2.6.11rc5 and runs fine at 1920x1200, can be a bit jerky due to my suspicion that the touchpad is getting in the way somehow... seems a bit slow, and maybe not quite right (we need Nvidia to supply an official update). Sound works, ethernet works. Mplayer, etc work fine. All in all... I give the Dell M70 a C+. No better or worse than my old Toshiba 3000-S304 was. In comparison, I give the Dell D600 an A.... pretty much everything works well there. My guess is that the D610 might present some issues just like with the M70 though.
I know this isn't a lot of detail. I'll gladly help out with any questions if I can about Linux on the M70.
