Linux on alienware-m11x?

[c00lwaterz]

I haven't had any issues with heat to be honest.

Unrelated: Has anyone successfully gotten the latest intel drivers loaded? I want to get some better video performance so I can run gnome-shell

thanks. do alienware support linux? hardware, linux etc? and other features?

what alienware model you use?

thanks again

[tahnok]

Alienware has no support for linux, but it works anyways.

I have an m11x R1 and it works great

[c00lwaterz]

Alienware has no support for linux, but it works anyways.

I have an m11x R1 and it works great

i mean the hardware drivers etc.. do sound works perfectly and fan, lights, gpu etc?

[tahnok]

All of that information is in this thread. There's a summary a few posts back

[nesalang]

Hi here's is how I got m11x R1 working on ubuntu 10.10

Works
* Sound
* Disable nvidia - It doesnt work after being in sleep mode, but you can make at shortcut to launch the "nvidia disable" script again
* alienfx
* wifi - active in restricted hardware
* Flash playing in fullscreen (etc. hak5.org, youtube.com ..)

kinda works
* Backlight - the script is a bit choppy but works.

Doesn't work
* Switchable graphics - I recommend to dual boot into windows for playing games.

This is what i did. I made a guide for myself, so i easy can reinstall ubuntu, but why not share it with you.

Best regards Simon Hein

================================================== ==============================
Getting started
================================================== ==============================

Download this zip from http://thecoder.dk/m11x.zip

unpack the zip where ever you want

Copy m11x folder to /home/put-your-user-name-here/

================================================== ==============================
Nvidia disable fix
================================================== ==============================

In terminal

cd /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/

make

chmod u+x test_off.sh

echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf

sudo update-initramfs -u

sudo nautilus
ADD following lines in /etc/rc.local

insmod /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/acpi_call.ko
/home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/test_off.sh

That's it.

To test it
/home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/test_off.sh

to check if its working in terminal:
grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state

The value should drop from around 20000mW to about 11000mW-15000mW
------------------------------------------------------------
| Warning if you do it wrong i might cause ubuntu to crash.
| If that's the problem, start in safe mode, and go to:
|
| /etc/rc.local
|
| And remove these lines
| insmod /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/acpi_call.ko
| /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/acpi_call/test_off.s
|
| After that, try the guide again.
------------------------------------------------------------



================================================== ==============================
Brightness fix
================================================== ==============================
cd /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/backlight/
chmod u+x backlight_up
chmod u+x backlight_down

Now go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts

Press add

Name:
Backlight up

Command:
/home/put-your-user-name-here/backlight/backlight_up

After that map it to a key combo

Name:
Backlight down

Command:
/home/put-your-user-name-here/backlight/backlight_down

After that map it to a key combo


If you want to make a dedicated key to a specific brighness value use this command.

gksudo "setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=42"

gksudo "setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=FF"

================================================== ==============================
Alien FX
================================================== ==============================
sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0

cd /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x

Now go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts

Add following line to the commandline:
gksudo "java -jar /home/put-your-user-name-here/m11x/AlienFXLite-0.4b.jar"

map a keyboard shortcut

================================================== ==============================
Making flash play in full screen in ubuntu 10.10
================================================== ==============================
sudo mkdir /etc/adobe
echo "OverrideGPUValidation=true" >~/mms.cfg
sudo mv ~/mms.cfg /etc/adobe/

================================================== ==============================

Hi simonhein,

thanks for the help. the nvdia method worked! It was guite cool. One question I have is. How do I turn it back on?

Thanks!


One question,

Is it possible to use external monitor?
Thannks!

[tahnok]

Yup, I use an external monitor all the time. Sometimes I have to click on Monitors in the System menu in order to get it to work.

[c00lwaterz]

i won't but machine that will not work out of the box on linux. because you buy the machine for it's specification. and if it will not work for you right, then it's a waste of money. if you will use linux then graphics won't work then it's a waste. then you should buy graphics that will work on linux. it's better. (in my opinion) i will buy 100% compatible machine for linux.

pls don't get me wrong.

[Sub101]

i won't but machine that will not work out of the box on linux. because you buy the machine for it's specification. and if it will not work for you right, then it's a waste of money. if you will use linux then graphics won't work then it's a waste. then you should buy graphics that will work on linux. it's better. (in my opinion) i will buy 100% compatible machine for linux.

pls don't get me wrong.

You can make both cards work using Arch.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...VGA_SWITCHEROO

And I see no reason why you couldnt make it work in Ubuntu.

[c00lwaterz]

You can make both cards work using Arch.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...VGA_SWITCHEROO

And I see no reason why you couldnt make it work in Ubuntu.

thanks for the info. im currently using toshiba m900 but not yet solve the problem about fan control. sorry for the OT.

so in my opinion "if" i will buy alienware laptop, I will ensure it will work out of the box. it is hard and risky if some hardware is not working.

in my case my toshiba m900 getting really hot because fan is not working on linux even i update the bios. my fan work good on windows only.

But i really want linux

[Pollywoggy]

thanks for the info. im currently using toshiba m900 but not yet solve the problem about fan control. sorry for the OT.

so in my opinion "if" i will buy alienware laptop, I will ensure it will work out of the box. it is hard and risky if some hardware is not working.

in my case my toshiba m900 getting really hot because fan is not working on linux even i update the bios. my fan work good on windows only.

But i really want linux

You might try a Google search of this forum. I seem to remember reading that someone wrote instructions for installing Linux on an Alienware laptop, based on how they had succeeded. IIRC I did it and the only things that did not work were wireless and the enhanced graphics of the laptop. The worst problem I had (I did not use the information recently posted on this forum about how to install) was that Windows 7 wrote over the Linux boot record.

As for Alienware, Dell's phone tech support is terrible. If you do have a problem with the hardware as I did, you might need to talk to foreign tech support (if you are a US resident) for 2 hrs or more and play their games before they will schedule a pickup. Once you have gone through their gauntlet, the rest is fast and you will have your laptop back in one week or less. I will not know if mine is really fixed until we have warm weather again. It would shut down immediately after being started during warm weather. I would not buy anything from Dell unless they fix their tech support for US residents. I read somewhere that people who live in Europe can deal with tech support in their own countries and that only US tech support is outsourced. Can someone confirm this?