Dell Duo Setup Guide

[teh603]

What version of Ubuntu are you running and what BIOS is your Duo?

I'm running 11.10 and A06 BIOS and I have no problems with it crashing. I do believe 10.10 and 11.04 had crashing problems in the very beginning. I can't remember now but I know I posted about it in this thread.

I think I'm still running AO6; its a replacement motherboard but its still pretty much stock. You'll have to excuse me; I'm 200+ miles away from it. Its running Precise, though. The only thing that worked on Ocelot was the touchscreen. The ACPI has worked off and on in Precise; it worked early on (although it was using the phantom AC adapter so the only thing it could register was when I unplugged it; it didn't even register being plugged in or charging), and then stopped working in a late version of 3.2.

You might want to add the hid-multitouch local.rc echo line to the front page; its a one- line hack that seems to get it working quickly and easily in Precise.

However you will not be able to update your BIOS easily without Windows installed.

To misquote a USENET joke, a guy realizes he has a problem with his computer, and decides to flash the BIOS. Now he has two problems.

EDIT: Thinking about it I think it was more of a Unity issue for me because when I would switch my computer to Classic Gnome it wouldn't crash but Unity would. I now run Kubuntu so I can't really verify that Unity has this problem still.

I'm not so sure how Unity or -Unity would fix a kernel- level issue.

[amras5584]

i have the same problem with Kubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 11.10, Mint 11 (gnome 2) and Mint 12 (genome3), so is not problem of Unity but Kernelll, in my own opinion... i don't know the bios version of my duo, how can i know it?? sorry for my english, it is a bit late...

[teh603]

i have the same problem with Kubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 11.10, Mint 11 (gnome 2) and Mint 12 (genome3), so is not problem of Unity but Kernelll, in my own opinion... i don't know the bios version of my duo, how can i know it?? sorry for my english, it is a bit late...

You can't flash the BIOS on Linux; you need to either assemble a flasher using FreeDos, a USB stick, and the flasher itself; or be running Windows. This is one of those cases where a hardware manufacturer finds a security flaw in Windows, decides its "working as intended," and bases an OS feature around it. The ROM flash mechanism can also be used to deliver a crafted virus that can destroy the ROMS of a known brand of motherboard; it happened to a friend back in the late '90s.

I'd really suggest you NOT flash your BIOS, though. I've heard of people bricking their computers more often than successfully flashing, which is why IMO we should handle BIOS glitches with kernel patches the way Windows does instead of telling hardware manufacturers to patch them.

[amras5584]

EDIT, see my next message...

[ninjaaron]

Ah crap. I deleted windows a long time ago.

[teh603]

You can supposedly run it from a FreeDOS boot USB, but I'm still a little hesitant about it. Too many horror stories about failed BIOS flashes bricking someone's system.

Edit: What the heck, that BIOS has been out for a long time now, and some of us who have ACPI issues are already running it. Check the version number, why don't you?

[amras5584]

sorry, sorry, sorry. it seems that is a residual thing of using windows or something, because if i reboot from windows to linux, it doesn't crash when plugged the ac connector, but if i start directly to linux it crashes allways... sorry for my english.

something similar happened with the touch screen without installing anything on Linux, when i reboot from windows to linux it worked without problems... strange things that happen...

[teh603]

Wouldn't be the first time that hardware has behaved strangely on a reboot. I had an Acer Aspire One whose wifi would crash at the hardware level; I never found out why, but I think it was something to do with buffer flushing. You just had to power-cycle it for it to come back up. It drove a lot of the "I never turn my computer off" people bananas, though.

[amras5584]

also, on duo if you switch off the wifi you can't switch on from linux. you have to do it from windows... it sucks because sometimes the function keys work in reverse and if you want to use F2 (to rename, for example) accidentally switch off the wifi...

[Kirboosy]

If you really want to flash your BIOS you could Download the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 and temporarily install that. (However it will wipeout your Ubuntu since Windows doesn't like to dual boot) Also I've used MiniPE verions of Windows which are like LiveCD. Either way you should be fine. Asus has a big problem with bricking their machines with BIOS flashing but I haven't had any problems with Dells and I've updated hundreds of them.

i have the same problem with Kubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 11.10, Mint 11 (gnome 2) and Mint 12 (genome3), so is not problem of Unity but Kernelll, in my own opinion... i don't know the bios version of my duo, how can i know it?? sorry for my english, it is a bit late...

The BIOS should have the version number under the main menu of the BIOS Configuration. Hit F2 while the computer is displaying the Dell logo to access this menu.

also, on duo if you switch off the wifi you can't switch on from linux. you have to do it from windows... it sucks because sometimes the function keys work in reverse and if you want to use F2 (to rename, for example) accidentally switch off the wifi...

On mine I can turn my wifi on and off with ease. (I am running just Ubuntu and not Windows) The trick is when you turn off the card and turn it back on you need to re-enable wireless from the Networking drop down under Ubuntu. (There is a little tick box "Enable Wireless".)