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Thread: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    1

    The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    I'm thinking about getting a dell precision m4600 and wondering if anybody has yet tried to install ubuntu (or some other distro) one of these puppies.

    I've been trying to get the drones at dell chat to give me information on the status of the certified version as outlined here:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/...re/201101-6977

    But of course have learned nothing.

    I'm thinking about just jumping the gun, buying one, and just trying my luck, but was hoping to get some feedback off of you guys first, and to start a thread where news about install woes could be posted as it trickles in.

    Is it a good idea at this point to just buy it, or should I wait?

    cheers,
    _c

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    11

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Just ordered one Monday, should be arriving in the next two weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

    I know the M4600 supports RHEL and Ubuntu in some regions. I've had smooth sailing on the M4300/4400/4500 with Ubuntu over the last few years, so I expect more of the same.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    3

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Hi,

    Got one of these for work a few days ago, immediately wiped windows off it and put ubuntu on, running 10.10 (I would have gone with the most recent - but I have yet to find a machine running 11.04 that can successfully connect to a Xilinx JTAG pod). The certification is correct when it says Hibernate doesn't work.

    The other problem is that my system has a ATI Mobility FirePro 5950 - and while the proprietary driver provided via the "Additional Drivers" menu does work, it places an "AMD Unsupported hardware" logo at the bottom right-hand corner that I haven't figured out yet how to get rid of. (It's not a problem unique to this configuration and seems to have propped up elsewhere).

    I asked Dell tech support and was immediately dismissed with an unsupported configuration (I guess the certified one is for an nvidia card, after all). I also contacted AMD and did get a response, but they wanted a picture and I have yet to remember to bring a camera, since the watermark is in hardware and doesn't appear on screen captures. Oy.

    All in all, though, works fine besides the watermark and hibernate issues.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    8

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    We just received one M6600 today, and are installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS right now. (Keeping to LTS due to the tools we use).

    The first glitch I've seen so far, is the ethernet jack wasn't recognized when plugged into the docking station but the wireless is working.. (Which is funny because it's usually the other way around).. I'm downloading the normal updates now, and will look into this issue and give you a status when I know more.

    Pete

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    6

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Hello

    I installed ubuntu 11.04 64b on a M4600 (with ati video card) and I experience some problems.
    Many times, suspend cannot be resumed. screen still black and the keyboard is not responding (caps or num lock don't react), it there just the keyboard backlight that react on keypress
    When suspend success to resume, I've some process using high cpu load

    In these 2 cases, I have to power down and restart to be able to work.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    8

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    [QUOTE=pvandoren;10992196The first glitch I've seen so far, is the ethernet jack wasn't recognized when plugged into the docking station but the wireless is working..[/QUOTE]

    Ok got the Ethernet working had to install the latest e1000e drivers manually. They are part of the Maveric backport, but that had another issue in that the system would hang on restarts.

    Other issue found is the ATI M8900 propriotary drivers are not out yet, but installed the latest catalysis drivers and it works. There's some issue with multi-display, in that it didn't like one of the external monitors for some reason, (Seemed like it was numbering it wrong) but I finally got it in a configuration it liked.

    Pete

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    3

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Yeah, metos, I've had similar instability issues even without trying to change power states. The recent kernel update seems to have cleared them up, though.

    Additionally, beyond my problems outlined earlier with the watermark and being unable to hibernate, I also have yet to get any sound of the built-in speakers. Haven't tried headphones or anything like that yet. Keep forgetting to bring them in.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    6

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    I just updated some packages about ati and xserver
    I'll see if that fix my problem

    I olso noticed other troubles
    - when I ask for restart the computer, it freezes on shutdowning logs. I have to maintain power button down until il stop and then power up to start
    - I sometimes had this same issue on shutdown request, but most of the times the computer stops correctly

    other fact, I cant ajust touchpad pointer speed or acceleration
    I searched on the web, tried many additionnal pointer manager, but that not affect the pointer moving.

    and, so far, I never noticed sound problem.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    2

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Hi folks,

    first time post for me here, so please be gentle...

    I received my new m4600 about two weeks ago, swapped the 500GB HDD for an SSD and threw in the 11.04 DVD.
    Apart from hibernate everything works quite fine and the system is blazingly fast.
    However, I also occasionally encounter the freeze during shutdowns/reboots but it's not that much of an issue for me since it seems the system halts anyway, it just doesn't power off/reboot properly. Also happens only infrequently.

    Also, I noticed that the hibernate issues started when I switched from the i7-GPU to the nVidia Quattro in the BIOS (can't remember the name of the option right now, but the description said something about "only use this with Win7"). Before that, hibernating worked fine but 3D performance was horrible (well, enough for Unity but not much more).

    Ah well, maybe a kernel update will fix this and hopefully soon.

    Another thing that really irks me is that there don't seem to be any events generated when docking/undocking the laptop, making it impossible to switch monitor configurations on the fly. This isn't much of an issue when docking, but when you undock the notebook, the internal screen will stay black, leaving me unable to switch that using the NVidia control panel.

    I noticed, however, that when docking there seems to be a new USB hub (or something) being registered and ACPI events for this are generated. Does anyone here have an idea on how that might be usable in order to trigger some scripts for switching the monitor configurations on the fly?
    I appreciate any help on this... =)


    Kind regards,

    Salline

    P.S.: Anybody know of an adapter for the media bay so I could put in the original HDD alongside with my SSD? Since I usually don't need the builtin DVD drive I'd just put that one into an external box...

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    1

    Re: The Dell Precision m4600/m6600 thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Salline View Post
    Also, I noticed that the hibernate issues started when I switched from the i7-GPU to the nVidia Quattro in the BIOS (can't remember the name of the option right now, but the description said something about "only use this with Win7"). Before that, hibernating worked fine but 3D performance was horrible (well, enough for Unity but not much more).
    The option should be named "nvidia Optimus".
    (this option switch automatically IGP card and Nvidia quadro card)

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