Troubleshooting the Dell Inspiron 5100 on Gutsy Thread...

[bornagainpenguin]

Hi guys!

I just installed Gutsy Gibbon on my Dell Inspiron 5100. What a disappointment compared to Feisty Fawn! Whereas Feisty was able to run everything out of the box more or less on defaults (had to change a few lines in xorg.conf to improve speed) Gutsy has me stuck on VESA mode! I'm sure there have got to be other disappointed users with Inspiron 5100s, so this is a thread for all of us to tweak our way back towards usability....

First up, slowness in booting...

Originally Posted by mahousaru Sounds like your usplash settings are messed up. Check /etc/usplash.conf xres=1024 yres=768 Should match what ever your screen supports, if it doesn't then this is causing the problem and needs to be changed. Once you have changed it u need to update the theme with sudo update-usplash-theme usplash-theme-ubuntu

Another thing you should also do is:

Originally Posted by gaburko Hi guys, firs post for me here. So, I installed Ubuntu 7.10 yesterday on a relatively OK laptop - 2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, X1300 128 MB Video. Aaaaanyway - what immediately striked me was the slow boot. since I have a dual-boot (Vista) I played a little with the menu.lst - I wanted Vista to be the default. However, the change that "did it" for me was the following: original title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic root (hd0,6) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=63d6696a-ee49-4735-ae70-c1fe14dfdf70 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic quiet now title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic root (hd0,6) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=63d6696a-ee49-4735-ae70-c1fe14dfdf70 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic simply remove "ro quiet splash" and "quiet" dunno why, but it works - boots in about a minute -) Cheers

Keep in mind moshuptrail's warning though...

Originally Posted by moshuptrail This is great! BUT, a note of caution to all... If you get a kernel update, the updater does not copy the kernel line parameters. You will need to re-apply the vga=791 each time there is a kernel update. I don't know about the usplash.conf file. So keep a link to this post so you can look up the fix after the next kernel release!

Personally I keep the splash and only remove the ro and quiet commands. I find it works well enough for me that way.

Next for the video display...

I have an ATI Radeon Mobility M7 (LW) with 32mbs of ram on it.

I managed to wade through the various options and etc used in my old Feisty Fawn xorg.conf and find settings that worked! Compiz is amazing!!

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"		"ImPS/2"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Synaptics Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"		"auto-dev"
	Option		"HorizEdgeScroll"	"0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"stylus"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"stylus"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"eraser"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"eraser"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver		"wacom"
	Identifier	"cursor"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/wacom"
	Option		"Type"		"cursor"
	Option		"ForceDevice"	"ISDV4"		# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]"
	Driver		"radeon"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Option		"LVDSBiosNativeMode" "false"
	Option		"GARTSize" "64"
	Option		"AGPSize" "64"
	Option		"AGPMode" "4"
	Option		"XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
	Option		"AGPMode" "8"
	Option		"AGPFastWrite" "True"
	Option		"EnablePageFlip" "true"
	Option		"EnableDepthMoves" "true"
	Option		"UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
	Option		"BackingStore" "on"
	Option		"UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
	Option		"DMAForXv" "true"
	Option		"AccelMethod" "XAA"
	Option		"ColorTiling" "on"
	Option		"AccelDFS" "true"
	Option		"TripleBuffer" "true"
	Option		"DynamicClocks" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Generic Monitor"
	Option		"DPMS"
	HorizSync	30-70
	VertRefresh	50-160
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]"
	Monitor		"Generic Monitor"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes		"1024x768"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	Option		"AIGLX" "true"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
#	InputDevice     "stylus"	"SendCoreEvents"
#	InputDevice     "cursor"	"SendCoreEvents"
#	InputDevice     "eraser"	"SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice	"Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode	0666
EndSection
        
Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

NOTE: The original post had the "DefaultDepth 16" I've since changed that to "DefaultDepth 24" because not running at 24 was causing me to have all sorts of issues when trying to play videos.

Third issue, HEAT!

Update!

There was a thread about this in the Ubuntu-users List that suggests the issue is caused by a combination of the new desktop search "tracker" and not having i8kutils installed right...

The "tracker" can be fixed by:

Originally Posted by Paul S My laptop also got real hot after I installed gutsy. I couldn't figure out why, but finally got gkrellm running and noticed the cpu running near 100% all the time. Turns out the new desktop search feature "tracker" was the culprit. Once I turned it off by menu System > Preferences > Indexing Preferences, my cpu dropped to low and the temperature came back to normal.

Then for i8k (to run your fans)...

Originally Posted by toorima I recommend installing gkrellm and the gkrellm-i8k plugin, lets you set at what temps the fans should go on and off and also gives you info about temps etc if you get an error with i8k you must do the following sudo modprobe i8k force=1 sudo gedit /etc/modules add the following line to the end of the file: i8k force=1

Fifth issue overall slowness in the system.

I had previously recommended the zen kernel here as a solution for slowness, but unfortunately the zen kernel hasn't worked well for me in some time...if only I could go back to the earlier version that did work...alas being security-minded prevents me from doing so. I recommend Inspiron 5100 users give the Hardy Heron kernel a shot in Gutsy Gibbon. You can find more information about that here.

--bornagainpenguin

[Gunner_Sr]

Where can I find the list of different options for i8k?

Thanks.

[engwalker]

Im not sure what kind of problems you were having to make you stick with vesa, but I have an inspiron 5100 with the 32mb m7 video card in it too. Everything was kind of shivering and shifted to the left and I just found a fix that let me use the ati driver again. I actually hadnt updated since tribe 2 I beleive because of the problem. If you edit xorg.conf under devices add the line

Option "LVDSBiosNativeMode" "FALSE"

and it fixed my problem completely. glxgears is giving me ~1100fps and everything is working again. found the fix here:http://www.rickycampbell.com/2007/10...sion-to-gutsy/

[Joe Beam]

Thank you engwalker,

I was going insane trying to get my Inspiron 5100 with xubuntu back to 1024x768.

Option "LVDSBiosNativeMode" "FALSE"

worked like magic.

This new screens & graphics applet is useless!

[landounity]

Can anyone get the S-video tv out working? I have tried 500 different approaches with no luck. I have concluded from the posts that it has to do with the driver and the xorg.conf...but that is as far as I have come.

My wife is telling me that I should go back to windows because I spend too much time with all of these bugs (her vista system plugs right into the tv with no problem at all). I am so terribly upset that I upgraded from Feisty! As far as I can tell Gutsy does not seem ready.

[bornagainpenguin]

Finally managed to get Gutsy behaving on my Inspiron 5100! Some new tips added to the top post and my xorg.conf posted so others can give it a try... NOTE: YMMV, use all advice at your own risk!

--bornagainpenguin

[JoshuaRL]

Dude this totally works. I went from 200-300fps to 1140fps in glxgears. Sweet. Thanks man, don't know why nothing else worked.

EDIT

I actually meant more like 1400fps. However, when I run glxinfo I still get no direct rendering. So what does yours say? I like the better framerate, but is there any way to get 3D from the card working?

/EDIT

[bornagainpenguin]

That's funny it always comes up as direct rendering for me...

Did you try installing driconf?

--bornagainpenguin

PS: Sorry for not having seen this post sooner!

[JoshuaRL]

Not a problem dude. I did and when I tried to run it it said that I didn't have the radeon driver installed. I think I'll try running dpkg-reconfigure on xserver and see if that works. If you have any suggestions I'd be willing to try. Thanks man.

[daytimer045]

This solution worked perfectly for me with Gutsy on my Dell Inspiron 5100.

I started with Gutsy server, then added the GNOME X Windows environment.

Found this post, and replaced the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with the version given in this thread.

Dell displayed login screen on restart.

Thanks for the quick solution.