Linux on a Dell Latitude CPtS Laptop

Hardware | Installation | 3D Hardware Acceleration | Resources

The Hardware

• CPU: Intel Pentium II Celeron (Coppermine) with 128k Cache
• Monitor: Samsung LT141X4-156 LCD (1024x768)
• Graphic card: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x (16 Mb)
• Sound card: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator
• Memory: 256 Mb
• Hard disk: 10Gb IBM-DJSA-210
• DVD: LG DVD-ROM DRN-8080B
• Modem: Unknown winmodem
• PCMCIA: 2x CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225
• IDE: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4
• USB: Intel Corp. 82371AB PIIX4 USB
• External Connectors: 1x Par, Ser, USB, ext. Monitor, TV out, Mic, Line IN, Headphones

Installation

I didn't have any problems installing SuSE 7.2 or Debian Woody
on this laptop. Even Windows (TM) installed without a hitch ;)

Most of the hardware was detected and ready-to-rock right after the setup process had finished.
The only drawback: hardware acceleration of the graphics card needed some tweaking, but more on that later.

Graphic card / Monitor

The graphic card and the LCD panel were detected all right by
all distributions. XFree came up with 24bit in 1024x768 mode
which seems to be the maximum supported by the LCD.

Sound

Sound worked out-of-the box but there are no bass or treble
controls available which doesn't hurt to much since the speakers
are no good anyways.

Mouse / Touch-Pad

Both, an external PS/2 mouse and the touch-pad work without
problems. But sometimes i have experienced "lockups" of the
PS/2 mouse when i hit the touch-pad in accident.
I had to wait up to 10 seconds before the PS/2 mouse worked again
but there is a work-around: just tell your BIOS not to use the
touch-pad if an PS/2 mouse is connected, or remove the touch-pad
from your XFree86-config file.

DVD-Rom

No problems, It Just Works (TM)

PCMCIA

All distributions detected the pcmcia bus and my network card
out-of-the-box.
If you happen to own an orinoco network card, you can grab
a patched driver with monitor-mode here.

USB / Serial Port

Until now i haven't used either but they should work all right
since their drivers are loading ok.

IRDA

I am successfully connecting to my Compaq Ipaq, so yes, it works.

APM

All APM functions work all right. Just don't let your laptop
suspend when you close the lid since it will *not* wake up
most of the time. This happens in Windows (TM), too so i think
it's a hardware/ BIOS issue.

Turning on DRI 3D acceleration

For 3D hardware support you will need to download the latest rage128
and mach64 drivers from the DRI-Project.

Download the Rage128 driver from here and the experimental Mach64 driver
from here. The included installer will take care of the installation.

When you restart the X-Server you should check your XFree86 logfile if direct
rendering has been enabled (see a copy of my logfile in the resources section).

If you run into problems, consult the DRI documentation for help.

Resources

• XF86Config for hardware and software acceleration
• XFree86 logfile with DRI support enabled
• A complete lspci dump
• Loaded modules for Debian Woody
• My kernel configuration (2.4.20)
• For more information about Linux and laptops, please go to Tuxmobil.org