Arch Linux

pixelou

Member

Registered: 2011-03-30

Posts: 18

[feedback] dell vostro 3300

Hi!
I bought a dell vostro 3300 this summer, it was supposed to be available with ubuntu, but of course, it wasn't.....
Here is the output of lspci :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
12:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
13:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

As you can see, I bought one of the cheapest version, with no graphic card, only the integrated intel graphics.

Well, Almost everything works out of the box :
- kms without modifications to mkinitcpio.conf (using the intel i915 driver)
- soundcard ok ( unless you don't notice that the default level is "mute")
- multimedia shortcuts (you have to configure this)
- pm-suspend
- the ethernet controller of course
- the wifi card seems to work now, the module is called wl, and it is included in the kernel. Note that it doesn't support aircrack.

These are the problems I encounterd while using this computer:
- The fan is too loud for me, so I added a cpufreq configuration with the ondemand governor and a frequency limit ( 2GHz )
- the backlight control doesn't work by default, but I haven't tried to make it working.
- the general assembly is not perfect
- the screen colors really defers from the others screens I have.
- The memory is indeed 1333MHz ,but the i3 processor locks it down to 1066MHz . I was really disappointed when I noticed this, in fact, dell vendors don't know anything about this and I got my memory repayed because I didn't want to send my computer back (about 42€ -> yes, I live in France, that's why my English is so poor...).

the hard disk is a 7200rpm, thus the computer boots up quickly.
I haven't tested bluetooth and battery for the moment

That's all for the moment!!!

pixelou

Member

Registered: 2011-03-30

Posts: 18

Re: [feedback] dell vostro 3300

I forgot this:
There is no real webcam driver : I mean, there is a pilot, but is is still being developped, and you have to remove a call to a buggy function in the code in order to get it compiled. However, it is working fine after this tricky manipulation.