Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

virusso80 · 2010-07-17 17:45:32

Hi all,
i'm writing to let you know about so many problems and issues I'm experiencing with my new laptop. I love arch, but i think this is the pc which gave me the hugest number of problems. Most of them I think are arch-related, but some not...or maybe i don't know...probably all of them are because of my stupidity

1
the first was the problem with the keyboard. I was not able to use properly some chars like @#e in many applications (firefox, writer, kate (in kde)). TTY shell was properly working. Keyboard has been properly set in rc.conf and with setxkb. I partially solved installing gnome (and since here same problem) then i installed gnome extra and it seems to work now. I tested fedora and ubuntu live version and there wasn't any problem. I opened a thread for this

2
the problem related to shutdown is discussed here and is still unresolved. I don't know why, but i can't shut it down, it only restarts, also after the message "POWER OFF". No problems with ubuntu and fedora from the live cd. If i select shut down, i can correctly shut down

3
the third is a microphone problem. I tried with cited distros, but i'm not able to record anything and therefore no skype conversation is possible. I can hear but cannot be heard. I have 2 mics, a built' in and an exetrnal jack. I tried many combination with line in, front mic...but nothing to do.

4
i created a dual boot with win 7. from disk utility in gnome i saw that the windows partition is sda3. then i set the menu.lst with rootnoverify hd(0,2) but it gives me an error message saying: no MBR boot loader is installed. I'm very confused. so many problem on only a machine ( a dell brand new machine - people say dell is very compatible with linux...but...i'm not pretty sure)

I wanted just to signal this situation. I don't knwo if you can help me. I don't know anymore what to do.

Thanks a lot for your patience and your help!

lang2 · 2010-08-23 19:16:51

Have you resolved any of these issues? I probably will try to install Arch on the same laptop. This is a warning for me.

virusso80 · 2010-08-25 13:56:21

lang2 wrote:

Have you resolved any of these issues? I probably will try to install Arch on the same laptop. This is a warning for me.

Hi,
well, i think that if you want to use all functionalities with this laptop, no linux distribution will give you the full support! I experienced all those problems, but i solved in some way some of them. Read the following!

1
the first was the problem with the keyboard. I was not able to use properly some chars like @#e in many applications (firefox, writer, kate (in kde)). TTY shell was properly working. Keyboard has been properly set in rc.conf and with setxkb. I partially solved installing gnome (and since here same problem) then i installed gnome extra and it seems to work now. I tested fedora and ubuntu live version and there wasn't any problem. I opened a thread for this

This issue has been solved when i re-installed AGAIN arch! i don't what was before...but now, i'm writing from here, with GNOME. I don't know, but the only difference wrt the previous gnome installation was the partition scheme: i used a partition for boot, one for /var, one for home, etc...as explained in beginner's guide. I don't think it's related, but it's the only difference i can remember.

2
the problem related to shutdown is discussed here and is still unresolved. I don't know why, but i can't shut it down, it only restarts, also after the message "POWER OFF". No problems with ubuntu and fedora from the live cd. If i select shut down, i can correctly shut down

this issue has been solved after one of the last system update. Actually i'm able to shut down and reboot correctly.

3
the third is a microphone problem. I tried with cited distros, but i'm not able to record anything and therefore no skype conversation is possible. I can hear but cannot be heard. I have 2 mics, a built' in and an exetrnal jack. I tried many combination with line in, front mic...but nothing to do.

This is still unresolved!! I also asked in alsa irc-channel, the guy gave me instructions to perform some tests, and at the end, he said that he never heard about that chipset!
Actually, sound is fine, mic doens't work. I tried ubuntu, fedora (both in live cd mode) and with all of them i'm not able to record any sound from mic. The strange thing is that in volume control there are controls for mic, but even if you enable them, you're not able to record. If you close and re-open volum control, they are again disabled. Nothing to do actually!

4
i created a dual boot with win 7. from disk utility in gnome i saw that the windows partition is sda3. then i set the menu.lst with rootnoverify hd(0,2) but it gives me an error message saying: no MBR boot loader is installed. I'm very confused. so many problem on only a machine ( a dell brand new machine - people say dell is very compatible with linux...but...i'm not pretty sure)

I don't know why, but if I set hd(0,1) it works!

MORE1:
the SD-card reader, simply doesn't work! checked on internet i seems to be incompatible with linux!
MORE2:
i'm not able to make the touchpad working with side scroll! I didn't work a lot on it, as i'm using the external mouse...but this is an other issue. Just configuring xorg file, it doens't work.

Let us know if you are able to solve any of these.

Good luck

lang2 · 2010-08-27 19:54:48

I took the lazy road and installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it.

Looks like the problem you're having are not Arch specific, well not all of them. I did get sound recoding work after a bit of googling. Here is what I did:

- edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
- add a line:

options snd-hda-intel model=ref

- reboot and it worked for me. Skype and all.

Give it a try. It might work for you.

I have the SD-card reader problem as well but it looks more like a hardware issue to me: it doesn't work with Windows 7 either. Whenever I pop a SD card into the reader, Win7 tells me it needs to be formatted!

Ubuntu setup grub to boot (0,2) as well. I had to press 'e' at the grub prompt and change it to (0,3) to boot into Win7. Weirdly I can't find /boot/grub/menu.lst! But I don't boot into Win7 often anyway so not too big a deal.

The side scroll thing is the same in Ubuntu but as you said, it's not a deal breaker. What is though is that whenever I connect a monitor to the laptop, Ubuntu decides to make the laptop screen go blank and there is nothing on the external output either. Not too impressive if you've giving openoffice Impress presentation to a room.

Anyway, if I make any improvements, I'll post here.

virusso80 · 2010-08-27 20:10:03

is /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf the same of alsa-base? I don't have that file!!
editing as you said sound.conf...it added Line-in and more switches...but...still no recording capabilities!!

SD-card works perfectly in win 7, same as mic.

Last edited by virusso80 (2010-08-27 20:38:31)

lang2 · 2010-09-03 20:43:43

a bit information on the mmc problem: it's a kernel bug. See https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16390. There is a link on the page to a redhat bugzilla page with some patches. Too lazy to try.

virusso80 · 2010-09-12 18:17:49

Just to let people know: I just upgraded my system and I realized that NOW microphone is correctly working!!!!

the only thing not working now is the mmc!! hopefully it will work soon

.:B:. · 2010-09-12 19:09:01

Glad to see you got it working. MMC can be a bit of a problem, I have given up on it on my own laptop (known problem with that MMC controller).

As for your referencing to Windows 7/Fedora/Ubuntu, the only thing that tells you is that the hardware isn't broken, but it doesn't tell you a thing about why it doesn't work on Arch. Keep in mind this is a DIY distro, and yes, things like shutdown privileges etc. have to be set up properly - just like keyboard layouts, whether it be in X or in the shell.

virusso80 · 2010-09-12 19:29:41

.:B:. wrote:

...
As for your referencing to Windows 7/Fedora/Ubuntu, ...

I was just refering to Win7 to be sure that it works! On fedora and ubuntu, sd doens't work. It's a GNU-Linux problem, not an arch related...in that case it would have been better

virusso80 · 2011-04-07 20:35:08

UPDATE: MMC is now working!

I think laptop model was too new when I installed arch and not all correct drivers were available. I didn't do anything in particular...only upgrade of the system.

Last edited by virusso80 (2011-04-07 20:36:24)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-17 17:45:32

Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#2 2010-08-23 19:16:51

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#3 2010-08-25 13:56:21

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#4 2010-08-27 19:54:48

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#5 2010-08-27 20:10:03

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#6 2010-09-03 20:43:43

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#7 2010-09-12 18:17:49

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#8 2010-09-12 19:09:01

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#9 2010-09-12 19:29:41

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

#10 2011-04-07 20:35:08

Re: Many problems with a fresh installation on a DELL LAtitude E5510

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