Dell Latitude D420
https://docs.rc.uab.edu/
Please use the new documentation url https://docs.rc.uab.edu/ for all Research Computing documentation needs.
As a result of this move, we have deprecated use of this wiki for documentation. We are providing read-only access to the content to facilitate migration of bookmarks and to serve as an historical record. All content updates should be made at the new documentation site. The original wiki will not receive further updates.
Thank you,
The Research Computing Team
I recently purchased a Dell Latitude D420. It's a nice lightweight, compact laptop. Very protable. The install of openSUSE 10.2 was painless with the main extra step so far having been to install the Intel ipw3945 wireless driver to support the built-in wifi. I'll maintain other notes about my config here.
Monitor Config
The screen config works with the out of box openSUSE 10.2 install in 1280x800 mode. The biggest annoyance is this is a little off from the 16:9 aspect ratio of the screen. The SAX2 config through YaST offers a 1344x768 (or something like that) mode which would be perfect 16:9. Unfortunately selecting and saving this resolution mode doesn't get it to stick. It always reverts to 1280x800 mode.
The chipset for the Dell D420 is Intel 945GM. There is some confustion on whether the chipset is 945 or 950 chipset. http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945g/index.htm Intel docs for 945G Express Chipset] indicate that the GMA950 is the graphics core, though. In any case, the driver is maintained at Intel's open source driver site but that says the driver should be part of the X.org distribution and seems to be identified as the i810 driver. According to the SAX2 config, this is the one that is auto-detected. Multiple-resolutions do show up but the one I want doesn't want to stick.
There are instructions for Ubuntu on how to set this up using an imported RPM from openSUSE 10.1. The instructions are from Dec 2006 and may not be relevant anymore.
I haven't been able to figure out if there is a more specific driver package I need to install or if this is the "best" config possible.
Update - The 1344x768 config seems to stick in the xorg.conf file but I'm not sure if that's the one actually being used when running X. Cycling through the resolution modes with Ctrl+Alt+Fn+Numeric- only has about 3 modes rather than the 6 or so listed in the xorg.conf
Touch-pad Mouse Config
One guy has a light config about configing Fedora 6. His sample Xorg config shows a setting of MaxTapMove and MaxTapTime for the touchpad mouse which might help with some over-sensitivity in the mouse scolling and tapping. Will need to look up these settings in more detail.