Dell Latitude X1

Author: Martin List-Petersen - martin at list-petersen dot dk
The newest version of this document can allways be found at http://www.marlow.dk/dell_x1
Version: 0.04
Created: December 06th, 2005
Last updated: January 10th, 2006

Disclaimer :o) : This document describes the steps to get Debian Linux running on the Dell Latitude X1. The document is provided as is, of course. Feel free to use the info provided here, but don't blame me, if it doesn't work. Feedback however is allways appreciated. I can't be made responsible for data loss or other damages in any way.

Due to lack of time, this document is yet unfinished, but will have ongoing updates.

Hardware

Tech Specs: Connectors Other stuff

Hardware notes


Dell car/air power adapter
I had ordered a spare power adapter because I hate to drag the only adapter around with me and when I unpacked the car/air adapter realised to my suprise, that the car/air adapter is for car, air and mains. It comes in a a travel bag and has two power cables in there, one for mains and another one with a cigarette lighter connector, which can be detached to get to the air connector.

Installation


Debian Sarge
Installation seems to be tricky, since the CD-rom drive not is detected during boot, matter of fact, it'll only work if you plug it in after finished boot process, once Debian is installed.
My workaround for that problem was installing Debian via PXE boot, another option would be the boot-cd or netboot-cd booted from a USB key. I'll describe the steps to get the USBkey prepared for that later.
Also to note would be, that the keyboard is completely disabled, if you try to use Fn-Up, Fn-Down and the likes during the boot of the kernel. Haven't figured that out yet.

Debian Sarge does a good job in detecting all hardware, that the notebook has to provide. Things that I've test/get to work yet are:

Configuration Steps


Networking
One of the things, that might be annoying is that Debian tries to configure the network card every time you boot the machine, regardless if there is a cable plugged in or not. You can press CTRL-C to stop it from polling the non-existing DHCP server, but it still is annoying, especially on notebooks, where you often are switching locations and sometimes not are connected to network or maybe use wlan instead of. ifplugd can solve this. Edit /etc/network/interfaces so that eth0 is configured, but remove it from the "auto" line. This way eth0 will not come up automatically on boot. Afterwards you install ifplugd. This tool will detect if the cable is plugged in or when it gets removed and configures eth0 automatically then.
Here is a sample of my /etc/network/interfaces before adding wlan and bluetooth: 
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback
    iface eth0 inet dhcp
XFree86
X works straight away, but the resolution will be 1024x768, not 1280x768. With a few tweaks, it'll be easy enough to get the best out of the widescreen display.

Sarge, using XFree86 will have to use the "vesa" driver, in Edge, using the X.org server you should use the "i810" driver.
My /etc/X11/xorg.conf can be found here. This is similar to the XF86Config-4 file, beyond that you would have to use the vesa driver there.

To get the synaptics driver you need to install the package xfree86-driver-synaptics.

The configuration shows, how to use a setup, where the touchpad is your primary pointer device and you can plug your usb mouse in, anytime you want. A bluetooth mouse, once paired with the notebook will also be detected as usb mouse and work without changes to the X configuration.

Back to the 1280x768 resolution, there is a package called 915resolution in Edge, that does the trick. After installing edit the /etc/default/915resolution file. You need to replace one of your current resolutions with the 1280x768 one. I choose VBIOS resolution no. 45 for that and entered MODE=45, XRESO=1280 and YRESO=768 in the file. Now X will start in the correct solution, instead of reverting back to 1024x768. The vbios change is not permanent, if the machine goes to sleep mode or is rebooted, it has to be redone, thus 915reolution is started init.d

Another problem is that when the lid is closed and opened again, the display will not come back on. With the vesa driver in XFree86 it worked to press CTRL-ALT-F1 and back with CTRL-ALT-F7, but in Xorg with the i810 driver that doesn't solve anything. You need acpid installed to solve this. Create an event "lid" in /etc/acpi/events containing 
    event=button/lid.*
    action=/etc/acpi/lid.sh
In /etc/acpi you can create a script lid.sh to handle the lid event then. The script should look like this: 
    #!/bin/sh
    export XAUTHORITY=/var/lib/gdm/\:0.Xauth
    if grep "closed" /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state
      then
        xset -display :0 dpms force off
      fi
    if grep "open" /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state
      then
        xset -display :0 dpms force on
      fi
This will bring your display out of sleep state and into sleep state when you close/open it. For this you also need to make sure that your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file has the line Option "DPMS" in your "Monitor" section.

Non Gnome Window Managers
I use Fluxbox as my window manager, but a lot of the Gnome based tools around like Evolution, Gaim, GPSdrive and so on. These would look quite ugly without the proper font setting etc. To avoid this, you can start the gnome-settings-daemon during login to your X session.

For Fluxbox that can be done in a script called from the session.screen0.rootCommand: option in your ~/.fluxbox/init file.

I call a bash script called ~/.fluxboxrc there, which starts various processes for me, like the esd daemon, a little binary for the volume buttons on my Logitech USB headset and for example synergy when I'm in the company, which makes it possible to use mouse and keyboard of my desktop on both the notebook and the desktop at the same time. A 2 machine dual desktop setup. Another application started here is the gnome-settings-daemon. A sample of the script can be found here.

WLan

Kismet
The soundcard in the Latitude X1 (and for that case also in the Latitude C400) is a bit odd, when it comes to kismet. Festival sound output will sound odd, too fast and the like. There is a solution to this. The file /etc/festival.scm should contain the following 2 lines:

(Parameter.set 'Audio_Method 'Audio_Command)
(Parameter.set 'Audio_Command "sox -t raw -sw -r $SR $FILE -c2 -t ossdsp /dev/dsp")

This will result in proper speech support during a wardrive. The problem occurs with most Intel ICH sound chipsets.

USB specifics

Firewire

Bluetooth
Communication to a cellphone

Bluetooth PAN (Personal Area Network)

CD Burner

The CD drive works straight away if you don't plug it in during boot. Somehow it doesn't get detected properly. If you wait until Debian has booted and then plug it in, it'll work. cdrecord and the likes work of the shelf.

Kensington USB Docking Station

Dell offers the Kensington USB Docking station with the Latitude X1, which provides 10/100 mbit Ethernet, 3 USB ports, parallel port, serial port and soundcard.
The ports that Debian detects out of the box are the USB hub, the soundcard (snd_usb_audio), the serial port (pl2303) and the parallel port (usblp), so the only piece left is the ethernet port.
I will have a look at that shortly to see, what needs to be done to get that working.

Battery Saving


CPU Speed

Debian Sources


Here are some sources for Debian, that might be of interest:

Links


History

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