This is a Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 Laptop, HM77 express chipset (ivy bridge) with 3rd generation core i5 3210M, Radeon HD 7670M, and Dell's wifi/bluetooth based on new BCM43142 chip (14e4:4365)
Wifi/Bluetooth -- Unreleased driver (ubuntu debs) form Dell:
Got Wifi/bluetooth working (with the LMDE-standard 3.2.0-2-amd64 kernel) using custom deb's that dell preinstalled on Ubuntu 11.10 that shipped factory-installed on this laptop. See the following post for details on that, and other, relevant proprietary dell packages I took note of: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st12229363
To get the same wifi dkms driver to compile on a 3.4.x (liquorix) kernel, see my note in the post right after it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st12230953
Apparently this also applies to the Dell Vostro 3460, as noted by the kind person who uploaded the deb's from Dell's ubuntu install
Intel / ATI graphics
i915 module & wrong x-offsetting of the Console/X Screen(s)
Out of the box, either post-install or when running from LMDE 201204 livedvd, both console and X screens are offset considerably to the right, causing the screen to wrap around the left side. The wrong xoffset-ing (to the right) happens as soon as i915 module takes over, and so the problem appears soon as the framebuffer kicks in, so definitely before X kicks in.
It looks like this: http://www.politreco.com/files/IMG_20110610_090045.jpg
I didn't take that picture. I got it from this, over-a-year-old thread: http://us.generation-nt.com/answer/i915 ... 91202.html
Editing /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf and changing modeset=1 to modeset=0 and rebooting fixes this issue, and then the console, followed by the display-manager shows properly (centered) on the screen. But the virtual consoles are gone!! Meaning, if I try to switch to consoles with Shift+F# keys (1 to 6), I am stuck at a greyish background, kind of like the color of the background of the display-manager (mdm in the case of LMDE).
For that, I had to upgrade to liquorix kernel 3.4.0-10, and the wrong x-offsetting issue with the i915 module loaded was resolved, and I no longer had to disable modeset.
Note: As LMDE only provides fglrx 12-2, I couldn't get my card (HD 7670M) to work with that driver, as support for HD 7600M series was only added recently (in fglrx 12.4). See this
Installing latest fglrx driver from AMD's site, which happens to be 12.8 as of date, obviously didn't work with either the LMDE 3.2.x kernel nor the Liquorix 3.4.x, as I later realize, it requires kernel 3.5, and of course more recent xserver version. I did get it to compile on 3.4.x iirc, but X would segfault when trying to start it with fglrx module.
Getting FGLRX working with liquorix 3.4.x kernel (didn't bother anymore with 3.2.x):
1. Adding debian unstable to /etc/apt/sources.list
Code: Select all
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
2. `sudo apt-get install fglrx-driver fglrx-control `
this, as of date, gives working Catalyst driver 12.6.
and optionally update X from 1.11.x to 1.12.x -> `apt-get install xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core`
3. `sudo aticonfig --initial`
4. reboot, and optinally -> `sudo amdcccle` for Catalyst control center
And when done, of course you need to uncomment the debian unstable line and re `apt-get update`
Remaining Issues: power consumption and inability to switch properly between Intel<->Radeon
If i try to switch to the intel card , whether with `amdcccle` (catalyst control center -- gui), or from cli via "aticonfig --px-igpu", xserver fails to start upon restarting it, complaining it couldn't find fglrx module. Go figure! Only way to get it working again with intel card is by `rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf` and restarting X
Still, the intel, even in idle, generates noticeably more heat and drains my battery a lot faster than the Radeon (with fglrx), despite enabling all i915 power-saving features (rc6 / fbc / lvd_downclock) via module options (/etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf). I did also added "pcie_aspm=force" to kernel linux in /etc/default/grub, but doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
So I guess I'm asking is it normal that AMD's proprietary driver for the DISCRETE chip offers better power-conserving than the opensource intel driver for the INTEGRATED chip? It's not making sense to me.
It also seems that the fan is always running high, which is something I have yet to figure out, as this is another obvious hit to battery power (in comparison to Win7 operation).
If it matters, here's the VGA stuff:
Any help, suggestions or explanations on the last 2 issues (switching & power) would be greatly appreciated.$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Thames XT/GL [Radeon HD 7600M Series] [1002:6840]