My GNU/Linux (debian) on Dell Studio 15

by andrea venturi a.venturi@avalpa.com

Here you can find my best tweaks to support all the goodies of this slick notebook.

Introduction

The Dell Studio 15 is a recently introducted laptop packed with a lot of interesting features for the general user.

As of july 2008, Gnu/Linux can run on this laptop quite smoothly. Both amd64 (*) and i386 version (albeit with an amd64 linux you'll have to tweak the OS a lot to run "legacy" 32bit closed software like Skype, Acrobat Reader and Flash Macromedia that are quite popular..)
So, from now on, i'll speak about a i386 install of a Debian distro. I started with testing/lenny and i finished with an Unstable edition. You have to live on the bleeding edge if you the latest stuff.
Anyway, i'm not going to speak why i choose Debian (because it's clear, as it's the more controllable and free, as freedom, distribution..) and hot to install it for real (it's that easy nowadays!), but just as a case for the Dell laptop support. If you are a real man, you don't need the Ubuntu fancy features!)

(*) yes i know we are on a core 2 duo , but the 64 bit version of linux is nevertheless called amd64 because this kind of 64bit technology has been developed initially by Amd when Intel decided to scratch everything and start with their Itanium failure and a 64bit totally new architecture. now you see where we are! :-)

Short summary

There are some basic glitches that should be solved in some few months, as Dell happens to say that this Studio model should be selled with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. Here my preferred one:

• the wireless wi.fi 802.11n BROADCOM BCM4322 not working (or half working with some ndiswrapper magic! usually badly crash on you soon or later..), have to try the Broadcom own linux driver.
  

The internal audio card more or less work, usually this advanced codec need some quirks, but this time, is more or less supported. both for input (internal/external) and output (speaker and 1 headphone jack, the middle), but it has some minor issue. (max volume with resonance, no EQ actually, second headphone jack not working)
Of course, time is short so i have not yet tested some fancy features, like the HDMI port for both video and audio. I promise to do it as soon as possible and report.

Then there are some tough issues like blu ray disk playing that could/should need to deal someway with "digital right management" technologies. Let see how this script will develope.

Here my own configuration, and some quick linux advice

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:8158 Dell Computer Corp. 

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 413c:8157 Dell Computer Corp. 

Ports, Slots, Chassis

Some basic description files about the Dell Studio 15

Here i put a number of standard file, everyone can peruse to understand better what's going well or badl in this notebook:

• dmesg

• lspci -vvnn

• lsusb-vv
  

• lshw

• xorg.conf

• Xorg.0.log

• cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0
• dmesg of alsa snd-hda-intel and mp3 playing with debug info
  

Software tweaking to improve HW support

More often than not (but things are really improving) if you want to use the newest gears in your pc you can't just wait the cooked Linux distro as they can't cope with all the new hardware stuff going out on the market.

So you'll need to go out on the web, straight to the upstream hardware developers, understand if the geeks are already providing support for your bleeding edge stuff, and then get the latest package (a tar package if you are lucky.. otherwise you'll need to download straight from a concurrent versioning system.. ) and put it inside your system.

You should be aware, of course, that, acting this way, you are going outside the standard track, so you can't blame your distro packager if, later, after some upgrade cycle, things could break on you. Distro can't for sure prevent every single change from the standard upgrade management. Hey, they are already working for you for free. Please help them, for example, with Quality Assurance, Support and Evangelism.

Audio support

As the Changelog says that in 1.0.17 alsa-driver there's a greatly improved support for HDA-intel HW and various codec (like our 92HDXXX), i wanted to try it so i had to download the ALSA 1.0.17 driver and proceed with the good old way of patch a kernel:

the last step need to be done as root.

now, if everything is gone ok, you should download the old alsa driver and put in place the new one.
you can also reboot the system and things should go fine after.

And the audio card now plays very well! Hurrah (see at the bottom some more test and details)

I quickly tried to put all the usual model="" parameters during snd-hda-intel module load (dell, 3stack, 5stack, 6stack-digout) but they aren't needed.

By the way, there's already an entry for this "subdevice" (some pun intended?) 0x10280254  but it's just a fake entry and it works!

   hda_codec: model 'dell-m6' is selected for config 1028:254 (unknown Dell)

The chase is ended  only at the beginning! snd-hda-intel has a lot of potential configurations. it depends mainly on the codec; this one is a:

Guess the link of these hda code is such a difficult task that there's a tool to render visually all the connections: codecgraph. I made my homework and sent the resultant svg but i didn't get an answer. It's for sure a tough task. If you know some more news, mail me at a dot venturi at avalpa dot com (please swap the dot with . and at with @)

[4.8.2008] How to debug the audio card!

Let's move along, on linux,  you are your better friend.
If you want debug messagges (remember to take back when we'll finish otherwise you'll clobber the disk!), you just need to add this parameter during alsa audio driver compilation:

Then you'll find a lot of useful info abouth the auto-recognition of this card and how the codec play the streams when you launch your preferred mp3 player (with creative commons song of course!)
Now if only i could find a brief tutorial about this NID crazyness and the port/mixer mapping! Someone is looking to make it a user spacetools. There's a lot of speaking about how to move over fixed configuration.
Otherwise i'll need to dig in the Intel HDA specifications.. more than 170 pages of what?

[5.8.2008] The audio card start to play..

• there's both music on HP and IS
  
• Master slider control both (IS & HP) Audio Levels
• Headphone slider control just HP level
• Headphone Mute toggle mute BOTH IS & HP when OFF
  
• PCM slider control level for both HP & IS (during mp3 player)
  
• Front slider control level just for IS!
• Analog Loopback toogle controls the IS (works when OFF!)
  Simple mixer control 'Analog Loopback',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
  
  
• Analog Loopback 2 toogle controls the HP (works when OFF!)
  Simple mixer control 'Analog Loopback',2
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
  
  
• the only HP jack working (there are two in this Dell Studio) is the middle one!
• the other HP jack near the front of the laptop (HP2) doesn't work
• if i plug a HP in the HP2 jack the IS quit the audio playing (if i unplug, the IS restart)
• Analog Loopback 1 toggle doesn't do nothing at all (neither for IS, nor for HP and HP2)
  

1. works with the original debian kernel alsa driver? don't know. i zapped that stuff during alsa ugrade so don't have the time to come back. maybe some one can tell us.
2. are the Mics (internal near webcam and Jack) working? it's easy to test, some day, when i'll try Skyp! :-)
   
3. why the second HP (HP2) doesn't work? need to investigate
   
4. can we (should we) have auto mute for IS when HP is inserted? maybe it can be done at an user preference level!
   

Luckily Mario Limonciello gave me the winning hint again; revert back this commit!
It's really  one-liner in the patch_sigmatel.c file; we need to let our subsystem 0x10280254 use the standard init struct dell_m6_core_init[] and not the soften dell_eq_core_init[]

This is the relevant change around line 3567:

Lastly, there's support from the codec vendor, too! here you can find a huge pdf with all the magic about this codec.,
Is there something more we can do with this codec ? Maybe some default on the .ini files in the windows driver can help too. Let's find brighter ideas!

[7.8.2008] Today, i've been struggling a bit to have both (one at a time..) the internal and my external mic working through the line in jack input port. Let's se how we can do it.

This is an image of my working minimal alsamixer config input-wise (Capture would be the right word..) :

Conclusion!

• Internal speaker working
• Headphone working (together or alone)
  
• Decent audio max volume (had to patch back from this commit)
• Recording from embedded mic
• Recording from Mic Jack Port.
  

Webcam support

The webcam is not supported out of the box, but neither it's too diffcult to find the solution.

This web camera is a standard linux-uvc compatible camera. Debian already support the module but outside the packaged kernel.
So you need to installa a source package called linux-uvc-source and compile it on the fly.

Of course you do need a bunch of development tools, like compilers, kernel header and so on.

It should be all installed when you install module assistant:  apt-get install module-assistant

When the linux module uvcvideo is compiled, you should see some succesful message here in dmesg:

[10457.275897] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2M (0c45:63fa)
[10500.755024] input: Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2M as /class/input/input12
[10500.765802] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[10500.765812] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)

If you want to test it, use the software called uvccapture (apt-get install uvccapture) and you should see your face (simley or hangry, i don't know!) on the screen.

Bluetooth Adapter and something about Multimedia keys and "kill switch" for wireless adapters (some glitches)

• On the left side of the laptop there's the standard "kill switch" slide button for enable/disable the radio devices of this computer (the PCI Broadcom Wi.fi and USB Broadcom bluetooth adapter)
• On the left side there's also another lightable button called (in windows) Wi.Fi Catcher
  
• On top, there are a number of piezoelectric keys (very cool, they light on and slowly fade away when you press them!), or usual multimedia task like play, stop forward backward, vol up & down, mute & eject. The Eject button works always.

as you can see, there's the bluetooth adapter, but there are too two "input adapters" (a keyboard and  a mouse !)
[6.8.2008] I had a thread in the linux-desktop (it's a bit misleading as a title) mailing list with Dell's Mario Limonciello (many thanks to him) about this HID devices and i've been told an interesting story. This devices are "fake" devices from the BT adapter so, if you have a BT mouse and keyboard, you can use them also at boot/bios time without OS knowledge and management. This is a renowned Apple feature too.
As you can see now with:

the BT adapter can't be seen by Linux.

If you want to use the BT adapter as HCI, you'll need to give a magic commandas root: hid2hci

If the switch is onWith regard to piezo keys, i already can raise, reduce and mute the volume with the piezo keyboard (and it's supported by gnome with a fancy animation on the screen)
And i get some unsupported keycodes, pressing the Wi.fi catcher on the left side of the hinge:

and pressing the "Fn-Right Arrow"  combinatin (that's should raise the keyboard night light, in my laptop it doesn't work! :-| ) i get:

BTW there's no "release event" for this key!

The other piezo keys don't send any relevant event on the /var/log/messages file.. maybe they are already supported? But there's no app coming out saying "let's play".  Need to dig further..

Another little glitch from a software point of view: when the bluetooth adapter return to life, Gnome doesn't switch on the bluetooth stack software. If i raise the BT application manually, it still says it does not see any adapter on board!
If you want to use the BT adapter with your Phone in HCI mode you have to give the hid2hci command as super-user!

Wifi: the Broadcom BCM4322 nitghmare

This is the only nasty tale.

We Free&Open source customers (like linux users) are really tired of "dragging-their-feets" hardware producers.
I'm going to complain to Dell about it every day, so Dell will push better this concept in the head of these picky producers (or change totally their HW choice )

External hardware supported (not plug and play..)

We all say that hardware support in linux is getting better, but sometime there's still some glitch.

Here i speak about the worst things i'm trying to use under linux. Some time i win, sometime i'm still losing but there's always hope!

Usb serial port HL-340

As this notebook doesn't have any legacy port (no serial RS232, no parallel port AKA ieee1294, no more PSTN modem) i have to find alternatives as sometime i need such stuff.

The first piece i had to tweak a bit is an USB-serial converter called HL-340:

It seems an easy task, as we believe RS232 to be a standard module in linux usb-core. Not at all!

If you plug the cable in an USB port, you get ti recognized as a Prolific PL-2303 cable. It seems right out of the box, but it does not work.

You get always bad character in the serial line program like minicom. Don't know way.

If you want to use this cable, you need to blacklist this preferred driver in the kernel linux. I.e. Put a blacklist pl2303 line at the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and you'll find, next time you link the cable, that it gets a more friendly ch341 module. This works! I spent so much time and i found the solution here.

Lifeview animation flytv_express_m5_mst_t2a2

Things to be done..

Many things could be improved, of course, and tested too.

• The firewire port seems recognized and working, but i've not tested it. (don't have a camera or a hard disk firewired)
  
• The multimedia keys on top of the standard keyboard seem recognized and working out of the box!
  
• The HDMI and VDA ports are to be tested. But then there should be much more to tell about this RadeonHD3450 GPU!
  
• I'd like to test better the freeze systems (hardware or swsusp2)

So much things to do. But all reasonable and in a short term too.

Things are changed a lot in linux camp since the early days.

Kudos to all the hardcore people who made it possible. You are great!

Andrea Venturi (a dot venturi at avalpa dot com)

Tell me for any thing should be uncorrect or changed since 6.8.2008 (sunny august and the holidays are here!)