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1680

Offer Ubuntu on the XPS M1330 laptop

1680 points posted to Linux, XPS products, Laptops by technikal 06/26/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**

Offer the coolest OS on your coolest laptop. I'd be great to buy such a cool laptop knowing ubuntu would work flawlessly on it. Maybe even add Beryl into the default install so that the graphics on the screen were as nice to look at as the laptop itself. I'd even take a dual-boot with Vista - just something to assure me that on the system is Linux ready.


Check out the Idea in Action update.

eviltabbycat
07/02/07		 Being in Australia I can't buy any of the Ubuntu hardware anyway, but if they offered the M1330 with Ubuntu in those areas, I would buy the Vista version of it anyway since I would know that it would work. For me at least its more about peace of mind rather than a support contract.
theuser
07/12/07		 Yes, just to know that linux will work. Or at least offer some info on linux drivers. For example, if the SSD won't work yet in linux, mention it.
Could have a feature on the product page: linux notes.
jonzwong
07/18/07		 Definately would want this, Im planning to buy a M1330 but I have no idea if Ubuntu would run on it or not. Im buying it with the prospect that I will one day fully support Ubuntu! Don't let me down Dell!!!
magoly
07/26/07		 Phew, it took a while, but I support this fully. I'll will be buying one soon. Only if Ubuntu is installed. And anyone who wants to hear it will know that I have the best hard- with the best OS and really good preinstalled software. (yes, I'm the computer "expert" around my block, which in itself is a joke, compared to compilation wizards I know. But I guess I'm the one who actually reads the manuals and therefore at least knows who to use all the goodies)
I got two problems left:
UMTS-Cardslot needs to be integrated without that stupid branding (verizone or Vodafone) non-sense. How does that fit offering Ubuntu?
I want to buy it in Germany. This whole thing could sweep the industry, maybe not the same, but close to the iPod-Hype. It lacks the marketing, though. You need help? ;o)
winoffice
08/10/07		 The XPS M1330 is not the coolest laptop (the XPS M1710 and the Vostro 1700 are tied on the coolest) and Ubuntu is not the coolest operating system (Windows Vista Ultimate is).
tmhoogland
08/13/07		 Would be good to ship with Linux (Ubuntu), since computer enthusiasts typically buy higher-end hardware anyways.
bk
08/26/07		 The reflective display as exposed at http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=92 created a strong "No!" for me, and it was pissing me off quite strongly that I had to look on a blog of your competition to see that it really acts like a mirror. Every vendor has its own names for "mirroring Display" to hide that property of the display. Dell calls it "TrueLife", as Ihave learned the hard way.
bk
08/26/07		 dell_admin3: Why did you flag it with "**NOT NOW**"?

While I appreciate clear idea feedback (It's far better than nothing or something rather unclear which amounts to the same), I wonder what the reasons are. I hoped it was going to be the next Ubuntu Laptop because it has the Intel GMA X3100 which "just looks stunning" with Ubuntu's new desktop effects.

Indeed, to support it, you'd need to support the new Intel driver which has support for the 965 GPU, but instead of switching to the new, as far as I guess unreleased Ubunu Gutsy, which would indeed be a **NOT NOW** as it would likly be bad to support two versions of Ubunto at the same time, you could ask Canonical to get it running with Edgy. Besides having the new Intel driver, you'd also have to support a newer Kernel or to backport some fixes from Gutsy or Fedora which runs on it quite nicely. If there is a will, there could be a way to do it. I guess that the community would be also interested to get this to life. I'm sure that some people would volunteer to test stuff.
bk
08/26/07		 Reports for Linux on XPS

http://intr.overt.org/blog/?page_id=56

Summary: This is about the NVIDIA model, which should not be used becaus of lack of accelerated 3D graphics drivers - Nonetheless it works.

OS: Slackware Linux 12.0, Kernel tested apparently was mostly 2.6.22.2 but also apparently mostly 64-bit!

Issues:

NVIDIA-closed-source-driver: * The graphics come up in a very slow mode. It’s so slow that even 2D graphics are painful. You have to restart the X server to get it back to normal. This apparently only affects 8xxx chips, and will hopefully be fixed in future driver releases. In the past, a similar bug affected older graphics chips and it was fixed.

ACPI: * After suspending and resuming, it is no longer possible to power off through acpi. The kernel reports that it sends the acpi request to power off and then nothing happens. You have to use the power button to turn it off. I don’t know if this is a kernel issue or a Dell ACPI quirk. Hopefully it will get fixed in due course.

The NVIDIA-closed-source-driver issue should not show up with the Intel GMA X3100, but it potentially may be caused by a failure to restore MTTR register settings for write-combining on resume. There is a fix for restoring the fixed-range MTRRs after suspend in 2.6.22 on a resume correctly even if the BIOS changes the MTRRs in SMM on ACPI activation, so that should not be the issue, and a bug in the NVIDIA driver in restoring the MTRRs after resume could be possible, but it would be strange if it only affects the 1330M, so I assume it's some GPU-related issue with HW-reinitialisation. As a supported model won't have NVIDIA card because of closed drivers, that would not be relevant to wether the X3100 model could be shipped with Ubuntu.

It contains full list of all support items of the latop complete with description which software to install and how to confgure the item to make it work.

This has some links to revies as well: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=485275&page=8< to get sound, it seems to be consistant among reviews that you need:

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack


Here is a french report with Ubuntu on the M1330, translated with google translations:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdoc.ubuntu-fr.org%2Fdell...
bk
08/26/07		 Here is an other report: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallingUbuntuOnADellXPSM1330< says: Does sleep/hibernate work? -- Not really, screen does not awaken. Note from Francois2: it seems to be working on mine. With Nvidia proprietary drivers. Hibernate worked when I first tried it. But I have some little display problems (the Network manager icon is not entirely displayed from time to time) and the graphic acceleration is slow. It seems to be a known bug in the Nvidia driver. - So it's also an NVIDIA model - the one which should not be shipped beause the NVIDIA closed source driver cannot be supported.

With the Intl GMA X3100, there should be no issues except that the kernel ACPI parameter acpi_sleep=s3_bios or acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode might be needed.

As a last resort one boot with vesafb, switch to the vesa console with chvt on suspend using a script, save video mode using VESA BIOS (vbetool), restore it on resume and switch back to the console where we switched away. That is at least known to work with the Thinkpad T61 and I think I have read about the vbetool method also with Ubunto on some Dells.

Both these methods are now supported by hal and just need to be configured as a quirk in hal. It's really easy, just look at the hal mailing list for examples.
Sample script for testing:
#!/bin/bash 
console=$(fgconsole) 
chvt 1 
echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/acpi_video_flags 
state=$(vbetool vbemode get) 
sync 
hwclock --systohc 
echo -n mem > /sys/power/state 
hwclock --hctosys 
vbetool vbemode set $state 
chvt $console 
echo restored
winoffice
09/26/07		 This is a duplicate of this idea -- the URL is http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/61771/PreInstalled_Linux__Ubuntu__Fedor...
lolocaust
09/27/07		 @ winoffice, this idea is to put Ubuntu on a specific notebook, which Dell currently does not do (it's not possible to purchase Ubuntu preinstalled on an XPS m1330), and NOT to offer linux pre-installed in general (Which already does, if you point your browser at www.dell.com/ubuntu) Somehow I don't think you're purposely being misleading.

Anyway, I will probably purchase a macbook with leopard when it is released unless Dell offer Ubuntu on the m1330 before then.
dell_admin1
09/27/07		 Looks like this one was flagged with "not now" but we didn't leave an explanation or more information. Wanted you all to know that I'm tracking this one down and we'll get a response up as soon as we can. Thanks.
lolocaust
09/30/07		 Thanks, admin1, if it's not a technical reason (such as unsupported hardware), I may just buy a regular one, refund Windows and install Ubuntu myself.
spitze
10/01/07		 I want also Ubuntu for the xps m1330. I work for a company (in germany) how works with linux software and so we don't use MS software, especially vista!! Is it possible to send back the vista licence, and get money back??
rhonaldmoses
10/20/07		 Hi,

I have installed Ubuntu 7.10 in dell XPS M1330 and everything seems to work perfect (including the WebCam); except the FingerPrint reader suite (Google and you'll find help for that; its available). However, its a little tricky situation if you have to retain MediaDirect 3.3, Vista and Ubuntu. Checkout the below link to fresh install all three to work flawlessly in Dell

http://linuxevangelist.blogspot.com/2007/10/dual-boot-in-dell-xps-m1330-with....
jorge
10/20/07		 Thanks for the info rhonaldmoses, keep any such info in the storm, its best we show them how to do it at this point, they seem hesitant to try anything.
winoffice
10/21/07		 @lolocaust, I am not intentionally misleading. I said that this is a duplicate in the sense that if that idea (the one for which I supplied the URL in my previous comment) is implemented, then so is this one (i.e., if that idea - which spoke about offering three Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, on all PCs, including the XPS M1330 - is implemented - then so is this one - i.e., if that idea is implemented, then Ubuntu would be offered on all PCs including the XPS M1330 - and so this idea would be implemented also).
dell_admin1
10/21/07		 Quick update - As stated on Sept. 2, I still owe the community an explanation on why this was marked "not now". I'm aware of this outstanding request and hope to get back to you this week. Sorry for not getting back earlier.
dell_admin1
10/23/07		 @bk - thanks for asking about why this one was tagged as "not now". I've looked into this and have a couple things to report:

1.) This idea never should have been tagged as "not now". The appropriate tag for this idea (back then and still now) is "under review". The fact is that we're always testing our systems for compatibility with Ubuntu, and it's not our practice to entirely rule out a product as a possibility. As a result, I am updating the status tag to reflect the current status of this idea... our product and consumer marketing and engineering teams are reviewing this idea.

2.) I apologize that this was tagged in error, and that this was tagged as "not now" without an explanation. I have reminded all Dell folks who tag ideas on IdeaStorm (there's only a few of us right now anyway) to ALWAYS include an explanation in a comment, particularly if we tag it "not now" or "not likely". So hopefully we won't have another situation like this one.

@bk and a few others - thanks for keeping up on me to chase this answer down. And again, I'm very sorry about the miscommunication. Thanks.
dell_admin1
10/23/07		 Changed status to **UNDER REVIEW**.
jervis961
10/23/07		 Thanks dell_admin1.
kara_k
Jan 23		 Changed status to **IN PROGRESS**.

Check out the Idea in Action!
jervis961
Jan 23		 Way to go Dell.
matt_d
Jan 24		 Thanks to everyone who voted for this idea. Your enthusiasm and persistence is what drove us to add Ubuntu to the XPS M1330n.
jorge
Jan 30		 Just make sure not to cripple it by only offering the slow processors and no Nvidia graphics card.
matt_d
Jan 30		 Nvidia graphics should be there - it's a web site issue we're working through. CPU speeds too.
kara_k
Mar 5		 Changed status to **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**.

Check out the Idea in Action update.
qkchuah
May 6		 Dell Malaysia is not offering ubuntu system. I wish they offer it as soon as possible.
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