• Solution: Dell XPS M1530 Ubuntu 8.10 System Freeze Issue

    General, Networking, Ubuntu 24.04.2009 14 Comments

    When using Ubuntu 8.10 and connecting to a Wireless-n (802.11n) network, the system freezes with kernel panic (as indicated by blinking scroll and numlock). The system gets unusable and you would have to reboot. I have had this issue with my Dell XPS M1530, when connecting to Apple Extreme router.

    The issue with the intel wireless module driver, and will get fixed by installing the compat-wireless driver.

    Try compiling this iwlagn module, http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-2.6/2008/10/compat-wireless-2008-10-01.tar.bz2 .
    Extract the archive and then follow these steps:

    sudo apt-get install build-essential
cd compat*
make
sudo make install

    Reboot the system, and you will not longer face kernel panic or system freeze.

    UPDATE:

    When installing 9.04, I figured out that 802.11N drivers for Ubuntu are totally broken. Since I did not want to fiddle around much, I added the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options(and restart the system):

    options iwlagn 11n_disable=1

    This would prevent Wireless-N mode, but it will get your Dell M1530 (and M1330) working on Wireless with Ubuntu

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  • Dell XPS M1530 Ubuntu Trackpad

    Uncategorized 20.05.2008 4 Comments

    On Dell XPS M11530 with Bios  A08, The following line to the kernel in
    /boot/grub/menu.lst needs to be set for the trackpad to not go Bersek

    i8042.nomux=1

    Also, to enable scrolling, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, under “Input Device” section,

    Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "LeftEdge" "85"
Option "RightEdge" "910"
Option "TopEdge" "85"
Option "BottomEdge" "715"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
EndSection

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  • HP DV2610US & Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10)

    General, Maintenance, Networking 04.11.2007 5 Comments

    GUI Installation

    DO NOT use the GUI installation method. It does not work. It will make you feel really bad for buying this laptop. Worry not. Use the text based installation. Once the installation is complete, it will come up with the GUI with restricted resolution.

    Make sure you are connected to the LAN (and of course, you should be connected to the net). (Wifi does not work at this point). It will prompt you to install/use the restricted drivers for nVidia. Say Yes ! It will install the drivers. Reboot. You should have a proper display/resolution now. (It will prompt you to install the “drivers” for broadcom wireless. Do not proceed. They don’t work and you won’t need them).

    Networking

    In order to use the Broadcom Wireless card in HP DV2610US (and I think it also works on the recent AMD/Nvidia based laptops), you need to do the following:

    1. Disable the restricted drivers. You dont need them. The only way it all works is with ndiswrapper
    2. Install ndiswrapper (apt-get install ndiswrapper-common or ndiswrapper)
    3. Disable any Competing Drivers
      Ubuntu has a kernel driver for this device that is called bcm43xx. In order to use ndiswrapper you must put the bcm43xx in the black list file.

      echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

      The blacklisted module will not be loaded on reboot from now on.

    4. Download the “windows” driver from HP support 
      user@ubuntu:~ $ sudo wget ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe

      If the above driver does not work, try

      wget ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34152.exe
    5. Install Cabextract. Cabextract will be used to “extract” the windows drivers from the exe file. 
      user@ubuntu:~ $ sudo apt-get update
user@ubuntu:~ $ sudo apt-get install cabextract unzip
user@ubuntu:~ $ cabextract sp33008.exe
    6. Install the drivers: 
      user@ubuntu:~$ sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

      You should notice something like this (and it is normal)

      installing bcmwl5 ...
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
    7. We can list the drivers, to make sure we have it installed properly 
      user@ubuntu:~$ ndiswrapper -l
installed drivers:
bcmwl5          driver installed, hardware (14E4:4324) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)
    8. Bring up the driver: 
      user@ubuntu:~$ sudo depmod -a
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
    9. This should bring up the driver. Reboot. Once you are back in the GUI mode, you should see that Wifi is up and you are shown the nearby networks

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