---------------------------------------------------------------------- Alienware Area-51 m5750 Mon Oct 23 21:04:56 MDT 2006 Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 2.0GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz FSB Installed OS: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 Display: Alienware® m5750 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD - Saucer Silver Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® 945PM + ICH7 Chipset Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 1024MB Hard Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 200GB (100GB x 2) Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache CD/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software Video/Graphics: 256MB ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1800 Sound Card: Intel® 7.1 High-Definition Audio Wireless: Internal Intel® PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support w/ Onsite Service Mobile Bags: Alienware® Odyssey Backpack I am fairly happy with this machine. The performance is great, and the screen is simply phenomenal. First thing I did after playing with windows a little to see if it worked was to wipe the OS off that I didn't want in the first place and install Fedora Core 5, x86_64. I received it about a month ago and have probably fourty plus hours into configuring this new system and still going, but I'd say only fifteen hours related to drivers. Much of the rest is just trying to get various pieces of software like mplayer working so I can watch my dvd's, or migrating from ancient versions of things to the latest and greatest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fan Always on, but reasonably quiet under linux. Since both cores generally run at 1Ghz unless it is *very* loaded it doesn't crank up. If you hit it with a parallel kernel build you can get the fan really cranking, but that's about it for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU They speed step just fine, the first going at 1, 1.333, 1.666, 2.0 generally depending on how hard you hit it. Occassionally when doing heavy parallel tasks the seconds will make the same progressions. I haven't encountered any issues running x86_64 so far... might as well be one of my Opteron systems. The kernel *can* be rebuilt to tweak for EM64T but not necessary to get going. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CD / DVD I've used both cd's and dvds and burnt the dvd ios using the dvd and it works fine with no mods. I can watch dvd's now using mplayer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Touchpad The default touchpad configuration is horrid, particularly for typing. Add the SHMConfig option to /etc/X11/xorg.conf with something like: [...] Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics" [...] Option "MaxTapTime" "0" Option "SHMConfig" "on" EndSection [...] Now you can run synclient -m 3 and see just how sensitive the touchpad is to movement near it that doesn't even contact or turn it off completely with: synclient TouchpadOff=1 Run syndaemon -d and now the touchpad will be disabled after any keystroke for a couple of seconds which will prevent gnome terminal from crashing, for example. There many other options that you can change with the synaptics rpm. I got this info from http://copland.udel.edu/~doke/dell_d810/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Power management OS shuts machine power off fine. Pressing power key shuts machine down fine. Machine does not suspend worth a crap and I haven't pursued it since it boots so darned fast. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Video Note that that FC5 and probably most distros do not include Xorg accelerated drivers for the X1800. It will run in a smashed looking (if you have a WUXGA display like me) 1600x1200 vesa compatibility mode, slowly. Rest assured that this will work fine for you until you can get the accelerated driver running Obtain an old rpm containing libstdc++.so.5 since newer distros have moved on. Force the install with rpm -i --force once you're sure there is no conflict with exising packages. I used the following rpm I found with rpmfind.net: libstdc++-3.3.5-5.x86_64.rpm Download the ATI proprietary installer from www.ati.com for the X1800 and have it build the four packages and kernel module, then install these with rpm -i: ATI-fglrx-8.28.8-1.fc5.x86_64.rpm ATI-fglrx-control-panel-8.28.8-1.fc5.x86_64.rpm ATI-fglrx-devel-8.28.8-1.fc5.x86_64.rpm ATI-fglrx-IA32-libs-8.28.8-1.fc5.x86_64.rpm kernel-module-ATI-fglrx-2.6.17-1.2187_FC5-8.28.8-1.fc5.x86_64.rpm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mplayer and xine Redhat is not distributed software with various objectional copyrights and patents in it. Go to livna.org and rpm -i livna-release-5.rpm yum install mplayer mplayer-gui mplayer-skins regionset Can't seem to get xine to work. mplayer only works in -vo x11 output mode. xv crashes X so far. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wireless Stock kernels don't have drivers for ipw3945 chipset. See http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/ and http://atrpms.net/ yum install ipw3945.x86_64 Installing: ipw3945-ucode ######################### [1/5] Installing: ipw3945d ######################### [2/5] Installing: ieee80211-kmdl-2.6.17-1.2187 ######################### [3/5] Installing: ipw3945-kmdl-2.6.17-1.2187_F ######################### [4/5] Installing: ipw3945 ######################### [5/5] ----[ /etc/modprobe.d/ipw3945 ]------------ install ipw3945 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ipw3945 ; sleep 0.5 ; /sbin/ipw3945d --quiet remove ipw3945 /sbin/ipw3945d --kill ; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove ipw3945 ----[ /etc/modprobe.conf ]----------------- alias eth0 r8169 alias eth1 ipw3945 ... Note that there are some race conditions with getting the ipw3945d running. First the kernel module must be installed, then the daemon, then the interface can be brought up. Not sure why yet, but this isn't working for me during boot, but I can manually 'modprobe ipw3945' and it works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sound Stock alsa-lib, alsa-utils and kernel drivers work, but some of the lines in the hardware interface definition are tangled. That is, headset is speakers, speakers are headset. I haven't tested mic or S/PDIF (IEC958) yet, but iecset shows the device there. The also configuration didn't work for me at first. Make sure to unmute the sound device and set up all the volumes to high at first using something like alsamixer, then run: speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 Adjusting the volume using the wheel doesn't adjust any volumes I can find in the mixer. Some mods will be need to be made to the driver to untangle all of this and I have no idea if the wheel can be made to work. hardware interface on left side of machine is LI,HP/SPDIF,MI,WHEEL Front is controlling the headphone volume Headphone seems to control nothing Subwoofer channel is silent with alsa speaker-test wheel doesn't affect sound volume on any channel in mixer If you feel adventurous and want to modify the source code, obtain the driver, libs and source. Here are some notes: http://www.gidnetwork.com/b-106.html cd alsa-driver-1.0.12 ./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --with-sequencer=yes;make;make install cd ../alsa-lib-1.0.12 ./configure --libdir=/lib64;make;make install cd ../alsa-utils-1.0.12 ./configure;make;make install Sep 25 14:23:12 alien kernel: hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC880, trying auto-probe from BIOS... ./sound/pci/hda/patch_realtek.c ./alsa-kernel/Documentation/ALSA-Configuration.txt /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel <- "options snd-hda-intel model=lg" guy has exact same chipset service alsasound stop modprobe snd-hda-intel model=uniwill insmod /lib/modules/2.6.18/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko model=uniwill uniwill F1734 lg lg-lw