HARDWARE Dell Inspiron B120

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search
This article is part of the Hardware series.
Laptops • TV Tuner Cards • Wireless • Servers • Storage • Other Hardware • Motherboards • Related

Contents

[edit] Overview

This laptop is based on an Intel 915 chipset. The Ethernet adapter is a Broadcom 4400 (supported under Linux) and the optional 802.11g adapter is a Broadcom 4318. The sound chip is a SigmaTel STAC9200, which is usable with the current ALSA drivers.

[edit] Booting the Gentoo CD

In order to boot the CD, you will first need to set the computer to boot from the optical drive. As the machine first boots, press F2 to access the BIOS setup. From there you may modify the boot sequence. The CD should boot as normal.

[edit] Partitioning

The laptop's hard disk as it ships has three partitions: a small "Dell Utility" partition, a Windows partition taking up most of the disk, and a partition of about 3 gigabytes used to restore the laptop to its factory state. All of them may be safely deleted. There is more information about these partitions at [1].

I had success keeping Windows XP as a dual boot. You need to shrink the ntfs partition. I kept the restore partition and created an extended partition. I didn't bother with a /boot partition.

My partition table looks like:

  • /dev/hda1 - 16M Linux (I overwrote the Dell Utility partition) (ext2)
  • /dev/hda2 - Windows (ntfs)
  • /dev/hda3 - Restore (identifies ad CP/M)
  • /dev/hda4 - Extended Partition
  • /dev/hda5 - swap
  • /dev/hda6 - /root (ext3)

Grub installed with no problems, and both Windows and Linux came up on the first try.

[edit] Kernel

I tried compiling my own kernel from gentoo-sources, but it would always hang before root was mounted. Genkernel using the .config from the install CD worked fine, however. Currently investigating which drivers are required to successfully boot. - Pdmillar 05:07, 2 January 2006 (GMT)

[edit] Graphics

See this HowTo.

[edit] Sound

By loading the ALSA snd-hda-intel and snd-hda-codec modules, sound will work.

Some people have reported needing to use 

modprobe snd-hda-intel position_fix=1

to prevent from getting a crackling noise. (Don't forget to adjust the mixer!)

In kernel versions lower than 2.16-r7 plugging in headphones will not disengage the speakers, causing the sound to come out both speakers and headphones. The kernel ALSA drivers corrected this issue in kernel 2.16-r7.

[edit] Sleep/Suspend

Software Suspend 2 works perfectly. ACPID can be used to make the system suspend to disk when the power button is pressed, although its default behavior is to switch to runlevel 0.


[edit] CPU Frequency Scaling

CPU Frequency Scaling will work even on the Celeron M models. These are the kernel options you'll need for this laptop(tested only on a celeron M). 


Power management options (ACPI, APM)-->
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
	[*]ACPI Support
 	<*>Processor
CPU Frequency scaling -->
	[*] CPU Frequency scaling
	<m> CPU frequency translation statistics
	...(You must also choose the governor(s) of your choice)
	<m>Intel Pentium 4 Clock modulation


Please note this only covers instructions specific to this laptop. See the rest of the cpu frequency scaling documentation for full instructions.

[edit] Wireless LAN

See the Broadcom 43xx article.

Retrieved from "http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Dell_Inspiron_B120"
Personal tools