Dell Latitude D600
Hardware | PCI/USB ID | Working? |
---|---|---|
GPU | Yes | |
Wireless | Yes | |
Ethernet | Yes | |
Audio | Yes | |
Trackpad | Yes | |
PCMCIA | Yes | |
Modem | Untested | |
IRDA | Untested |
The Dell Latitude D600 was released on 3/12/2003. Despite its age, it can prove to be quite a capable machine. With a couple exceptions, Linux support for the D600 is outstanding. Most of its components work automatically with Arch.
Configuration
Video
Use the open source xf86-video-ati driver. ATI dropped support for the Mobility Radeon 9000 in their proprietary Catalyst driver after version 8.28.8.
WiFi
The D600 comes with either an Intel Pro Wireless 2200 or a Broadcom BCM4306 rev 2. Both are supported natively.
Intel PRO Wireless 2200
The driver, ipw2200, is included in the kernel, so just install the ipw2200-fw package and it should work.
Broadcom BCM4306 rev.2
The b43legacy driver is included in the kernel, but unlike with the Intel card, the firmware license is not as permissive, so this process is a little more involved.
You will need to download the following two firmware files:
-
https://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
- https://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
And use b43-fwcutter to install the firmware files:
$ tar xfvj broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 # b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o # b43-fwcutter --unsupported -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
It would be bad if udev were to load the b43 driver, as it would conflict with b43legacy, so we will need to blacklist it:
# modprobe -r b43 # echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
Finally, load the b43legacy driver:
# modprobe b43legacy
Trackpad
The trackpad and pointing stick are supported out-of-the-box, but to enable certain features, such as tap-to-click or edge scrolling, you will need to write some Xorg configuration files.
Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf
and comment out every line in the section referring to touchpads. It should look like this when you are done:
#Section "InputClass" # Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall" # MatchIsTouchpad "on" # MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" # Driver "evdev" #EndSection
Next, you will want to create a configuration file for your trackpad. The following is a good starting point.
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
Section "InputClass" Driver "synaptics" Identifier "touchpad catchall" MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" MatchIsTouchpad "on" Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on" Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on" Option "TapButton1" "1" EndSection
After saving, reboot or restart X to apply the changes.
Troubleshooting
CPU powersaving
Some BIOS revisions do not work properly with acpi-cpufreq, likely due to the driver being buggy or incorrect DSDT tables. If you are experiencing problems, flash your BIOS to A16 (the latest version.)
If your D600 lacks a battery, the BIOS will forcibly downclock the CPU to 600MHz. To override this behavior, add processor.ignore_ppc=1
to your kernel command-line.
Resuming from sleep
There is a serious problem with KMS in the radeon driver that prevents normal resume from sleep mode with this laptop. [1] A quirk was included in Linux 3.7 that works around this issue automatically. If you are using an older kernel, either add AGPMode=1
to your kernel command-line or set a primary password in the BIOS.