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I bought a DellInspiron6000 to replace my aging iBook. The iBook was a good machine, but it's currently in a state where it doesn't boot reliably and the battery lasts 45 minutes at best. Since it's 3 years old, I decided I'd stop spending money trying to fix it up and just buy another laptop for myself. And I went PC instead of Mac since I just put Linux on my Mac anyway, and at that point you might as well have a PC (Macs are still good laptops though, and if you want a light laptop and like OS X enough to live with it, then go for it, you won't regret it!)

Anyway, being the geek that I am, I of course want GentooLinux on my DellInspiron6000. I use this page and some page to keep track of all the things I've done and how I got everything working:
== Description ==
* Pentium M 1.60GHz
* 1.25GB RAM
* Intel 915 graphics
* 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD (1680x1050)
* 80GB hard drive
* DVD burner
* Intel PRO/wireless
* 10/100 ethernet (Broadcom)
* Modem (never used)
* SD/MMC card reader (Ricoh)
* Scrolling trackpad
== Working ==
* DVD drive (was trickier than it sounds)
* CPU throttling
* Suspend to RAM
* X at native LCD resolution with {{i810}} driver
* Screen blanking (both console and X)
* Trackpad scrolling
* Multimedia keys with hotkeys
* MMC/SD card reader
* Wireless
* Ethernet
* Disk spindown
* ALSA dmix sound mixing

Overall, this is a very good Linux machine and I'm pretty happy with it. Most things work well (as you can see above) and the battery life is usually more than 5 hours. The machine is a little big, but I really like the nice big screen, so it's worth it for me.
== Things TODO ==
* Setup X so that I can use video out easily
* Setup X so that I can disable screen blanking, eg. for presentations

== HOWTO ==
=== Gentoo install ===
I did a stage 3 install using the pentium3 tarball. {{CFLAGS}} are {{-march=pentium3 -O2 -pipe}}; I like to keep it simple. Remember that the Pentium M really is a P3 derivative, not a P4.

If you need to do the install over wireless and you need NdisWrapper, get the RR4 livecd (even if you don't want Reiser 4) since it has NdisWrapper on it. Before wiping the Windows NTFS partition that was on the disk, I mounted it and copied the wireless drivers off to get NdisWrapper going during the install:
* {{mkdir /mnt/winxp}}
* {{mount -t ntfs /dev/sda3 /mnt/winxp}} (It may have been {{/dev/sda2}}, I can't recall exactly, but a quick fdisk will tell you.)
* {{cp -r /mnt/winxp/drivers/wireless /tmp}} (The path may have been slightly different, but only slightly.)
* {{ndiswrapper -i /tmp/wireless/bcmwl5a.inf}}
* {{modprobe ndiswrapper}}

Of course, if you have the Intel PRO wireless or you're doing the install over ethernet then the standard Gentoo ISO will be fine.
=== Kernel ===
My [http://www.colijn.ca/utils/kernel.config kernel .config] file (for 2.6.17.11). In addition to that, I use some [http://www.colijn.ca/utils/patches-2.6.17.11.tar.gz patches], containing bugfixes to various drivers and suspend-related issues.

If you don't use my config file, make sure you enable SATA in the kernel, with the Intel PIIX controller. I just compiled it into my kernel, because I like to avoid dealing with {{initrd}} whenever I can. Note that because the system uses SATA, your hard disk will be accessed via {{/dev/sda}}, and the DVD drive via {{/dev/scd0}}.

Apply the patches as follows:
* {{cd /usr/src}}
* {{tar -zxf /path/to/patches-2.6.17.1.tar.gz}}
* {{cd linux-2.6.17.1 # the patches may work against other versions of 2.6.17}}
* {{for i in ../patches-2.6.17.1/*.patch; do patch -p1 < "$i"; done}}

Then configure, compile and install your kernel as usual.
=== CPU throttling ===
* {{emerge cpufreqd acpid}}
* {{vi /etc/cpufreqd.conf}}

Here's my file:
<code>
[General]
	pidfile=/var/run/cpufreqd.pid
	poll_interval=2
	verbosity=4
[/General]

[Profile]
name=On Demand High
minfreq=50%
maxfreq=100%
policy=ondemand
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=On Demand Low
minfreq=25%
maxfreq=75%
policy=ondemand
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=Powersave
minfreq=25%
maxfreq=50%
policy=powersave
[/Profile]

##
# Basic states
##
# when AC use performance mode
[Rule]
name=AC Rule
ac=on                    # (on/off)
profile=On Demand High
[/Rule]
 
# conservative mode when not AC
[Rule]
name=AC Off - Low Battery
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=0-30
profile=Powersave
[/Rule]

# conservative mode when not AC
[Rule]
name=AC Off - Medium Battery
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=30-70
profile=On Demand Low
[/Rule]

# stay in performance mode for the first minutes
[Rule]
name=AC Off - High Battery
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=70-100
profile=On Demand High
[/Rule]

##
# Special Rules
##
# CPU Too hot!
[Rule]
name=CPU Too Hot
acpi_temperature=55-100
cpu_interval=50-100
profile=On Demand Low
[/Rule]

# use performance mode if I'm watching a movie
# I don't care for batteries! 
# But don't heat too much.
[Rule]
name=Movie Watcher
programs=xine,mplayer,gmplayer
battery_interval=0-100
acpi_temperature=0-60
cpu_interval=0-100
profile=On Demand High
[/Rule]
</code>
* {{rc-update add cpufreqd default}}
* {{rc-update add acpid default}}
* {{modprobe speedstep_centrino}}
* {{modprobe cpufreq_userspace}}
* {{modprobe cpufreq_powersave}}
* {{modprobe cpufreq_ondemand}}
* {{echo speedstep_centrino >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo cpufreq_userspace >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo cpufreq_powersave >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo cpufreq_ondemand >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo battery >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo ac >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{/etc/init.d/acpid start}}
* {{/etc/init.d/cpufreqd start}}
=== Suspend to RAM ===
Once you have a kernel with the above patch installed, this is actually pretty easy to set up. First you'll need vbetool installed, to reset video after resuming:
* {{emerge vbetool}}

Then, you'll want the following in {{/usr/local/sbin/acpi_sleep}}:
<code>
#!/bin/sh

FGCONSOLE=/usr/bin/fgconsole
MODPROBE=/sbin/modprobe
VBETOOL=/usr/sbin/vbetool
KILLALL=/usr/bin/killall
UMOUNT=/bin/umount
UNAME=/usr/bin/uname
CHVT=/usr/bin/chvt
SYNC=/usr/bin/sync
FIND=/usr/bin/find
GREP=/bin/grep
AWK=/usr/bin/awk
CUT=/usr/bin/cut
SED=/usr/bin/sed
MEDIA=/media
IFACES="eth0 wlan0"
ACTION="$(basename $0)"
KMAJOR=$($UNAME -r |$SED -re 's/(^[0-9]\.[0-9]).*/\1/')
MODLOAD=/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-$KMAJOR

# determine current console number
currentvt=$($FGCONSOLE 2> /dev/null)

# switch away from X11, to avoid touchpad lockup on resume
if [ ! "$currentvt" = "12" ]; then
    $CHVT 12 2> /dev/null
fi

# flush buffers to disk
$SYNC
$SYNC

# unmount media and nfs filesystems
$UMOUNT -aft nfs
for i in $($FIND $MEDIA -type d |$GREP -vE "^\\$MEDIA\$" 2> /dev/null); do
    $UMOUNT $i 2> /dev/null
done

# stop network
for i in $IFACES; do
    /etc/init.d/net.$i stop > /dev/null 2>&1
done

# in case network was started outside scripts
$KILLALL -HUP dhcpcd > /dev/null 2>&1

# unload modules (except sound and vmware)
for i in $($AWK '{print $1}' /proc/modules |$GREP -vE "^(snd|vm)" 2> /dev/null); do
    $MODPROBE -r $i 2> /dev/null
done

# flush buffers to disk
$SYNC
$SYNC

# go into standby
case "$ACTION" in
suspend)
    echo -n mem >/sys/power/state
    ;;
hibernate)
    echo -n disk >/sys/power/state
    ;;
*)
    echo "Unknown sleep action $0"
    ;;
esac

# emerge from standby on resume

# load modules
for i in $($GREP -vE '^(#|[:space:]*$)' $MODLOAD |$CUT -d '#' -f 1); do
    $MODPROBE $i 2> /dev/null
done

# reinitialize video to get text console working again on resume
$VBETOOL post

# switch back to original console/X11 screen
if [ ! "$currentvt" = "12" ]; then
    $CHVT $currentvt
fi
</code>
You might ask "do I really need all this junk?" I find it is generally a good idea to shut down network interfaces when suspending; you will probably not be on the same network when you wake up anyway. Similarly, unmounting nfs and local media makes sense; they may not be available when you wake up. Unloading and reloading modules, however, isn't strictly necessary. However, I have found that doing this improves the stability of suspend. Some modules apparently still don't play nice with suspend, so the fewer you have loaded when you suspend, the more likely it is that resume will succeed.

Now symlink this to the {{suspend}} and {{hibernate}} actions:
* {{cd /usr/local/sbin}}
* {{ln -s acpi_sleep suspend}}
* {{ln -s acpi_sleep hibernate}}

Now edit {{/etc/acpi/default.sh}} to have an entry for the "sleep" button:
<code>
#!/bin/sh
# Default acpi script that takes an entry for all actions

set $*

group=${1/\/*/}
action=${1/*\//}

case "$group" in
        button)
                case "$action" in
                        power)  /sbin/init 0
                                ;;
                        sleep)  /usr/local/sbin/suspend
                                ;;
                        *)      logger "ACPI action $action is not defined"
                                ;;
                esac
                ;;

*)
                logger "ACPI group $group / action $action is not defined"
                ;;
esac
</code>
Finally, you'll need the {{button}} ACPI module loaded (if you did indeed compile it as a module; my .config does have it as a module):
* {{modprobe button}}
* {{echo button >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}

Now when you push Fn-Esc, which is the "stand by" key, your laptop should go to sleep! Pushing the power button will (hopefully) bring it back. For me, everything worked after resume; wireless, sound, touchpad, etc. were all fine. I was pretty surprised; I expected it not to work.
=== Xorg @ native LCD resolution ===
* {{modprobe intel-agp}}
* {{modprobe i915}}
* {{echo intel-agp >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
* {{echo i915 >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-1.6}}
* {{vi /etc/portage/package.keywords}}

Add the following:
<code>
# Sketchy x11 because stable one is slooooow
media-libs/mesa ~x86
x11-base/xorg-server ~x86
x11-drivers/synaptics ~x86
x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev ~x86
x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard ~x86
x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse ~x86
x11-drivers/xf86-video-i810 ~x86
x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa ~x86
</code>
* {{vi /etc/make.conf}}

Add the following:
<code>
# Xorg features
VIDEO_CARDS="i810 vesa"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev mouse keyboard synaptics"
</code>
* {{emerge x11-xserver}}
* {{vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf}}

Here are the relevant sections of my file:
<code>
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "Dell 1680x1050 LCD"
    HorizSync   31.5 - 100
    VertRefresh 60
    DisplaySize 320 200
    Option      "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel i915"
    Driver      "i810"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
    Device      "Intel i915"
    Monitor     "Dell 1680x1050 LCD"
    DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection
</code>
Note that this will leave X displaying rather large fonts. To make things a bit more sane, I modified the {{startx}} script to pass {{-dpi 100}} to the X server:
<code>
defaultserverargs="-dpi 100 -nolisten tcp -br"
</code>
=== Screen blanking ===
I didn't do anything fancy to have different delays blanking the display when plugged in vs. on battery. That would be a good idea if I were, for example, planning to give a presentation with this machine :) Right now, it just blanks (and by "blank" I mean VESA standby mode, not drawing black) after 5 minutes in.

First, we modify {{/etc/conf.d/local.start}} to do a {{setterm}} so consoles blank properly:
<code>
# Set terminals to VESA powerdown after 5 minutes to save batter power.
/usr/bin/setterm -blank -powerdown 5 > /dev/null 2>&1
</code>
And then the following in {{/etc/X11/xorg.conf}} does the same in X11:
<code>
Section "ServerLayout"
    ...
    Option      "BlankTime"     "0"
    Option      "StandbyTime"   "5"
    Option      "SuspendTime"   "10"
    Option      "OffTime"       "15"
    ...
EndSection
</code>
=== Trackpad scrolling ===
If you have a recent kernel (recent >= 2.6.11.x, I believe) no kernel patching is necessary. Make sure you have {{evdev}} built. Then you'll need the {{synaptics}} X driver:
* {{emerge synaptics}}
* {{vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf}}

Here are the relevant sections of my config:
<code>
Section "Module"
    ...
    Load        "synaptics" # probably not strictly necessary
    ...
EndSection
...
Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "ALPS GlidePoint"
    Driver      "synaptics"

Option      "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
    Option      "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
    Option      "LeftEdge"              "120"
    Option      "RightEdge"             "830"
    Option      "TopEdge"               "120"
    Option      "BottomEdge"            "560"  # comment out this entire line to disable horizontal scroll/click ability
    Option      "FingerLow"             "14"
    Option      "FingerHigh"            "15"
    Option      "EmulateMidButtonTime"  "70"
    Option      "VertScrollDelta"       "20"
    Option      "HorizScrollDelta"      "20"
    Option      "MaxTapTime"            "0"    # 0 disables tap-to-click, set it to 100 to re-enable
    Option      "MinSpeed"              "0.3"
    Option      "MaxSpeed"              "0.75"
    Option      "AccelFactor"           "0.015"
    Option      "EdgeMotionMinSpeed"    "200"
    Option      "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed"    "200"
    Option      "UpDownScrolling"       "1"
    Option      "LeftRightScrolling"    "1"
    Option      "CircularScrolling"     "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "External Mouse"
    Driver      "mouse"

Option      "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
    Option      "Protocol"              "imps/2"
    Option      "Emulate3Buttons"       "no"

Option      "Buttons"               "5"
    Option      "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection
...
Section "ServerLayout"
    ...
    InputDevice "ALPS GlidePoint" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "External mouse" "AlwaysCore"
    ...
EndSection
</code>
Adding in both mice lets you just plug in a USB mouse and have it work right away, in addition to the touchpad, which is handy.
=== Lazy? ===
For the lazy, here is a link to my [http://www.colijn.ca/utils/xorg.conf complete xorg.conf].
=== Multimedia keys ===
If you are using [http://www.gnome.org GNOME] or [http://www.kde.org KDE] then there is probably already a method for you to setup special multimedia keys in that environment. I use [http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion Ion] on my laptop, so I need something else. {{hotkeys}} fits the bill nicely:
* {{emerge hotkeys}}
* {{vi /usr/share/hotkeys/inspiron6000.def}}

Here's my file:
<code>
<?xml version="1.0"?>

</config>

<contributor>
    <name>Some Guy</name>
    <email>someguy@foo.com</email>
  </contributor>

</definition>
</code>
Now we need to edit {{/etc/hotkeys.conf}} and set {{Kbd=inspiron6000}}.

Finally, edit {{/etc/X11/Sessions/ion2}} to make sure {{hotkeys}} is started whenever an [http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion Ion] Xsession is started:
<code>
#!/bin/sh
HOTKEYS="$(which hotkeys 2> /dev/null)"
if [ -x "$HOTKEYS" ]; then
    "$HOTKEYS" -o 1 -F 1 -Z > /dev/null 2>&1 &
fi

# Below: poor man's gnome-session :P
DBUS_LAUNCH="$(which dbus-launch 2> /dev/null)"
if [ -x "$DBUS_LAUNCH" ]; then
    GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER="$(which gnome-volume-manager 2> /dev/null)"
    if [ -x "$GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER" ]; then
        "$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_VOLUME_MANAGER" > /dev/null 2>&1 &
    fi

GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON="$(which gnome-keyring-daemon 2> /dev/null)"
    if [ -x "$GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON" ]; then
        eval "$("$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_KEYRING_DAEMON" 2> /dev/null)"
        export GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET
        export GNOME_KEYRING_PID
    fi

BEAGLED="$(which beagled 2> /dev/null)"
    if [ -x "$BEAGLED" ]; then
        "$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$BEAGLED" > /dev/null 2>&1
    fi

GNOME_SERVERDIR="$(pkg-config --variable=libgnome_serverdir libgnome-2.0)"
    GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON="$GNOME_SERVERDIR/gnome-settings-daemon"
    if [ -x "$GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON" ]; then
        "$DBUS_LAUNCH" "$GNOME_SETTINGS_DAEMON" > /dev/null 2>&1 &
    fi
else
    DBUS_LAUNCH=""
fi

SSH_AGENT="$(which ssh-agent 2> /dev/null)"
"$SSH_AGENT" "$DBUS_LAUNCH" /usr/bin/ion2
</code>
This session script launches the {{dbus}} session bus, {{gnome-settings-daemon}} (useful if you want your gnome settings to actually be applied), {{gnome-volume-manager}}, {{gnome-keyring-daemon}}, {{beagled}} and {{ssh-agent}}. Obviously if you don't want any of those things running you should remove them.
=== MMC/SD card reader ===
This is working via the {{sdhci}} kernel module; it is enabled in my config file, and there is a bugfix in my patchset (though the driver is now included in mainline 2.6.17). I haven't used it extensively, but it does seem to work. You will need to modprobe {{sdhci}} and {{mmc_block}}. The device appears as {{/dev/mmcblk0}}, with the first partition being {{/dev/mmcblk0p1}}.
=== Wireless ===
I recently purchased an Intel PRO/wireless 2200bg card and have been using the in-kernel {{ipw2200}} module. The only small piece of configuration work I did was to install {{ipw-firmware}} and use {{udev}} to ensure the interface always gets named {{wlan0}}:

* {{emerge ipw2200-firmware}}
* {{vi /etc/udev/rules.d/99-local.rules}}
* add the following line:
<code>
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:00:00:00:00:00", NAME="wlan0" # you will need to fill in your own MAC address
</code>
The stock kernel module is now working very reliably, as of 2.6.17. I would recommend buying an Intel PRO/wireless card if you got stuck with the Broadcom one; they're only about 30USD and the Linux support is much better.

There is also now an open-source native driver for the Broadcom cards, available in gentoo as {{bcm43xx}}. I tried it briefly and didn't have much luck, but it is always getting better. The following information about NdisWrapper is now no longer relevant for me, but it might be useful for some people:

Note that I was experiencing intermittent lockups when modprobing ndiswrapper on battery power. Upgrading from kernel 2.6.11.7 to 2.6.11.10, adding kernel parameters {{pci=bios}} and setting the BIOS boot mode to "thorough" seems to have stopped the lockups. However, I'm not sure which of these 3 things actually fixed it, since they all happened at roughly the same time. I'm betting it's the {{pci=bios}} kernel parameter, though.

Anyway, aside from that caveat, getting NdisWrapper going is pretty easy:
* {{emerge ndiswrapper}}
* {{ndiswrapper -i /path/to/bcmwl5a.inf}}
* {{modprobe ndiswrapper}}
* {{ndiswrapper -m}}
* {{echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6}}
=== Ethernet ===
Just Works. Use b44 module.
=== Disk spindown ===
If you use the kernel patch posted above, you can set some parameters with {{hdparm}}, including in particular the spindown time. You'll obviously need {{hdparm}}
* {{emerge hdparm}}
* {{vi /etc/conf.d/hdparm}}

My file has only one uncommented line
<code>
sda_args="-S36" # set spindown time to 3 minutes
</code>
You'll also probably want to use {{laptop-mode}}. It's pretty simple to get going (I didn't modify the default configuration):
* {{USE=acpi emerge laptop-mode-tools}}
* {{rc-update add laptop-mode default}}
=== ALSA dmix sound mixing ===
Edit {{/etc/asound.conf}} and add the following:
<code>
pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmix"
}

ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 0
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmix"
}
</code>

Now set every application you use for sound to use alsa. Fortunately, this isn't too bad because many applications use [http://gstreamer.org GStreamer] and you can set alsa for all those applications all at once using {{gstreamer-properties}}. Then I also set beep-media-player (set in the GUI preferences), mplayer (set ao=alsa in {{/etc/mplayer.conf}}) and mplayerplug-in (set ao=alsa in {{/etc/mplayerplug-in.conf}}) manually.

For applications that only support oss, you can still make them use dmix:
* {{emerge alsa-oss}}

Now put this wrapper script in {{/usr/local/bin/aoss_wrapper}}:
<code>
#!/bin/bash
EXC_DIR_REAL="$(dirname $0)"
EXC_DIR_LINK=""
if [ "$EXC_DIR_REAL" = "." ]; then
  EXC_DIR_REAL="$(/bin/pwd)"
  EXC_DIR_LINK="$(pwd)"
fi

PATH_LIST="$(echo "$PATH" |perl -pe 's/:/ /g')"
PATH_SAFE=""

# clean the script directory out of path
for i in $PATH_LIST; do
  if [ "$i" = "$EXC_DIR_REAL" -o "$i" = "$EXC_DIR_LINK" ]; then
    continue
  fi

if [ -z "$PATH_SAFE" ]; then
    PATH_SAFE="$i"
  else
    PATH_SAFE="$PATH_SAFE:$i"
  fi
done

PATH="$PATH_SAFE"
APP_NAME="$(basename $0)"
APP_REAL="$(which "$APP_NAME")"

export LD_PRELOAD="libaoss.so"
exec "$APP_REAL"
</code>

Now to run those pesky oss-only applications using dmix, all you have to do is:
* {{cd /usr/local/bin}}
* {{ln -s aoss_wrapper oss_only_app_name}}

Unfortunately, this doesn't work properly with quake 3. If I use the wrapper the sound is all messed up. However, it does work for firefox. That way flash can still play sound if another app has {{/dev/dsp}} open. A lot of media players keep {{/dev/dsp}} open even when they're not playing music or, so this is useful. Having flash be able to play sound ''is'' somewhat dubious.

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