Slackware, Fluxbox Inspiron 700m

Poetics · 08-23-2005, 01:22 AM

So I just received my nifty Dell Inspiron 700m laptop today, and by following this guide, I've gotten the 2.6.12 kernel, Alsa, 1280x800 widescreen, and a host of other features enabled. However, I have run into a snag or two.

Though the wireless card is enabled in the BIOS (disabled by default, oddly enough), ndiswrapper -l lists only the driver present, with no hardware (either working or with errors). I can post the results of my lspci if that'd help.

I'm having issues with the fonts in Fluxbox as well. Following all of the guides here at LQ (and there are quite a few!), it was looking very nice, but sadly after doing some slackpkg upgrades, fluxbox fonts aren't looking so hot (they are too big and all bolded). I've done some hacks through my /usr/X11/share/fluxbox/styles directory and ~./fluxbox/init but it's not even a very good temporary fix.

Also, I'm unable to control sound through the keyboard buttons (the Fn+ keys), though most all other controls function normally. Is there an aspect of Alsa or other driver I forgot to install?

Has anyone else had these (especially the first) problems, or can offer a suggestion for helping me out?

Thanks in advance,
-- Poetics

Hangdog42 · 08-23-2005, 08:33 AM

Just a couple of thoughts about the wireless bit:

- You've enabled the card in BIOS, but sometimes there is a key combination to turn the card on and off. Perhaps it is off? I know I sometimes hit the combo on my keyboard (Fn F2) without realizing it and I've wasted an hour or two trying to figure out why I suddenly have no internet access.

-Try the bcmwl5.sys driver rather than the bcmwl5a.sys driver.

Poetics · 08-23-2005, 04:56 PM

I've tried hitting the Fn-F2 combo a few times but it doesn't change anything within either lspci or ndiswrapper.

Currently I've been trying to use the bcmwl5a.inf file; I think I'll have a go at the bcmwl5.sys/bcmwl5a.sys files to see if those make a difference. Thanks for the quick reply!

Edit: I've tried the following drivers but to no avail. The .inf's say the drivers are present but make no note of the hardware, and the .sys was an invalid driver: bcmwl5.inf, bcmwl5a.inf, bcmwl5.sys -- there aren't any more .inf or .sys files in the directory I unpacked the files to.

Relevant Line in lspci:
02:05.0 Ethernet Controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown Device 170c (rev02)

chess · 08-24-2005, 05:40 AM

You might not be using the correct wifi drivers. In fact, you might not even need to use ndiswrapper.

There are 3 or 4 different wifi cards that can come with the 700m. Are you sure you have the same kind as the one in the guide? I know the 700m can also come with the ipw2200, see e.g.:

http://www.celifornia.com/documents/dell700m.html
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~scs49/install_linux.html

both of those guys have 700m laptops with the ipw2200 cards.

Hangdog42 · 08-24-2005, 07:03 AM

One thing in your reply gives me a bit of a pause:

Quote:

Currently I've been trying to use the bcmwl5a.inf file; I think I'll have a go at the bcmwl5.sys/bcmwl5a.sys files to see if those make a difference.

When you run ndiswrapper -i, you need to have both the .inf and .sys file in the same location, even though you only list the .inf file on the command line. For example, when you run ndiswrapper -i /path/to/bcmwl5a.inf the bcmwl5a.sys file needs to be in the same directory (/path/to).

Also, the "unknown device" statement bothers me a bit. The Broadcom chipsets are usually listed by lspci. You might want to run cat /proc/pci and see if that sheds a little more light on the chipset. The reason I'm suggesting this is that it is possible (though not real likely) that the drivers you downloaded from Dell are not the right ones. And actually Jackson raises a good point. Broadcom also makes chipsets for wired ethernet so it is possible that if the lspci line you posted is NOT the wireless card, we're barking up the wrong tree. A double check on the make/model/chipset of your wireless card might be in order.

Oh, and by the way, you need to read your Dell documentation about what the right key combo is for turning on/off your wireless card. Mine (Insprion 5100) uses Fn F2, but I've seen other Dells use other combinations. Sometimes you get lucky and there is an icon on the proper key.

chess · 08-24-2005, 10:16 AM

By the way, the guide you reference on rippleweb.org is mine.

Hope you fouhd it helpful.

Poetics · 08-24-2005, 03:21 PM

Jackson, I sure did; your guide helped me pick the 700m, actually!

Thank you all for the myriad of replies! Let's see if I can provide more information.

I had the .sys file in the same directory as the .ini when I ran ndiswrapper -i; in fact, I had the whole extracted windows exe file in the same directory.

running cat /proc/pci reveals the following entries (amongst many others):

Code:

Bus  2, device   1, function  0:
    Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 5).
      IRQ 10.
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=3.Max Lat=24.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0206000 [0xe0206fff].

Bus  2, device   5, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 2).
      IRQ 10.
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0204000 [0xe0205fff].

So it looks like the Broadcom is in actuality the NIC. Re-running lspci gives me the following entry, which I had not posted before:
02:01.0 Network controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 4220 (rev 05)

For this laptop, the control command for the Wireless is in fact Fn-F2, and it even has a handy icon on the key

I'll have to take a look at the sites posted to see if those are more likely to work. Something tells me I won't be able to get the sound keys working unless there is are hotkeys for altering aumix. Thank you guys for the continued help!

chess · 08-24-2005, 03:27 PM

Cool, glad it helped.

Yep, the Broadcom is the NIC - same one mine has and uses the b44 module.

One way to find out which wifi card you have is by entering your laptop's service tag into the dell support site. It should give you a printout of all your specs and you should be able to find out which one is yours. I'll be willing to bet you have the intel 2100/2200, which if true, would be good for you since you can use the opensource drivers instead of having to mess with ndiswrapper and the windows drivers.

Please post back your progress -- I'm very interested.

Poetics · 08-24-2005, 03:38 PM

So far the first guide asks me to install the firmware into /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware -- no bueno on my Slack machine. There isn't a firmware directory inside /etc/hotplug, but the other guide doesn't mention where to install the firmware, just that one must before installing the driver.

I'm most likely going to just create the firmware directory within /etc/hotplug to see if it works and then install the wireless. With any luck I'll be free of ndiswrapper upon my reboot!

chess · 08-24-2005, 03:43 PM

Did you find out whether you had the 2200 card? I would verify your wifi card before going further.

If that is what you have, check out this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/343302

Poetics · 08-24-2005, 04:02 PM

Sorry, got a little ahead of myself.

Yes, I discovered I had a 2200 in this nifty little machine, and downloaded both the source code (drivers) and the firmware.

I placed the firmware in /lib/firmware and ran #make #checkinstall on the drivers.

However, I am a bit stuck as to what to do next (still nothing on iwconfig, even after a reboot). The second guide suggests placing a small text file they have to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ but I don't even have a sysconfig subdirectory, let alone network-scripts beneath it. Is this something I should create?

Edit: I've already installed the 80211 drivers and ran "modprobe ipw2200" without error, but still no change when running iwconfig

Poetics · 08-24-2005, 04:14 PM

Huzzah! Amazing things a little reboot can do, neh?

Now I just have to run the standard "iwconfig eth1 ESSID xxxxxx" and whatnot, and I'll be up and running!

Thank all of you for the help!

Now on to the rest of my "to do list" which includes getting the CPU clock scaling to work (no change when I unplug it)

Hangdog42 · 08-24-2005, 05:22 PM

Wow.....Get a busy afternoon and miss out on all the fun!

Congrats on getting it up and running.

chess · 08-24-2005, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Poetics
Now on to the rest of my "to do list" which includes getting the CPU clock scaling to work (no change when I unplug it)

I have CPU scaling working very well on my 700m -- hopefully that portion of my guide will help. I would definitely suggest you use the cpufreqd.conf file that is in that gentoo doc I mention -- that one is easier to work with, IMHO.

Poetics · 08-25-2005, 12:05 AM

I did that, albeit modified (of course). Perhaps I just need to re-edit the .conf so the 700 doesn't think it can go the full 1.6 when not plugged in. I haven't run the battery low enough for those settings to kick in