Comments on: Dell Latitude E4300 with Debian

By: Louis

Louis — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:31:14 +0000

I just got this laptop and even running xorg 7.5 (with squeeze) I cannot have the video output to be sent to a monitor connected to the laptop.
Do you have any clue on the subject, or could you share your xorg.conf, please?

Thanks you for you answer.
Louis

By: Martin Žember

Martin Žember — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:11:18 +0000

For bluetooth:
install:
bluez
the firmware: bluez-firmware
bluetooth
maybe:
bluez-utils
bluez-hcidump

Then turn on/off with the Fn key.

hcitool dev
and
hcitool scan
might help.

The kernel was 2.6.29-bpo.2-686-bigmem.

By: bools

bools — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:39 +0000

Hi!
I have the same problem than you with alsa and the jack on docking station. It seems imposible to play sound only on the dock and not on the laptop speaker. Any workaround since this time?

By: L.

L. — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:11:28 +0000

Here (big Dell customer in france), Dell sent us a test that we were supposed to run (it was just a cpuburn binary for windows). If it failed, they said they would change the Motherboard.

By: Buxy

Buxy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:03:35 +0000

@Mugz: What is an “L2″ ?

I wish I could believe you but the promise of a BIOS fix has been made twice already by some Dell representatives and every time there was no new BIOS at the expected release date.

By: MUGZ

MUGZ — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:38:44 +0000

When the correct BIOS is released, the information will be listed under the “Fixes and Enhancements” section of the BIOS on the support site. This is currently the being deployed by Dell to resolve the issue, not a new motherboard. If they are unable to correct it by using creating a new BIOS, a last resort of creating new motherboards for the systems, but that certainly is not the case at the moment. I’m an L2 for Dell, and that’s the most up to date information they’ve provided about the issue so far. If A06 is currently working for some people, that’s great, but odds are the issue will return. The only 100% effective work around to the issue that is currently known is to disable multi-core support in the BIOS. I wish there was another way, but unfortunately there’s not that we know of thus far. As soon as I receive more information on the resolution to this issue, I will be happy to post it here. I know it is currently a priority for Dell and hopefully it will be resolved through a BIOS update so that everyone can avoid having to have their mbds replaced.

Sorry I don’t have any further information at the moment, but I’ll post back as soon as I do.

By: Buxy

Buxy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:30:03 +0000

The BIOS A06 does not fix the issue, the problem is officially known to Dell’s QA team and they have a new motherboard in preparation. I also thought the problem went away after 11 days without freeze but it froze eventually again. It really depends on how you’re using your computer. The only safe work-around is to disable multi-core support but it’s not something that I can accept as a long term solution.

My tech support told me that I was on their list of persons to contact when they received the new batch of fixed motherboards and that I would be able to get a next-day on-site replacement when that is the case. Anyone affected by this bug can certainly request the same. You should not trust people claiming that it can be fixed with a BIOS update unless you can see that information on the Dell drivers page directly.

By: Inigo

Inigo — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:26:04 +0000

I’ve had the freezing problem since September 2008. I have installed the A06 BIOS the day it was published (around three weeks ago) and I haven’t had it since.

My workaround of choice before A06 was to disable wlan, and only use ethernet. In this configuration, I never had a freeze, either.

For three weeks I’m on wlan again, and I’m happy to say that it seems to be working well.

The only thing to regret in this story is the lack of information coming from Dell, what the A06 BIOS really fixed, and what other reasons could have been causing these freezes

By: MUGZ

MUGZ — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:22:55 +0000

The freezing is a known issue with the E4300. There’s a work around that resolves the issue, but it will decrease the performance of the system. The issue is currently being worked on to resolve the issue via a BIOS update, but it has not yet been released (A06 is the current version).

The work around is to disable Multi-core support in the BIOS:

Turn on system > Tap F2 at the Dell Screen > Go to Performance > Uncheck the multi-core support box > hit apply > hit escape.

As stated, this will resolve the issue, but the system will likely run noticeably slow.

By: Albert

Albert — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:13:50 +0000

Hi,

I took the liberty of creating a Linux Launchpad team for the people who own or develop for the Dell Latitude E4200/E4300 laptops, so that we can have more visibility upstream when having to ask for patches or support.

https://launchpad.net/~e4200-e4300

I’ll be sending a couple of messages to ubuntuforums and notebookreview forums to gather the ~15 users I’ve identified so far.

Cheers,

Albert.