Comments on: Dell Inspiron 640m Linux support getting “a little” better

By: sam

sam — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:44:23 +0000

well, I just got a new 640m inspiron as well. Gonna go Feisty Fawn on it soon once my PC stuff is fixed and I can backup all my stuff over there.

Feisty Fawn has been getting fairly good reviews so far. Btw, u tried doing a dual monitor setup (for presentations)? does the function keys work for that too?

By: timotheus

timotheus — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 04:36:59 +0000

I have written a detailed guide to this laptop. I don’t know if it would help your issue.

http://tstotts.net/linux/gentooinsp640m.html

Note: You should use a minimum of xorg-server 1.3 and xf86-video-intel 2.0 if possible for this chipset; otherwise these types of issues are common. (Of course, I think these have been released since your post.)

You should use the latest `xrandr’ to configure the LCD and 2 video ports; not the BIOS.

By: byte

byte — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:46:14 +0000

@lin: consider Feisty Fawn. It works just fine here, on my 640m.

By: Lin

Lin — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:20:32 +0000

I use ubuntu dapper 6.06 LTS for 64-bit PC on DELL 640m, i have good results, but present bugfix on xserver-xorg to update , and too at connect my AC adapter crash, download Festi faun and dont work the X. i waiting for solutions.

By: byte

byte — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:19:01 +0000

@spiri: disabled in bios by default, but its just an option to turn it on. works a charm :-)

By: spiri

spiri — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:00:50 +0000

i’m planning to buy it… have you noticed if the “hvm enable/disable” option is in the bios?
bye

By: byte

byte — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:19:17 +0000

No, not quite. But when I moved away from Mac OS X for daily laptop use, I became spoiled for choice with the just works scenario there.

Its embarassing giving a presesntation to a predominantly large Linux crowd, using Windows, because your laptop crashes everytime you try to get external video working. And its a pain in the arse, to have to carry 2 laptops (one solely for presentation work).

I’m looking for a solution in where things just work. I’m getting too old and tired to be doing things that are out of my problem domain, per se

By: Kevin Francis

Kevin Francis — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 07:07:54 +0000

Can I take this to mean you’ve decided to switch to Ubuntu? :P