Hi, I just got my new Studio 15. Decided to go with openSUSE again, as I really enjoyed it on my last laptop. I have a few issues so far that I was hoping I could get some help with.
Before I launch into question mode, here are the stats on the system:
2.1 ghz duo w/ 3mb cache
4 gb of ram
200 gig sata hard drive
broadcom wireless (bcm4310 usb controller)
ati radeon hd 4300
standard sound
I’ll check this thread regularly. I would like to see it turn into a primer for getting openSUSE working on the Studio 15.
First, I have to start with x11failsafe as an option. Dunno what is going wrong, as I could find no errors with X starting normally other than that I got nothing to display.
Second, synaptics is not working properly (no scrolling, otherwise fine). I’m betting this is a simple fix, but I am open to suggestion.
Third, I have no sound. No idea what to do there. All I know is that is has something to do with ALSA…
Fourth, wireless needs to get going. This one I believe I can tackle on my own. However, any advice is again much much appreciated.
Last, which I don’t think can be fixed, but I’ll ask. There are some multimedia buttons on the top, could they be made to work?
I’ll add questions as they come to me. For now thank you for your assistance, it is greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will help more people than me alone.
jnobbe wrote:
> broadcom wireless (bcm4310 usb controller)
>
> Fourth, wireless needs to get going. This one I believe I can tackle on
> my own. However, any advice is again much much appreciated.
The BCM4310 USB is not yet supported by b43, the open-source driver.
You will need to use either ndiswrapper and the Windows driver, or the
Broadcom hybrid driver.
Note that the ndiswrapper wireless is known to interfere with audio on some systems.
If after trying the audio troubleshooting guide, you still do not have sound then we will need more information on your Dell Studio 15 in order to help with sound … ie …with your PC connected to the internet, please start by copy and pasting the following diagnostic script into a gnome-terminal or konsole with your PC connected to the internet:
wget http://home.cfl.rr.com/infofiles/tsalsa && su -c 'bash ./tsalsa'
and when prompted for a password enter your root password. Please try to accurately estimate the number of jacks/plug you have when asked (for example, I have 3 i/o sound jacks on my PC), and when the script is complete it will give you a URL. Please post that URL on this thread.
Also, in addition to the above, please copy and paste the following commands one line at a time into a gnome-terminal / konsole and paste here the output of these commands: rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
Are you using gnome or kde? and if openSUSE-11, which kde version?
I got the wireless running with the hybrid driver that Broadcom provides. I am having trouble getting it to load on boot. Looked around, and tried adding it in Yast.
I placed the .ko file in /lib/modules/<kernel.xx.xx>/kernel/drivers/net. I then added the ieee80211_crypt_tkip line in Yast followed by /lib/modules/<kernel.xx.xx>/kernel/drivers/net/wl.ko.
ieee80211_crypt_tkip is getting loaded, but not the driver I compiled (which I can load manually with insmod). So I’m sure that I haven’t entered it in correctly, but I don’t know what that would be.
Other than that, I have the sound working. I followed oldcpu’s advice and checked the guide. I ended up installing alsautils and running alsaconf. That fixed it straight away.
The next issue I need to tackle is not having to boot with x11failsafe on. I think it has something to do with fglrx possibly being installed. I need to look into that more. I am pretty vexed why using x11failsafe works, because it didn’t seem to me like it really did anything different.
I fixed the issue with having to login with x11failsafe as a kernel option. The solution was actually GOING with fglrx. In the past this had been a sub-optimal choice on older hardware. I went with the blob on this one! I had to use yast to configure my usb mouse, which went dead on me. I also used aticonfig for my xorg.conf.
There are a few things with fglrx and KDE 4 that I do not know. I haven’t looked around yet, but I would like to get the composite stuff going if possible. So far it’s just XRender.
So I think for now I am ok. The last thing on my original list was getting the multimedia buttons working. If anyone has some leads on that I would love to hear them.
I installed Kubuntu 9 something on my Laptop. On it there work the Volume Buttons. Maybe this is a possible hint for you to find out, how they made it working?
Also the WLAN Card is immediatly working after installation. I am not sure if they use the standard windows ndiswrapper. I hope this helps you a bit.
I don’t use Ubuntu so I do not know their implementation. I suspect the volume control implementation is Desktop specific. In the case of openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-3.5.10, the volume buttons work immediately upon installation (with the appropriate alsa update), and the controls adjust the volume setting , which can be seen in kmix (if I may speculate it could be via a possible call to amixer by some technique that I do not know the details of).
The WLAN card worked immediately after install on my Dell Studio 15 with openSUSE-11.1 as well. I believe thou, there are different WLAN cards possible for the Dell Studio 15, and it depends on which WLAN card a person procured with their Studio 15.