Getting Gentoo installed on the Inspiron 1520 has been a welcome challenge. It’s the first x86_64 Linux box that I’ve ever put serious work into, and it’s also filled with new and untested hardware. Sometimes it’s slightly frustrating trying to get something to work, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun. Here I’m going to explain what’s in the laptop, what needed to be done to get everything working, and any other notes that I should remember if I ever reinstall Gentoo again.

lspci Output

jakerlaptop ~ # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA Controller AHCI (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0407 (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832 (rev 05)
03:01.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 12)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 4311 (rev 01)

make.conf

CFLAGS=”-march=nocona -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer”
CXXFLAGS=”${CFLAGS}”
CHOST=”x86_64-pc-linux-gnu”
LDFLAGS=”-Wl,-O1,-z,–hash-style=gnu”
MAKEOPTS=”-j3″

VIDEO_CARDS=”nvidia”
INPUT_DEVICES=”evdev keyboard mouse synaptics”
LINGUAS=”en_US”
ALSA_CARDS=”hda-intel”

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=”amd64″
FEATURES=”autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox userpriv usersandbox metadata-transfer sfperms”

xorg.conf

For touchpad:

Section “InputDevice”
   Driver       “synaptics”
   Identifier   “TouchPad”
   Option       “Device”        “/dev/input/mouse1″
   Option       “Protocol”      “auto-dev”
   Option       “LeftEdge”      “1700″
   Option       “RightEdge”     “5300″
   Option       “TopEdge”       “1700″
   Option       “BottomEdge”    “4200″
   Option       “FingerLow”     “25″
   Option       “FingerHigh”    “30″
   Option       “MaxTapTime”    “180″
   Option       “MaxTapMove”    “220″
   Option       “VertScrollDelta” “100″
   Option       “MinSpeed”        “0.09″
   Option       “MaxSpeed”        “0.18″
   Option       “AccelFactor”     “0.0015″
   Option       “SHMConfig”       “on”
   Option       “TapButton2″      “2″
EndSection

 [...]

Section “ServerLayout”

    Identifier  “Simple Layout”

    Screen “Screen 1″

    InputDevice “TouchPad” “CorePointer”
    InputDevice “Mouse1″ “AlwaysCore”
    InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”

EndSection

For monitor:

Section “Monitor”

    Identifier  “1520Monitor”
    DisplaySize 331 210
    #Modeline   “1680×1050″ 147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087

    HorizSync   15 - 100

    VertRefresh 15 - 120

EndSection

For video card:

Section “Device”
    Identifier  “nVidia GeForce 8600M GT”
    Driver      “nvidia”
    Option      “RenderAccel”           “true”
    Option      “CursorShadow”          “yes”
    Option      “AllowGLXWithComposite” “true”
    Option      “UseEvents”             “false”
    Option      “UseEdidDpi”            “FALSE”
    Option      “DPI”                   “96 x 96″
EndSection

[...]

Section “Extensions”
    Option      “Composite”   “enable”
EndSection

Bluetooth

I just compiled everything in the kernel as a module (for drivers) and bluetooth loaded fine. I haven’t tried hooking anything up to it yet, but successfully queried my phone.

Video (X)

Getting the X server set up was actually very easy. Just installing the drivers was pretty much all the work I had to do. Thanks nVidia.

Video (Framebuffer)

vesafb-tng is not supported in a x86_64 environment, and probably never will. This means there’s two options: vesafb and uvesafb. vesafb is in the kernel and supported. Use the vga=0×0368 to create the 1680×1050 resolution for the framebuffer. This framebuffer is in 8bit color, only because I noticed a lot of lag when using 24-bit colors. It’s text..I’m sure you won’t notice the difference.

uvesafb supports 24-bit color and it’s a lot faster. See http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/uvesafb/ and http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-568721-highlight-uvesafb.html#4141369

Wireless

Yes, the internal Broadcom driver works. Installed it (all as a module), installed wpa_supplicant, and I was up. Easy setup.

Sound

Sound is still a work in progress. ALSA uses the hda_intel driver. The chipset is the STAC9205. The only way I’ve gotten sound to work is using the alsa-driver package from the sunrise overlay. emerge alsa-driver-9999 (echo “=media-sound/alsa-driver-9999 **” >> /etc/portage/package.keywords and echo “=media-sound/alsa-headers-9999 **” >> /etc/portage/package.keywords). As of today (I just re-emerged the package and it got a new cvs package), the headphone jack is detected. Sound only works, however, as long as the volume is at least 75% (too quiet otherwise).

Gentoo64. So far so good.

~Jaker