View source for FreeBSD 7 on Dell Vostro 1500

[[Category:Tech]]
Dell had another wacky special that they were selling a [http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3918Vostro 1500] for $499. Its base features were:

* Intel Core 2 Duo T5270 CPU
* NVIDIA 8400M GS Video
* CD/DVD Burner
* 2GB Ram
* 80GB HDD

Seemed like a good deal so I decided to replace my previous laptop and get one, while upgrading the screen to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSXGA%2B WSXGA+](1680x1050) and upping the HDD to 120GB.
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==Networking==
Wired and wireless networking are supported in FreeBSD 7. Wireless was [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-wireless.html surprizingly easy to set up]. Per the man page for '''wpi''', these went in to '''/boot/loader.conf''':

 if_wpi_load="YES"
 wlan_load="YES"
 wlan_amrr_load="YES"
 firmware_load="YES"
 wpifw_load="YES"
 legal.intel_wpi.license_ack=1

'''/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf''':
 network={
 	ssid="''something''"
 	proto=WPA
 	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
 	pairwise=TKIP
 	group=TKIP
 	psk=''insecurekey''
 	priority=2
 }

'''rc.conf''':
 ifconfig_wpi0="WPA DHCP"

After this, one can just issue '''/etc/rc.d/netif restart''' or reboot.

==Audio==
Audio was a slight pain to get configured and took some messing around. This laptop uses the '''snd_hda''' driver which is an implimtation from Sigmantel. '''dmesg''' shows:

 pcm0: [ITHREAD]
 pcm0: <HDA Codec: Sigmatel (Unknown)>
 pcm0: <HDA Driver Revision: 20071129_0050>

and `cat /dev/sndstat` shows:
 FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 32bit 2007061600/i386)
 Installed devices:
 pcm0: <Intel 82801H High Definition Audio Controller> at memory 0xfebfc000 irq 21 \
     kld snd_hda [20071129_0050] [MPSAFE]  (1p:2v/1r:1v channels duplex default)

The fix, in my situation, was to add this to '''/boot/device.hints''':

 hint.pcm.0.config="gpio0"

Audio is still not perfect, but it works.

==Xorg==
The binary Xorg packages with FreeBSD 7 worked great. It appears that since xorg 7.3, you don't even need an xorg conf to get it running as a test, so 'startx' simply brings you in to it. I'm a [http://kde.org KDE] user, so I installed those packages as well. '''pkg_add -r kde''' does the trick, even though its super bloated. You will want an xorg.conf however, and you can easily create one per the [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/x-config.html instructions] with:

 Xorg -config xorg.conf

===Video===
I installed the '''x11/nvidia-driver''', changed the '''driver''' to '''"nvidia"''' in '''xorg.conf''' and it worked the first time.  You do need to add this to '''/boot/loader.conf''' to load the module:

 nvidia_load="YES"

Nothing special was needed to make 1680x1050 work, as it worked at the correct resolution and apsect with my generated xorg.conf. You can probably trim it down a bit to only the color depth you want to make your config easier to read.

===Synaptics Touchpad===
While the touch pad will work with basic functionality, to enable features such as scrolling, a few things need to happen. Please this line in '''/boot/loader.conf''':

 hw.psm.synaptics_support=1

Then install  '''x11-drivers/synaptics''' and note its sample config once installed. It was necessary to add the '''AllowEmptyInput''' portion, and tweak your '''InputDevice''' to change speed, scrolling, area, etc like so:

 Section "ServerLayout"
 	#''InputDevice	"OldMouseLine"	"CorePointer"''
 	InputDevice	"Synaptics_Touchpad"	"CorePointer"
 EndSection
 
 Section "ServerFlags"
 	Option		"AllowEmptyInput"
 EndSection
 
 Section "InputDevice"
 	Identifier      "Synaptics_Touchpad"
 	Driver		"synaptics"
 	Option		"Device"	"/dev/psm0"
 	Option		"Protocol"	"psm"
 EndSection

==ACPI==
This is the only thing I cannot get working properly. ACPI seems to be detected, but it will not properly trigger S3, which is suspend to ram. One can attempt to manually invoke this with:

 acpiconf -s 3

but it fails. I attempted to enable debugging in '''acpi.ko''' per [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/acpi-debug.html the ACPI docs] but all that did was make my system unbootable, even with ACPI disabled. To get things working again, I had to use the [http://frenzy.org.ua/eng/ Frenzy Rescue CD], which worked great.