Feedback on the Dell Inspiron 15R

Asked by sol

I purchased this model notebook, as it was shown on Ubuntu site as Ubuntu Certified hardware.

After installing Ubuntu 11.04 the NVIDIA Geforce GT 525M graphics card is installed but not in use.
The result is no Unity and no 3d.

Is there a fix yet? and if not, then why is the Dell Inspiron 15R called Ubuntu Certified hardware?

The problem is discussed here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/jockey/+bug/771788

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Brendan Donegan (brendan-donegan) said :
#1

Hi,

The Inspiron 15R is sold by Dell in multiple configurations. One of those includes an NVidia card. The Ubuntu certification website entry for the model states that the one certified has the following graphics card:

Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller

It is common practice in the industry for hardware manufacturers to sell different combinations of hardware as the same model, and they only provide some of them to Canonical for certification, so it's important that you check the component list to see what was certified.

Thanks,

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Brendan Donegan (brendan-donegan) said :
#2

Also, as a side question, I would be interested to know whether you saw the list when reading the page? If you missed it, or if the information wasn't clear enough then maybe we could improve it somehow.

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sol (realprojectaustralia) said :
#3

I did notice the specs were a little different, but as you certified the model itself, I thought it was ok.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201010-6645

Ubuntu on Dell Inspiron 15R

The Dell Inspiron 15R laptop has been awarded the status of Certified on Ubuntu 64-bit PC (x86_64).
------------------------------------------------------------------

This statement is misleading. Maybe this could read:

The Dell Inspiron 15R laptop with the following specs, has been awarded the status of Certified on Ubuntu 64-bit PC (x86_64).

To certify a model as you state, must include all its configurations, or you can only certify a particular release or configuration OF that model.

I got the graphics working ok for now, using Bumblebee which provides Optimus Support for Linux Through VirtualGL - runs both Intel and NVIDIA cards, with 3D, now Unity works too.

https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee

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sol (realprojectaustralia) said :
#4

I found that a standard install of Linux Mint 11 did a decent job of the graphics from the beginning. It runs on the Intel HD Video (I'm not going to push it for now with the Geforce GT 525M, may experiment later) works fine with 3D GL etc

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