Ubuntu-Certification

Feedback on the Dell Latitude E6430

Asked by scoopex

First i tried Ubuntu 12.04 x86_64 - system is not booting after installation with the alternate installer cd.

I am running Ubuntu 12.10 x86_64 - installer fetched updates while installation.

Touchpad:
Scrolling using two fingers does not work.
The touchpad works - including the autmatic deactivation

Grub:
Grub does often not show the password prompt of the disc-encryption.
After starting the bios only a black screen is shown, it seems that there is problem with the graphic support.

Suspent to ram:
Suspending works, but after resuming i only see patterns of large pixel-blocks (0.5cm x 0.5 cm)
Switching to text console works. Xorg is using the NOUVEAU driver.

Shutdown:
The system does not switch off after shutdown - unknown state of the shutdown.
(no output)

WIFI:
Wifi does work after installation. "ifconfig -a" does not show the wifi card - therefore not options for wireless cards
are shown in the network manager.
After installing the package "linux-headers-generic" and executing "dpkg-reconfig bcmwl-kernel-source" the wifi settings appear in the network manager. Connecting to wifi networks does not work - my home wifi network (i'm trying to establish a connection 1meter away from my AVM fritzbox 7390) does not appear in the network list. Creating a manual connection does also not work) It seems that this problem is related to the wifi networking standard.
If i start a wifi accesspoing by using the thereing-feature of my andoid phone (HTC Sensation) the wifi connection works pretty good.
Output of "lspci -vvv":
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n
        Subsystem: Dell Device 0014
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
        Region 0: Memory at f7600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst+ PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
        Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
        Capabilities: [48] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [d0] Express (v1) Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
                        ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr+ TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L1, Latency L0 <4us, L1 <64us
                        ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep+ BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM L1 Enabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive+ BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
        Capabilities: [100 v1] Advanced Error Reporting
                UESta: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                UEMsk: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                UESvrt: DLP+ SDES- TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                CESta: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                CEMsk: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                AERCap: First Error Pointer: 14, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
        Capabilities: [13c v1] Virtual Channel
                Caps: LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
                Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
                Ctrl: ArbSelect=Fixed
                Status: InProgress-
                VC0: Caps: PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
                        Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
                        Ctrl: Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
                        Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
        Capabilities: [160 v1] Device Serial Number 00-00-85-ff-ff-4e-c0-18
        Capabilities: [16c v1] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: wl
        Kernel modules: wl

I currently not recommend this hardware for ubuntu 12.10.
Do you have hints?

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scoopex (ms-ubuntu) said : 		#1

Wifi now seems to work.
My 2.4GHZ network was configured to use channel 13 (2.472 GHZ).

It seems that this was the source of the problem: I reconfigured my wifi-router to use channel 4 (2,427) - after that it worked.

Revision history for this message
scoopex (ms-ubuntu) said : 		#2

Wifi status:
Works stable with the procedure described in my first post.
It seems that this wifi-adapter handles channel 13 in a special way.
All my other devices at home do not have any problem with that channel.
Also the proprietary wifi-driver (installed by dkms) is not a cool thing.

Suspen/Resume:
Suspend/resume seems to work now.
Switching to the proprietary nvidia driver using the following procedure solved the suspend/resume problems.
I'm not so happy to use this driver because proprietary are often the source of other problems -

Revision history for this message
Jeff Lane  (bladernr) said : 		#3

Unfortunately, with nVidia based systems, you are always going to have much better results using the proprietary nVidia driver than you will with nouveau. That's been my experience and will remain as such until nVidia opens up their driver code like others have, which would allow nouveau to work better.

So there are still some outstanding things in your comment. working backwards:

Shutdown: do you experience the same hang when doing a reboot vs a shutdown? Please file a kernel bug by opening a terminal and using the command "ubuntu-bug linux"

Did the nVidia driver fix the issue (almost sounds like maybe X was hanging, and not letting the shutdown proceed, but that's a very uneducated guess).

Grub and the disk encryption password: again, please file a bug for this, this time, perhaps grub is a better place:
  in a terminal, figure out the right package name: dpgk -l |grep grub
  it's most likely going to be grub-pc for you, this is what is on mine with 12.04:
    ii grub-pc 1.99-21ubuntu3.4 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS version)
  then use ubuntu-bug grub-pc to file the right bug, be sure to add as much description as you can.

Finally, with the touchpad, we only certify them to basic levels (meaning as long as it works as a mouse would, it will pass). More complex functions like 2-finger or multi-touch are not tested during certification. That will likely change in the future, but that won't affect past certification.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask scoopex for more information if necessary.

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