Debian GNU/Linux on Dell Latitude D630

My recommandation : run at least lenny/testing, and maybe sid/unstable.

My DellLatitudeD610 is finally almost dead, so I got a brand new D630.

Video

I got the Intel video chipset. It is rumoured to be less power-hungry (or maybe the nvidia driver is just poorly written, I don't know), and I don't care about super-duper-3D performance.
Xorg packages in etch/stable do not have the xserver-xorg-video-intel package ; so you have to upgrade to lenny/testing, or use the vesa driver.
When I tried the vesa driver, it used a poor 1024x768 resolution (maybe you can fix that with 915resolution ; I did not try).
Just upgrade to lenny/testing and apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel, it works out of the box.
Dual screen is not perfect ; when I plug an external monitor, I have to restart X in order to use it (the monitor will show up when I run xrandr but xrandr silently refuses to enable the VGA output).

Sound

I did that with Debian 2.6.22, 32 bits, kernel.

apt-get install module-assistant build-essential
m-a -t prepare
m-a -t a-i alsa
lsmod | grep snd | awk '{print $1}' | xargs rmmod # to unload old drivers
modprobe snd-hda-intel model=dell-m42 # the model=... part is important !
echo options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m42 > /etc/modprobe.d/d630-audio # this will make the previous line persistent for later boots ;-)

Suspend-to-disk

Works. Just remove the ipw3945 module from the blacklist in /etc/hibernate/blacklisted-modules and run hibernate.

Suspend-to-ram

Works when you run s2ram -fps (if you do "basic" STR, you will get a black screen when resuming).

Wireless

apt-get install ipw3945d firmware-ipw3945 ipw3945-modules-2.6-686
modprobe ipw3945

and voilà.
If you run custom kernels without ipw3945 modules, just run m-a -t a-i ipw3945 to automatically compile and install your own ipw3945 modules.

Hwclock

If you get messages about "setting hwclock" which freezes the system for a few seconds at each boot, edit /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh and /etc/init.d/hwclockfirst.sh and add --directisa to the the HWCLOCKPARS environement variable.

DVD+/-RW

Works perfectly with k3b (I could write a data DVD+RW).

Bios update

apt-get install libsmbios-bin
wget http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/debian/dists/etch-i386/firmware-tools/1.2.6-1/firmware-tools_1.2.6-1_all.deb
dpkg -i firmware-tools_1.2.6-1_all.deb
inventory_firmware # must be run as root
You will get a line like system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01f9) = a06 (0x1028=DELL, 0x01f9=D630, a06=your bios version)
Note : you can also get your laptop type (here, 0x01f9) by running getSystemId from the libsmbios-bin package.
wget http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/bios-hdrs/system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x01f9_version_a06/bios.hdr # replace system_bios...version_a06 with your system type and the required bios update
dellBiosUpdate -u -f bios.hdr #I had to add --force_mono else the bios could not be flashed successfully after reboot
This will put the BIOS image in a special part of the memory. Then, reboot the laptop. The BIOS will update (it will take a few minutes, and next boot will be very long).
If the AC adapter is not plugged in, or if there is a problem with the BIOS image, you will just get an error and the old BIOS will boot.
Or at least it should ; if you screw your laptop, you're on your own and I can do nothing for you !

Special keys

Does not work yet. Maybe it's a DSDT problem (wild guess).

Dual Head

It works perfectly, but the output name in xrandr is case-sensitive.
For instance, xrandr --output vga --auto does NOT work (but does not give an error message, neither).
You can do xrandr --output VGA --auto to activate the VGA output, and xrandr --output LVDS --off to disable the LCD panel.
Other xrandr options seem to work (--same-as, left-of, etc.)
I tried to run an external screen in vertical mode : it works, but is veeerryyyy slow (almost unusable). Too bad.

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