Dell Latitude E6420 and Linux

This laptop did hit the market in 2011Q1. I got a version with tons of features. In this page, I will try to:

• describe the Linux compatibility of various parts of this laptop;
• when required, explain the special tricks that I had to use;
• compare with the other Dell models I know (D630, D6400, D6410 series).

As for my older laptops (see e.g. DellLatitudeD610, my E6420 is a working tool; so don't be surprised if I did not try every possible trick and hack to get everything working. I do not care if I lack a few features right now. I am pretty sure that the drivers and fixes will be available in a few weeks or months.

I run Debian sid (even with some experimental packages ; I love living dangerously), but most of those tips could apply to your favourite distro as well.

Case and overall sturdiness

The casing looks even more solid than the one of the D630 and D6400/D6410 series. Still, it's not bullet-proof.
The only issue I had with my previous laptops were:
- slight blue-ish marks appearing on the screen (the marks were visible only on a pure white background and with high brightness; oh, and I forgot to mention that this happened after I did sit for half an hour on the laptop with someone on my knees - I just had forgotten that the laptop was here, you know);
- small rubber pads (under the bottom surface) dislocated; it was annoying in the beginning, because I had built up the habit of resting my wrists on the laptop in such a way that it would apply an horizontal force on the laptop, which would cause it to slide on the surface (table, desk...) when the rubber pads were gone (Dell offered to replace the whole case, but I declined, because I felt it would be a waste);
- dust infiltrating behind the screen (I blame the bad or absent joint at the screen edges) - it became really annoying after 2 years and a half, at which point Dell offered to replace the screen);
- scratches and stains on the top of the case (after a few years of intense use, this was bound to occur) - I got a 10$ sleeve for my new laptop to avoid that in the future.

If you want to get a sleeve, don't forget that this laptop is slightly larger than regular 14" models; so be sure that your sleeve is a bit elastic, or that it can accomodate larger models. Those sleeves are sometimes sold as 14.1". That's specially important if you plan to use the 9-cells battery, which will extend a bit to the rear of the laptop.

LCD panel

I have the HD (1600x900) screen. It's still 14", but it looks smaller than the 16/10 screens found on the D630 and D6400 series. It has a slightly better resolution than my previous laptop (which was 1440x900), but to be honnest, I don't see much of a difference. Many reviewers told that they felt disappointed, because the laptop felt a little larger than the previous 14" models, but the screen was smaller. That's right, but as soon as you power on the laptop and get to work, you will forget that :-)

The vertical angle of view is in par with most other laptops I ever tried - i.e., if you change your position (lower/raise your chair), you will have to tilt the screen a little bit to get the colors right. No big deal.
The horizontal angle of view is very good - which is nice for peer programming sessions, and not-that-nice if you want to do confidential stuff in the plane/train/whatever.

Video chipset

Hard disk and CD drive

Copper Network

Wireless Network

ACPI support (standby etc)

Internal modem

Sound card

PCMCIA/Smartcard combo

Bluetooth

Keyboard

Taking the beast apart

lspci

If that can help ...

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