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
I initially wanted to get the model with the integrated Intel HD3000 video chipset. But if you opt-in for the quad-core CPU, Dell will automatically bundle in the NVidia NVS4200M chipset.
This delayed my purchase of the laptop, since I didn't care about the performance of the chipset, but I cared a lot about Linux compatibility, stability, and power efficiency - three points where the NVidia chipsets have been quite miserable in my experience.
In fact, you get both chipsets:
- integrated HD3000, which will be the chipset used by default on Linux;
- NVidia NVS4200M "discrete graphics" (I think that's just fancy wording for "not-integrated-into-the-CPU").
To get the Intel chipset working right, I had to upgrade the following packages:
- linux-image-2.6.38-2-amd64: 2.6.38-3
- xserver-xorg-video-intel: 2:2.15.0-1
- libgl1-mesa-dri: 7.10.2-1
If you get an error like "
BadAlloc?" when trying to run
OpenGL? stuff, it probably means that you forgot to upgrade libgl1-mesa-dri.
If you want to turn off the NVidia chipset:
When doing that, my estimated battery life went up from 4h30 to 6h (using the standard 6-cells battery).
The Intel chipset performance is more than sufficient to run e.g. compiz with some effects. Video playing works well. I didn't try full HD playout yet.
However, let's talk about external outputs: the Intel chipset seems to control only the VGA (15 pins) output. It seems that the HDMI output can only be used by the NVidia chipset. I will try later to use the NVidia chipset.
If you want to use the NVidia chipset, you have two options:
- disable "Optimus" in the BIOS (this will disable the Intel chipest);
- use vgaswitcheroo patches (which will allow to switch between the two graphics adapters without rebooting your computer; however, I think that restarting X will still be necessary)
At least one of my coworkers is using the NVidia chipset, so I think this should work: -)
Hard disk and CD drive
I got the 256GB SSD. It says it's a "SAMSUNG SSD PM81". The SATA stuff worked right out of the box.
The raw throughtput is decent (230 MB/s measured with "pv /dev/sda").
If you want me to run a specific benchmark, just ask.
I aligned my partitions on 1 MB blocks (use fdisk, change units to sector, check that all partitions start from a number such as N%2048=0).
I'm not sure that this is necessary (it's an attempt to get partitions aligned with the low-level flash cell size).
I formatted the filesystems in ext4, and mounted them with "noatime,discard" options (they are supposed to be interesting for SSD devices).
I did not check yet that TRIM support was correct, but I will do the following test some day:
https://sites.google.com/site/lightrush/random-1/checkiftrimonext4isenabledandworking
I will soon test the E-SATA port.
Trackpad
Basic functionality works out of the box; but:
- you won't get multi-touch or scrolling out of the box;
- it seems to be an ALPS touchpad
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 ...