Linux on laptop: Debian 6 (stable branch) and 7 (testing branch) on a Dell Latitude E4300
Build-In hardware overview
Manufacturer: Dell
Type: Latitude E4300, purchased 2009 via telephone from Germany
Processors:
Memory: 4 GB
Mainboard:
Graphics:
Sound:
WLAN:
Harddisk: 250 GB capacity
DVD: („DVD+Rewriteable“)
Display type: 13″ Non-glare
Bios:
other: SD-Card drive
Battery: 6-cell
Weight with battery: 1492 gramm, without battery > 1000 gramm
Notebook
This notebook is a light-weight high-end notebook. Of course it was expensive. But I travel a lot and I wanted to get rid of the bigger and heavier Toshiba A100-589 (reported earlier in this blog) AND I wanted a high-end machine to work quickly with Windows.
WHY I WOULDN’T BUY IT AGAIN: Mine seem to have a hardware fault. It was delivered with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (90 € extra to pay). With this the system freezed from time to time as we know from Windows 9x. I (this was an error) blamed Windows Vista for the freezes and deleted it in favour of Linux after I sucessfully tested Linux about 3 months. Later Linux started also from time to time esp. when watching flash movies with Adobe(R) Flash(R). Now I blamed Adobe Adobe(R) Flash(R) and this was wrong again. I realised that crashes occurs when the system asked for extra power. I called Dell service. After changing the whole mainboard no freezes happend! Sorry Microsoft + Adobe, that I blamed your software. It was an error. I didn’t buy an warranty enhancement thinking the issue were fixed – after time of warranty was over the system started to freeze again. I found a feature in the BIOS named „Intel speed step“ and disabled it because I observed the freezing when the system need extra power. This fixed it – almost (two freezes in 8 months). I always used the Ext4 file system with encrypted home directory (ecryptfs) which always protected my data (truecrypt drives among it). I found no file damaged or lost. MANY THANKS the people who made the Ext4 file system!!! Because of the descripted behavior this notebook was replaced by a Asus A54C (also reported in this blog). After there is no need for running Windows because I am happy with Linux I feel no need for such a high-end machine. For Linux and what I am doing with it (developing and office) a low-end machine is good enough.
Operation System
I installed Debian 6 „Sequeeze“ stable, updated it and switched then to the testing branch of upcoming Debian 7 „Wheezy“ (both 64 bit). Earlier I had Ubuntu 8.10 – 10.04 (32 bit) on it but this is not the scope of this report.
Build-In hardware test
Keyboard, mousepad, USB: Works out of the box. Localisation is de_DE_UTF8 (I selected german localisation). Pressing „Y“-key prints an „Y“ not „Z“. Can type Euro-Sign €, |, @, \, ÄÖÜäöüß (AOUaou-umlaut + sharp s). Mouse moves, mousekeys works, (after changing the configuration through the graphical program which come whith Gnome for this purpose) double-hitting the mousepad works also. Can connect and disconnect USB-devices.
Network: Ethernet + WLAN works out of the box. Internal USB-modem needed use of wvdial for Ubuntu 8.10 only, later I could do out of the box with Gnome’s and KDE’s graphical network managers.
Graphics: Resolution of built-in screen is 1280×800. This laptop comes with an external VGA-connector (analog). Connecting it to a Flatscreen it shows a very useable view. I had resolutions up to 1920×1080 on Ubuntu.
Sound: Works out of the box, very good. Even the volume-control shortcuts on keyboard works.
DVD: Can burn DVDs even video DVDs.
SD-Card drive: Works fine (read/write).
ACPI: Fan runs only short from time to time. If the machine has to work harder, the fan starts running (in two steps) but stops running withinsome time after work load is done. The machine did never overheat.
Battery: It runs 4.5 hour while developing (writing, compiling, running).
Hardware info, generated by lshw
(Please understand that i replaced any personal inforamtion like serial numbers by „*****“)
—
slingshot
description: Portable Computer
product: Latitude E4300 ()
vendor: Winbond Electronics
serial: *****
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.4 dmi-2.4 vsyscall32
configuration: boot=normal chassis=portable uuid=*****
*-core
description: Motherboard
vendor: Winbond Electronics
physical id: 0
serial: .*****. .
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Winbond Electronics
physical id: 0
version: A21
date: 01/11/2011
size: 64KiB
capacity: 1664KiB
capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect int13floppy720 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp smartbattery biosbootspecification netboot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P9400 @ 2.40GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 400
bus info: cpu@0
slot: Microprocessor
size: 1600MHz
capacity: 2400MHz
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz
capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
configuration: cores=2 enabledcores=2 threads=2
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 700
size: 128KiB
capacity: 128KiB
capabilities: internal write-back data
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 701
size: 6MiB
capacity: 6MiB
clock: 66MHz (15.0ns)
capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 1000
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 4GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1066 MHz (0,9 ns)
product: HMT125S6TFR8C-G7
vendor: Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics)
physical id: 0
serial: *****
slot: DIMM_A
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1066MHz (0.9ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1066 MHz (0,9 ns)
product: 16JSF25664HZ-1G1F1
vendor: Micron Technology
physical id: 1
serial: *****
slot: DIMM_B
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1066MHz (0.9ns)
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 07
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0
*-display:0
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:47 memory:f6c00000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:ef70(size=8)
*-display:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Display controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6b00000-f6bfffff
*-communication:0 UNCLAIMED
description: Communication controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset MEI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.0
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6ad9ef0-f6ad9eff
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset PT IDER Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 3.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.2
version: 07
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ide pm msi bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ata_generic latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:ef78(size=8) ioport:ef68(size=4) ioport:ef80(size=8) ioport:ef6c(size=4) ioport:ef90(size=16)
*-communication:1
description: Serial controller
product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset AMT SOL Redirection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 3.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.3
version: 07
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm msi 16550 bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=serial latency=0
resources: irq:17 ioport:ef88(size=8) memory:f6ada000-f6adafff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 19
bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:21:70:ba:51:fd
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=1.5.1-k firmware=1.7-7 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:43 memory:f6ae0000-f6afffff memory:f6adb000-f6adbfff ioport:efe0(size=32)
*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1a
bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:20 ioport:6f60(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1a.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.1
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:21 ioport:6f80(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1a.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.2
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:22 ioport:6fa0(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1a.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.7
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:22 memory:fed1c400-fed1c7ff
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1b
bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
resources: irq:45 memory:f6adc000-f6adffff
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1c
bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:40 ioport:3000(size=4096) memory:f0400000-f05fffff ioport:f0600000(size=2097152)
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1c.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.1
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:41 ioport:2000(size=4096) memory:f6900000-f69fffff ioport:f0200000(size=2097152)
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 00
serial: *****
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.2.0-2-amd64 firmware=8.83.5.1 build 33692 ip=192.168.178.21 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
resources: irq:46 memory:f69fe000-f69fffff
*-pci:2
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1c.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.3
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:42 ioport:d000(size=4096) memory:f6600000-f68fffff ioport:f0000000(size=2097152)
*-usb:4
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:20 ioport:6f00(size=32)
*-usb:5
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:21 ioport:6f20(size=32)
*-usb:6
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:22 ioport:6f40(size=32)
*-usb:7
description: USB controller
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:20 memory:fed1c000-fed1c3ff
*-pci:3
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: 93
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci subtractive_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: memory:f6500000-f65fffff
*-firewire
description: FireWire (IEEE 1394)
product: R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
vendor: Ricoh Co Ltd
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
version: 05
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm ohci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=firewire_ohci latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=2
resources: irq:19 memory:f65ff800-f65fffff
*-generic
description: SD Host controller
product: R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter
vendor: Ricoh Co Ltd
physical id: 1.1
bus info: pci@0000:02:01.1
version: 22
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=sdhci-pci latency=64
resources: irq:18 memory:f65ff600-f65ff6ff
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
*-storage
description: SATA controller
product: 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
logical name: scsi2
logical name: scsi3
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: storage msi pm ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list emulated
configuration: driver=ahci latency=0
resources: irq:44 ioport:6e70(size=8) ioport:6e78(size=4) ioport:6e80(size=8) ioport:6e88(size=4) ioport:6ea0(size=32) memory:fed1c800-fed1cfff
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST9250421ASG
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: DE14
serial: *****
size: 232GiB (250GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=0008361d
*-volume:0
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /
version: 1.0
serial: *****
size: 229GiB
capacity: 229GiB
capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2011-06-06 21:54:10 filesystem=ext4 label=linux lastmountpoint=/ modified=2012-04-29 10:42:32 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,data=ordered mounted=2012-05-17 21:19:29 state=mounted
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 3775MiB
capacity: 3775MiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
capacity: 3775MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: DVD+-RW TS-U633A
vendor: TSSTcorp
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/dvdrw
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: D200
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
*-serial
description: SMBus
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=i801_smbus latency=0
resources: irq:19 memory:f6ad9f00-f6ad9fff ioport:1100(size=32)
*-battery
product: DELL FM33889
vendor: SMP
physical id: 1
slot: Sys. Battery Bay
capacity: 52000mWh
configuration: voltage=11,1V
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 2
logical name: wwan0
serial: *****
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=cdc_ether driverversion=22-Aug-2005 firmware=Mobile Broadband Network Device link=no multicast=yes
—
Germany, May 2012
=-=-=-=-=
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