Updating BIOS on Dell computers with Fedora

I have upgraded Dell Inspiron 6400/E1505 MM061-A15 to A17

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/software/bootstrap.cgi | bash
# You should get "Done!" message

wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bootstrap.cgi | bash
# You should get "Done!" message

yum install firmware-addon-dell

yum install $(bootstrap_firmware)
# You will see many "No package ... available.",
# but there should be a system_bios_XXX can be installed.

update_firmware
# You should see an available firmware.

update_firmware --yes
# Install it

You should only get something like

Running updates...
Installing system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01bd) - a17

That is the successful message, weird I know. If fails, you will get error message.

Then reboot, you will see computer updating with new firmware.

PS. I think for second and later updates, may just need to run update_firmware --yes.

Links: firmware wiki page at Dell Linux, Updating system BIOS when running Ubuntu

Notes on Installing Fedora 8 x86_64 on Dell Inspiron 6400

I will keep updating this post at anytime

This time I installed x86_64 architecture. I wasn’t planning to “do a fresh install”, I was planning to “upgraded Fedora 7 i386 to Fedora 8 x86_64.” I think I failed but not totally. I could boot into X with fglrx, however, upgrading package makes a lot of problems. Too many conflicts. I was warned with “… It is likely to not succeed. …” while upgrading. I have to say “that’s wrong!” It should say “… If you insist to upgrade it from different architecture, then the time you spend for it can do fresh install at least 10 times. …” Before I installed my laptop, I upgraded Fedora 6 i386 with Fedora 8 i386 on my private server. The result is great, I can tell that’s no problem with doing that.

Now, I will describe what I did for installing Fedora 8 x86_64. Notice that this will not be a systematic post.

I didn’t customize packages while installing. While first booting, I saw irqbalance failed. I added livna repo (It is being merged into RPM Fusion.). Installed kmod-fglrx (for ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) and other packages, removed rhgb (fancy but not practical), yum-updatesd (too annoying to me) and some others as well. After rebooted, I got 1680×1050 resolution.

Firefox and Flash

Installed Flash for Linux x86 RPM. Run mozilla-plugin-config -i (-c for reinstalling after upgrade of Flash)as current user, you need nspluginwrapper package. You should see Flash immediately, no need to restart Firefox.

Compiz Fusion

Fan control for Dell Inspiron 6400 on Linux

My 6400’s CPU temperature sometimes over 50 degree, this makes keyboard becomes hotter. I didn’t know did the fan work properly or not, but I am sure it does now. There is a package call i8kutils on Fedora and Fedora Core. You can download the source code. It doesn’t really support 6400, check this out

$ dmesg | grep i8k
i8k: not running on a supported Dell system.
i8k: vendor=Dell Inc., model=MM061 , version=A15
i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version

However, it still can control the fan. Once you installed it, reboot and run

$ i8kctl
1.0 (null) ServiceTag 40 -1 1 27660 74490 0 -1
$ cat /proc/i8k # or this
1.0 A15 ServiceTag 40 -22 1 27660 73770 -1 -22

The two bigger numbers are the RPM of your fans. But they seems to be incorrect and 6400 has only one fan.

i8kctl allows you to control, e.g. set the fan to high speed by i8kctl fan - 2.

Now, here are what I did: First, create /etc/i8kmon.

set config(0) {{- 0} -1 40 -1 45}
set config(1) {{- 1} 35 50 40 55}
set config(2) {{- 2} 45 128 50 128}

This tells the monitor program i8kmon how to control your fan. There are three configurations. Second one means when CPU temperature within 35 to 50 degree Celsius or 40 to 55 degree on battery, it will control fan at low speed {- 1}. Once temperature drops down to below 35 degree, it goes first configuration and turn off the fan {- 0}. Since there is only one fan, therefore the first argument of {- X} is always -.

Run i8kmon at booting
echo "/usr/bin/i8kmon -d &" >> /etc/rc.local

By the way, if your volume control hotkeys(Fn+VolUp, etc) don’t work, try i8kbuttons, it might be a solution. My hotkeys work perfectly, so I don’t need it.