Alienware M11x - ArchWiki

# Alienware M11x

From ArchWiki

This wiki page documents the configuration and troubleshooting specific to the Alienware M11x laptop.

See the Installation guide for installation instructions.

## Wireless

The Broadcom Corporation Device 4353 (rev 01)(14e4:4353) 802.11a/b/g/n MIMO adapter is the stock wireless device for the M11x (R1).

See Broadcom wireless.

## Sound

Works out-of-the-box. See ALSA.

## Touchpad

See Synaptics.

## Video

- For Alienware M11x R1 owners: The Alienware M11x R1 has 2 video cards, and can be manually changed with the system BIOS (accessed by pushing F2 during system POST) ::

- Switchable => Linux will use the Intel 4500HD internal video
- Discrete => Linux will use the NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

Alienware M11x R1 users running Linux have some tools available which will interact with the hybrid video cards in this laptop.

- Bumblebee is a software implementation based on VirtualGL and a kernel driver to be able to use the dedicated GPU. Alienware M11x R1 users CAN use this method to switch between the Onboard/Intel and the Discrete/NVIDIA without a system reboot and/or BIOS change (yet the BIOS would need to be set for Switchable).
- acpi_call allows you to disable+power down the Discrete/NVIDIA card when the system is booted while BIOS Graphics mode is set to => Switchable
- vga_switcheroo allows one to switch between the Onboard/Intel and the Discrete/NVIDIA without a system reboot and/or BIOS change (yet the BIOS would need to be set for Switchable). vga_switcheroo has been reported as non-functional at this state for Alienware M11x users.

linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com is a great site to check out for up-to-date information regarding the state of hybrid graphics in Linux.

- For Alienware M11x R2 owners: There are detailed instructions on how to switch on/off the discrete NVIDIA graphics card on the Optimus (R2) models for the Alienware M11x laptop.

- For Alienware M11x R3 owners: Many of the methods for running Optimus & bumblebeed on the M11xR3 are the same or similar to the M11xR2 however the acpi calls are different for this model.

### Bumblebee

> Bumblebee is a solution to Nvidia Optimus hybrid-graphics technology allowing to use the dedicated graphics card for rendering. It was started by Martin Juhl.

See Bumblebee for details.

### ACPI_CALL

ACPI_CALL is a kernel module that enables you to call parameterless ACPI methods by writing the method name to `/proc/acpi/call`, e.g. to turn off the discrete graphics card in a dual graphics environment. acpi_call works on the Alienware M11x R1 for disabling the discrete video card + powering it down successfully. Make sure you boot with BIOS set to switchable' ::

- Grab the acpi_call-git AUR package(IMHO it is working pretty stable), and skip the manual installation/compilation of acpi_call.
  - OR you can grab acpi_call and compile manually. Please see the acpi_call site for details on compilation if you wish to compile manually.

#### acpi_call Usage

    # modprobe acpi_call
    # grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state
    # echo '\_SB.PCI0.P0P2.PEGP._OFF' > /proc/acpi/call
    # grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state

1. Modprobe the acpi_call module
2. Check the current battery mW usage (not necessary)
3. Echo '\_SB.PCI0.P0P2.PEGP._OFF' to (the now existing since acpi_call was loaded) /proc/acpi/call
4. Check the current battery mW usage again to see that it dropped (not necessary)

- Both #2 and #4 as noted are not necessary, they just demonstrate that the battery usage is dropping as long as you do them in the order listed here.

#### m11rx2hack

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1402584&postcount=45

#### m11rx3hack

    #!/bin/sh
    # Based on m11xr2hack by George Shearer

    if ! lsmod | grep -q acpi_call; then
    echo "Error: acpi_call module not loaded"
    exit
    fi

    acpi_call () {
    echo "$*" > /proc/acpi/call
    cat /proc/acpi/call
    }

    case "$1" in
    off)
    echo NVOP $(acpi_call "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP.NVOP 0 0x100 0x1A {255,255,255,255}")
    echo _PS3 $(acpi_call "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._PS3")
    ;;
    on)
    echo _PS0 $(acpi_call "\_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._PS0")
    ;;
    *)
    echo "Usage: $0 [on|off]"
    ;;
    esac

### VGA_SWITCHEROO

Currently, Alienware M11x R1 owner reports indicate the vga_switcheroo method is not functional.

This explains how-to use VGA_SWITCHEROO for troubleshooting ::

- kernel configuration flag - ensure CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO is set as module, or built-in :: CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO=y/m

    sudo modprobe vgaswitcheroo
    sudo mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
    cd /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo
    cat switch
      0:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
      1: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0

`echo "DDIS" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch` <= switch to discrete card
`echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch` <= switch to onboard card
`echo "OFF" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch` <= power-down the card not in use

Use 'nvidia-settings' to configure the video card, and multiple screens if using the discrete/NVIDIA card.

### Backlight Brightness

- When booting into Arch Linux using NVIDIA/discrete video card just change brightness using the FUNCTION+F4 = brightness up, and FUNCTION+F5 = brightness down - also 'nvidia-settings' should allow brightness settings changes too.

- When booting into Arch Linux using the INTEL/onboard video card, the only way to change brightness levels requires passing a command through 'setpci', the following script is adapted from Samsung_N150-Backlight ArchWiki article works fine (ymmv). REQUIREMENTS: `bc`, and `setpci`

1. create a file @ `/sbin/backlight`
2. `sudo chown root:video /sbin/backlight`
3. `sudo chmod 750 /sbin/backlight`
4. make sure to add the username allowed to change the backlight settings to the video group in `/etc/group`
5. create an alias in your shell startup, and turn the brightness up or down via command, in turn you could tie this to a button combination in your xwindow manager settings.

    .bashrc

    alias brup='/sbin/backlight up'
    alias brdown='/sbin/backlight down'
    alias brget='/sbin/backlight get'

    .tcshrc

    alias brup '/sbin/backlight up'
    alias brdown '/sbin/backlight down'
    alias brget '/sbin/backlight get'

#### /sbin/backlight

    #!/bin/bash
    # increase/decrease/set/get the backlight brightness (range 0-255) by 16
    #
    #get current brightness in hex and convert to decimal
    #
    # REQUIRES: bc, and setpci
    var1=`sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B`
    var1d=$((0x$var1))
     case "$1" in
           up)
                  #calculate new brightness
                  var2=`echo "ibase=10; obase=16; a=($var1d+16);if (a<255) print a else print 255" | bc`
                  echo "$0: increasing brightness from 0x$var1 to 0x$var2"
                  sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=$var2
                  ;;
           down)
                  #calculate new brightness
                  var2=`echo "ibase=10; obase=16; a=($var1d-16);if (a>15) print a else print 15" | bc`
                  echo "$0: decreasing brightness from 0x$var1 to 0x$var2"
                  sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=$var2
                  ;;
           set)
                  #n.b. this does allow "set 0" i.e. backlight off
                  echo "$0: setting brightness to 0x$2"
                  sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=$2
                  ;;
           get)
                  echo "$0: current brightness is 0x$var1"
                  ;;
           toggle)
                  if [ $var1d -eq 0 ] ; then
                          echo "toggling up"
                          sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=FF
                  else
                          echo "toggling down"
                          sudo /usr/sbin/setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=0
                  fi
                  ;;
           *)
                  echo "usage: $0 {up|down|set <val>|get|toggle}"
                  ;;
     esac
    exit 0

### Other applications

- A C-program which cycles through colors, plus information about how to understand it, can be found at [1].

- alienware-kbl a software to manage the light colors with a graphical interface, python or bash commands.

Category:

- Alienware