Support for Intel Arrandale/Calpella (Core i3/i5) Laptops?

cubdukat · #1 17th January 2010, 01:35 AM

I was using Fedora 11 on my previous laptop, a Toshiba Centrino 2-powered model, and I was having issues with the CPU fan not starting up unless I put it to sleep and woke it up again. I no longer have it due to circumstances beyond my control (aka getting mugged), and I'm looking into getting one of Dell's Core i5-powered Inspiron laptops.

On the odd chance that some people here have gotten their hands on one, I was wondering if there's any support for Core i3/i5-powered laptops in Fedora 11, or should I wait for Fedora 12 before I get one? I almost burnt up the Centrino 2 one before I remembered about the fan problem, and I want to avoid that if possible.

cubdukat · #2 9th February 2010, 10:28 PM

Since nobody seems to have the answer, I'll answer it myself...

NO!!!!

I picked up a Gateway NV7915u this past weekend and attempted to install the latest incarnation of Fedora 64-bit on it, but the screen went dark, and it didn't seem like there was very much disk access. I got similar results with the latest OpenSuse, Backtrack 4, and even Ubuntu Karmic. The only thing that semi-worked was the alpha for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, and that hung up when I went to battery power.

So, needless to say, the new Core i3/i5 laptops are not ready for prime time as far as Linux is concerned. However, that doesn't surprise me a whole lot because Intel gave them to us a lot sooner than we expected. I was quite taken by surprise when I found out. It seemed like they made the announcement that they were coming on the same day they actually arrived.

Still, I suspect that I'll soon be able to run one of my favorite power-distros on a laptop that can truly handle all it can do...It would have been nice, though, if I coulda found this out beforehand instead of having to waste time trying to get something to work that wasn't meant to work.

K3JAE · #3 26th February 2010, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubdukat

Since nobody seems to have the answer, I'll answer it myself...

NO!!!!

I picked up a Gateway NV7915u this past weekend and attempted to install the latest incarnation of Fedora 64-bit on it, but the screen went dark, and it didn't seem like there was very much disk access. I got similar results with the latest OpenSuse, Backtrack 4, and even Ubuntu Karmic. The only thing that semi-worked was the alpha for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, and that hung up when I went to battery power.

So, needless to say, the new Core i3/i5 laptops are not ready for prime time as far as Linux is concerned. However, that doesn't surprise me a whole lot because Intel gave them to us a lot sooner than we expected. I was quite taken by surprise when I found out. It seemed like they made the announcement that they were coming on the same day they actually arrived.

Still, I suspect that I'll soon be able to run one of my favorite power-distros on a laptop that can truly handle all it can do...It would have been nice, though, if I coulda found this out beforehand instead of having to waste time trying to get something to work that wasn't meant to work.

I have a Toshiba with the i3 processor. I was able to get Fedora 12 to load by using the "default video driver." Needless to say the video looks like crap but is functional. Any update on repairing Fedora 12 to work with latest drivers? Additionally is there any reliable driver for the RealTek RTL8191ES WLAN existing for Fedora 12 yet?

cubdukat · #4 26th February 2010, 07:00 PM

I downloaded one of the 64-bit Respins, so I'm going to see if that helps. I actually did get the alpha of Ubuntu Lucid to install, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm going to see if I can install the respin. If not, I'll wait until Fedora 13, because they'll certainly have support then.

cubdukat · #5 2nd March 2010, 05:58 AM

Success!

Turns out the respin was all I needed. F12 64-bit seems to be working quite well, although I haven't got it set up all the way yet. But the installation went off without the slightest hitch, except it glommed onto the hidden recovery partition on my HD instead of Windows 7. But I was able to edit menu.lst and fix the problem, so I now have a fully functional dual-boot system again.

I think I'll be taking a pass on Ubuntu for a while. I've been increasingly dissatisfied with each new release, and the problems this last release had with Intel graphics chipsets was the last straw. I have a laptop that can finally handle a power distro, so why not put one on there--and no, Ubuntu is not a power distro. Debian, maybe, but not Ubuntu...

jbladder · #6 8th April 2010, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubdukat

Success!

Turns out the respin was all I needed. F12 64-bit seems to be working quite well, although I haven't got it set up all the way yet. But the installation went off without the slightest hitch, except it glommed onto the hidden recovery partition on my HD instead of Windows 7. But I was able to edit menu.lst and fix the problem, so I now have a fully functional dual-boot system again.

I think I'll be taking a pass on Ubuntu for a while. I've been increasingly dissatisfied with each new release, and the problems this last release had with Intel graphics chipsets was the last straw. I have a laptop that can finally handle a power distro, so why not put one on there--and no, Ubuntu is not a power distro. Debian, maybe, but not Ubuntu...

Which respin did you use? I want to try it myself and see if I get better results than I have currently.

Landshark · #7 9th April 2010, 02:19 PM

I would really like to know the re-spin as well.

I am running into the same issues with Fed. 12 and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator -- driving me bug-house. I upgraded to the newest stable kernel -- 2.6.33.2 -- and added the xorg intel support packaged from the 64-bit repo's, but the same problems keep occurring.

mrdaler · #8 9th June 2011, 04:36 PM

I know that this is an old post that I found that has the same issues that I am having, and hope that you are still monitoring this forum.

I have a Gateway N79u22 that I purchased last spring. I installed fedora 12 using the xdriver=vesa. Now I am using fedora 15.

I can get 1900x900 mode, but I have to jump through hoops to get it.

I start my laptop ....rgb quiet 3 which starts with a blank screen. After I notice there no longer drive activity I close and open my lid to get the command line where I log in and then startx for the gui.

I do know that if I remove quiet in the start up I get start up text on the screen and when plymouth starts everything goes blank.

This was my 2 cents.