DMI Information

ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT
ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query honored via cmdline
ACPI: DMI System Vendor: Dell Inc.
ACPI: DMI Product Name: Precision M4300
ACPI: DMI Product Version:
ACPI: DMI Board Name: 0UY141
ACPI: DMI BIOS Vendor: Dell Inc.
ACPI: DMI BIOS Date: 01/14/2008
ACPI: Please send DMI info above to [email protected]

If you'd like a sanatized complete dump of /usr/sbin/dmidecode - let me know.

"There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't
believe this to be a coincidence." - Jeremy S. Anderson

+-------------------------------------+
| =[gh]=                              |                   \|/  ______  \|/
| Gerard Hynes                        |                   "@' / ,  . \ `@"
| ghynes AT nfld.com / member.fsf.org |                   /__| \____/ |__\
+-------------------------------------+                       \___U__/

please send me the output from acpidump.

thanks,
-Len

Thanks for the acpidump output. My review of it is inconclusive. Please let me know if acpi_osi=Linux makes anything work better
on this box. Mostly it looks like it shouldn't make any difference, but there appears to be an SMM hook in the dock code where it may have an effect.

thanks,
-Len

OSID() is used throughout, but OSI(Linux) will not break it because the comparisons are usually >= x20 etc, and Linux is assigned x40.

The excpetion is GDCK._UID, which may have an effect

    Name (W98S, "Microsoft Windows")
    Name (NT5S, "Microsoft Windows NT")
    Name (WINM, "Microsoft WindowsME: Millennium Edition")
    Name (WXP, "Windows 2001")
    Name (WLG, "Windows 2006")
    Name (LNX, "Linux")

    Method (OSID, 0, NotSerialized)
    {
        If (LEqual (MIS3, 0x00))
        {
            Store (0x01, MIS3)
            If (CondRefOf (\_OSI, Local0))
            {
                If (\_OSI (WXP))
                {
                    Store (0x10, MIS3)
                }

                If (\_OSI (WLG))
                {
                    Store (0x20, MIS3)
                }

                If (\_OSI (LNX))
                {
                    Store (0x40, MIS3)

# OSI(Linux) comes here

                }
            }
            Else
            {
                If (STRE (\_OS, W98S))
                {
                    Store (0x02, MIS3)
                }

                If (STRE (\_OS, NT5S))
                {
                    Store (0x08, MIS3)
                }

                If (STRE (\_OS, WINM))
                {
                    Store (0x04, MIS3)
                }
            }
        }

        Return (MIS3)
    }
...
               Device (GDCK)
                {
                    Name (_HID, EisaId ("PNP0C15"))
                    Method (_STA, 0, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        If (And (MIS5, 0x01))
                        {
                            Store (SMI (0x87, 0x00), Local2)
                            If (Local2)
                            {
                                Notify (\_SB.PCI0.PCIE.GDCK, 0x00)
                                Return (0x00)
                            }
                        }

                        Store (SMI (0x87, 0x00), Local0)
                        If (Local0)
                        {
                            Return (0x0F)
                        }

                        Return (0x00)
                    }

                    Method (_UID, 0, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        SX10 ()
                        SX30 (0x05)
                        SX30 (OSID ())
# OSID() output is passed to SX30
                        SX11 ()
                        Store (SX42 (), Local0)
                        SX12 ()
                        Return (Local0)
                    }

...
Method (SX30, 1, NotSerialized)
{
Store (SXX2, Local0)
Increment (Local0)
If (LLessEqual (Local0, SizeOf (SXX0)))
{
CreateByteField (SXX0, SXX2, SX20)
Store (Arg0, SX20)
Store (Local0, SXX2)
}
}

I have no idea what this method and all its reference are trying todo, but they're in with some SMI related code, so OSI(Linux) may have an effect on SMM.

Dell will be glad to hear that!

I'm pleased to notice that the "Tech Specs" for the Dell Precision M4300 & M6300 mention Linux. (though it isn't immediately obvious how to order one w/o Windows)

Dell tells me off-list that they put the _OSI(Linux) hook into the M4300 BIOS starting at version A05 specifically to handle Linux console-mode video restore by invoking the video BIOS.

(what BIOS version do you have? -- unfortunately I neglected do dump that
in the DMI printout...)

So, assuming that BIOS is shipping and you have that one or later, then if you boot to console mode (eg init 3) w/o acpi_osi=Linux and suspend/resume you may get no backlight restore and your screen will be black.
Boot with acpi_osi=Linux and the screen should restore properly.

Of course, you might not really care about restoring the LCD if you never suspend in text mode...

It looks like the M4300/M6300 use nvidia graphics.
If that is the case, you'll need the nvidia kernel or X driver to restore video after resume if the video BIOS hook above is not invoked.

If the SKU has Intel graphics, then 2.6.25's i915 driver can restore video, even in console mode without running the BIOS.

thanks,
-Len