This is a template for a future guide to running Linux with the Alienware M17x R3 laptop. If you have the Alienware M17x R3 and are running Linux on it please consider editing this page or adding a comment below with your compatibility details. By contributing you will help other people running this laptop or trying to make a decision on whether to buy it or not.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Alienware M17x R3. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Alienware M17x R3 page on LapWik.
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For full specifications see the Alienware M17x R3 specifications page.
| Name | Alienware M17x R3 |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) |
| Screen | 17.3” 1600×900 or 1920×1080 Widescreen 17.3” 3D 1600×900 or 1920×1080 Widescreen |
| RAM | Up to 16GB |
| HDD | up to 1500GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M AMD Radeon HD 6990M NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 (1×2 bgn) Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 (1×2 bgn+ Bluetooth) Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (2×2 agn+ Bluetooth) |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Not Tested | |
| Screen | Not Tested | |
| HDD | Not Tested | |
| Optical Drive | Not Tested | |
| Graphics | Not Tested | |
| Sound | Not Tested | |
| Ethernet | Not Tested | |
| Wireless | Not Tested | |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | Not Tested | |
| Webcam | Not Tested |
You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the Alienware M17x R3 here.
You can enter a summary of how well the Alienware M17x R3 works with Linux here.
Discussion
Hi !
I'm having troubles with sound, the same as Sergio, no sound on speakers, but the headphones work…???
I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.
It used to work with the previous version, 11.10, with adding the magic line (options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=alienware ). I've tried it on 12.04, but no success :(
Can anyone help me please :)
Thx
I have a dell wireless card in my alienware and it doesn't have suport in linux. It does not work.
3.0.0-15 got a problem : stopped at boot when it had to launch X
3.0.0-16 solved it
oops NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Ubuntu 11.10 (3.0.0-15) is the only linux distribution that works quite well on my Alienware M17Xr3 (equipped by i7-2860 and NVIDIA GeForce M580X).
If you want to have your speakers work try with this :
in
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
add the following line at the end :
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=alienware
save
reboot
and tell me if it works for you too
I have an Alienware M17-R3 and have tried Debian with Linux kernel 2.6 - had several hardware issues. Needed to compile my own drivers for network, couldn't get laptop speakers to work, couldn't get the display configured to the correct resolution.
Tried some Ubuntu variants. Currently working with XUbuntu 11.10 (Linux Kernel 3.0). Most of the hardware worked out of the box. I still need to do some work on the discrete display adapter, and needed to do a bit of configuration to get the laptop speakers working.
Other than that I'm not looking back.