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% Experimental Nvidia GPU support on Dell Latitude E6400 variants, plus E6400 XFR support now confirmed % Leah Rowe % 9 May 2023

Introduction

Dell Latitude E6400 with Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics was added, and included in the recent Libreboot 20230423 release. Today, experimental support is now available for variants with GPU: Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M. The Dell Latitude 6400 XFR (rugged variant) was also tested today (Intel graphics) and confirmed working in Libreboot 20230423.

The Nvidia variants are not supported in Libreboot 20230423. Support is available in an experimental branch of Libreboot. 6400 XFR testing+photo provided, courtesy Mark Cornick (mcornick on Libreboot IRC).

Dell Latitude E6400 with Nvidia GPU

This section also applies to E6400 XFS and ATG models. Testers are needed!.

Some models of Dell Latitude E6400 have Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M graphics device, instead of Intel GMA 4500MHD. The initial Libreboot port of Dell E6400 only supported models with Intel graphics, but experimental support for Nvidia graphics now exists, in a WIP branch of Libreboot.

The Libreboot documentation has been updated, to cover these models. Refer to Dell Latitude E6400 documentation in Libreboot; specifically, the E6400 info page and E6400 flashing guide.

Nicholas Chin, author of the original Dell E6400 port, has been helping me and I've been working on this experimental branch of Libreboot under his guidance:

These patches were already merged in Libreboot's master branch, which the changes in the WIP branch rely upon:

Ongoing development discussion is available, on the Libreboot bug tracker. See:

For more information about the Nvidia GPU variants, please review the following pages (which have been updated, while publishing this news article):

Nouveau(in Linux) currently broken

Nouveau is the libre driver in Linux, for Nvidia graphics. Nvidia themselves do not provide binary drivers anymore, for these GPUs.

If you're booting an Nvidia variant in Linux, boot Linux with the nomodeset kernel option at boot time. This means that graphics are rendered in software.

More information about Nvidia E6400 models is written in the regular E6400 hardware page. The reason it's in a WIP branch is because, on this day, more testing is needed; the Linux nouveau driver crashed when I tried to start xorg (tested in Debian Stable, 11.6, with default kernel and mesa - use of nomodeset kernel option at boot time makes Xorg work just fine, when I tested it, but this means that all video is being rendered in software) - this is being investigated, and when a fix is made, either to nouveau and/or coreboot, this variant of the E6400 will become available in Libreboot's master branch, and subsequent releases.

The same Video BIOS Option ROM is used by Dell's boot firmware, and Xorg works just fine there under Linux, with the same nouveau driver. A trace could be performed, to see where Nouveau crashes.

Development discussion, for Nvidia variants of E6400, is available here:

https://codeberg.org/libreboot/lbmk/issues/14

OpenBSD's Nvidia driver works perfectly

OpenBSD 7.3 was tested, on my Nvidia-model E6400, and works perfectly, including 2D and 3D acceleration. I wholeheartedly recommend OpenBSD in general, but it works especially well on these machines.

See: https://www.openbsd.org/

OpenBSD is a complete free 4.4BSD Unix operating system focused on portability, security and code correctness. It's quite a competent OS for many purposes, and works very well on laptops. I use it myself for all sorts of things. If you're already familiar with Linux-based systems, OpenBSD will immediately feel familiar, and it has the best documentation. You can configure the entire system by just reading the FAQ page and manpages, and it's very easy to get a basic setup really quickly. A lot of the packages you might be familiar with in Linux are available in ports. You may have heard that Linux-based systems are unix-like, but BSD systems are Unix, by code heritage.

You can find information in Libreboot about BSD operating systems on the main guide:

FreeBSD and newer Linux (e.g. Archlinux) untested!

Testers needed! Please get in touch!

At the time of writing this post, FreeBSD and newer Linux have not yet been tested (I plan to test Arch Linux), but the older Linux/Mesa version in Debian 11.6 works just fine in the Dell BIOS, and I've confirmed that it uses the exact same Video BIOS Option ROM.

Dell Latitude E6400 ATG model

Testers needed! Please get in touch!

We also found out about this model; it's another rugged design, assumed to be the same board as regular E6400, but testing is needed. If it's anything to go by, this model shares the same service manual as the regular E6400. If you have this board, please get in touch!

ATG is basically just a thicker chassis. It seems to use the same/similar heatsink compared to E6400 XFR.

Were you expecting more?

Well, that's all for now.

Stay tuned for further development.