But then thats it, 2 hours of discovery and its done. i dont need the vista (for which i paid 5K) anymore. But it did serve the purpose of browsing website and helping me choosing the first linux distro that gonna run over my laptop. After much search i found Dell has official support for Ubuntu (after cursing why this service not available in india) so i settled for Ubuntu ( a distro i longed for long). Amazingly my friend had the Ubuntu 8.04 CD burned and ready for me. I popped in the CD and off goes ubuntu, detecting every possible hardware. Glad i decided this penguin to be my pet.
Amazingly Dell had crapped my HDD by 20GB, i decided to clean all stuff. Took the Vista CD, formatted all the partition, installed Vista over a 50GB partition. Popped Ubuntu again and installed it from Live CD. Thats it. Ubuntu Installed. Every piece of art started churning to live.
But as i have experienced for 3 years, linux make you search. Well ubuntu is great as software installation is not a problem, just apt-get it. But once i upgraded to 2.6.24-19-generic kernel problems propped from thin air. So here's the list of problems and my solution.
My hardware config (in case you are interested)
sudo lshw -short -sanitize
H/W path Device Class Description
==========================================================
system Inspiron 1525
/0 bus 0U990C
/0/0 memory 64KiB BIOS
/0/400 processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5850 @ 2.16GHz
/0/400/700 memory 32KiB L1 cache
/0/400/701 memory 2MiB L2 cache
/0/400/1.1 processor Logical CPU
/0/400/1.2 processor Logical CPU
/0/1000 memory 4GiB System Memory
/0/1000/0 memory 2GiB DIMM DDR Synchronous 667 MHz (1.5 ns)
/0/1000/1 memory 2GiB DIMM DDR Synchronous
/0/100 bridge Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub
/0/100/2 display Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/2.1 display Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/1a bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
/0/100/1a.1 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
/0/100/1a.7 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
/0/100/1b multimedia 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
/0/100/1c bridge 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
/0/100/1c/0 eth0 network 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
/0/100/1c.1 bridge 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
/0/100/1c.1/0 network BCM4312 802.11a/b/g
/0/100/1c.4 bridge 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5
/0/100/1d bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
/0/100/1d.1 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
/0/100/1d.2 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
/0/100/1d.7 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
/0/100/1e bridge 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
/0/100/1e/9 bus R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
/0/100/1e/9.1 system R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter
/0/100/1e/9.2 system R5C843 MMC Host Controller
/0/100/1e/9.3 system R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter
/0/100/1e/9.4 system xD-Picture Card Controller
/0/100/1f bridge 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller
/0/100/1f.1 scsi3 storage 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller
/0/100/1f.1/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD+-RW TS-L632H
/0/100/1f.2 scsi0 storage 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 250GB WDC WD2500BEVS-7
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 70MiB Windows FAT volume
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 50GiB Windows NTFS volume
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/3 /dev/sda3 volume 30GiB Windows FAT volume
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4 /dev/sda4 volume 152GiB Extended partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/5 /dev/sda5 volume 50GiB HPFS/NTFS partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/6 /dev/sda6 volume 60GiB HPFS/NTFS partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/7 /dev/sda7 volume 20GiB W95 FAT32 partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/8 /dev/sda8 volume 86MiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/9 /dev/sda9 volume 972MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/4/a /dev/sda10 volume 21GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/1f.3 bus 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller
/1 power DELL RN87384
/2 wlan0 network Wireless interface
Amazingly post installation sound went bloop. So just update alsa for the new kernel.
sudo apt-get install module-assistant
sudo m-a update
sudo m-a prepare
sudo m-a a-i alsa
Next was 3D Cube, just open config manager and set cube (also add 4 workspace to get cube effect)
compizconfig-settings-manager
Next came the wireless adapted (LED stopped blinking)
apt-get install linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-19-generic
Next install some cool player, along with their codecs
apt-get install banshee*
apt-get install mplayer*
apt-get install xine*
apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3
Started banshee found the media button (play/pause/stop/next/back) are working cool but volume button are screwed. Fix is simple, goto System>Preference>Sound Set the Default Mixer Track to the one which works for you. Here's the one i set.
Fortunately every other stuffs working cool, so i am happy this posts not dragging more. Any more issues found/resolved will be appended for you (me).
4 comments:
are you happy with the overall quality of the inspiron ?
Ubuntu on Dell Insipiron Rocks. :)
I have a bargain-basement variant, still an "Inspiron 1525" but with the lower-end Pentium dual-core chip, 160gig hard disk, 2gig RAM deal that Best Buy has sometimes for $499(US).
Overall I'm very pleased. It has the same Intel 965 (aka "x3100") video as the one mentioned, the 160gig drive turned out to be a nice Western Digital, and 2gigs is plenty with Ubuntu.
The only disgusting part was the Dell "1395" internal WiFi card. This Broadcom-based critter was a turd, and driver support in Hardy was just uuuugly...the connection wasn't even solid either with BM43/44 series Linux drivers (and B43-FWCutter) or an NDISwrappered fiasco of a Windows driver.
As an experiment I dropped a slightly older 1390 Broadcom-based card from a friend's broken Dell 1505 (long story but it wasn't the Dell's fault, it was vandalized at a hotel, the hotel paid for a total replacement and he still had the carcass). The 1390 was much more solid in Hardy with Linux drivers. I then found a source for Intel 4965A/B/G/N card (internal mini-PCI-express same as those Broadcoms) and man, THAT thing flat rocks. Signal boost was anywhere from a third to double the range of the Broadcoms. Best $45 I ever spent.
I'm now running Intrepid starting with Alpha5 to present and there's a truly annoying ALSA-based sound glitch: it's OK until you plug headphones in, and then sound fades away to nothing over the course of 10 seconds. Pulling the headphones doesn't fix it, rebooting does, until you add headphones again. Really annoying, 'specially when your roomies don't like metal :). Solution so far as documented here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=913328
...is to yank out ALSA and stick OSS4 in there. Yikes...but damned if it doesn't work just fine. ALSA will likely be sorted out by Intrepid's release. (Note: the issue is NOT PulseAudio, it's ALSA...)
Build quality on the 1525 is quite nice, screen is good, volume control keys work (even with OSS4!), keyboard is very solid. SD card reader works, I've tested it with up to 4gig so far. No complaints about this critter other than that ghastly stock WiFi card, and I would guess the Broadcom drivers are updated for Intrepid so it'll be less of an issue...in Hardy though I would really recommend scoring something else for WiFi rather than beating your head in...
Swapping WiFi is just a matter of opening the underside panel with a screwdriver; keyboard removal is NOT necessary like it was on the 1505 and too many other lappies.
If you want to set up so you can create a WiFi hotspot with it from an Ethernet or cellmodem connection, find an Atheros-based WiFi card as they're better at broadcasting.
Jim cant agree with you more, initially i setup ndiswrapper drivers for my Wifi card and could hardly get a bandwidth of 1Mbps. But fortunately i hacked the wifi card to used broadcom drivers and it now support full blown 54Mbps (max my Linksys WRH54G router supports) with no problem of dis-connection or so.
Well it has a minor glith, in case i shhutdown my router n turn it on again ...it needs to be reconnect twice <2> ..cant figure the reason but i can live with it.
Except that every thing is really cool in my laptop. I installed ubuntu and have vista pre-installed. Amazingly ubuntu runs my lappy hotter than vista. Turned out to be apci driver issue but could fix it.
Though i use toppower to kill all useless processor consuming stuff (broadcom driver rates 3rd in that).
:P
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