My laptop from Dell arrived. I was quite happy, quickly taking it out of the packaging, connecting it all up and wiping Windows XP in a repartition of the lovely 7200 RPM hard drive. I wasn’t all that happy though after trying Breezy, Dapper (Flight 5), Kororaa or Novell SUSE Linux (Eval edition) on it.
My problem remains mostly with the graphic card and display. It has an Intel GMA 950, which is not even properly listed on Intel’s site, and a lovely 15.4” WSXGA+ screen, glossy and all. Maximum resolution it can sport is 1680x1050.
And I haven’t even managed a single 16:8 resolution yet, only 4:3, which is such a pity. Highest resolution after hacking xorg.conf achieved is 1280x1024, which since not a wide screen resolution stretches everything. I blame the hardware producers/vendors for not releasing the specs to the community. Seriously, all they need to do is make it public, as the community even does the job of coding drivers and whatnot. Cheap buggers.
If nothing works out I shall be giving it back and getting something else. Anyone recommend any decent Linux-compatible laptops?
47 comments
I think you might need 915resolution due to a bug in intel’s graphics bios’s. http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/
I’m (still) really happy with my ASUS V6V. free radeon driver works great (no 3d though). binary ati driver needed for vga out and 3d (but doesn’t work in suspend).
centrino wireless works, gig E works. USB works. sound works. bluetooth works, suspend works. what else is there?
this is all with breezy. dapper should fix a few issues.
For what it’s worth, I’m very happy with my Inspiron 6000. I got a model with the ATI x300, instead of the Intel video. And it’s been a dream.
I guess you should have left the original shipped OS installed, it fully supported every feature of the laptop out of the box, and you have already paid for the OS if it shipped as an OEM edition.
I’ve seen and heard nothing but good feedback from Prestigio laptops on Linux. I own a Prestigio Nobile 1570, well it has a NVIDIA GeForce 6600 Go so I have no problems with my graphics.
But I bet there’s a hack to fix your issue, you should definitely check the 915resolution fix.
“I guess you should have left the original shipped OS installed…”
John, do you even read this blog ? Because if you did, I think you wouldn’t make this kind of suggestion.
I suggest you put a page up on the ubuntu wiki listing the issues, log them as bugs and then contact Dell saying that you are ‘not happy’ and provide the relevant links.
Stress that you know linux works well on some of their laptops, that you fully expected it would on this one and you would much prefer that they fixed the problem rather than your having to return the laptop.
Good luck.
How is Microsoft partly to blame for the problems you are having with your laptop…When you booted the laptop was every device fully operational and functioning to the maximum of its capability. That is what Microsoft and its hardware partners do, they release fully functional kit. You changed the OS to a freeware Xenix clone and it doesn’t work, how is this a Microsoft issue.
If your OS choice was up to scratch I am sure the laptop vendor would offer it as a choice to the buying public, obviously it isn’t as an expert you are unable to make it work to full specification.
John: Microsoft is full and well blame for part of this. Why? Because they make contracts with hardware companies to only produce Microsoft Windows compatible hardware, along with proprietary drivers, thus shutting off competition. It is also known as unfair marketing, something that Microsoft has a long track record of, and this is not just the only trick up their sleeve in this regard. Next comes bundling software with products sold by hardware vendors. It is very hard as everyone can see, to purchase a laptop without getting a copy of Microsoft Windows with it.
Linux is up to scratch. Note that I used Windows before, and then I moved, so you can see which one I prefer, not just morally but technologically. The only reason Linux does not have native support for many proprietary hardware devices is quite simply… because they are proprietary. As are the drivers that run these devices for such operating systems as Microsoft Windows. We, the community, the public, does not have access to specifications on these devices, how they work, what drivers and such and so forth they use. This makes it very difficult for the community to write free drivers for proprietary hardware. It’s reverse engineering and is as frustrating as looking for a needle in a haystack.
There are some free drivers however, but they cannot compete with the proprietary drivers created by ATi, especially not the proprietary ones for Microsoft Windows. Now why does ATi chiefly create graphic cards, chipsets and so forth, specifically designed for Windows? Because they have contracts with Microsoft and make money that way, disregarding the community.
As for a company like Dell supporting Linux, they did to a short extent though it is still very difficult for them (simply because GNU Linux is free and just cannot operate and be developed and weilded like a proprietary operating system created by a company). I suggest you take a closer look at Linux and the world of free software before denouncing it as not up to scratch.
I’d start personally, since we are having this discussion, to take a look at what Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc. decided to say on the matter of Linux during a recent interview.
Hey Pascal, I’m wrapped that you finally got this laptop. It’s one nice piece of hardware. Anyhow, in relation to your question there is a fix available that will allow you to display the correct resolution until drivers mature for the chipset. There is mention of the chipset on the Intel website, and it even specifies using the MESA driver. Just do some googling and search some forums, you should find it eventually.
Good luck.
Well you know I always recommend IBM (now Leonovo) though I suppose the price for a Thinkpad is that they are slightly cumbersome — not all models though. I’d love to buy the new Leonovo Thinkpad 3000 C100 series — the one with the platinum-style front.
For portability I like Sony Vaios, my brother bought one recently and they’re really thin. I’d also look around for documentation on any Vaios that work well with Linux.
Oh — and what the fudge are you going on about John?!
Sorry — but that’s shit: Linux was a Minix clone. It’s also shit because you’re confusing freeware with open source. Beer and freedom is the analogy everyone uses.
Not to mention if you find it acceptable that a company which holds a monopoly effectively screws up any chance you have of using anything other than it’s software on your computer…well… I don’t think I need to say it.
Err…that’s an incredibly stupid reason against Linux. Converging cores? wtf? Do they know that all distros are based on http://www.kernel.org?!
I disagree in many areas here. If you look at a NIC vendor like Intel. They have drivers for all of their cards for nearly every OS available the a customer would run in their business, Novell, Microsoft, Open Source, Unix’s, DOS etc etc. Absolutely some vendors build hardware for specific purposes or for a vendor to give them a competative advantage, it then depends on who pas and who owns the rights for that technology, not everything can be free because everything has a cost, especially hardware and software engineering.
absolutely I agree with Dell 100%. They are a hardware company that has no competing software business. They will sell hardware to anybody and build relationships with every vndor they believe will pull more hardware revenue from bundling or offering an enhanced experience for the user. So if redhat, Novell, Sun, Microsoft et al want to sell via Dell their operatind system, and it atteacts more customers to Dell they will absolutely sell the brand, the vision and more hardware.
I did not denouce as it not up to scratch you did by highlighting a limitation of the instance you require to make the hardware functional to your requirements. I will pick the applications suitable to my business and then choose the best platform for them to run on, this is what a business must do. I will never choose the OS first and then try to find the applications to run on it that might give me what I need. This is just economic sense in the usiness world. Yes I run both free and not free software, but I choose the best for my needs first then the OS.
I am only requesting that the hardware producers do not limit their contracts to companies like Microsoft. Consider this: would hardware producers make more profit if they were to release their device specifications fully so that the community can write free drivers than if the device and the respective drivers were only exclussive to Microsoft support/compatibility…? Of course they would make more profit if they could reach more customers. How can you reach the customers that are not Microsoft users? Release the device specifications and let the users, in this case the community create free drivers. It is a win-win situation and drives competition amongst software developers which is good for the consumer.
Also, note that in this circumstance I am not concerned about NIC, but rather about Intel graphic card chipsets, which have poor Linux support.
I can’t see how I denounced an operating system I am very happy with? I blamed Intel and companies like Microsoft that make unfair deals with these companies to gain exclussive driver and device support that is proprietary and thus unavailable to the community, not to mention it only runs in Microsoft products. This is not a limitation that is the fault of Linux, nor did I blame Linux for it, quite the opposite.
What if the applications you would desire run on a limited, proprietary, and not as stable nor secure as another alternative, operating system? There is no use for me to use applications, proprietary or free on a Windows operating system if I constantly have to worry about viri, spyware and other such security issues, not to mention the stability of the operating system itself, though I suppose that is another argument for another time entirely.
“You changed the OS to a freeware Xenix clone and it doesn’t work, how is this a Microsoft issue.”
You’ve seriously got me sitting here scratching my head at where it came from if it’s not meant as a troll. It’s astonishingly bad on so many levels. What would possess anyone in their right mind to say that?
so you choose an operating system then try to shoe horn the application set onto it, whether applicable to need or not.
Think about it, if you require the absolute best CAD drawing package as it is critical to your business and it comes in its best flavour on Unix, you want the best possible outcome. You will not place it on Windows nor Open Source, you pay your money for the app and Unix and run it on there. Does your business possibly fail because you bought the second rate version to run it on an alternate platform, I think not, you would choose the best platform to give you maximum value. Hence my discussion, you choose your applciations then you choose what they best run on.
my freeware Xenix or Minux or Unix clone comment came from the fact Microsoft is to blame for all evils of IT in the world today. Because a hardware company writes drivers for its hardware where it will sell the most it is Microsoft’s fault, if it does not release the specs to the public it is Microsoft’s fault, so is world hunger, terrorism and everything else.
I think the paranoid give Microsoft far too much credit as every single thing in the IT world is not a Microsoft product nor designed for a Microsoft product.
It would be useful to note that then, because as you can see it confused us all.
They have a massive influence. Mate, they own over a 90% market share, with a profit margine of over 70% on Windows and Word. A fish shop or butcher or supermarket is happy when it reaches a profit margine of 7% (which is rare case). If a single company has ten times that then there is seriously something wrong. I think just looking back in history it is very easy to see that Microsoft has a huge influence through their actions on a whole manner of different things. They quite well have something to do with the level of technology the common person has, and since in this ‘modern age’ we rely heavily on computers… well you see my point. Things would be much different if their software was as decent as some of the creations that the free software community has come up with.
So Unix is not stable and secure, I always thought so, but thanks for confirming it.
and NATO members all run Exchange as the secure messaging gateway between all member nations, so what is your point. Ebay runs Linux on the front end and Exchange as its email platform. External New York stock exchange runs Linux, all of the trading systems and backend is Microsoft (the global economy runs on Microsoft, if NY fails the global financial systems goe with it) with better than 99.9999 availability
for ebay
Edit: Just dressed the link.
Reply to John: That definitely makes for a very reputable source, or does it not… I just would like to let you know that Microsoft’s ‘Get the Facts’ campaign is generally recognised as ‘Get The FUD’ [Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt; wikipedia article on FUD] campaign. It is very interesting to see the FUD campaigns that Microsoft have had over the years. First they began with such one-liners as “open source is intellectual-property cancer”, or such statements as “open source is like communism”, and now since that began to backfire Microsoft have moved to a new campaign to compare the TCO [Total Cost of Ownership], after all they even themselves realised that their software was no longer technically superior. Now along with their TCO banter, they are claiming that in fact Linux is not really free, they continue then to make a big deal of migration costs of moving to over to Linux (*keels over laughing when considering Samba, especially Samba 4 and the new ‘Vampire’ LDAP sucker*) and finally then claim that they offer a greater toolset.
I am quite fond of the way Eric Raymond dissects the Halloween memos that leaked out of Microsoft (you can find the analysis and the memos here). Since you can easily read up on them for your leisure, I’ll just note some of my favourite comments in regard to the TCO issue, open source being the same as shared source, and other blatant lies by Microsoft to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.
If you read the memos you can clearly see that Microsoft is looking at the situation, going “Mhh, they are beating us, what shall we do? Aha! How about discredit them by spinning lies, because that way people will believe such perceptions as Linux has a higher TCO, or Linux is unstable, or that Linux lacks the necessary tools and features and so forth!” Read the memos and see for yourself.
So I guess with that I am trying to say is that the source you have offered is generally recognised as rather irreputable and heavily biased (given it’s written by Microsoft, published on their site and the companies and corporations which Microsoft wrote case stories on, were typically paid well so that Microsoft could do this).
http://www.onwindows.com/profiled/2003/sep/nasdaq.htm
Profiled - Nasdaq
30.09.03
Nasdaq
Since its debut in 1971 as the world’s first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has been at the forefront of innovation, using technology to bring millions of investors together with the world’s leading companies. With approximately 3,500 listed companies, Nasdaq is the world’s largest electronic stock market.
Nasdaq trades more shares per day, on average, than any other U.S. equities market. Trades are executed through a computer and telecommunications network that transmits timely, critical investment information to more than 1.3 million users in 83 countries. In 2002, Nasdaq developed SuperMontage, which represented a total revamping of its trading services. SuperMontage is a fully integrated order display and execution system, designed to handle an expanding universe of orders.
At the heart of SuperMontage is Nasdaq Prime, the system that provides Nasdaq’s market participants with a window into the SuperMontage order book. Nasdaq Prime expands market transparency by showing not just the top bid and ask prices for each stock, but the top five prices on the bid or ask. NASDAQ Prime encourages participants to enter more and larger orders, drawing more liquidity into the system. Because each participant can enter unlimited quotes and orders at each price level, market depth is increased.
But to do all this, Nasdaq Prime needs powerful database capabilities. It has to handle a minimum of 5,000 quote messages per second scaling up past 8,000 messages per second (equal to 32,000 transactions per second), for peak periods. Far more than just updating and reading data, Nasdaq Prime needs to constantly evaluate bid and ask prices, send out the top five levels, check on the status of quotes, and withdraw prices for completed or cancelled transactions.
Nasdaq originally developed Nasdaq Prime on a proprietary in-memory database. Nasdaq conducted performance testing on the system in February 2002-and found that it could not handle the performance requirements or process the complex business logic that was required. With the rest of SuperMontage already in quality testing and the solution slated to go live in July 2002, Nasdaq had a challenge.
“We looked around at some commercial products, but we needed something that would have minimal learning curve for our developers because of our tight time-to-market requirements,” says Ken Richmond, vice president of Software Engineering for Market Information Systems at Nasdaq. “I was frankly skeptical that Microsoft SQL Server 2000 could handle the scale and complexity required for our application. But SQL Server offered us the potential to reuse existing business objects and leverage our existing resources, making it the most attractive choice to meet our time-to-market needs. We gave it a try.”
three tiers
Richmond and his team built the new Nasdaq Prime based on Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. The solution has three tiers. The first tier receives quotation information from SuperMontage’s Hewlett-Packard Non-Stop Computing mainframe platform. The second tier processes and maintains the data, while the third tier disseminates the information to SuperMontage’s subscribers.
In the first tier, six streams of quotation data enter Nasdaq Prime through Message Queuing (also known as MSMQ) and are received by a pair of four-processor Dell 6650 servers running Windows 2000 Server, enabling each stream to be processed by a separate processor for maximum throughput. Nasdaq’s proprietary gateway transforms the mainframe-based data for use by SQL Server. The data is checked to ensure that no quotations have been lost and that all data retains complete integrity. A separate pair of servers acts as a failover cluster if needed.
SQL Server 2000 provides the performance, reliability, and scalability that NASDAQ needs for high throughput, thanks to the ability to cluster at both the data input and output ends of the solution.
The second tier, running on Windows 2000 Server and SQL Server implemented on two Dell 8450 four-processor servers, manages all business logic using stored procedures. Each quotation, or message, causes a SQL Server stored procedure to execute four or five database calls to process the message and load it into the database. SQL Server business logic reviews all the reference information associated with the message, such as the state of quoting participants. It prepares relevant information to be included with the eventual transmission of the quotation data to subscribers. It analyses whether, and where, the new quotation fits among the top five bid and ask prices.
When a previous top-five price is involved in a completed transaction and thus is no longer available, the business logic prepares a message to advise subscribers accordingly. To minimise bandwidth demand, SQL Server prepares a feed containing only the changed or “delta” information since its previous feed.
The third tier pulls data from the SQL Server database and multicasts it to all SuperMontage subscribers. This layer is implemented on three dual-processor Dell 2250 servers running Windows 2000 Server. Each processor supports a single channel of output, and each server has a backup machine for failover.
benefits
Thanks to SQL Server 2000, Nasdaq Prime has the fast time-to-market, mission-critical performance and reliability, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) that Nasdaq was seeking.
time-to-market
Nasdaq began its development in March 2002, went into quality assurance testing 10 weeks later, and met the July deadline to go into production along with the rest of SuperMontage.
“We brought the Microsoft solution to market in about half the time it would have taken using a proprietary cache alternative,” says Richmond. “That saved a full developer year off the schedule. I credit SQL Server and the ability to reuse existing business logic and industry-standard SQL programming for that short time-to-market. Leveraging all of the services that come with SQL Server out of the box was vital for us.
“Also important was the development assistance we received from Microsoft Consulting Services [MCS],” he adds. “Because of the tremendous demands we were putting on the solution’s throughput, it was extremely helpful to have MCS’s help in fine-tuning SQL Server to deliver that performance.”
satisfaction
The SQL Server solution is supporting 7,900 quotations (messages) per second and has demonstrated the ability to handle up to 12,000 messages per second in lab testing. With up to five database calls per message, that’s a volume of up to 60,000 database calls per second.
“One of the key benefits of SQL Server for Nasdaq Prime is its speed,” says Al Santoro, Associate Vice President for Database Administration, Nasdaq. “Speed is very important to both traders and investors. SQL Server enables us to process trading information in less than one-tenth of a second. That’s very important to us and to the marketplace because it’s the first time the primary market has been able to gather and disseminate multiple orders from our participants.”
As an application on which an entire financial market depends, SuperMontage has to be absolutely reliable. And it is. “The clustering capability we get with SQL Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server serves us very well,” says Santoro. “We’ve never failed over to the disaster-recovery site, and we’ve never failed in production either. We’ve never had any downtime in production. That type of reliability is essential to SuperMontage. We’ve never had to rely on the clustering capability, but it’s nice to know it’s there.”
“The performance, reliability, and capabilities of Nasdaq Prime and SuperMontage mean we can deliver greater business value to our members and subscribers than ever before-and greater value than they can get elsewhere,” says Richmond. “That’s essential to our retaining and expanding on our position as both the world’s largest electronic securities market and the fastest-growing market. We are delivering more information to our subscribers in real time so they can make faster, more intelligent decisions about trades.”
lower cost of ownership
In addition to delivering performance and reliability, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and SQL Server deliver significantly lower total cost of ownership. That lower TCO starts with fast time-to-benefit, cutting 50 per cent off the time and cost of development. And it continues with ongoing benefits from the lower cost of Windows-based software and hardware. “The Windows 2000 Advanced Server and SQL Server solution implemented for this application is much more cost-effective for us than the alternatives,” says Santoro.
“With Microsoft technologies and, in particular, SQL Server, NASDAQ has been able to achieve significant cost savings over more traditional development platforms,”adds Richmond. As well, we’ve been able to achieve increased system development productivity. We have many legacy systems that are pretty expensive to run, and we’re in a very important program now to migrate those systems into distributed systems. Microsoft systems give us the lowest total cost of ownership.”
“Quite candidly, when we started the project, I had my doubts whether Microsoft could deliver on enterprise-class applications,” he concludes. “But I think the results speak for themselves. Microsoft can deliver.”
http://members.microsoft.com/customerevidence/Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=13793&LanguageID=1
NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc.
NASDAQ Deploys SQL Server 2005 to Support Real-Time Trade Booking and Queries
Publication Date: 11/29/2005 Language: English Back to Previous Page Get Office File Viewers
NASDAQ, which became the world’s first electronic stock market in 1971, and remains the largest U.S. electronic stock market, is constantly looking for more-efficient ways to serve its members. As the organization prepared to retire its aging Tandem mainframes, it deployed Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 on two 4-node Dell PowerEdge 6850 clusters to support its Market Data Dissemination System (MDDS). Every trade that is processed in the NASDAQ marketplace goes through the MDDS system, with SQL Server 2005 handling some 5,000 transactions per second at market open. SQL Server 2005 simultaneously handles about 100,000 queries a day, using SQL Server 2005 Snapshot Isolation to support real-time queries against the data without slowing the database. NASDAQ is enjoying a lower total cost of ownership compared to the Tandem Enscribe system that the SQL Server 2005 deployment has replaced.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1295733853;relcomp;1
At its San Francisco launch event, Microsoft also released its Visual Studio 2005 development tool and announced its forthcoming data integration software, BizTalk Server 2006. But the focus was on SQL Server 2005, and Microsoft officials trotted out a set of Fortune 500 corporations that have already adopted the software for their most mission-critical applications.
Among them was Barnes & Noble, which handles an inventory of 7.3 million items sold at 821 bookstores worldwide using a 3TB data warehouse on a 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005. “The raw performance, as well as the price-over-performance ratio, was incredible,” said Chris Troia, the bookseller’s CIO. He said Barnes & Noble runs more than 1,200 SQL Server databases.
Although you could probably guess my response, I think the deciding people who made those choices are wasting a lot of money. Running something like a stock exchange on a corporate’s operating system who [the corporate, in this case Microsoft] does not accept any liability whatsoever if their products fail, and has a reputation for being rather… unstable, is not exactly a wise idea.
Just a personal question, what is your Linux (read not Xenix) experience?
I have administered both Unix, Xenix and Linux (Red Hat) Servers, about 5 years total experience.
I don’t believe linux is ready for the corporate desktop, but fine for many uses depending on the application and integration requirements. Many applications that a business need and require full integration with just aren’t on the platform today.
Then may I inquire as to why you are still running Internet Explorer under Windows XP?
Also, why am I getting the feeling you are blaming this on Linux and/or the free software community…? (I get that feeling starting with your very first comment in this entry) I feel like pointing out (and don’t take offense at these last comments) that it is quite well that Microsoft is partially at fault that Linux does not have a lot of support for these ‘many applications that businesses need and require’, simply because of such campaigns as their ‘Get The Facts’ crusade. I think a lot of people that blame Linux and free software for not being ‘up to scratch in this regard’, as I have heard it, should really consider this, especially when they then turn and go back to their Microsoft solutions, thus supporting the same company that prevents the communty from getting there…
Please read my last comment, I said for the desktop it just isn’t ready yet, hence I run the desktop that provides me and my company with the best applications that suit my business needs, Business intelligence linked to SQL and Oracle, SAP client, CRM solution, Office integrated with IM and portal solution. I would be happy to swap if I could make sure all these applications were not only supported on Linux but worked in the same integrated way so not to loose functionality.
Not at all I don’t blame anybody but you have to admit I have a business need and the open source market does not address my needs as they are today, therefore I am locked in by what I need to make a living to support my family, my workforce and what my customers require of me.
For example I would gladly swap out my CRM for sugarCRM but it must integrate 100% with my email client. If Outlook isn’t the integrated client maybe Ximian software is, but then does this also like into my word processor, hence you can see my problem
over the last 25 years I have also worked on OpenVMS, OS400 (and predecessors), Netware 3 - 6, Windows NT server (all flavours), MS Lanman, Pick, Primos.
How does that compare with you own history?
Well my own history with computing and Linux is of course not where near as lengthy. I actually just realised I have not added it to the about page, but I am actually 16, so when it comes to employement in the IT area, I don’t have a whole lot of experience, having never worked in it.
I began using Linux on my desktop about a 2 or 3 years after using Windows for my work. Back then I did not do much on the deskop (or the server for that matter), though when I began using Linux for all my work, play and learning, I was quite happy and much more friendly with the computer as it did the things I wanted to and if it didn’t it was either my fault or ignorance.
After attending Linux.conf.au 2006 in Dunedin at the start of this year I was quite amazed at how well Linux and FOSS can make it into the corporate world, running on servers and desktops alike at the workplace. As we both agree on, Linux and FOSS does not compare yet in all cases to proprietary solutions (though the blame in this case ought to fall on the community), however I will not throw out my moral and ethical principles by which I live and make my decisions in life upon, out the window so I can use a proprietary solution, better or not, in the workplace, or anywhere at all for that matter.
Oh, and the laptop works. Got it running by hacking/cheating the BIOS of the graphic card. I’ll write about it soon.
Hi,
I just recently purchased the Inspiron 6000. Like you, it has a 15.4 screen and 1680 x 1050 resolution. The difference though, is mine uses the ATI X300 chipset. I get full native resolution out of the box on both Breezy and Dapper (mileage varies with other distro’s though). I had to hack xorg to get native resolution from Xandros, and some distos just crash xorg. About the only issues I have on this with ubuntu are sleep and hibernate. Other than that, even the built in Intel wireless works out of the box.
If I am honest, for all the different OS’s I have worked on VMS is the absolute best. It had technologies like shared memory clusters etc years before anybody else, security to the nth degree and was intuitive as an administrator to support.
That sucks. In some countries Dell also offers the Radeon X1300 instead of the GMA950. That would probably be a lot better.
Hi
I don’t know if it is a good idea to give it back and change the video card for a ATI one. The Radeon X1300 doesn’t have support for linux at all, nor from the comunity neither propetary..
I’ve had no hassle getting 1680x1050 out of my 6400 with Ubuntu Flight 6 or Fedora Core 5. Use the latest driver from Intel and 915resolution. You’ll need to edit xorg.conf.
Now to get a dual-head running in 1280x1024…
I tried the install from Flgiht 5, so my bug report on this probably helped getting it fixed for Flgiht 6. As for driver I didn’t install the Intel ones as they weren’t available at the time. With a recent upgrade via apt 3D support suddenly worked without me needing to poke things.
Curious, have yoou had any luck with the Intel wireless card, ipw3945?
According to the ATI site the (Mobility) Radeon X1300 should work fine under Linux:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
(See the RELEASE NOTES.)
As I’m considering an Inspiron 6400 myself, I’d appreciate it if you/anyone could try this out and post his/her results here.
Mhh, interesting. I think though I will remain with my working Intel GMA 950. In addition I think the time I had to give back the laptop for something else has expired.
I would definitely be interested though if someone has managed to get the ipw3945 working under Linux.
Cheers, Pascal
ipw3945 appears to work. I’ve found several links including http://jackyvuillemin.free.fr/dellinspiron6400.html
I am mostly interested in suspend (RAM/disk) support and battery life.
Does suspend work?
Do you have a 6 or 9 cells battery? How long does it last (e.g. playing a DVD. how long does it last compiling a kernel in loops?) :)
Jerome: Cool. The local distro based here in Canberra named Kororaa seems to also work out of box… meanwhile Dapper people have a problem.
I had a look at what the guy did in the link you gave me and everything he has done I’ve tried to one point:
I’ve installed the ieee802-1.1.13 driver tried to install the ipw3945-0.0.73 driver but it seems it wants hotplug, which I am not about to do, as that would mean downgrading a fair few things and removing packages such as ubuntu-desktop, gnome-volume-control and several other things…
Mhh. The ipw3945 issue has been marked as an important bug if I recall correctly for Ubuntu and it seems the devels want to get it working for Dapper.
I’ve gone all my life without wireless and it has not been something that I directly need all that much (would be nice though), so I can be patient enough and wait another month or two.
Cheers! Pascal
Oh, and I almost forgot! I have a 9 cell battery and I get about 4 hours and 20 to 30 minutes battery time. Playing a DVD for about 40 minutes would take up about 20% battery time (mainly the screen and the DVD drive going at full blast).
I can easily do about 3 and a half hours of reasonably intensive Inkscaping on this. Haven’t done any extensive compiling so I don’t have any decent info on that.
Suspend to disk and RAM last time I tried (Dapper Flight 5) did not work. Also, turning on and off the bluetooth module a few times using the Fn function hangs the system, but I don’t use it anyway.
I like it. Does the job.
To John the Microsoft evangelist……
Funnily enough, I’m also in the process of wiping windows from a 6400 to put install Linux.
In fact, I’m writing this reply from my desktop machine which runs *gasp* Linux, not Windows.
Are you going to lecture me about how terrible it is that I’m not using Windows?
I’m heavily involved in online marketing/SEO, web and database server management etc and have been around computers (Windows machines included) for over 15 years, and I must say….. the only time I’ve EVER seen someone as obsessed as you over Window’s supposed superiority, is from an MS employee.
The simple fact is, a lot of people prefer Linux as a desktop OS because they have an in-depth knowledge of computers and aren’t dunderheaded automatons who think Windows is just the greatest invention since sliced bread.
You pasted case studies etc illustrating just how amazingly great and stable Windows is, so obviously you felt a strong need to try and hype Windows up.
Those of us who support Unix/Linux over Windows don’t need to paste paragraph after paragraph of case studies and “facts”.
We just need to say: over 30 years of proven stability and biggest market share by far for *NIX. Just about every major technology the world actually takes seriously runs UNIX or a variant on their mission-critical servers.
Having said that, it’s even been said that Microsoft uses Linux servers to secure their Hotmail network.
Case Closed.
hi, i’m from the Seychelles. I have an INSPIRON 6400 & i’m actually an Linux fanatic but my plan was, when i got my new laptop i would really love to install Novell OpenSuse so i could really enjoy linux open source operation system. my problem is i cannot adjust my laptop screen resolution to 1680×1050 max resolution. its the fiirst time i’m getting this problem trying to configure any Linux OS. I really love Linux, i had to remove it from my laptop until i find solution for this incompability…
Hey Jean-Paul.
The techniques of using 915resolution above work on any system that uses X (as in the xorg-server). Just follow the steps and you shouldn’t have a problem. You’ll find the 915resolution package for OpenSuse in their respositories.
I have written up another Linux compatibility guide for this laptop which is available at:
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/Dell Inspiron 6400
Thanks Bill. :)