Linux on Laptops

Linux - Dapper Drake 6.06 LTS - Dell Inspiron 8600 (i8600)

The following information will be updated as time permits and as I get more parts of the system to work properly. As of this writing, the computer is usable. Some items I haven't used, some I have no way to test for lack of hardware and some are minor irritations that will eventually get fixed. I have configured and compiled a custom kernel but, so far, there has been no need to patch an existing kernel.

Many thanks to all involved in participating with my endless harrasingly, barkingly, naggingly,annoyingly,pokingly oh.. did i mention aggresive effors to squeeze the life of a few, and spew knowledge! for search of answers!!@# solely for the purpose of hardware to function, and let this page serve as reference for future n00bs, as I was. Thanks in particular to everyone in #ubuntu #ubunt-xgl #xgl @ irc.freenode.net for patiently providing HowTo's, links, PM Q&As and still untill today relying on them. Use this information as much as you would like, it consolidates endless doubts. I try to update this page as much as possible as time permits. Enjoy a change in perspective and practice the word FREE as in FREEDOM!

Summary (updated 14/8/06)

Hardware Subsystem	Status / Out of Box	Updated	in Kernel / Other Info
Disk - IDE/(U)DMA	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y /
Audio	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y /
104-Key Keyboard	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / Vol -\+, Mute, MM Keys Detected, use xmodmap for programming. Fn+F2 OK, some other FNs respond
Power Management	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / ACPI kicks in, Power Button Selection Menu
Susp/Hib/Shut/L-off/Switch	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / option on GNOME , no option in Xgl Compiz
Xserver	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	ATI driver needed for 1280x800 res fix
Firewire	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y /
Ethernet	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / confusing to remember eth0=wired/eth1=wireless
Modem	MalFunct. / Ney	20/06/06	N / Untested, need drivers
USB	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y /
Infrared	MalFunct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / Untested
Mini-PCI/Wireless	Funct. / Ney	20/06/06	N / Ndiswrapper + Windows driver for Broadcomm bcmwl5.inf/sys
PCMCIA	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / Untested
Modular bay floppy drive	Untested	20/06/06	Y / Untested
BIOS	A17 / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / Appears to be recognized by the kernel
CD/DVD+RW drive	Funct. / Yey!	20/06/06	Y / Drive reads DVD/CD's Burning untested.

This laptop is operating under Kernel version [2.6.12-26]

The hardware

The hardware within this laptop is as described except for the upgraded 1.4Ghz Intel CPU. The unit had never had linux installed before and nevver referenced to other i8600 installations to get my own distro setup. I did search and download a debian,knoppix and fedora distro but genius me I could never get them damn things running. Nothing worked I nearly gave up to go back to Micro$oft Garbage. Yet I somehow ran into Ubuntu and everything changed from that point on. :

Intel 2.1GHz Centrino-M, 2048kB/L2 Cache
1024MB DDR / 127MB HIGHMEM / 896MB LOWMEM
60Gb Hitachi HTS548060M9AT00,ATA100
ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA[33](HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA-4040N drive) modular bay
1280x800 WUXGA active-TFT panel
128MB ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] Graphics
No Floppy drive for the modular bay
Dell Litium Ion Rating:11.1v 6486mAH Capacity 71590mWH [72WH]
90W 19.5v/4.62a PA-10 Power Supply
Dell TrueMobile 1300 802.11b/g miniPCI Wireless LAN card

The main on-board components:

PCMCIA slot (1x)
mini-pci slot (1x)
ieee1394a (firewire) port (1x)
USB 2.0 ports (2x)
serial, parallel, 15pin vga connector
winmodem
10/100 ethernet
AC'97 soundcard
TV/video/SPDIF out
mic in, stereo headphones out
IR port
Intel 855PM system chip set (Centrino)
TI 4510 CardBus controller

IMPORTANT: Very shocking! keep reading... this laptop had been running on the 65W adapter for nealy a year before i landed it. While buying it I tested and discharded the battery, then plugged the power back and batt stayed on standby without re-charging. Day or two after and no charge still. Looked on Dell's Website and there is a massive forum on fried mboards due to low voltage consumption because Dell was AGAIN at fault being that it shipped the wrong voltage adapters on all 8600 units. If you've got the 65W adapter, need I suggest buy a PA-10 90W adapter? Got mine on eBay for approx~ $23.00 brand new.

The 90W optional power supply is very important as the standard one (65W) will not charge the battery when the computer is in use. The power consumption is much higher due to Speedstep Technology, Battery charge etc.... so there is voltage variation and limits CPU state to 600Mhz only with BIOS POST boot errors and low performance.

Preparing for Installation

This laptop came with Windows XP, Home Edition, all hardware running 100% I had to repartition/format plenty of space for Linux, so the Windows partition had to be reduced. I thought the Windows evolution wasn't all I thought so since the 1990s, it became a bore, jailed and suffocated with proprietary dilemas, so in my own revolution Linux was the answer, but kept Windows since it was stable.

I had an Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy distribution handy, and this is what was I started to get into linux with. I later upgraded to Dapper affirming certain problems I would be encountering.

Installing Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (also 5.04)

Model: Hitachi HTS548060M9AT00
Geometry: 7296/255/63 user@user:/$ sudo fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 6021 48363651 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 6022 7239 9783585 83 Linux /dev/hda3 7240 7296 457852+ 5 Extended /dev/hda5 7240 7296 457821 82 Linux swap / SolarisInstructions:
I made 2 partitions of 46.1GB XP / 10GB Linux (used the partition assistant in Ubuntu). Partition each as you please.

I knew I had to sacrifice Windows XP due to lack of space to install anything else on the hard drive. It is suggested if not required to make a backup before any changes to the partition table are made, or it'll blow all important personal files.

Then initiate the Windows XP installation with the Dell restore CDs, boot directly from the CD-ROM drive until the repartition screen appears. Split the 60Gb leaving at least 7GB for the second partition. i.e. 40/20, 30/30, 50/10. Proceed installing Windows XP on the first partition and finish that. Once Windows is done and functional, boot to Ubuntu DVD. The main menu has several options, I chose Ubuntu Install with Graphic Support, or somewhere in those lines.

The next steps start a hardware detection, analysis and preparation of hard drive space. In earlier tries, I could never get linux partitioned correctly due to lack of knowledge of a root, swap, and ext2 with endless tries in debian,redhat and fedora, not to mention all CLI and no u*nix knowlegde. Don't worry, Ubuntu structures the second partition automatically. Continue the setup until the partition screen appears. Ubuntu choses all your space automatically. Apply changes, it will begin copying files. It will now take a looong time copying, find something to do, it'll be a while. Don't expect it all work OOB (out of the box). But when it finishes you will have a Graphical User Interface to login into.
If I remember, GRUB boot loader might ask to be installed, choose yes. It'll include both XP and Linux, so switching between OS's will be a breeze.

As linux was going to be permanent I decided to keep it simple and small. Since Windows XP is still used for daily activities (such as gaming) I kept most space dedicated to that drive. Equally, make linux the bigger partition, doesn't make a bit of difference.

FYI by Experience

Ubuntu 6.06 installation with defaults works.Gets through the installation with a few questions on passwords, keyboard, network connectivity. Out of the box 5.04 had APM working with Shutdown/Suspend/Hibernate/Logoff/SwitchUser. It was great! I needed that more than anything or overuse the harddrive day after day ending in killing it. Later I formatted and put 6.06LTS. ACPI didn't work. Pushed the power button and SHUTDOWN,BYEBYE. OFF! Quick Shut off! No options, good night. Whats that good for? That later changed when again downgraded to 5.04 and a-g-a-i-n consecutively reformatted and re-installed 6.06LTS again. This time ACPI had every option possible including power button option menu selection. Surely I must have selected an installation option, but I do recall it having no mention of ACPI or APM. It just worked, all that mattered! The main reason why I kept switching between 6.06LTS and 5.04 was that the ATI installation and WiFi driver were agonizing. Many thanks to the encouraging good friends in #[email protected] who smoothered it all!

Basic Installation of Components in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS :

Repositories: First off, make sure your Repositories are correct and added Universe & Multiverse, if not done so, you must before you can proceed.
Network: Step two: Im sure you want your network running, especially Wifi. If your card is a bcm43xx these instructions help. I'm using ndiswrapper, driver bcmwl5. Wrap it and mod it to the kernel, it's that easy. I could never probe the wifi card with fwcutter apart from the twisted instructions. Last step, blacklist Dapper's bcm driver, or ndiswrapper will conflict with bcm43xx and not allow connectivity. Add blacklist bcm43xx to the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Ndiswrapper module will not automatically load on startup. Add the following to /etc/rc.local to start your network card automatically.

                modprobe -r ndiswrapper
                modprobe ndiswrapper

        First clears any ndiswrapper in memory; doesn't hurt to have it, second will load the bcmwl5 driver into memory.
        All this is to avoid perpetual probing, so this will load it automatically. Next, Reboot... login... check WiFi.
        It should turn green within seconds. If so you got it! Unless WEP or WPA are enabled if so... follow the next chapter.

WEP: Add these to file /etc/network/interfaces for WEP. This overrides Network-Administrator's settings. (Good cuz they don't work!) Below I'll explain what each does. Copy one set to the wireless section eth1 or wlan0, not eth0. (Options in Italic)

                wireless-essid any
                wireless-mode managed
                wireless-key1 abcdef0123456789
                wireless-defaultkey 1
                wireless-keymode open
                auto eth1
        What they all mean:
                wireless-essid any                             #Default SSID. Any connects to any available network. (netgear,linksys,2wire)
                wireless-mode managed                   #Operating mode. managed is for Infrastructure (ad-hoc,repeater,monitor,master,secondary)
                wireless-key1 abcdef0123456789    #Key/Enc. Enter key in Hex. For ASCII key use the prefix s: (s:3882853104)
                wireless-defaultkey 1                        #Default key to use for Authentication. (1,2,3,4,5)
                wireless-keymode open                    #Security mode. (open|restricted) Without this WEP will never work. Open is commonly used.
                auto eth1                                          #Commits changes on the device. (eth1,wlan0,wlan1) Used on Wireless only.

Graphics: Video card is next: Instructions are rather easy with minor scripts from this page. Be sure to download the driver from ATI's website. This will fix the 1280x800 wide screen gap problem too. Reboot and log in, go to Apps>ATI Control, the driver should be running.
Multimedia Formats: Next is the Restricted Formats. I had no clue that many restrictions were implemented for listening to mp3,wav,wmv,ogg,mpg and many others. Installing Restricted Formats will let ya listen and watch every bit of thing from mp3's to DVDs.
Xgl/Compiz: Now for some real 3D desktop action I followed these simple XGL/COMPIZ instructions. Be sure you add the repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list . As you know the gnome-window-decorator changed to cgwd so change all references of gnome-window-decorator to cgwd. I followed method 2 to option to a GNOME session if Xgl crashed or got fubar. The Cube is incredible.
Shift+Backspace: Once the great cube worked came this constant human error. Hitting SHIFT+BACKSPACE gets Xgl restarted and it can be a pain in the rear you know what after a while. Steps to add to a startup are here. This is my /usr/bin/startcompiz file.

#gnome-window-decorator & compiz --replace gconf &
cgwd & compiz --replace gconf &
#Removes XGL Exit Kill by SHIFT + BACKSPACE
xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"

Post-Install modifications/tweaks:

Setting up additional features for [Ubuntu 6.06LTS]

Unresolved issues

Configuration Files

More Specific Information:

i8k Fan Control mod - Ulcerous!! but well done config'd
tleds Tx/Rx Keyboard LEDS - Real Time netmon. A must!
anything else you feel is relevant or may be useful - I haven't thought of any yet

Contact Information

e-mail address (deutsch_84 at yahoo dot com)

Links:

Any utilities or other resources you found useful - coming soon
Link to the laptop manufacturer (If applicable) - coming soon
And of course, back to Linux on Laptops! - coming soon

Plus other useful things I may have forgotten

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