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Installing Ubuntu 5.04 on Dell LS H500ST

Last updated: Sept 14 2005

General Hardware Specifications of Dell LS:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Pentium III Processor, 500 mhz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
12.1 SXGA+ TFT Display	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
NeoMagic 256AV	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
256MB, SDRAM, 2DIMMs	Works	No special procedure required during installation
20 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Modular Floppy Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Modular CD Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Network Card	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Havn't used
59 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
NeoMagic 256 Audio	Works	No special procedure required during installation

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.10

Basic Installation of Ubuntu 5.04:

Why to use Ubuntu: Ubuntu is easy to install, no extra setup is neccessary. Works perfectly "out of the box."
Also Ubuntu comes with a lot of software included so you don't need to go digging around for applications.
Lastly the GUI is really nice. If you prefer you could also use Kubuntu which is just Ubuntu ported to the KDE gui.
Obtaining Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com
Installing: Guided installation takes care of anything for you. However I did hav a problem with it stalling when loading the "hotplug subsystem"
I fixed this by entering GRUB at start up and editing the menu.lst file by adding irqpoll to this line
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash irqpoll
Post-Install modifications/tweaks: Switch to the i686 linux package for improved performance. You do this by
opening a command terminal and entering the command "sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.10-5-686"
and once that finishes "sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-686"

Final Words

I have had no problems with Ubuntu except for the minor hotport issue. This is my fist installation of linux and I have had no prior
experience using linux, though I have used some unix before. I've actually been using Kubuntu which is the same thing as Ubuntu except
they switch out the GNOME gui for the KDE gui. I find the OS very intuitive and I never had trouble finding things. Speed wise things
are a little slow but that is probably due to this laptop only having a 500 mhz CPU :( . I have been a long time Windows user and I
have been really impressed with Ubuntu. I still plan to keep Windows XP on my desktop because I need it to run Windows only programming
IDEs and also for gaming, but Ubuntu is perfect for my laptop.

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