Linux (Kubuntu) on Dell Inspiron Laptop

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Installing Kubuntu/Ubuntu “Dapper Drake” on Dell Inspiron 1300

Last updated: 17-Jun-2006

Installing Ubuntu/Kubuntu on this laptop is actually far more straightforward than the existing guides suggest. Pretty-much all of the broken/unsupported features can be fixed by simply using apt-get to install a relevant package. Unless I explicitly state otherwise, please assume that installing a package is done via 'apt-get update' followed by 'apt-get install packagename'. Please also note that some packages may require the Universe and Multiverse repositories. As some of the packages in multiverse don't have proper open source licences, the Ubuntu developers warn that you should verify your eligability to install those packages, however I can't see the vast majority of users having a problem. That said...as far as work/business use goes: if in doubt, chicken-out.

General Hardware Specifications of laptop:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel Celeron Processor, 1.4 GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
14.1” Widescreen LCD display panel	Works with minimal adjustments	Don't bother compiling and adjusting source code, just use apt-get. Make sure 'universe' repository is enabled, and run 'apt-get update && apt-get install 915resolution' to get the correct 1280x800 resolution on your display panel. Sorts out your X config file, etc. automatically. No more messing needed! :)
Intel 915 Video	Works	Works with the X “815” driver out of the box, however to support the widescreen 1280x800 resolution, see the point above.
512MB DDR RAM	Works	No special procedure required during installation
60 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation, however for other versions of Linux (mainly Fedora) I noticed that the installer would fail if the hard drive was set to run in the quiet acoustic mode, in the BIOS. On most PCs, accessing an ext3 partition is a lot quieter than accessing an ntfs one, however the reverse is true on this laptop. I don't notice much difference on most pcs, but disk access is dramatically quicker in Ubuntu than windows, on this laptop.
USB Floppy Drive	Not yet tested	I'd suggest leaving it plugged in during installation if you have one, to ensure that it's detected.
Integrated Network Card (10/100 RJ45 Ethernet)	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Doesn't Work out of the box – but easily fixable	As stated on the French Ubuntu site, download the Linuxant HCF drivers.
DVD+/-RW drive	Works for some people	No special procedure required during installation, however some users report errors when trying to burn CDs/DVDs. Solution is to enable DMA transfers for the drive (should be enabled anyway). I think this was a bug with the dvd writing tools that has been fixed, but I'll have to thrash the drive a bit more to be sure...!
Internal miniPCI Dell Wireless Networking (Broadcom BCM43xx)	Doesn't Work out of the box – but easily fixable	Ubuntu tries to load a new open driver for this wireless card, however the firmware appears to be missing (licence issues?). Reports are that if you can find the firmware, this driver works a treat so by all means try to get it working. It should be simpler, and is a more open solution. However, I couldn't find the firmware, so I did the following: The solution is to 'apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils' and then load the windows driver for this card. The drivers from the Dell website, your windows partition, your emergency CDs and the French Ubuntu guide all work flawlessly. Be sure to blacklist the bcm43xx driver in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist so it doesn't conflict with ndiswrapper.
Lithium-Ion Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Sound Card	Works due to extremely recent fix	No special procedure required if using ALSA from the final release of Dapper. Older ALSA drivers detect the card but can't put sound through it. 'apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade' should fix it if you don't get sound.
APM/ACPI	Works if you wait to let it do its stuff	Standby/suspend/hibernate, battery meter and button/lid events all work perfectly out of the box, however standby/suspend/hibernate seem to take a minute or so to happen, and so the first time you try them you initially think it's failed.

This laptop is operating under the Kernel on the Kubuntu installation CD (2.6.15?)

Basic Installation of Kubuntu:

Why Kubuntu?

Fully-featured but fits on 1 CD.
Although I like the simplicity, stability and economical performance of Gnome, KDE has loads of useful features (like “open terminal here”) that I need to manually add to Gnome, and KDE boasts some extremely nice tools like K3B, which I reckon has yet to be matched by any of the Gnome tools.
Debian-based.
Massive repository of packages. Whatever you want, apt-get install it.
Fast, even on ancient hardware.

Obtaining Kubuntu

www.kubuntu.org (download or via “shipit”).
Also check out the Ubuntu site (www.ubuntulinux.org).

Installing

Boot from the CD to land in a Knoppix-ish environment. Click on the install icon on your desktop, and you're away!
Disk partitioning is counter-intuitive. On other distros, including earlier Ubuntu versions, the mount-point for each partition could be defined when you created the partition layout. In the new installer, you create the layout (keep a note of what you decided each partition would eventually be), and then decide the mount-points in a later screen.

Post-Install modifications/tweaks

edit /etc/apt/sources.list as root and make sure that all the repositories are enabled. If you want more software and you're entitled to use it, put the word 'multiverse' after every instance of 'universe' you find ending a line.
Remember to apt-get install 915resolution and ndiswrapper-utils to ensure your hardware works.

Setting up additional features for Kubuntu

Playing MP3/WMA/DVDs/other non-free files can be achieved by installing libxine-extracodecs (KDE) and a few other things from Universe/Multiverse. Gnome users will need to tinker more than KDE users will, but follow the instructions on the (K)Ubuntu Wiki for restricted formats. Also manually install w32codecs, which by law can't be distributed by Ubuntu.
use apt-get to install clamav, clamtk (Gnome) or klamav (KDE), firefox, sun-java5-jre, sun-java5-jdk, sun-java5-plugin.
you may also want ndisgtk (Gnome). You could also try installing kwifi for configuring the wireless LAN.
installing linux-686 will install a kernel optimised for this processor. It would be best to install this before installing anything else, should you feel like doing this.
Should you want a good software firewall, or want to use your laptop to share an internet connection, try installing firestarter.
Remember that SAMBA changed a little around the same time as Kernel 2.6 took off – should you wish to mount your windows shares, the filesystem type is cifs not smbfs. If you can only access them properly as root, the 'noperm' option allows you to access them with your uid/gid.

Configuration Files

/etc/apt/sources.list – enable the universe and multiverse repositories.
You don't need to adjust your X config file, the 915resolution package does it for you.
/etc/modules and /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist will be handy if you're thinking of using ndiswrapper.

Links:

www.ubuntulinux.com – Get it here
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/RestrictedFormats – Get your media playback working
http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html – Haven't tried this but it looks really good. Sorts out things like flash, java, dvds, mp3s and the like automatically.
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/materiel/portable/inspiron_1300 – Guide in French. Overcomplicates things like 915resolution, but helpful nonetheless, and extremely detailed – an extremely valuable resource even for ignorant people like me, who can't read French!

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