Installing Linux on a Dell Inspiron 5100 Notebook04/07/03
After migrating to Linux on my desktop computers, I was quite eager to install it on my new Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook computer too. I had read that installing Linux on notebooks can be problematic prepared for the worst, but it really didn't go too badly at all. In only a few hours I had a Win XP/Linux dual boot system fully operational. Hopefully my experience can help you get your Inspiron 5100 up and running even quicker.
The Hardware:
The Software: Preparation I started by repartitioning the hard drive with PartitionMagic. As it came from Dell, Windows XP resided on a single 38+ GB NTFS partition. I resized that to 12 GB. Out of the free space I then created another 12 GB partition for Linux. I divided the remaining space into two 7 GB partitions, one of which I made a FAT32 partition (Windows and Linux can both read and write to FAT32 partitions, so this is a convenient place to store files so they can be used by either operating system). The other 7 GB partition is in reserve for the future. I may install a third operating system there someday. Since Dell no longer includes floppy drives as standard equipment, I couldn't create rescue disks as PartitionMagic recommended. But since the Notebook was factory fresh and I hadn't yet installed loads of applications on it, I figured I could just restore it to its original state using the recovery CD that came with the computer if things went horribly wrong during repartitioning. Fortunately the repartitioning went off without a hitch. Next I rebooted Windows to make sure it still worked and that my new 7 GB data partition was showing up. Everything was just hunky-dory. I now took a few minutes to use the Windows Device Manager to explore the hardware installed on the computer. I made notes about exactly what was installed, who manufactured it and which drivers were in use. As it turned out, I only needed the NIC information. Linux Installation I then entered the BIOS and set it to boot from the CD drive, dropped in Redhat CD #1 and restarted the machine. The install program started right up, and much to my surprise, immediately recognized my USB mouse. Windows XP only finds it about half the time. When it doesn't I have to reach around back and unplug it then plug it back in before it is recognized. Redhat though seems to have no trouble with it. I selected a custom installation (not recommended for Linux newbies) and spent some time selecting just the mix of packages I wanted to install. The installation went off without a hitch. NIC Trouble The first linux boot was the point when I began to see a problem. The NIC card was not detected. Everything else seemed to be working fine, including the sound which had always given me trouble before on every desktop machine I had ever installed Linux on. Time to find a Linux driver for the Broadcom NIC card. Looked on the driver disk that came with the computer but it only seemed to contain Windows drivers. (C'mon, Dell, how much more would it cost to include Linux drivers? Even Walmart sells computers with Linux drivers included.) Time to search the net. Oops! the NIC doesn't work. Reboot into Windows. After some hunting around, I found the source for a Linux driver for the Broadcom 440x. You need the file bcm4400-1.0.1.tar.gz. It can be found in any number of places on the web. Just Google for it. I downloaded it and saved it to the FAT32 data partition I made earlier. Rebooted into Linux and mounted the partition. Tried to build the package but got lots of errors. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Back to Windows and more hunting around on the Net. I found a thread on a Linux discussion board about this very problem. It seems that the kernel source needs to be installed to build the driver (this is not mentioned in the instructions in the release notes that come with the Linux Driver). Booted back into Linux. Using the Package Manager, I installed the kernel tools and source from the Redhat install CDs. Now the driver build and installation went flawlessly and the NIC is now working fine. (Note: You will need to recompile and reinstall this driver if you upgrade to a new kernel. The first thing I did after getting the NIC running was download and install all the available updates and patches from Redhat, including a new kernel. The NIC stopped working afterwards until I recompiled it and reinstalled it.) Other Hardware As stated above, the USB mouse works fine. The built in touch pad is not working though. (See update below) The sound and video work fine. Since I have a broadband Internet connection, I haven't yet tried out the modem. I'll update this page when I get around to trying it out. (See update below) I also haven't tried the Firewire port yet because I don't have any Firewire devices. Conclusion On the whole, installing Linux on my Dell Inspiron 5100 Notebook wasn't too difficult. At least not compared to some of the horror stories I have read on the Net about getting Linux to work on notebooks. To any other Inspiron 5100 Notebook owners out there thinking about installing Linux I say go for it. It's easy. UPDATE! 07/20/03 Due to many, many requests from people who seem to be having trouble with X on the Inspiron, I have added a link to my XF86Config file here. I hope this helps. UPDATE! 07/25/03 Upgraded to Redhat Linux version 9.0. No difficulties encountered. The upgrade was fast and painless I like version 9.0 better. It seems cleaner and less clunky. It also seems to run slightly faster. (Version 8.0 already ran rings around Windows XP Home which shipped with the machine.) UPDATE! 08/01/03 I finally decided I needed the modem under Linux. Getting it to work was fairly painless. If your Inspiron has the Conexant D480 56K Modem like mine does, you need to download the HSF (softmodem) driver found here: http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/index.html. There was no RPM package available for my kernel, so I downloaded the tarball. Follow the instructions in the README and INSTALL files, and you should have your modem should be working in no time. UPDATE! 09/02/03 I bought a cheap Linksys 802.11b PCMCIA card a while ago. It works under Windows, but not under Linux. In fact, Linux didn't even seem to realize there was a PCMCIA card inserted. No beeps, no lights, no nothing. After doing a little lurking in various Linux news groups, I found that Redhat kernels have issues in regards to PCMCIA. I needed to install the latest PCMCIA kernel modules, and a driver for my particular card. The module can be found here: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/. After installation, I get a beep and one of the lights on the card lights up. So far so good. Now I needed a driver. My card is the Linksys WPC11 version 4. After a little searching, I found this page: http://www.tldp.org./HOWTO/Wireless-Link-sys-WPC11/x101.html. Follow the directions on that page exactly if you have the same card (if you have a different card, you are on your own). Now I have wireless connectivity in Linux and don't have to boot into Windows to go mobile anymore. Yay! UPDATE! 09/04/03 From day one, the built-in touch pad has not worked under Linux. This has not really been a problem since I don't really like it. In fact it took me a while to even notice it wasn't working since I wasn't in the habit of using it. I bought a USB mouse first thing and use it almost exclusively. Just for kicks I decided to try to get the touch pad working under Linux since there are occasional times when using an external mouse is inconvenient. So I set out to find a Linux driver for it. After some research I discovered the touch pad is made by a company called Synaptics. To my surprise they provide a link on their page to a Linux driver created by an independent software developer for their hardware. The page is: http://www.compass.com/synaptics/. After installing the RPM, the touch pad started working on my next login, but the USB mouse stopped working. Apparently they don't play nice together. I have gotten quite used to using the external USB mouse and so will probably un-install the driver and only reinstall it on those occasions when I don't want to use an external mouse. <<Back to LinuxVirgins.com
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