[Techtalk] Dell Inspiron 6000

[Julie B]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 18:24:52 +0100 (CET), Tiera <tiera at bredband.net> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm thinking of buying a Dell laptop, the Inspiron 6000.

Last fall I bought a Dell Inspirion 600M, which I believe is pretty
similar. I've managed to get almost everything working on it, though
it took some effort (sound still doesn't work, but I also haven't
spent any time to work on that one yet).

> Does anyone know how the Linux compatibility is for this chipset:
> 
> Intel® CentrinoTM  Mobile Technology: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 770
> (2,13GHz, 2MB L2-cache, 533MHz front side bus) and Intel®  Pro/Wireless
> 2100 (802.11b) wlan or Mobile Intel® Celeron® M Processor 350 (1,30GHz,
> 1MB L2-cache, 400MHz front side bus) and Intel®  915PM- or 915GM-chipset

My wireless was Broadcom and to make it work I ended up using the
ndiswrapper module from SourceForge. It makes the Windows wireless
driver run under Linux, and had great instructions so it was really
easy to set up.
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/Installation
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

It supports lots of other wireless cards, too, with support for Intel
PRO/Wireless Lan 2100 3B listed. Here's the list of supported drivers:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/List

My ethernet card was Broadcom, too, and for that to run I needed the
Tigon tg3 module listed under the 1000Mb driver section of the kernel
config.

I haven't had any problems at all with the Pentium M processor, I
can't make any guesses about the Celeron, though.

> 
> Does anyone have any other recommendations?
> 
> /Tiera

I'm currently running Gentoo on it with the 2.6.10 kernel and it's
working GREAT. With the 2.6.11-rc2 kernel, the touchpad is acting a
little flakey. My original Linux install on that machine was Debian
Sarge, and I'd have to say the Debian installation process was
absolutely miserable because it refused to detect my ethernet card and
load the tg3 driver. Knoppix, however, does a great job of detecting
and loading it, but fails on the wireless.

Overall, I'm very happy with my little Dell, though Dell's claim of
supporting Linux isn't all it's cracked up to be - basically you're on
your own. Good luck if you choose to buy the Dell, and feel free to
directly contact me if you encounter any problems with it.

Julie