Setup Debian on Dell Inspiron 5100
Note: These procedures might not entirely accurate since the document is written from memory; nonetheless it should cover the main ideas. In summary, Linux (more specifically, Debian Etch) works quite well on this machine. Most hardware components are recognized and configured automatically (thus, taking away all the fun of configuring Linux :] ). I initially expected difficulties with the wireless card setup but turned out to be quite simple.
Updates: notes on installing Lenny on this machine
This device/feature works with linux-image-2.6-686-smp and powernowd.
/etc/modules contains the following entries relating to this device:
speedstep_centrino cpufreq-userspace
(I don't remember if there is any additional step involved. Those are what I currently have after playing with different settings for a while)
cat /proc/cpuinfo# this will show the current CPU speed. Normally mine runs at 1 GHz, when compiling something it goes to 2 GHz (my CPU's max speed).
Note: this video card has 64 MB memory physically (although it has some 'hyper' technologies making it appear as 128 MB)
This device/feature works (with 3D acceleration) using the fglrx driver. To get this driver, add "contrib non-free" to the end of the source line in /etc/apt/sources.list (e.g., deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free). Rerun apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade;
apt-get install fglrx-control fglrx-driver fglrx-kernel-src m-a prepare m-a a-i fglrx #build the module
aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf# set up the xorg.conf file.
Make sure the Video Device section in the xorg.conf file uses fglrx driver. Something like:
Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]" Driver "fglrx" EndSection
Restart X and test if everything works:
fglrxinfo display: :0.0 screen: 0 OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc. OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 Generic OpenGL version string: 2.0.6011 (8.28.8)
My xorg.conf
Most of my multimedia needs are handled by mplayer which can be obtained by adding to /etc/apt/sources.list the following line:
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ etch main apt-get update ; apt-get install mplayer w32codecs
Note it might have some errors about public key not verified; to fix this problem, do the following:
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 1F41B907 gpg --armor --export 1F41B907 > marillat.asc apt-key add marillat.asc
This device/feature works with ndiswrapper and the Driver directory extracted from the file R115321.EXE (download from Dell, just need the bcmwl5.sys and bcmwl5.inf files, should work with newer driver versions as well).
#make sure ndiswrapper recognizes the card:
apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 wireless-tools #1.8 is the current version, just search/get the latest one
ndiswrapper -l <- nothing yet
ndiswrapper -i /storage/sda7/r115321/driver/bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
bcmwl5 driver installed, hardware present
---
The above doesn't work well with Lenny so I tried a whole bunch others including
install wifi-radar
bcm43xx-fwcutter
modprobe bcm43xx
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
wireless_essid xx
wireless_channel 11
# address 192.168.1.48
# netmask 255.255.255.0
# network 192.168.1.0
# broadcast 192.168.1.255
# gateway 192.168.1.1
# wireless_essid xx
# wireless_key xx
#build and install the module:
apt-get install ndiswrapper-source module-assistant m-a prepare m-a a-i ndiswrapper modprobe ndiswrapper
#see if everything works correctly
iwconfig # should show something about wlan
#setup the network interface (/etc/network/interfaces)
iface wlan0 inet dhcp # address 192.168.1.7 # netmask 255.255.255.0 # network 192.168.1.0 # broadcast 192.168.1.255 # gateway 192.168.1.1 wireless_essid xxx wireless_channel xxx wireless_key xxx ifup wlan0 #should be up running at this point! Add "ndiswrapper" to /etc/modules to load at boot time.
This device/feature works after being configured with alsaconf.
apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils alsa-tools alsaconf
Clock
tzselect #to select correct regions etc apt-get install ntpdate ntp-debian #sync the time over the internet hwclock --systohc --directisa #stores the current time to hw clock. Note the option "--directisa" seems to be required. to have this fixed permanently, update the file /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh: HWCLOCKPARS="--directisa"
Fonts
Get some popular fonts from packages such as ttf-bitstream-vera and msttcorefonts (MS core fonts: Ariel, Times, ...)
The following shows how to access Gmail via mutt (mail client), msmtp (mail sender), and getmail (mail fetcher).
apt-get install msmtp-mta mutt getmail4 Mail structure: ~/Mail : directory to store mails ~/Mail/NewMails : incoming (unread) mails ~/Mail/Inbox : old/read mails ^^^ The reason to have two seprate mail files is because my Inbox is quite large (> 1 GB), and therefore can take quite sometimes to load up. **file .getmail/getmailrc** type = SimplePOP3SSLRetriever server = pop.gmail.com username = myname@gmail.com port = 995 password = mypassword [destination] type = Mboxrd path = ~/Mail/NewMails #deliver new mails here **file .msmstprc** account default host smtp.gmail.com port 587 protocol smtp auth on from myname@gmail.com user myname@gmail.com password mypassword tls on tls_starttls on **file .muttrc: Note just some basic settings** set folder = ~/Mail # Default mail directory set spoolfile = +NewMails # Default spoolfile set mbox = +Inbox # Where mail is appended to from spoolfile set mbox_type = mbox # Type of mail files set postponed = +Unsent # Where to save postponed mail set record = +Sent # Where to save copies of outgoing mail set copy = yes # Save copies of outgoing mail? --- In addition, these mails can also be accessed with Thunderbird by simply (soft) link ~/Mail/Inbox file to ~/.thunderbird/some_cryptic_dir.default/Mail/Local\ Folders/Inbox.
Number of Getty's: file /etc/inittab
Some useful command lines - recursively delete files with extensions *.ext: find -name \*.ext -delete
nguyenthanhvuh@gmail.com