Dell D600 Optimal Config?
 

I am about to order a Dell D600 Notebook. Linux-laptop.net seems to list several cases where Linux has been successfully loaded. I however have found this: http://it.olin.edu/documents/Linux/d...inux-intro.pdf which worries me a bit. I was wondering whether anybody here has used a Lattitude D600 with Linux. The config that I'm looking at right now is:

• Intel® Pentium® M Processor 725 (1.60GHz) w/ 14.1in SXGA+ Display
• Free Upgrade! 512MB,DDR SDRAM,2 DIMMS for the price of 128mb
• 8-24-24-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
• 40GB,HD,9.5MM,5400RPM
• 6 Cell Primary Battery
• No Floppy Drive
• Internal 56K Modem

I need to choose a wireless card and am unsure. My previous laptop was an Inspiron 8200 and the Dell Truemobile wireless card (Broadcom based wouldn't work with Linux, so I'm hesitant this time to make a decision because I'm wary of getting burned again. My choices are:[list=1][*]Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps) miniPCI Card [*]Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card[*]Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card[*]Dell Wireless 1450 Dual Band WLAN (802.11a/b/g,54Mbps) miniPCI Card[/list=1]

Any suggestions? Also, in general is the D600 a good choice? I actually previously purchased the HP nx5000 with Suse preloaded, but HP screwed up so badly and repeatedly so that I returned it and got a refund. Unfortunately, while I was going to get an IBM T42 and load Linux, IBM's sale of their PC unit made me lose confidence in them, so really it just left me with Dell, who ironically 2 years ago I swore I'd never buy from again. Anyways, any info about the D600, whether it be linux or non-linux related would be appreciated. Thanks.

I use a D600, D800 and a Insperion XPS, all running Slack 9 or 10. The hardest thing to configure is the graphics:
XF86Config for XPS:
Section "ServerLayout"

# InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "unix/:7100"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

#Option "CorePointer"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Modes"

# 1280x800 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 62.62 kHz; pclk: 107.21 MHz
Identifier "16:10"
ModeLine "1280x800" 107.2 1280 1360 1496 1712 800 801 804 835
# 1280x800 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 71.40 kHz; pclk: 123.38 MHz
ModeLine "1280x800" 123.4 1280 1368 1504 1728 800 801 804 840
# 1280x800 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 84.80 kHz; pclk: 147.89 MHz
ModeLine "1280x800" 147.9 1280 1376 1512 1744 800 801 804 848
# 1680x1050 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 65.22 kHz; pclk: 147.14 MHz
ModeLine "1680x1050" 147.1 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087
# 1680x1050 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 82.20 kHz; pclk: 188.07 MHz
ModeLine "1680x1050" 188.1 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1096
# 1680x1050 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 93.76 kHz; pclk: 214.51 MHz
ModeLine "1680x1050" 214.5 1680 1800 1984 2288 1050 1051 1054 1103
# 1680x1050 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 111.20 kHz; pclk: 256.20 MHz
ModeLine "1680x1050" 256.2 1680 1808 1992 2304 1050 1051 1054 1112
# 1920x1200 @ 75.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 93.97 kHz; pclk: 246.59 MHz
ModeLine "1920x1200" 246.6 1920 2064 2272 2624 1200 1201 1204 1253
# 1920x1200 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 107.10 kHz; pclk: 282.74 MHz
ModeLine "1920x1200" 282.7 1920 2072 2280 2640 1200 1201 1204 1260
# 1920x1200 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 127.10 kHz; pclk: 337.58 MHz
ModeLine "1920x1200" 337.6 1920 2072 2288 2656 1200 1201 1204 1271
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# Modeline "1920x1200@60" 210.68 1920 1952 2752 2784 1200 1224 1236 1261
# Modeline "1920x1200" 193.2 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242
# HorizSync 28-90
# VertRefresh 43-130
# Option "DPMS"
# UseModes "16:10"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Device"

# Driver "fglrx"
Identifier "ATI"
Driver "radeon"
Option "NoDCC"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"

#"1920x1200"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

The wireless requires you to use conextant driverloader

What wireless card out of all of those would be the easiest to use with Linux?

Preferably one with both b and g support.

Wireless Card (B/G)
 

Depending on the kernel you are using G is not supported. B is suppoerted in almost all kernels. Your best bet is to get either a Cisco pcmcia or any card that uses the Orinoco chipset. Prism2 drivers and Orinoco drivers are pretty much native now in the new kernels.

well, I would have done that except it needed to be internal. I don't like using external cards anymore.

I got the Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card. Looks like linux support is somewhat available and currently being improved:

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

I'm running an ipw2200 and I'll tell you it works beautifully. Excellent reception and it works at G speeds. It works very well. I'm using Ubuntu, and it's pretty much autoconfigured. I don't know how other distros are doing in terms of autoconfiguration, but I know Ubuntu loads it as a module.

I'm running a dell d600 with a Truemobile 1400 wireless card. I've had it running under suse 9.2 and the latest version of ubuntu. I'm partial to Suse personally but either way you need to use ndiswrapper to get everything running. I'm sure you'll have to do the same using your Intel PRO/Wireless 2200. Check out this site http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...hp/List...down under 'I' your card is listed.

oh by the way, the battery in mine was a POS! the first one died just under the 1 year warranty, then the replacement died shortly after the warranty had expired so I don't have a battery in it.