Hello,
This is going to be a guide how I got my refurbished Dell Optiplex 740 working with linux as I went through a day or so of issues before finally figuring it all out.
I purchased this particular computer on criagslist and worried that there would be issues, well this computer doesn't like linux but I shoved it down it's throat hard enough that it accepted the great tux. The main issue was the graphics, it constantly forced itself into low graphics mode and after a couple days of trial and error I figured out the most stable set up I have, this is only a few days in so there maybe a hick up here and there throughout my usage of the computer and I will try to be consistent in how I solved these issues.
First lets look at my hardware.
Code:
sudo lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
===================================================
system OptiPlex 740 ()
/0 bus 0HX340
/0/1 memory 128KiB BIOS
/0/8 processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor
/0/8/e memory 128KiB L1 cache
/0/8/f memory 512KiB L2 cache
/0/2f memory 4GiB System Memory
/0/2f/0 memory 1GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2
/0/2f/1 memory 1GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2
/0/2f/2 memory 1GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2
/0/2f/3 memory 1GiB DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2
/0/2 processor
/0/2/0 memory 128KiB L1 cache
/0/2/1 memory 512KiB L2 cache
/0/0 memory RAM memory
/0/0.1 memory RAM memory
/0/0.2 memory RAM memory
/0/0.3 memory RAM memory
/0/0.4 memory RAM memory
/0/0.5 memory RAM memory
/0/0.6 memory RAM memory
/0/0.7 memory RAM memory
/0/100 bridge C51 PCI Express Bridge
/0/3 bridge C51 PCI Express Bridge
/0/3/0 eth0 network NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI E
/0/4 bridge C51 PCI Express Bridge
/0/5 display C51 [GeForce 6150 LE]
/0/9 memory RAM memory
/0/a bridge MCP51 LPC Bridge
/0/a.1 bus MCP51 SMBus
/0/a.2 memory RAM memory
/0/b bus MCP51 USB Controller
/0/b.1 bus MCP51 USB Controller
/0/e storage MCP51 Serial ATA Controller
/0/f storage MCP51 Serial ATA Controller
/0/10 bridge MCP51 PCI Bridge
/0/10.1 multimedia MCP51 High Definition Audio
/0/101 bridge K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Tec
/0/102 bridge K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
/0/103 bridge K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
/0/104 bridge K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Cont
/0/6 scsi0 storage
/0/6/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 80GB Hitachi HTS54168
/0/6/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 70GiB EXT4 volume
/0/6/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 4029MiB Extended partition
/0/6/0.0.0/2/5 /dev/sda5 volume 4029MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
/0/7 scsi1 storage
/0/7/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD writer
/1 wlan0 network Wireless interface
First I had to get an OS, while hesitant I went for Ubuntu 14.04 since I already had a cd, for some reason it wouldn't boot from a USB, after installing directly and skipping the "try Ubuntu" (because it's glitchy) I had a fresh install, the start screen loaded fine but the moment you tried going to the desktop the screen would glitch and lock up so I had to do alot of hard restarts.
After a while I figured out what I needed to do, I let the login screen come up and went to the terminal. Ctrl + alt + F1
log into your system and type the following command
Code:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback && sudo reboot
type your password and keep an eye on it because you will need to hit "Y" a couple of times, then after the computer restarts and you get to the login screen change your desktop GUI to Gnome (Compiz), it will flicker a couple times every time you log in but after 3-4 times it stops and the desktop is fully functional.
I'm sorry for the poor grammar and any incorrect spelling in this post it's kinda just tossed together just so no one else has to deal with what I had to. It seems like this graphics card doesn't like unity and personally neither do I so old fashion gnome is all I need. I haven't tried other GUIs but if you do then tell me how it goes.
Guide to getting the graphics working on a Dell Optiplex 740
