I am considering purchasing a Dell E1505. Does anyone own one? If so, how does your system run? What are the specs for your laptop? Any issues with running Linux?

Edit: I already realize this thread should go in the LAPTOP section.

I've got an Inspiron 6400, which I believe is the same machine.

It works very well in Linux. I've got Gentoo installed on it and it's working great. The biggest stumbling point was with an ATI card, but with the newest drivers, it's no longer a problem. Linux on Laptops has a few entries relating to it now too. I tried to post a link to it, but apparently I'm not able to until I have posted at least 3 times on the forum. Ah well, that's what google's for.
The Inspiron 9400 is a very similar machine with a 17 inch screen, so you can often find setup instructions that work for both with very little changes.

I had some good links around that covered nearly every aspect, but I can't seem to find them at the moment. I'll check later and see if I can track them down for you.

hey, yeah the E1505 is aka inspiron 6400.

it's a great machine. i'm running ubuntu dapper drake on it right now and it is pretty decent. course i had to stick with the integrated video (which aren't that bad), but if you can, i think you should definately upgrade it.

I just bought a e1505 a couple weeks ago--with the T2300 Core Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and the Intel Pro 3945 wireless card. I'm not a gamer and just use it for work, so I didn't upgrade video or anything. I'm running Ubuntu (flight 7 of Dapper Drake) on it and have had virtually no problems. Wifi was frustrating at first, but once I upgraded the kernel to 2.6.23, the wifi "just worked". I'm new to linux and this is my first laptop, so I'm pretty pleased with this setup.

I just got my E1505 a few weeks ago too, totally decked out, Duo-core 2ghz, 1ghz ram, 256mb video card, lifesomething screen, sound blaster audio.

I'm doing a dual boot system with Windoze and Fedora Core 5. I think it runs great, but I can't get the Intel 3945 Wifi Card to work or the Audio card to work. Its very frustrating and I need to find someone to help me add those drivers into the kernel.

I ordered my laptop a few days ago. Here are the specs:

Inspiron E1505, Intel Core Duoprocessor T2500 (2MB/2GHz/667MHz)
15.4 Inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WSXGA+, for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm for Inspiron 6400/E1505
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory, for Inspiron 6400/E1505
100GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505
8X DVD+/-RW Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505
SoundBlaster Advanced Audio for XPS M1710
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps), for Inspiron 6400/E1505
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for Inspiron 6400/E1505
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery, for Inspiron 6400/E1505

The initial delivery date was 6/16/06. According to Dell, my laptop has already been shipped, and UPS is expected to deliver tomorrow. I am very excited.

About the wireless card, did you have to emulate the driver? My current laptop (which I am posting with) required ndiswrapper to get the wifi working.

I still haven't been able to get the wifi working. I'm losing patience. I'd like to find someone to talk me through it on the phone.

I have a friend who's a tech at Intel and he loves Linux but can't do it either :-(

Sorry, firetwuck, I'm new to Linux and not familiar with Fedora Core, so I can't help. But I did google "fedora core 5 intel 3945" and found some step-by-step postings out there...

Do you use gnome in front of FC? With Ubuntu, I used the synaptic manager in gnome to download the most recent linux kernel--2.6.15-23-686 for the duo core--and in Ubuntu at least, this enabled support of the 3945 wireless card. This may be irrelevant to you on FC, I don't know...

Stethen, Yes, I am using gnome with FC5. I'll play with the synaptic manager if I can find it. I have seen those step by step instructions but they assume a basic knowledge of linux and I'm not there yet. If I can find time, hopefully in 6 months, but in the meantime, I'd like my laptop fully functional.

David

I'm right there with you. Unless you're using Fedora Core for a specific reason, I'd recommend Ubuntu. I find it pretty user-friendly as a newbie, myself, and the forums are very helpful. You can download a live CD of Ubuntu at their website and boot off the CD to try it.

In any case, in Gnome, you can find the package manager under the System menu in the upper left hand corner. Select System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

I installed "linux-686-smp", "linux-image-686", "linux-headers-2.6.15-23-686" and "linux-image-2.6.15-23-686" to bring the kernel up to date and make use of both processors in the Duo Core Dell. And the Network Manager makes it easier to see and connect to networks.

An easier way to do this is to open a terminal and enter the command

and restart.

If that doesn't work and you can't decipher those sets of instructions, maybe consider trying a different flavor of Linux.

Thanks for all the info. Well, I checked out the Dell Linux page and saw that they sorta support Red hat and Novell. So I took a chance and installed SUSE 10.1. And WOW! Bluetooth and wireless worked immediately. It seems to have trouble with two things. It doesn't see my Sound Blaster Audio card, just the Intel chip from the factory model and it doesn't see my ATI Radeon 256mb video card, using the Intel chip video instead.

I downloaded the ATI driver but its a BIN file and I don't know how to run it in Linux. I'm not sure how to deal with the audio issue.

As root type 'sh [ati file].bin'.

I suggest buying a notebook with nVidia graphics and with out bluetooth and with out wireless. nVidia graphics controllers are very easy to setup and setting up to hook to a TV out is also very easy. For wireless, I suggest a PCMCIA card because you have a much wider selection and you can hook up an external antenna for better reception on some models.

Dell makes expensive notebooks. Sager notebooks are a lot cheaper and better.

I suppose this depends on one's perspective. I'm moving to Linux from Mac, which I've used loyally (and still do for my design work) for years. My Dell cost me about one-third of what a comparable Mac laptop would have cost. No complaints here.

firetwuck ~ the bin file appears to be the MAC driver as opposed to Linux, whihc would have a extension of .gz ...or .rpm

Linux does not deal with extensions as DOS and Windows does. It sees file.bin as one complete name. The extension bin just tells the user it is a binary file. The file name could be just file, but you can not tell what type of a file it is can you unless you run 'file file'. If the file is a script, the first line will tell bash what interpreter to use. Most what I have seen, these installers from manufactures uses sh to run the file. The file contains the data and simple code for an customized install.