Slackware on Dell Inspiron 1525
 

Greetings. This summer I will be purchasing an Inspiron 1525 with windows vista premium installed, and well be setting it up to dual-boot this and Slackware 12. It is likely to have the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450, or the Intel® Pentium(R) Dual Core™ T2330 (Centrino?). I would like to know if anyone has had any difficulty while running Slack on this system. I plan on giving Slack about 8GBs of space with a 1.5GB swap space, and the rest of the space would go to windows. Would this be adequate?

P.S. I have used Gparted (on Knoppix) to setup partitions a few times before, so that is nothing new to me.

Probably don't need that much swap... The only thing that I've heard about the newer Insp from Dell is the Modem driver can be a pain (any distro).

have you bought it yet, I'd advise looking at one of the Latitude D series rather than the insprion. the business models besides getting better support and warranty have more standard hardware and don't have the overheating problems the inspiron 1500's are known for.

Hi,
You should use the 'Vista' tools to manage the disk. To resize the disk you would just;
You should defrag the drive before resize. After that you can use whatever to create the partitions. As for the amount of space for Slackware 12, more than enough.

I have a Inspiron 1501 with AMD Turion64x2 and don't experience any problems with heating or otherwise. I've checked on the web and found some early problems but as a lot of things can reach to a rumor that gets out of hand. My personal experience with Dell products has be great. Some people have some problems but that you can have with any consumer product. The price was right for Inspiron 1501, couldn't beat the deal they gave me.

The 1100's and 1500's are both known for heat issues, my wife had an 1100 and it burned up after the 1 year warranty expired. I'm not saying dell products are bad, but the difference between home and bunsiness machines is a lot. My 5 year old Latitude C400 is still running great. But so many people go cheap and buy the home line (insprion)then are disapointed with it.

Hi,
I will disagree with you on this issue. I've looked professionally into the Dell systems and find the $$ for what you call the home line is much better with the Inspiron. A few people who misuse or don't know proper cooling methods for any piece of equipment deserve to have problems. If you google for heat issues for the Latitude & Inspiron or for that matter any piece of equipment you will find people that are not happy campers. So every piece with a heat issue is bad? Don't think so.

Most issues can be traced to a misuse or poor placement of the laptop. Some people use a pillow to insulate when in use. Poor choice! A good cooling pad and a laptop support will give any laptop extended life, be it a Latitude, Inspiron or whatever.

My one year old 'Inspiron 1501' is running great and expect it to have a long life. I've got a so called dud 'Gateway Solo 2500' that is running and has been up for over a year continuously. I use a good cooling pad and a good laptop support for that machine.

My 'Inspiron 1501' has a good cooling pad and support. My wife's system is a 'HP Pavilion', she refuses to use a cooling pad with a support. She has had more problems with that system, something that I would not tolerate. I suggested long ago to her to use a cooling pad and support. She has not taken the suggestion. Whenever she has problems, guess what?

So many people follow the lead or mis-lead and throw their money without research. So if you think it's wiser to purchase the Latitude rather than to get the same with a little more research and minor investment then so be it. Opinions are like A*&^%*, well you get the idea. Everyone has one. Even if the opinion is not correct.

I will mainly be using the Inspiron for general use (school, watching movies internet, etc.)I would never think of putting the system on something soft like a pillow, because it's common sense. (At least it should be.)I would be operating the system on top of my desk when I am not using my WinXP tower system.

You say that a cooling pad would be a good investment. Is this an item that I can get at OfficeMax, Best Buy, or some other computer dealer?

I have installed Slackware 12 on a Dell 1501 with Athlon 64 dual core.

My only real problem was that the smp kernel would not boot and I had to use the huge.s kernel to do the installation. Post-installation I tried the generic-smp kernel and tried compiling my own but I could not get an smp enabled kernel to boot until I upgraded to the 2.6.23 kernel.

Video, sound, wirless working fine. I have not tried ethernet. Suspend to disc works fine but I have not got suspend to RAM working.

Unless you are just experimenting I think 8GB is a bit tight if you do a full install. You would have to put all your data on the Windows partition and make sure that /tmp does not become too bloated.

Hi,
Most good retail outlets like you stated have cooling pads, Ive even seen them at Walmart. I like Targus as a brand, it is cheap & quiet. If you need usb ports then get the one with the usb (not powered). I would suggest a good laptop stand/platform as these can ergonomically assist you. Not just provide better heat transfer and flow but good ergonomics for typing and viewing. Less strain.

You would be surprised as too how many people I have seen that use a pillow or other similar devices to support the laptop because of the heat. Heck a simple masonite board cut to size will be better that just placing the laptop on your lap. Again heat transfer and air flow. If you include the cooling pad and the board then all the better.

Be sure to not block the back vents as most newer laptops have the heat pipe(s) located towards the back.

Yea see thas the thing, we shouldn;t have to add the bulk/weight of a cooling pad to make a laptop work. I have three latutudes and none of them need a cooling pad, its all about the design of the system. Part of the 1100/1500 problem is the cooling vents/fans are on the bottom and part is because they use a cheaper desktop cpu. My c400 has ran for over 5 years 24x7 on the arm of my couch (might as well be a pillow). As long as we keep buying work around hardware the manufacturers will keep putting out lesser quality hardware because they know the users will put up with it, goo look at apple users, how many of them put up with heat problems because apple is 'better'.
I'm saying there are plenty of systems out there that you don't need to be careful with buying extra stuff or where you sit them, they were better designed.
Now if your going to use your system just a little bit and just use it for simple things like checking e-mail then an inspiron may be fine. Its like driving to work, a honda is fine for that, but you don't see UPS and fexed delivering packages in hondas, they need big trucks, and using computers is no different, if your going to be a serious user then you want a system that can be used that way. I can sit mine on a pillow and compile a kernel if I want to and it won't overheat.
But WRT to linux, the business lines (be it a latutude or HP's omnibok, or compaq's evo) usually have more mainstream hardware making finding linux drivers easier, thats the main reason I push people toward the latutudes and such, your chances of having working hardware are much better.

Or if you still do want an inspiron just look at some different models, I'm not daying all dell are bad, I like mine for exmaple, I'm not saying that all insprion are bab, I'm just saying the 1100 and 1500 insprions have heating issues which may reuqire you to add on additional band aid hardware to help keep them cool. Buy hey if you like that idea, I had this car that you can drive for 30 minutes then you have to stop for 20 and open the hood and let the engine cool :)

Hi,

Valid argument??

I still recommend that any and I mean any laptop should use additional cooling methods. I've looked at several internally and know that the heat transfer designs for the particular model are designed to be efficient at a cost. I strongly encourage anyone to enhance the cooling and ergonomics of the laptop system.

Heat is the enemy when it comes to silicon, be it for a laptop or any electronic device.

The comparison of varied device usage is not a good one from a computer stand point. Let's talk computers and not UPS, truck nor cars. That logic is flawed.

Each to his/her own.

I was only using the UPS and car vs truck as an example. Its the same with any tool, doesn't matter if its a vehicle, drill, or computer. If your going to run it 8+ hours a day then you should buy a system that was designed with that in mind. The home lines cut additional costs by coming up with an "average user" who checks e-mail and plays on line games for 2-3 hours at a time and the components were designed with that in mind, not just thermal but the lifetime of everything else like the keyboard, touchpad, etc.
If you have to add a cooler, external keybaord, mouse, drive, etc to a laptop then how do you use it any place but on a big desk?
Its interesting to look at component design from the MTBF of the invdividual components to design choices in different model lines. Open up the cd/dvd drive for an inspiron and latitude and you see completely different internals. The latitude has the little soloniod for the eject while the inspiron drive doesn't it runs the head all the way to the end and pushes a lever. Something so small to save a few cents and you have to wait for the head to move all the way to the end when you hit eject. Not a big deal for drives but when you see how more corners are cut in the home lines it starts to add up.

Just to chime in,

I am on a Dell Inspiron E1505 series with the intel core 2 duo 1.83 ghz with 2gigs ddr2 ram, I dont experiance any over heating issues, it gets alittle warm after some intensive graphics use but no major issues yet. The only problem I have with operating Slackware on this machine is the fact is that slackware doesnt recognize my wifi card correctly. :( other than that dual boot with xp and works fine, notices my 10/100 on board lan with no issues.

Hi,
Each device is designed with the overall design in mind, not just cost cutting measures or limitations. I've seen rugged equipment that has cheap components but that doesn't take from the design. From an engineering standpoint the design criteria will dictate what is in actual usage not always the best components. That doesn't mean that the design could not be improved, just that the manufacture and engineers adapted to suit the final piece of equipment. Cost is not always the deciding factor either. Sometimes available components, component subsystem design changes, etc. I've seen the same model of a particular manufacture with several ECOs (engineering change order) that effect the final system therefore the machine should be a different model or subset but was not.

Your selection was not the best but not all the Inspirons are designed with the same drive in that bay. I'm not saying that all designs are done in this fashion but most are adapted.

I realy don't want to get into a debate about MTBF on components nor subsystems as this can get rather in depth. This alone has cost a lot of companies mega bucks because someone didn't do their homework just to cut costs.

You like the Latitude and I like to get a better bang for my buck. Call it a home line if you want, I really don't care. But if someone else is paying for it, I would still go for the machine that suits me for the $$. Stretch that dollar a little more and you will get that second whatever you would need.

I really don't understand where you are coming up with the logic for the design criteria. The consumer will dictate how something is designed in the long run, not just the engineers. Most engineers, Electrical, Mechanical and even Industrial will work together to complete a design. Sometimes when humans are involved with the design usage then even bioengineering will be on the design team. I've had several bio science individuals on a design team that was for a piece of equipment that had minimal human involvement. But the input was required to satisfy the contract.

Go ahead and use your equipment as you wish. The laptop is a unique piece of equipment and each user will adapt it to suit their needs. I said nothing about keyboards nor other devices for the laptop other than the cooling pad and support. I justified the reason and stand by the facts.

I've spent all the time I wish talking about this since you don't seem to understand the reasoning behind the thermal effects of a laptop. The heat transfer is a problem and always will be. The battery is one of the contributing heat factors not just the components. Anytime you place a heat source next to a barrier you will get a reflected heat on the boundaries therefore retention from the reflection. Thus the heat rise will be effected because of the environment. The simple placement of a fan will remove that environment problem.