RedHat Linux 7.0 on a Dell Inspiron 4000

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• About the Inspiron
• Installing Linux
  • Initial steps
  • Partitions
  • Touchpad/Trackpoint
  • X configuration
  • Sound
  • Networking
  • Modem
• Summary
• General Resources

About the Inspiron

• RedHat 7.0, kernel 2.2.16-22
• Dell Inspiron 4000
• Intel Pentium III 700 Mhz with SpeedStep
• 192 MB RAM (2 SODIMMS, 64MB and 128MB)
• 10 GB HD (identified as IBM-DJSA-210 9590MB w/384 Cache, CHS=1222/255/63)
• 8X DVD-ROM Drive (identified as Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-C2402, ATAPI CDROM drive)
• 14.1 inch TFT Active Matrix XGA Display (1024x768 maximum resolution)
• Internal 56K v.90 Modem + 10/100 ethernet mini-PCI combo
• ESS Maestro 3i Sound Card
• ATI Rage Mobility 128 AGP 2X video controller with 8MB SGRAM
• Alps DualPoint touch pad and track stick

Installing Linux

To start the installation, I simply put in the RedHat 7.0 disc and rebooted the machine. You need to be sure that the CD-ROM is set as the primary boot device in the BIOS. You can enter this by pressing F2 during the initial Dell splash screen as the machine boots up. From there, the normal RedHat 7.0 graphical install worked just fine. [NOTE: If you want to make a boot floppy, which you should do, you need to connect the floppy drive with the included external cable.]

Partitions

I had already partitioned my hard drive to have a 3 GB partition available for Linux (leaving 7 GB for Windows ME). There are multiple programs available to do this, and documentation available on the web. In the RedHat installation, I used Disk Druid to setup the linux partitions. I made one partition, 128 MB, as a linux swap partition and all the other space was put in a root partition.

Touchpad/Trackpoint

I chose Alps GlidePoint (PS/2) for the mouse.

X configuration

The standard installation automatically detected my laptop screen at 1024x768 and my ATI Rage 128 Mobility chipset with 8 MB RAM. I accepted this detected configuration, which worked without any problems.

If you're looking for a commercial X-Server, two places to go are Metrolink and Xi Graphics. They may have servers available that will work with this laptop and potentially provide better X performance.

Sound

There are four possibilities that I am aware of for getting sound to work on this laptop in Linux. It uses an ESS Maestro 3 chipset:

• The ALSA Project has a free driver for this card.
• The author of the Maestro 2 driver has an OSS driver for the Maestro 3, still in alpha, available here
• There is a way to get it to work in Sound Blaster Pro compatibility mode. Please refer to Andy Loening's page for a description.
• 4Front Technologies makes a commercial driver that works with the 3i.

• Download alsa-driver-0.5.10b.tar.bz2 from www.alsa-project.org
• bzip2 -d alsa-driver-0.5.10b.tar.bz2
• tar xvf alsa-driver-0.5.10b.tar
• cd alsa-driver-0.5.10b
• ./configure
• make install
• ./snddevices
• edit /etc/modules.conf file, adding the lines for ALSA shown in my modules.conf file here.
• modprobe snd-card-maestro3
• You can now type "play filename" for an audio file and you should be able to hear it. When you reboot the sound module should load automatically.

The RedHat installation automatically detected the built-in ethernet card and supported it by loading the eepro100 kernel module. The chipset is identified as Intel 82557 Rev. 8.

Modem

The built-in modem is listed in Windows as an LT Winmodem, and Linux (type "lspci -n") shows it to be a "Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics WinModem 56k". Winmodems tend to be poorly supported in linux, but this one happens to have a binary driver available. I got mine to work with the following method (I found this information on the Linmodem Howto page).

• Download the file "ltmodem-5.78d.tar.gz" from here.
• tar xzvf ltmodem-5.78d.tar.gz
• cd ltmodem-5.78D
• make
• ./ltinst
• The modem is now linked to the device /dev/modem, and should work.

• Linux Lookup's Inspiron 4000 C600GT Review
• Linux Online's Linux on a Laptop Page
• The Linux Laptop Home Page