Ubuntu Dapper (6.06) on Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop

articles ✒ inspiron6400dapper

Note: Using Dapper i386, not 64-bit

This is an unofficial guide to installing Ubuntu Dapper Drake (aka 6.06 LTS) onto a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. It is not endorsed by Dell, Microsoft, Ubuntu, Linux, or for that matter, anybody. Your mileage may vary - all advice is followed at your on risk.

See also my guide to installing Ubuntu Edgy on Inspiron 6400.

Hardware Spec

Where no notes are given but the device works, no special procedure was required during installation.

ComponentWorks?Notes
Intel Core2 T7200 Processor✓See Multiprocessor Support (below)
15.4" TFT (1280 x 800)✓Will be at 1024x768 until fglrx (ATI) drivers installed.
Touchpad✓
ATI X1300 Graphics✓See Graphics Drivers (below)
TV-outUntested
120 GB SATA 5200rpm✓
Integrated 10/100 ethernet✓
Integrated 56k modemUntested
8x DVD+/-RW✓
Intel 3945 wireless✓
9-cell battery✓
Internal soundcard and speakers✓
Card readerUntested

Basic installation of Ubuntu

The partitions at the time of shipping are roughly: [ diagnostics ][ c:\ ][ d:\ ][ recovery ]. On my laptop I removed all but the diagnostics and split the free space between Linux and Windows XP (which I reinstalled). I would strongly advise anyone buying this laptop to pay £10 extra for the driver and Windows reinstallation disks (reinstalling Windows saved uninstalling all the trial software this laptop came with).

Download and burn an installation CD (from ubuntu.com), then install Edgy from it as usual.

Multiprocessor support

Edgy x86 now has a 'generic' kernel which covers this process:

sudo apt-get install linux-generic

(Reboot to load it)

sudo reboot

Graphics drivers

The fglrx (proprietary ATI) graphics drivers in the Ubuntu repositories are little old. They don't support the X1300 chip fully. Download the latest version from the ATI Linux drivers and use method 2 on this ATI/linux wiki to install it. Now it should works fine. Note that this requires a few console commands when you upgrade your kernel to redo the fglrx module - see the wiki for more details.

Frequency change

This CPU can change the frequency of its two cores independently. This allows you to prolong battery life or max-out performance as you wish. To be able to do change the frequency manually with through an icon on your toolbar (in gnome), you need to reconfigure them to make them suid root.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

Due to a bug in gnome-applets, you can only manually change the frequency of the first core. This bug is fixed in the next version of Ubuntu - Edgy Etch. You can still use /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu{0 or 1}/cpufreq/ to configure frequencies. Automatic frequency adjustment works pretty well anyway.

lscpi output

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 03)
0000:00:1b.0 0403: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controllers cc=IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 7149
0000:03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
0000:03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0832
0000:03:01.1 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
0000:03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
0000:03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
0000:03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0000:0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 4222 (rev 02)

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