Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) on Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop

articles ✒ inspiron6400feisty

Note: Using Feisty i386, not 64-bit

This is an unofficial guide to installing Ubuntu Feisty (aka 7.04) 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.

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Hardware Spec

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

Component Works? Notes
Intel Core2 T7200 Processor ✓
15.4" TFT (1280 x 800) ✓
Touchpad ✓
ATI X1300 Graphics✓Graphical mode (Xorg) not available until fglrx drivers installed
TV-out Untested
120 GB SATA 5200rpm ✓
Integrated 10/100 ethernet ✓
Integrated 56k modem Untested
8x DVD+/-RW ✓
Intel 3945 wireless ✓
9-cell battery ✓
Internal soundcard and speakers ✓
Card reader Untested

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 the alternate installation CD (from ubuntu.com), then boot from it. The standard install CD (the live CD) did not work for me, Xorg refused to start ('no screens found').

If your installation hangs at 90% with "Please wait" displayed on screen, Ctrl + Alt + F2 to a free console and activate it by pressing Enter. Then type:

chroot /target
killall http

After installation, upon rebooting Xorg failed to start as it needs the fglrx drivers, so let's install them:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo aticonfig --initial

After installing a graphics update for fglrx 8.40.4 I found that video playback didn't work properly - under MPlayer the scaling was poor in Xv mode and video flickered in GL mode. The solution was to use amdcccle (the new ATi control centre program) to set "wait for vertical retrace" (on the 3D tab) and use GL for video playback.

Frequency change

It turns out that being able to change the frequency of the two cores independently was a bug in Edgy and Dapper - the hardware can't actually do this. In Feisty trying to change the frequency of one core changes the frequency of both cores. If you wish to be able to change your CPU frequency manually from your desktop (for example, to conserve power when on battery), you need to make the CPU frequency applet suid:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

lscpi output

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [ATI Mobility Radeon X1300]
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
03:01.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

Conclusion

All in all, this laptop works very well with Ubuntu, as long as you can get started.

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