[PLUG] Hate to bother everyone, but I'm in a laptop bind...

Anthony Schlemmer aschlemm at comcast.net
Tue Aug 3 16:55:03 UTC 2004


Darkhorse wrote:

>On Mon, 2004-08-02 at 19:27, alan wrote:
>  
>
>>I am not clear on what you want to do. Are you wanting to see your old 
>>Dell?  
>>
>>If you are trying to return it to "factory default" you probably have to 
>>reinstall the OS through some sort of system reinstall utility.
>>
>>I am just not clear as to your goal...
>>
>>    
>>
>
>I either want to stabilize the Redhat with maple, or try to get the
>money out of it.  It looks like the stock 2.4.20-8 kernel from Redhat
>may be stable without the power management enabled.  It would be nice to
>get the sound keys working too.  You're supposed to be able to use
>lineakd under debian, but I don't know that I can get that to work in
>Redhat.  I researched the laptop, to my horror though I have 
>discovered that what's in it is not necessarily the same as  
>the hardware in 5100 Inspirons manufactured prior.  For Windows 
>if Dell tweaks software drivers, fine.  For Linux though, 
>not all hardware is created equal.  Especially true where Dell isn't 
>offering a Linux laptop anymore, let alone full hardware 
>information.  I tried to call Dell about putting the laptop in a
>factory state and perhaps taking it to a Dell certified shop for
>that, but I didn't get any real information.  After six months,
>I wonder if there's even any chance of taking it back.
>
>I wish I even knew what the source of the lock ups is.  If it's the
>power management, turning it off, although inconvenient, would patch 
>the problem for now.  My advice to anyone wanting to put Linux on a
>laptop is to seriously consider an: iBook, Toshiba, or Thinkpad 
>before ever looking at a Dell.  Is there a clinic I can bring it 
>to?  I need to get prolog on it if I can.  
>
>If money weren't an issue, I'd try a $10k Sun system laptop like my
>brother-in-law's.  Paying $500 extra for a Linux Certified, Toshiba, 
>or Thinkpad laptop is worth it.  The iBook is in the same price range 
>as an Inspiron 5100, but the screen is only 1024x768.  I don't think 
>the iBook has even one pc card slot.  However, they're light, cool,
>whisper quiet, and small.  My older brother got one and is trying to
>familiarize with it now.  An Apple is probably the best buy right 
>now for a portable.
>
>
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>  
>
I have a Dell 5150 that is running SuSE 9.0 professional and I have no 
problems with any lockups and everything expect the Dell TrueMobile 1300 
WiFI card. For WIFI I had to use the LinuxAnt driver loader and use 
Broadcom's Windows drivers. I have an NVidia 5200 GeForce and the NVidia 
drivers are great for 3D. The box is more stable with Linux than with 
WinXP. With that said the company I work for has had a near 100% failure 
rate with these 5150s. There appears to be a problem with the charger 
circuit and eventually the system will not power on anymore and the fix 
has been to have a new motherboard installed in the laptops.

Do you have to run RedHat?  I know I've been able install a few RPM 
packages that were for Red Hat but they ran without any issues under 
SuSE since I had all of the necessary libraries installed. I suppose it 
helps that SuSE uses RPMs for packaging their software as well.

Last but  not least did you try looking at Google and see how other 
users have faired with the Dell 5100:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Dell+5100+and+Linux&btnG=Google+Search

Tony

-- 
Anthony Schlemmer
aschlemm at comcast.net






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