Installing Linux on a Dell Inspiron I8600C (by a complete n00b)

DISCLAIMER: I have no idea what I'm doing.

Recentness: March 20, 2005

Libranet 2.8.1 kernel 2.4.21

(Also, here are some horrible instructions for installing Libranet→Debian→DeMuDi. I've since switched to PlanetCCRMA on Fedora Core 3, and, while I'm not happy with that, either, it is somewhat usable (and it is too much effort to mess with any of this anymore)).

(June 22, 2005 update: Back in XP now. I haven't booted into Linux in months. I'll give it another try someday.)

Hardware

Intro

This page is to help others find what they need to get their system working and also hopefully for others to point out what I've done wrong and help me. I am a newb so I am going to list things that are obvious to other people. Hopefully that will help other newbs who similarly don't know what they're doing. And it will serve as notes for the future, when I invariably have to install again from scratch.

Here is my XF86Config-4.

I used to have an IBM Thinkpad 600E. I tried to install Linux on it, and had some success, but couldn't get the sound to work after many many many tries. (I also couldn't get Linux to install after many tries, but that turned out to be a bad hard drive.) I needed a new computer anyway, so I bought a brand new shiny Dell Inspiron 8600. (Oh, did I say 8600? I meant 8600c. *grumble grumble*)

Reasons I am interested in Linux:

• audio software (JACK, etc.)
• freeness (both monetary and philosophical)
• high configurability

Please point out things I missed or ask me for more detailed info about something. Also feel free to tell me I did something stupidly. Some of this is just notes I "scribbled" to myself, expecting to make sense of later, but I can't remember. You'll probably see what they mean while doing this. It would be nice to remind me...

You can also search for user "bleargh" on linuxquestions.org and libranet forums for more detailed info about some of these things.

Distro

First I tried Knoppix and DeMuDi (Debian Multimedia Distribution) liveCDs (no hard drive install required) to get a feel for how it would work. I didn't really get much satisfaction, since the nVIDIA screen and some other hardware is not recognized. So obviously I needed to do a real hard drive install to get the graphics working properly. I am focusing on audio so I should have used the DeMuDi hard drive install perhaps, but my first attempt with it was unsuccessful (see below) and I had tried it on my other computer and didn't like it, so I decided to use Libranet and work my way into the audio stuff. When DeMuDi is more mature maybe I'll convert. Libranet is (as far as I know) perfectly compatible with Debian, but it mixes versions (stable, testing, and unstable) and has an installer you can actually use and some extra configuration programs (one button kernel recompiling, for instance). This is the only distro I have had any success with on my old laptop, so I figured I would start with it on this one while I am still learning Linux. (And yes, I have tried others; several different Debian-based systems and Mandrake. If you just want a regular desktop machine you might want to try Mandrake first. I tried it on my old laptop and couldn't figure out how to configure anything significant.)

Partitioning

First I downloaded and burned SystemRescueCD 0.4.4 and booted from it. It has a nice repartitioning program (with a graphical interface, of course) called QTParted 1.9.2 (SystemRescueCD uses recent versions of everything, so I wasn't using the older ntfsresize that might possibly chew up my existing partitions). The main NTFS partition was at about 52 GB, and I resized it to 42 GB NTFS and left 10 GB for Linux (I can always make it bigger if I want later) including the 512 MB Linux swap. I used ReiserFS for the main Linux partition (Why? I dunno. It sounded like a good idea. I think it's what DeMuDi uses, so they probably chose it for a reason.)

I don't understand the types who completely remove Windows from their systems. These machines are designed with Windows in mind. I needed it several times during this installation. (If you are the total immersion burning bridges type you probably don't need my help anyway.) I had no problems resizing. I booted into windows before doing any other formatting or anything so that it could run CHKDSK automatically and fix any problems. It said "The volume is dirty." (heh heh heh...) and ran chkdsk and said no problems.

So my partitions look like this:

• 39 MB FAT Dell Partition
• 42 GB Windows XP
• 10 GB Libranet ReiserFS including 512 MB swap
• 3.5 GB FAT32 Hibernation partition? I didn't touch this.

Somehow that adds up to 60 GB. Stupid binary prefixes.

Next step I tried using Agnula DeMuDi installation. Everything ran smoothly until it tried to start X windows, at which point it beeped loudly and displayed some teal/purple plaid-looking mess. I tried running recovery terminal mode and got into that fine, but the Ethernet was not connected so I couldn't download packages or search google so I gave up because I'm not going to spend hours and hours figuring this out.

So I get out my trusty Libranet 2.8.1 CDs and install that instead. Some sort of random notes from the install process:

1. I chose to dual boot XP from partition hda2
2. Yes, let Libranet handle booting my system
3. Autodetect display
4. Laptop display panel 1280x1024 (will get real nVIDIA drivers later)
5. 15 inch monitor (actually 15.4)
6. Yes, write to XF86config file
7. Yes, test. Works usably, though stretched to fit wide screen
8. Install lots of things, including laptop software, PCMCIA, development software and libraries
9. (ahhhh... this computer is SO much faster than the Thinkpad. Much less tedious.)
10. Autodetects sound fine
11. No network (have to install later)
12. No printer (don't have one, and doesn't have a parallel port anyway, despite being in the pictures. *grumble grumble*)
13. IDE CD-RW thing. Yes, SCSI emulation

Network

Everything autodetected fine except Ethernet, so after hours of searching all over the internet I found out that Libranet has a script installer thing already written. (Ah, Linux. So easy to use and so very easy to find useful information on the first try...)

http://libranet.com/support/2.8/0316

You have to recompile the kernel first:

1. Go to xadminmenu → Kernel tab → Recompile kernel
2. I changed the processor to Pentium III instead of 486, since the Pentium M is apparently based on the Pentium III.
3. I made no other changes and just let it recompile. It takes about 15 minutes on this computer.

Rebooted into XP, download the bcm file from the Libranet page and put it on my C:\ root directory for easy finding. Reboot to Linux, go to /windows directory and it should be there.

You have to be root, so open some kind of console, like Konsole or xterm. Then type su and enter your root password.

Copy to /tmp:

cp /windows/bcm4400-2.8.tar.gz /tmp

Then install it:

cd /tmp
tar xzf bcm4400-2.8.tar.gz
cd bcm4400
./install.sh


Then I went into adminmenu, network and configured and selected DHCP and it worked!

Phew! What a pain!

(You have to redo the network script every time you recompile.)

Software upgrades

Then I upgraded adminmenu under packages tab

Then said go with Libranet archive since I had problems earlier (Though next time I'm going to try the minimal install/immediate upgrade to debian unstable route, since I like my programs to be recent versions.)

Then to get the best web browser in the world type apt-get install -t unstable mozilla-firefox or apt-get install mozilla-firefox/unstable. I don't really understand the difference. I use the first one usually. Don't bother asking someone to explain it to you. It is mind-bogglingly complicated with version preferences and pinning and backports and they will act like you're an idiot if you don't get it immediately. (I'm being sarcastic, of course. Ask someone, like on linuxquestions.org, but be prepared to pull your hair out.)

Graphics

Then I ran the nvidia-update from here

http://libranet.com/support/2.8/0365

Just follow the directions. (Actually I did both the network card and nVIDIA the hard way first, without realizing that Libranet had installers for each. Neither of the hard ways worked, of course. *sigh*)

It has to recompile the kernel for both the network card and the nVIDIA card. Don't ask me why. I read a book while waiting for the numerous downloads and installs and recompiles to finish. Specifically, The Left Hand of Darkness, which is good, although The Dispossessed is better, in my opinion.

Then I did this.

Fonts

Widescreen high-res is nice, but everything is UGLY.

Install truetype fonts from adminmenu, then install 100 DPI fonts:

apt-get install xfonts-100dpi

Add 100 DPI fonts to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. See file for details.

"Set DPI 120 in gdm.conf"? Apparently I did this... I don't remember what it did or why I did it. Sorry.

Audio

It works fine without ALSA and JACK, if you are just trying to do web browsing and such, but I wanted to use audio apps with JACK, etc.

One really important thing about ALSA (which may also apply to OSS; I don't remember) is the confusing configuration of alsamixer. You have to turn OFF the "External Amp Mute" to get sound ON through the laptop speakers. The easy way to get to this setting is just by typing alsamixer, although there is also alsamixergui.

See here for (non-optimal) instructions on sound settings at bootup.

To get it, just "install alsa" from xadminmenu.

Update ALSA from Libranet site (dunno what this does really): http://libranet.com/support/2.8/0355

Then I installed Andrew Morton's low-latency kernel patches for ALSA in 2.4.21. Follow the instructions on djcj.org, except use the Libranet patching facilities to do everything. So make the same changes to the kernel but let Libranet take care of untarring the source and compiling and making the old and new versions bootable. This stuff is under the kernel tab of xadminmenu.

Notes:

This patch is necessary for running JACK as a user.

Might have to make sure you add the fstab /tmp thing

mkdir /dev/shm first, then mount /dev/shm?

(Linux prior to 2.4.4 tmpfs was known as shmfs)

Now I can run jack and jackified apps as root

made the two-line change to capability.h, capabilities should be compiled into jack already

says cannot get capabilities as user before recompile...

Keyboard/Pointing Devices

One of the major reasons I got the Inspiron 8600 was the track stick/pointing stick/trackpoint/eraser head/whatever you want to call it. This is all I had on my Thinkpad but with the settings just right I loved it. I could point with it just as well as with a mouse, and with the concave cap that fits the curve of your finger instead of putting a dimple in it, it was great. I have always hated touchpads. Every one I've used is just horrible, so I was hoping to find a laptop with the trackpoint. Then I got my new laptop in the mail and it doesn't have one!!!! They show them in the pictures on their site so why doesn't mine have one??? So I search a lot online and find out that I have bought the newer 8600c (not labeled as such anywhere), which is missing the trackpoint, parallel port, serial port, and IR port. (*grumble grumble grumble*). After days of research and trying to decide if I should send it back over a pointing device, I order a used, trackpoint-enabled keyboard (trackpoint) and palm rest (trackpoint buttons) from the older model 8600. I swap them out and it works!! But it's crap compared to the one on my Thinkpad.

It's possible to use synaptics or alps glidepoint touchpad in XF86Config file

apt-get install xfree86-driver-synaptics qsynaptics

See usr/share/doc/xfree86-driver-synaptics/README.alps for configuration for alps, which is what I have.

Add Load "synaptics" to module section of /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Change input device section

Just follow the directions in README.debian and add shmconfig line

I followed the directions here to add washers under the pointing stick buttons and foam pads under the keyboard to improve on it a bit.

Wireless mouse

Multimedia keys

Rant

(Yes, I appreciate all the effort that has gone into developing Linux, and it has its shining moments, but it still has a LOT of work left to do. Don't get complacent. And please don't get haughty and elitist and push away the user base you need. Not everyone has the patience to put up with all this crap, even though they would love to use a working system.)

People (Linux users, anyway) seem to get this idea that computers should be difficult to use; that requiring people to learn about their computers before they can do anything with them is a good thing. No way! Computers are just tools that enable us to do other things. Computers are general purpose very fast calculation machines. Very little of what we do with them is actually built into the hardware. They can do ANYTHING that you program them to do. Ideally, an operating system will be safe, powerful, and intuitively obvious to use. Try not to forget this, programmers!

They should be like the computers on star trek.

You just say "Computer: coffee please."

You don't need to read a manual or memorize arcane command-line switches (efficiency, my ass).

It doesn't give you an error or lock up.

It doesn't tell you "You must reboot for this coffee to take effect. Would you like to reboot now? Ok/Cancel"

It doesn't say "This coffee depends on sugar, but sugar will not be installed".

IT JUST MAKES YOU A DAMN COFFEE.

It doesn't even ask you how you take it!

BECAUSE IT REMEMBERS FROM LAST TIME.

This is the way computers SHOULD function. But they don't. I had high hopes for Linux, but Linux is even worse than windows in this regard.

Instead of obfuscated code contests, they should have usability contests. Sit an 80-year-old man who's never used a computer before in front of each person's UI and have him perform a number of tasks. The interface with the most progress in the time elapsed (and least amount of errors, confused expressions, help file references, viruses contracted, etc.) wins.

I imagine it is the result of people getting so frustrated setting it up that they don't have any patience left to reprogram it to be user friendly. Just like I don't have enough patience or motivation to finish this pa...