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Re: Inspiron 8100 Woes



On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 04:44:03AM +0000, James Green wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been trying, on and off, to get a working debian install on my Dell
> Inspiron 8100 laptop. I can generally get a working install, but I lack the
> necessary clue to make it work just right. I wondered, then, if there was
> any chance of a little guidance...
> 
> My first problem is PCMCIA. To avoid the machine locking up completely
> during boot, I need to add the line "exclude ports 0x800-0x8ff" (or
> similar, I'm not 100% sure now..) to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts -- am I
> confused, or is this going to stop PCMCIA working at a later date? If it
> is, is there anything else I can do to get around this problem?
>

No this won't stop pcmcia working later. It's to stop a bug from hanging
the kernel when it probes there. 
 
> My other problem is with the nvidia drivers - I'm still not particularly
> confident about compiling kernels and/or modules[1], and all the docs I've
> found for the nvidia drivers seem to assume the reader is :-( If anyone
> has any fairly straightforward instructions for fixing them, or has a
> simple[2] explanation of what I need to achieve, I'd be most grateful.


The nvidia drivers are no sweat. You can either use apt-get to do this,
or frankly, it's a piece of cake to use the nvidia source tarballs. But
since you are presumeably using a stock Debian kernel, it's just as easy
to use the Debian nvidia packages. apt-cache show nvidia-glx-src and
apt-cache show nvidia-kernel-src will get you started. Tell you what you
need to read to understand what you are doing. 

> 
> I keep going back to windows on this machine - my one last windows box,
> after debianising the rest of my network - but I keep getting hacked off
> with Windows crashing all the time, and not behaving sensibly.
> 
> To clarify, the machine is almost identical to that described at
> http://www.theonline.org/linux/vostok.phtml , except with half the size
> disk, a CD drive instead of DVD, and a mere 866MHz CPU. And I have no
> intention of dual booting - for various reasons, I've never really seen
> the point...
> 
> I get the feeling there were other problems, but I think each of them is
> surmountable if I can just get these two issues cleared up. Then I just
> need to play with ALSA to support my soundcard... (Creative Extigy, USB)
> 
> Thanks in advance!
>

No sweat, Debian works great on this machine (except for the Extigy, I
know nothing of that) 

 
> [1]Kernels compiled: 1.
> Kernels that booted: 1.
> Kernels that had network support: 0. Doh. Add in the fact I was doing this
> remotely, and perhaps you see why I'm so very wary about such things....
> 
> [2] It doesn't necessarily have to assume no prior knowledge or
> intelligence, but it would be nice if it didn't assume I hack kernels in
> my sleep ;-)
 

I use the vanilla kernel sources, it's not tough. I don't have a lot of
experience using the Debianized sources, so I won't say one way or the
other about them. I can email you a copy of my working kernel config if
you would like. YMMV but it works for me, with the 3com network card,
alsa sound running the maestro3 card, and the rest of the stuff like the
buttons on the top near the power switch. I don't have irda configured
yet, and I don't use the builtin modem, but everything else in the
hardware works. I use the pcmcia-cs package for pcmcia, and it works
with my cards. I use the linux-wlan package for the wireless card,
although I haven't actually used it, just plugged it in and played with
it. Also, you'll want a working XF86Config, there are plenty of them
around, I can send you mine if you wish, it's set up for 1600x1200 on
the LCD only. 

-- 
Jim Richardson         http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
A bad day, is when aliens attack, the dog bites you, and your boss tells
 you that the new client wants to make a few changes before delivery.
Linux, super computers, office computers, or home computers, it works. 



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