Slackware Linux on the Dell Inspiron e1505

This laptop is a Dell Inspiron e1505, purchased late March directly from Dell. This should be identical to the Inspiron 6400, which is the business-version of the same hardware. I also got the extended 9-cell battery, which easily gives upward of 4 hours with typical use, if cpu scaling is enabled. A detailed list of hardware, along with what has been tested is below:

Repartitioning

The laptop came with Windows XP Media Center Edition preinstalled on the 100gb hard drive. I chose to keep this windows installation, resizing the ntfs partition to make room for linux. I chose to make separate home and root partitions, as well as a 5gb swap partition (which is more than necessary). I suggest using a Knoppix LiveCD to shrink the existing partition with the included qtparted utility.

Install Slackware

I chose to install slackware-current on this laptop. Installing Slackware required a bit of hassle, as the default 2.4 kernel does not provide dma acceleration for the hard drive, while installing using the test26.s kernel can leave the system in an semi-unbootable state. Basically, I installed using that kernel, used the installation disc to boot, make an initrd, then had a working system.

I also installed Swaret to help keep the packages up to date.

Setting up X11

The graphics options for this laptop included a 1280x800 or 1680x1050 lcd, and an intel i950 or ATI x1300 (128mb) or x1400 (256mb) VGA adapter. I chose to go with the x1400 + 1680x1050 option.

I discovered that using the vesa driver did not allow the lcd to run in the full resolution mode. By changing various settings I managed to get 1400x1050 (either centered or stretched out, as choosable in the BIOS), but not 1680x1050. I also found the binary ati drivers at the time didn't support either the x1300 or x1400. Waiting a couple of weeks then revealed newer drivers, version 8.24.8, which worked fine. They are accessible here. Since I had also upgraded to the 2.6.16.5 kernel, I had to make a few minor changes in the kernel configuration to allow for some obsolete functions used in the drivers. Instruction can be found here. Once the drivers were installed, the screen ran in full resolution, with 3d acceleration, using this xorg.conf:

This appears to work fine with the accelerated, binary nvidia drivers.

Setting up the Wireless (802.11abg) card

The laptop comes with a built-in Intel IPW3945 wireless chipset, which has actively developed binary drivers. Follow the instructions detailed at http://ipw3945.sf.net. You will have to install the ieee80211 subsystem, the provided firmware, and the regulatory daemon.

Front Media Buttons

The volume control and play/pause/stop buttons at the front of the laptop work wonderfully with xhkeys. My ~/.XHkeys file consists of:

xhkeys.codeline7:       164;0;A*;Amarok - stop;amarok -s
xhkeys.plugin1: xhkeys_cdaudio;cda;devname="/dev/cdrom";devgrab=n
xhkeys.codeline2:       174;0;A*;Master Volume Down;amixer sset Master 1-
xhkeys.plugin2: xhkeys_mixer;vol;devname="/dev/mixer"channel=-1;devgrab=n
xhkeys.codeline1:       160;0;A*;Master Volume Muted;amixer -c 0 set Master togglemute
xhkeys.codeline6:       153;0;A*;Amarok - next;amarok -f
xhkeys.codeline3:       176;0;A*;Master Volume Up;amixer sset Master 1+ unmute
xhkeys.codeline5:       144;0;A*;Amarok - previous;amarok -r
xhkeys.codeline4:       162;0;A*;Amarok - pause;amarok --pause

This is a fairly simple configuration file, and can be tweaked however you want. You can create a file from scratch using "xhkconf"

Miscellaneous

Here is the output from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: 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 Controllers cc=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: Unknown device 7145
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 Class 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: Unknown device 4222 (rev 02)

00:00.0 Class 0600: 8086:27a0 (rev 03)
00:01.0 Class 0604: 8086:27a1 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 01)
00:1c.0 Class 0604: 8086:27d0 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 Class 0604: 8086:27d6 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 Class 0c03: 8086:27c8 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 Class 0c03: 8086:27c9 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 Class 0c03: 8086:27ca (rev 01)
00:1d.3 Class 0c03: 8086:27cb (rev 01)
00:1d.7 Class 0c03: 8086:27cc (rev 01)
00:1e.0 Class 0604: 8086:2448 (rev e1)
00:1f.0 Class 0601: 8086:27b9 (rev 01)
00:1f.2 Class 0101: 8086:27c4 (rev 01)
00:1f.3 Class 0c05: 8086:27da (rev 01)
01:00.0 Class 0300: 1002:7145
03:00.0 Class 0200: 14e4:170c (rev 02)
03:01.0 Class 0c00: 1180:0832
03:01.1 Class 0805: 1180:0822 (rev 19)
03:01.2 Class 0880: 1180:0843 (rev 01)
03:01.3 Class 0880: 1180:0592 (rev 0a)
03:01.4 Class 0880: 1180:0852 (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Class 0280: 8086:4222 (rev 02)

Todo

I still need to write up details about various other functionality, including:

• special touchpad features (eg. scroll wheel): WORKING
• media card reader - UNTESTED
• Intel VT virtualization capability (eg. with XEN) - UNTESTED
• Bluetooth - UNTESTED

If you have any comments or additions, I'd appreciate an email at <contact@mydomain> (change "mydomain" to "mdek.net"). If you would like me to add information, please be as detailed as possible in your email.