Do You Ubuntu?

Yep. Breezy Badger edition of Ubuntu worked like a charm! It's really by far the most impressive distro I've tried as a Linux beginner compared to SUSE 9.3/10.0-OSS and Fedora.

I tried Dapper Drake release too but its mighty unstable it seems and still in development/testing hell. Official release of this edition should be out in a coupla months.

I just did this on my 9300 over the weekend, after reading the Maximum PC article on the subject. I'm a complete noob at this, but here's what I know:

You have to use a separate partition on your hard drive to install ununtu, as it uses a separate, incompatible file system. I used the 4Gb hidden Dell service partition just to try it out - it seems like a more fitting use for the space to me (I already burned my backup XP cd using dell's utility.)

Anytime you have a question about updating or installing something, check http://wiki.ubuntu.com first - the best solutions are usually the ones I find there.

Use the synaptics package manager in ubuntu to install the nvidia drivers (and most other stuff you need), works like a charm.

When you're done installing ubuntu on your drive partition you'll see a list of OS's to choose from when you boot up. Mine defaults to ubuntu so I have to watch it and select XP if I want to use windows; otherwise it times out and boots in linux.

My next challenge will be updating to the 686 kernel (ubuntu installs a 386 kernel by default.) Again, I think this will be easiest with the synaptics package manager.

Have fun! (and back up first!)

I am assuming that the Intel 220 wireless is supported?

And are there other hardware items in the 9300 with the 6800 that are not supported.

For all you guys that are just curious about Linux and want to try it out. I would recommend snagging a copy of Vmware and installing it within XP on a virtual machine. There is little overhead and it will allow you to fully experience a linux desktop without sacrificing your XP install or having to mess with partitions, etc..

Or even better, get a live CD so you can just boot with it and then see how you like it without adding any new software to windows.

Ubuntu as one and they will send it to you free.

The SD card reader does not work, and the scroll features of the touchpad are a no-go as welll. More here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestin...llInspiron9300

I second the live CD suggestion - I tried that before I decided to install.

Actually, the wireless setup for the Intel 2200 isn't that bad on Ubuntu as it is to configure in most other types. A lot of good FAQs on www.ubuntuforums.org that outline this. The 2200 works right away with the appropriate ipw package loaded.



Knoppix is a good easy CD distro to boot off from (pretty snazzy as a portable OS).

Tried: RH8,9 Fedora Core 2,3 SuSE9, Turbolinux and now Ubuntu.

My pref was Ubuntu. Great software/hardware support, active community, easy install. Minimal problems with the AMD64 version, but that is probably true of all 64 bit OS's until there is more support for it.

Try the live CD. My XPS had no trouble, but I didn't try out the SD card reader as some here have posted. Sound/video/drives/wireless worked fine. If you like the live CD, I think the installer has an option to resize your windows partition for dual boot on the actual CD. Otherwise, you will probably have to reinstall. If you do, you may want to make a FAT32 partition for your files that both Windwos and Ubuntu can read/write to. Ubuntu can read your NTFS files just fine, but you won't be able to write to them. Windows can't do squat with your ext3/reiser partition for Ubuntu.

I like dual boot, but it is kind of a pain sometimes. You have to go windows for most games and a few applications, but Ubuntu covers almost everything. I spend too much time rebooting with a dual boot system, so I have Ubuntu on my desktop and Windows (games) on the XPS. The FAT32 partition and WINE can minimize it a bit, but you still have to reboot now and then.

There is a bit of a learning curve in switching OS's, but the Ubuntu forums are a great help. Nearly everything is covered there. Also, Doc Calibran posted some good info on his Ubuntu trial posted here.

not true. it is possible to get the touchpad working. im not sure if it works in breezy, it works in dapper though, and the scrolling is actually better than it is in windows. pm me if you want help setting that up.

everything else works out of the box. the video card just needs you to download the nvidia-glx and nvidia-settings packages from synaptic. read the description of the nvidia-glx to seee how to enable the driver.

I cant get my Atheros 5006XS card to work, no matter what !!!!!
Speakers and Subwoofer are on diffrent channels (no fix as of yet)

Looks DAMN nice in the native res...

i dont know about gnome, but i control the volume in kde with kmix, and you can adjust the master volume by changing the "pcm" slider. then you have the "master" to control the speakers and "mono" to control the subwoofer. works great.

I put Ubuntu on my machine about two weeks ago just on a whim and fell in love with it. I had no installation problems, and setting up was easier -- and quicker -- than Windows. Wireless came right up, printer began working with no effort and even the video card self-installed (more or less )

I keep a dual boot now and only use WinXP for games. I have a shared partition that both OS's can access, and to be honest, I spend 95+ percent of my time in Linux.

OK, I'll quit drooling over Linux again.

It's similar for Gnome. The subwoofer ("master mono") is muted by default, and for a long time I thought the subwoofer was being ignored or I had a driver problem. But drizek's right, you can use the PCM slider to work the volume, and adjust the bass and mid/hi-ranges separately.

all of you ubuntu users might wanna consider joining hte ubuntu folding @ home team http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/...&teamnum=45104

were doing pretty good. were in 1267th place and moving up pretty fast. Its fun, its a way to help spread ubuntu and it is also a great way to help with medical research.

heres the wiki page with instructions. runs on both windows and linux so you can have it installed on your dual boot system. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoldingAtHome

God bless the Ubuntu community. They do frigging wonders. I hope this distro will be one to give M$ a run.... now if only Google picked up Debian and joined the foray.

I've always found Linux to be primarily suited as a server OS, and that's the primary capacity that we used it in during my last job. As a desktop OS, it's got a long ways to go... It would be nice if some minor things could be standardized such as package management(rpm, etc..) and installation locations, etc.. That's the caveat to having discontinuous development and almost too much variety in distro development. It's come a long way though. Ubuntu looks very promising, but I don't see it increasing Linux' miniscule hold on the desktop OS market. You've got to really dumb this stuff down to make it more accessible to the mainstream market's. Mom & Pop's aren't going to know what to do with a tar and gz file, much less how to compile a program locally or, heaven forbid, recompile their kernel. I find it funny how some Linux users are zealots with their proselytizing about the incipient domination of Linux as a desktop OS in the near future, yet they balk when you talk about "dumbing" down certain features or making functionalities more gui-centric. Some enjoy being an "elite" minority or users, and believe in the inherent potential of the OS to become mainstream, yet they secretly don't want it to happen for fear of losing their unique status.

Ah well, I could very well be wrong, but I always found it curious in talking with some Linux friends back home. I found myself with a unique perspective in that I did most of my development for work on Windows, but I was very comfortable with Linux for administration, file sharing, network monitoring and basic scripting services. I could use Linux in a desktop capacity, but I just simply didn't prefer it. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how far Linux can go in the desktop market, but I don't see it going very far.

As a server OS, it's great though, and CHEAP which is a word that I found makes management's eyes light up when you are covering potential information solutions. It always made me laugh when my boss would basically give me free reign with any Linux solution that I wanted to try because the only cost we had was the hardware overhead, but it would take weeks of continuous proposals and documented cost projections when I wanted to do a MS solution.

I don't think I have EVER heard it put better Groove... pat on the back for you

go to google and type knoppix.

its a live dvd distro. meaning it runs completely from the dvd rom.

it doesnt install anything and auto detects whatever hardware it can when it boots.