Linux on the Studio 15

Does anybody have Linux running on a Studio 15..?

If so, coupla questions for ya:

1) Does the ATI card perform ok..? (I can't find much info on whether ATI eventually fixed their drivers after Dell slated them last year...)

2) Does the backlit keyboard work..?

Cheers.

ponx

 

Yeah, I have Ubuntu 8.04 on mine.

1. ATI Drivers work perfectly. ATI is making proprietary drivers for Linux. You just check the proprietary driver you want for the 3450HD and Linux installs it automatically.

2. Yes it works. I think it's controlled by the BIOS not through the OS.

 

Thanks for that KR... Oh, just noticed you have a fingerprint reader too; does that work with Ubuntu..?

 

I don't know. I have not tried to use the fingerprints with any OS besides Vista.

 

Yes, it works reasonably well. I purchased a version with Windows Vista (the wife wanted Vista) and I down sized the hard drive from 250Gbytes on Vista to 68 GBytes, leaving 140MByte Dell partition, 10GByte Dell recovery partition, and the rest on the extended partition for openSUSE Linux. In the end, I used gparted live CD to downsize, but not without some simple tricks to get Vista working properly after the downsizing.

I have the ATI Radeon 3450 HD working on my openSUSE-11.1 RC1, using the open source (openGL) radeonhd driver at 1440x900 resolution. I initially installed at 1024x768, and then later booted to run level 3 and increased the resolution to 1440x900 with a custom graphic configuration tool called sax2.

The dual head more also works well as I tested it last week, giving a business presentation from the laptop.

I've read of Linux users having this work with no problem. I did not purchase this option as my wife and I plan to stick Thai/English language stickers on the laptop's keyboard, which will defeat the purpose of the blacklighting.

Some other details, for sound, one typically needs the very latest alsa version (ie an alsa after 1.0.18a) for for proper integrated speaker, headset and external mic functionality (and also a very new kernel - possibly 2.6.27+ ) . Reference: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=446025 I have not got the two internal integrated mics working.

The Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN works with 2.6.27 kernel on openSUSE-11.1 RC1 KDE-3.5.10 and KDE-4.1.3. I have not tested "N" yet.

I have not tested Bluetooth yet. Nor have I tested the firewire.

Power management works partially (I'm still testing). The Function-F1 hibernate switch worked.

The integrated webcam (05ca:18a1 Ricoh) works with uvc driver.

The SD card reader (Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 (1180:0822) SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter) functions ok with openSUSE-11.1 RC1

The function keys work (except for the media far forward and far back).

 

How about taking the easiest possible route and installing Ubuntu using Wubi.

It will install Ubuntu as if it were a normal application (so you can uninstall it without any HD modifications or partitions or anything) and allow you to run Linux easily...

http://wubi-installer.org/

 

Yes, you can get Linux to work fine on the Studio 15, Dell even sells them with Ubuntu preinstalled.

I would second frazell's suggestion to use Wubi. It is a great tool especially if you aren't experience with partitioning and the possible consequences such as breaking the MBR. I've busted my fair share of installs before Wubi came along.