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    Want to Install Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) on my Inspiron 1720

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by hellfire18, Jan 4, 2008.

  1. hellfire18

    hellfire18 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi guys and girls I need your help installing this onto my 1720.

    As a linux newbie I have some very Windows'y questions before I begin mainly in relation to driver installation.

    AHCI - The HDD is set to use this in the BIOS, does Ubuntu need any special drivers to use this facility or should I just use ATA?

    Graphics Card - Can I just download this from the NVIDIA web site after the install is complete?

    Intel Turbo Memory - Is this completely redundant on a Linux laptop?

    Card Reader - I needed card reader drivers to get my laptop working in x64 Vista Ultimate, will I need drivers for Linux for these, or again is all of this stuff automatically installed with Ubuntu?

    And finally, should I opt for x86 or x64 - From the Ubuntu site: Choose X64 this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the Intel x86 images instead.

    Does this mean it doesn't currently support x64 on Intel CPU's????

    Thanks, Chris.
     
    hellfire18, Jan 4, 2008
    #1
  2. hellfire18

    hellfire18 Notebook Enthusiast

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    bumpety bump
     
    hellfire18, Jan 4, 2008
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  3. John B

    John B Notebook Prophet

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    Wait at least 24 hours before bumping.
    Forum rules
     
    John B, Jan 4, 2008
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  4. Philio

    Philio Notebook Guru

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    I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my M1330 the other day, can't imagine it will be much different for you.

    You shouldn't need to change any BIOS settings.
    Like Windows there can be compatibility issues with 64 bit (so I've been told) so go for the x86 image.

    Best thing to do is burn the live CD and see if everything works ok, you should be able to access hard drive, wireless networking, bluetooth all from the live CD, I found Ubuntu was great with hardware.

    To install, you can allow Ubuntu to resize your Windows partition for you, although I was a bit cautious here, I went back into windows and shrunk my Windows paritions by 8Gb using the Windows management tool.

    Install is easy, just follow the steps, reboot and you should be set to go. Grub should have all the boot options setup for Ubuntu/Windows.

    To install NVIDIA accelerated driver:

    Goto: Apps -> Add/Remove
    Search for 'nvidia'
    Select 'NVidia binary X.Org driver (new)'
    Apply changes and reboot

    Don't forget to enable visual effects afterwards if you want all the fancy animated stuff!
     
    Philio, Jan 4, 2008
    #4
  5. hellfire18

    hellfire18 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Sounds good, so you can do a trial run from the CD?
     
    hellfire18, Jan 4, 2008
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  6. Awperator

    Awperator Newbie

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    Yeah, just pop in the Ubuntu CD, make sure you're set to boot first from CD, and then let it run.
     
    Awperator, Jan 4, 2008
    #6