Fedora Core 8 on Dell Inspiron 1520

Hi friends,

I'm going to install Fedora core 8 on my new Dell inspiron 1520 (configuration:-see my signature).Just wanted to know whether there are known issues with Fedora or will it work fine?.
I gone through the forum and find out that Ubuntu 7.04 is more preferable by users of DELL but i was using Fedora 6 on my desktop system without any issues .. so thinking to go to with Fedora 8.
Any suggestions/advice?

Thanks
Dhruva

 

i think it will work with no problem.

 

dhruva, please let us know how it goes with Fedora 8. I am thinking about installing Fedora on my 1520.

I have a 1520 almost identical to yours (except my screen is 1440x900). I've used almost every redhat/fedora release since RH8.0, but all the hype about Ubuntu got me curious to try it. So when I got my 1520 last August, I installed Ubuntu 7.04 and nearly everything worked besides a minor audio issue. Just a few weeks ago, I dist-upgraded to 7.10 and a few things broke, like the LCD/Ext monitor and LCD brightness hotkeys and OpenOffice. It's still very usable and I like the broad support base, but I just still feel a little turned around in Ubuntu, so I think I will probably go back to Fedora. I may not get around to it until F9 is released (April 29).

This may help you: http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html

 

i'm running ubuntu 7.10 on my m1330 and fedora 8 on my m1210 and i was able to get every piece of hardware working. even the internal usb microphones that are part of the webcam package. i still need to get an hdmi cable to get things working in ubuntu but it worked in windows so i'm sure i can get it going in linux. i can't think of anything that won't work on the 1520 in linux. if you have a broadcom mini-card instead of the 3945 or 4965 i would swap it out. i believe at the moment the bcm drivers only support 24mbps connections. it used to be 11mbps but progress is progress.

 

I do have the broadcom wifi (dell 1390) and it works OK for me at the moment, though it doesn't seem to have the range that I got from my old PC card wifi. I would never know if it can only do 24Mb, because my router is on the other side of the house and half the time I'm lucky to have a connection at all (damn microwave). When I bought the laptop, I had planned to replace the card with a better supported one, but I surprisingly got it working and then figured I'd wait for a good wifi-n card. Do you think the intel card is worth it, or do you have any other suggestions? I've heard Atheros cards usually have good Linux support, but I haven't really seen any with wifi-n. Any suggestions for a router as well?

 

Hi Friends ...

I successfully installed Fedora Core 8 On Dell Inspiron 1520.Every basic component is working fine (not able to test wi-fi since don't have one).Sound,display... graphics all are working got no major issues.

 

I too just installed this on my laptop. I have it connected via ethernet for the moment for internet. I have bluetooth working ok but not wireless. (dell 1390).

I found this page http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171660&page=1&pp=15
and am currently using it to install flash, dvd playback, java, and touchpad.

How did you go about installing the wireless card/graphics card. is the nvidia driver on their site different for only desktop cards, or is it for both laptop and desktop?

Edit: Out of the box things that work fine for me are:
Display
sound
bluetooth
wired ethernet
screen brigntness (fn up arrow/down arrow)
Media buttons (only sound up/down/mute)
touchpad (no scroll) -> works after the touchpad package from the script i posted above

Things i still need (at the moment):
wireless dell 1390
nvidia drivers (gui is sluggish without them...and no visual enhancements can be added)

Any input would be awesome

 

Incase this helps someone, heres how i got my nvidia drivers working.

First download the nvidia linux x86 169.12 driver from nvidias website and save this to your desktop.

Then to install it, i needed to change the run level to 3...this was the hardest thing for me to figure out. To change it to 3 i edited the /etc/inittab file and changed the default run value of 5 to 3, saved it then rebooted. This way when it starts up it will run as level 3.

Then logging in to root i navigated to the nvidia package i downloaded earlier and ran it. It yelled that it was the wrong version for the kernel and wanted to download the "correct" one from nvidias site. it didn't get one so i said continue anyway. Well it finished the install and i went back and edited the inittab file using the nano editor and changed the run level back form 3 to 5 and rebooted

Upon reboot it displays the nvidia splash screen and the cool desktop effects can now be enabled.

As a side note, i installed originally a driver form the package installer, edited the xorg.config and changed the "nvidia" to "nv" and saved it. I don't know if this needs to be done or not, but if it errors on your reboot, try (at run level 5 is fine) using nano editor and editing the xorg.conf file line where it says Display "nvidia" to "nv" and save and reboot.

Hope this helped!

Btw, i have the 8400m gs graphics card on my laptop.

...off to get wireless working and then im all set!

Edit: got wirless working. Ran the system updates and then magically under the network devices the wireless card was available for configuration.

Therefore i can confirm that Fedora 8 works perfect with everything functioning on a Vostro 1500/Inspiron 1520 with the nvidia graphics cards and dell wireless.

 

you can execute 'iwconfig | grep -i bit' from your laptop. it should show you what you are connected at.

802.11n is still in draft but if you can get it going (laptop and access point) it would be worth it. all 3 of my intel 3945s have performed better than any bcm card i've owned. with the atheros, you may have to compile the driver from source. i'm not sure how broad the madwifi package is in regards to driver/module support.

 

Thanks for the input, nizzy.

Szandor, thanks for the advice. I guess I'll go looking for a card and router. It looks like the 802.11n spec will be released in July. I guess it'll be a couple months after that before we see final spec'd hardware in stores.

Any thoughts on the Apple Airports? My uncle (who got me started on Linux, but now he's totally Mac) recommended the Airport Extreme, but it's awfully pricey. I'd prefer to get a card and router for $120-ish or less.