Linux on m5550.

First let me start by saying that I am completely impartial to *any* operating system. I am a geek and very much enjoy using different operating systems just to learn more about them--I like them all.

That said, I'd like to report that I tried Ubuntu live Linux distribution on my Alienware m5550 and it everything worked like a charm--but not ubuntu 6.10. For some reason, this version does not detect the m5550's wifi despite my best efforts. It worked so well that I'm considering making my notebook a dual boot system, XP and Linux. My three favorite games are not available on Linux so I have to keep XP--that and I do some IIS programming.

So far, the m5550 has been a really good laptop. The only thing that I noticed was the other evening, I heard a little "snap" under the "F" key on the keyboard. Now the lower half of that key does not type "F". I think I'll call them and have them send me another keyboard as it's still under warranty and I found a tutorial that explains how to change the keyboard on the m5550.

 

What wireless chip is on the m5550? If it's not Atheros or Intel, you pretty much have to use ndiswrapper to get it running. Ask in the Linux forum.

 

I'll move this to the Linux forum for you. Glad to see you like your Alienware m5550; I did too when I reviewed it.

 

Try getting ndiswrapper, that is probably your best chance of getting the wireless to work. get automatix2 as it really simplifys the ndiswrapper download process.

 

well, type "lspci" in at a terminal, it will list all the major devices on the system, so that you know what chipset you're dealing with. once you know that, go to http://www.ubuntuforums.org and do a search with the chipset name. I'll guarantee there's a howto on getting things working properly.

 

After running lspci, run lspci -n to get more details. On my HP notebook, lspci gives me:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 UART (rev 01)

and there is not card with the number 4310. lspci -n gave me the details:

03:00.0 0280: 14e4:4312 (rev 01) - so it's the 4312 card

PS. By the way, I got it working using ndiswrapper. Make sure to reboot when the tutorial tells you to because otherwise, ndiswrapper reports strange things and might not work.

 

Glad to hear ndiswrapper is really handy at times. It's not quite as nice as having native support, but it's still good.