[geeks] Dell Inspiron 1525 Linux laptop update

[Lionel Peterson]

Hello all,

I just made the conversion of this laptop from Windows VIsat Home Premium to Ubuntu 7.10, and while it was fairly painless, I don't have WiFi on it (yet) - everything else works.

To recap, I bought the laptop for $699 at local Best Buy, as it was the same model as Dell will/does offer with Ubuntu 7.10 (but, oddly cheaper with Vista pre-installed/included, when all the included upgrades are included). I threw a standard 32 bit Ubuntu install disc in and installed in no time, but no WiFi joy. Tried the ndiswrapper route, but it eluded me (others got it to work). Then I got the Dell "reinstall" iso[0], their rebuild image (minus DVD playback codec), and still no WiFi (as expected - Dell only ships Intel 3945 A/B/G cards with Ubuntu, they don't support the Dell TrueMobile 1395 card that came with my laptop)...

I again tried ndiswrapper, but that failed again. In desperation, I went looking for a different radio card for the laptop (no PCMCIA/PC Card slot, just Express/54 & USB/Firewure), and came up empty-handed. So I went to Dell's website, and they listed the Intel radio card available as a refurb for $25, and the bluetoothe card for another $20 (new), so my laptop will be stylin' some new radios in a few days thanks to Dell, and I assume WiFi support will be "brilliant" (to borrow a phrase from our friends in the U.K.), esp. with the Dell Ubuntu image.

I think Dell shortened the included repositories for apt, leading me to have problems with ndiswrapper...

Aside form this issue, I quit elike the laptop, though the keyboard feels odd - like the plastic was painted silver on the keytops, bit for the price it has some great performance (and a big 4+ hour battery) for a decent price. Of course, the screen is only 1280x900 :^(

Lionel

[0] http://linux.dell.com/files/ubuntu/iso-images/?C=M;O=A