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Updated 05/03/2003

Dell Inspiron 1100
Dell Inspiron 1100 Linux and WinXp dual boot.

www.Dell.com

Table of Contents
  1. Abstract
  2. Hardware
  3. Software
  4. Network
    1. Broadcom
    2. Netgear
  5. Display
  6. Sound
  7. Modem
  8. Contact

Abstract:


     When I purchased my Dell Inspiron 1100 I decided to remove the standard Windows XP Home Edition and dual boot RedHat 9 and Windows XP Professional. My configuration which will be discussed in more detail later was basically a P4 2 Ghz with 256 MB PC2100 ram and a 20 GB hard drive. When considering how to format the hard drive, I split it 50/50 for Windows and Linux. In this document I will discuss my hardware, how to get the hardware to work with Linux, specific configuration files and screen shots for this notebook.

Hardware:

Processor P4 2.00 Gigahertz
Ram 256 Megabytes PC2100 DDR
Hard drive 20 Gigabytes
Display 15.1 TFT XGA display capable of 1024x768x24 @ 60Hz (Linux)
Network Built in 10/100 Broadcom Ethernet. (drivers provided here)
PCMCIA Network Netgear MA401 802.11b network card (not included with notebook)
IRDA None.
USB EHCI Controller
CD-RW MATSHITA CD-RW UJDA360, ATAPI CD
Modem 56K Conexant D480 MDC V.92
Video Chip set Intel 845 Chip set
(must have X Free86 4.3.0 or higher) -- 4.3.0 comes with Red Hat 9 standard

Software:

     As stated before, I decided to run a dual boot configuration with Windows XP Professional and RedHat Linux 9. The notebook came with Windows XP Home Edition, so naturally that came off right after I went through the device manager to find out exactly what drivers I would need to be looking for. As most people have found out when dual booting between Linux and Windows it is preferable to have a boot partition on the front of the drive. Before you fdisk out your drive the way you want, keep in mind that Windows MUST be on a primary partition. So basically I have a boot partition then Windows then Linux swap and finally Linux root (see lower diagram). After formatting with Linux fdisk, but prior to installing Linux, I installed Windows XP. After installing Windows XP I promptly ran Windows update and then rebooted and then repeated the process until Windows was entirly up to date. Surprisingly Windows did not pickup too many drivers, so I put in my Dell Resource CD and installed all drivers execpt the USB. After I was satisfied with the operation of Windows, I proceeded to install RedHat 9. If you downloaded the ISOs from RedHat they are bootable. I used Disk Druid to select which partitions I wanted formatted and where they should be mounted. I installed LILO and let it handle the boot process of both Linux and Windows. LILO was installed in the MBR to overwrite the Windows bootloader. The Linux installation went on for about 20-25 minutes without any problems. Out of the box, RedHat found more hardware drivers than Windows. In the end, RedHat did an exeptional job configuring Linux automatically.

Network:

     Broadcom integrated 10/100 NIC:

     The integrated Broadcom NIC was the challenge to configure under Linux. First off the built on 10/100 Broadcom NIC is not natively supported by RedHat Linux 9 or any previous version of RedHat. My netwrok administrator ended up finding some drivers and the source code for them about 5 AM in the morning. You can download the source code and pre-built drivers for Red Hat kernels 2.4.20-8 and 2.4.20-9 here. Take note that currently the Broadcom chipsets are not widely supported by Linux because the company has not released any API or specifications for the devices. When you buy your Dell Inspiron 1100 you may wish to select a differnet integrated NIC, but you cannot.

     Netgear PCMCIA 802.11b Wireless:

     I purchased the MA401 802.11b PCMCIA card for wireless networking. I decided to purchase the Netgear because of the hit and miss wireless driver support for the Linksys and many other cards that can be bought at low end consumer stores such as Best Buy or Circuit City. Keep in mind that the IEEE 802.11G specification is not currently supported by Linux due to a lack of device drivers for wireless G cards. Drivers are currently being developed for wireless G cards. RedHat automatically detected this card and loaded the corresponding driver. I went to the System Settings --> Network program on the Blue Curve menu to configure it. Select the driver Lucent Orinoco and Prism II Based - PCMCIA wireless. If you want to do anything more than grab an IP from one WAP then you might want to install wlanctl-ng. These are drivers for just about any type of wireless card. These drivers are needed for such programs as Air-Snort, for when you go War driving. RPMs can be found here for both 2.4.20-8 and 2.4.20-9 kernels and sources here. These drivers turn your eth1 or eth0 into a wlan0.

Display:

     The 15.1 TFT XGA display runs up to 1024 by 768 by 24 bit at 60 Hz. The display (monitor) driver I selected during installation was the Dell laptop display 1024x768. I am still working on getting the console to use the full screen resolution instead of just 640x480. To do this I am trying to use frame buffer modules. At this time I can only go up to 800x600 in the console (not X Windows). Note the chipset is the new Intel 845 and only X Free86 version 4.3.0 and higher will work with it. My Xfree86 configfile is here.

Sound:

     The sound card is an AC 97 audio codec compliant based chipset, so Red Hat automatically configured it for me. Note that due to legale issues RedHat no longer includes the MP3 codec in their distributions. The codec is very easy to install and is located here.

Modem:

     To do in future release for white paper.

Contact:

     Please feel free to contact me, Allan Russell, with any questions you may have reguarding my setup and how to improve yours. Email me at mouse@r-networks.net