Saturday, March 8, 2008

DELL Vostro 1400(210-19024) && Fedora 8


Characteristics:
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CPU: Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0GHz(2MB cache 800MHz FSB)
RAM: 2GB (2x 1024MB DDR2 667MHz)
HDD: 160GB
Optical drive: DVD-Super-Multi
Display: 14.1" WXGA (1280x800)
Graphics: Intel GMA3100 256MB
Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
Ports, slots: 1 x Express Card / 4 x USB / IEEE1394 / VGA / S-Video / RJ-11 / RJ-45 / Media Direct / Headphones / Mic-in / Card Reader 8in1
Other: Camera 2.0 MPix, infrared slot
OS: Microsoft Vista Basic
Weight: 2.4 kg
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A few issues that I had to solve after Fedora installation.

Network/Wi-Fi:

To make wi-fi work do the following.
Install ndiswrapper from sources: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/

Disable free drivers by adding the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
blacklist b43
blacklist ssb

Download windows driver from Dell site for your card:

$lspci | grep -i wlan
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)

I used this one.

Unpack it using unzip and install:

$ndiswrapper -i R151519/DRIVER/bcmwl5.inf

Check that it's installed successfully:

$ ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: ssb)

Now load new driver:

$depmod -a
$modprobe ndiswrapper

Now it's time to install NetworkManager app. It is perfect for laptops and multiple connections to different networks. Install it and configure to run at start-up:

$yum install NetworkManager
$chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManager on
$/etc/init.d/NetworkManager start

Also disable auto start of dhcpclient in network scritps by setting ONBOOT=no in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0, etc.

And, finally, make your system load ndiswrapper automatically each time on startup:
$ndiswrapper -m

P.S.
ndiswrapper support is broken in 2.6.24 kernel. Interesting discussion can be found at LKML:
http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/2/28/408
So, if you like latest kernel then you would have to play with GPL-only symbols kernel customization.

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