How to change wireless card in a Dell Inspiron 8600

March 15th, 2008 | Category: How-To

Hi,

After playing a lot with multiple Linux distributions, I had hard time make my wireless card working. This was back to the release of Ubuntu 6.06. My wireless card was a Dell TrueMobile based on the Broadcom chip. Broadcom is known to not release chip specifications, so at that time, I had to use the just released open source driver built using clean-room reverse engineering, or rely on NdisWrapper to run the native Windows driver. I managed to make the open source driver work but it was painful: Needed to reconnect repetitively to get a “B” (11 mb/s) connection while my card could go “G” (54 mb/s).

Finally I got tired of all this… Since the Inspiron is using a mini-PCI card for the wireless card, I looked for a replacement card that was working well with Linux and found the Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG for less than 50$ CDN. After installation, it worked flawlessly!

If you are tired of you TrueMobile (or Broadcom based) wireless card and you want to replace it, here are the steps:

  • Oh, by the way, if you follow these steps… remember that your doing it at your own risk!
  • First, it is suggested to ground yourself. You can use an anti-static wristband like this Belkin.
  • Turn your Inspiron on the back and identify the battery and Wi-Fi compartment.
  • Turn your Inspiron on the back and identify the battery and Wi-Fi compartment.
  • Remove the battery
 the back of the inspiron 8600
  • Once the battery is removed and the Wi-Fi compartment is opened…
 Inspiron with battery removed and Wi-Fi compartment opened
  • Now we need to remove the old Dell TrueMobile wireless card.
  • Gently unplug the two antennas represented by the red circles on the picture beside.
    (click on the picture for a bigger display)
  • Then press outwards on the little metal clips (blue circles on the picture) holding the wireless card in its socket and it will pop out at a 45 degree angle.
 removing the old Wi-Fi card
  • Install the new card by holding the card at a 45 degree angle and slide into the socket.
  • Push down the card and snap it into place alongside the metal clips.
  • Replug the two antennas (see picture beside).
  • Screw the panel back to close the Wi-Fi compartment.
  • Put the battery back in place.
  • If you are using Windows, install the new drivers. For Linux, it should automatically detect it.
  • Enjoy!
 Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG installed
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Installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on a Dell Inspiron 8600

October 22nd, 2007 | Category: How-To, Technical Review

General Hardware Specifications of Inspiron 8600

Hardware Components Status under Linux Additional notes
Pentium M processor 1.6Ghz Ok
15.4 WXGA+ (1680×1050) TFT Display Ok Default resolution properly set: 1680×1050
ATI Radeon 9600 (Mobile) AGP video card Ok Desktop effects were actived by default. It can be changed in System/Preferences/Appearance on tab “Visual Effects”. There are 3 choices:

  1. None
  2. Normal (the default that was set on my system)
  3. Extra
  • “Normal” is working correctly and does not seem to create such lags so for now I keep it activated.
  • I didn’t install the proprietary drivers (can be installed using System/Administration/Restricted Drivers Manager)
512MB + 256MB PC2700 Ok
40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM (Toshiba) Ok
Integrated Network Card I don’t know I only used the wireless card for now
Intel Pro Wireless 2915ABG Ok I just had to setup the WiFi SSID and WEP key using System/Administration/Network tool. But I had to check+uncheck+check again the Wireless in order to trigger the reconfiguration of the network interface.
Internal 56k Modem I don’t know I never tried the modem
DVD-ROW/CD-RW Reading:Ok
Writing:Untested		 I’ve been able to read DVD/CDs, but I haven’t tried burning CDs with it.
59 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery Ok
Integrated sound card Ok
IEEE-1394 (Firewire) I don’t know I have no firewire device to try it.
ALPS GlidePoint Ok
  • Mouse navigation: ok
  • Tap for click: ok
  • Tap twice for double-click: ok
  • Vertical scrolling: ok
  • Horizontal scrolling: not working (or not configured by default)
  • Drag’n drop: not working (or not configured by default)
PC Speaker Ok Nice addition in 7.10: You can easily disable PC Speaker beeps using System/Preferences/Sound in “System beep” tab.
Keyboard – Canadian French Layout Ok
Logitech Laser Wireless USB Mouse Ok
  • Left button: ok
  • Right button: ok
  • Scroll wheel: ok
  • Scroll wheel tilt left/right: not working (or not assigned)
  • Scroll wheel button: not working (or not assigned)
4GB Patriot USB Key Ok Just plug it into the USB port and it is automatically detected. An icon is provided on the desktop.

Special Keyboard Keys

Key Status Additional notes
Volume Up / Down Ok
Mute Ok
Media Play/Pause toggle I don’t know
Media Stop I don’t know
Media Skip Next I don’t know
Media Skip Previous I don’t know
Power button I don’t know
Fn + Volume Up / Down Ok
Fn + Mute Ok
Fn + Brigthness Up / Down Ok
Fn + Numeric keypad Ok Behave correctly depending if NumLock is On or Off
Fn + CRT/LCD I don’t know
Fn + Suspend I don’t know
Fn + Scroll Lock I don’t know
Fn + SysRq I don’t know
Fn + Wireless (on/off) I don’t know
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Installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) on Dell Inspiron 8600

April 22nd, 2007 | Category: How-To, Technical Review

**** General Hardware Specifications of Inspiron 8600 ****

Hardware Components Status under Linux Notes
Pentium M processor 1.6Ghz Ok
15.4 WXGA+ (1680×1050) TFT Display Ok Default resolution 1024×768 — Didn’t detect native resolution! I had to manually edit xorg.conf.
See configuration steps below.
ATI Radeon 9600 (Mobile) AGP video card Ok
512MB + 256MB PC2700 Ok
40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM (Toshiba) Ok
Integrated Network Card I don’t know I only used the wireless card for now
Intel Pro Wireless 2915ABG Ok I just had to setup the WiFi SSID and WEP key.
Internal 56k Modem I don’t know… I never tried the modem
DVD-ROW/CD-RW Ok
partially tested		 I’ve been able to read DVD/CDs, but I haven’t tried burning CDs with it.
59 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery Ok
Integrated sound card Ok
IEEE-1394 (Firewire) I don’t know I have no firewire device to try it.
ALPS GlidePoint Ok Mouse navigation, Tap for click, Vertical scrolling are working.
Horizontal scrolling is not working.
PC Speaker Ok
Keyboard – Canadian French Layout Ok
Logitech Wireless Mouse Ok Some special buttons are not working, but that’s not a big deal for me.
4GB Patriot USB Key Ok Just plug it into the USB port and it is automatically detected. An icon is provided on the desktop.

**** Special Keyboard Keys ****

Volume Up / Down Ok
Mute Ok
Media Play/Pause toggle I don’t know
Media Stop I don’t know
Media Skip Next I don’t know
Media Skip Previous I don’t know
Power button I don’t know
Fn + Volume Up / Down Ok
Fn + Mute Ok
Fn + Brigthness Up / Down Ok
Fn + Numeric keypad Ok Behave correctly depending if NumLock is On or Off
Fn + CRT/LCD I don’t know
Fn + Suspend I don’t know
Fn + Scroll Lock I don’t know
Fn + SysRq I don’t know
Fn + Wireless (on/off) Ok But there is no visual indication that wireless on/off has been toggled. ifconfig still show an ip address when wireless is off (maybe by design… I’m too used to ipconfig from Windows ;) ). You need to use iwconfig to see if the radio is on/off.

**** Installation Steps ****

  • Plug the laptop into the power outlet.
    Yes I experienced issues in the past when installing OS (Windows and Linux) while running on battery power. So now I don’t take the chance, its too long to have to reinstall…
  • Boot with CD
  • Choose ‘Start or install Ubuntu’ on boot menu
  • When GNOME appears, start the installation by clicking the ‘Install’ icon
  • Choose the installer’s language: English, [Forward]
  • Choose the time zone: Montreal, [Forward]
  • Choose the keyboard layout: Canada / Canada for standard canadian french layout, [Forward]
  • Partition the hard drive: manual because I have a special dual-boot with Windows XP, [Forward]
  • Migrate Documents and Settings for an existing operating system: none, [Forward]
  • Enter name, login, password and computer name, [Forward]
  • INSTALL! (a 20 minutes step)
  • Restart the computer, don’t forget to remove the CD when asked to
  • Boot Ubuntu 7.04 for the first time :)

**** Configuration Steps ****

Install Ubuntu Updates

  • Open the update manager (System / Administration / Update Manager).
  • Click the “Check” button.
  • Click the “Install Updates” button if any updates are pending installation.
Setup Wireless Connection

  • Open network manager (System / Administration / Network)
  • Open Wireless Connection properties
  • Enter SSID and WEP key
  • Accept the settings and wait for the network manager to complete its initialization
  • I didn’t seem to get an IP address so I unchecked and re-checked the Wireless Connection to finally get it.
  • Close and reopen network manager and you should see the DNS addresses
Set Screen Resolution

  • Curiously, Ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10 was detecting resolution correctly. Now Ubuntu 7.04 didn’t.
    I succeeded to activate the right resolution by editing the xorg.conf manually using the following steps
  • Take a backup of xorg.conf, open a terminal and type:
    sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
  • Edit the xorg.conf, in the terminal type:
    gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  • Change the “Screen” section to allow only the native resolution like this (for each depth — 1, 4, 8, …):
    SubSection "Display"
    Depth 24
    Modes "1680x1050"
    EndSubSection
  • Restart X by pressing CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE and Voilà!
Turn off annoying PC Speaker “beeps”

  • Follow this link: http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/TurnOffBeep

**** Additional Software Installation ****

Automatix2 follow these steps in a terminal window
(taken from http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation): echo "deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt feisty main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
wget http://www.getautomatix.com/keys/automatix2.key
gpg --import automatix2.key
gpg --export --armor E23C5FC3 | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install automatix2
Multimedia codecs
(using Automatix)		 Codecs and Plugins section / Multimedia codecsAfter I installed this, I’ve been able to listen to WMV (Windows Media Movies) files.
KeePassX This is a password manager that is multi-platform.
Works well. Installed using Synaptic from the universe repository.
Firefox Extension:
Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer		 Bookmark synchronizer I setup to connect to my own WebDAV server. It as its problems (not linked to Ubuntu) but works well when synchronizing manually.

**** Additional Notes ****

* I have the feeling the font settings were better with my laptop using the previous versions of Ubuntu. Text looked nicer and was easier to read. Maybe this is a side effect because it didn’t detect my monitor native resolution correctly at first.
* Next steps will be to give a try to the new composite window manager, Compiz…
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Installing Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) on Dell Inspiron 8600

February 14th, 2007 | Category: How-To, Technical Review

General Hardware Specifications of Inspiron 8600:

Hardware Components Status under Linux Notes
Pentium M processor 1.6Ghz Ok
15.4 WXGA+ (1600×1050) TFT Display Ok No special procedure. Resolution detected automatically.
ATI Radeon 9600 (Mobile) AGP video card Ok As I understand, there is 2 set of drivers available for ATI. One provided by ATI and one Open Source. I didn’t check which driver was used. Everything works fine so that’s enough for me.
512MB + 256MB PC2700 Ok
40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM (Toshiba) Ok
Integrated Network Card Ok I do not use it very much. Mainly using the Wireless. But the couple of times I did use it I had no problems. But I usually disable Wireless network when I use wired connection to prevent conflicts.
Dell TrueMobile Wireless ABG Bad I didn’t try it with Edgy. First time was with 6.06 LTS and I had so much troubles that I just bought an Intel Mini WiFi (see next component)With 6.06 LTS I succeeded using the open source driver but was not very reliable. I tried installing using Ndiswrapper without success.
Intel Pro Wireless 2915ABG Ok I bought this card (MiniPCI) to replace the Dell TrueMobile that was giving me hard time. I just had to setup the WiFi SSID and Wep key. I didn’t try using WPA encryption yet.  I did the configuration using the Networking tools found in the System/Administration menu
Internal 56k Modem I don’t know… I never tried the modem
DVD-ROW/CD-RW Ok
partially tested		 I’ve been able to read DVD/CDs, but I haven’t tried burning CDs with it.
59 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery Ok
Integrated sound card Ok
IEEE-1394 (Firewire) I don’t know I have no firewire device to try it.
Logitech MX310 USB Optical Mouse Ok Left, right, scroll wheel are ok. Wheel button, back and forward buttons are not working.
ALPS GlidePoint Ok Mouse navigation, Tap for click, Vertical scrolling are working.  Horizontal scrolling is not working.

How easy to configure? I didn’t explore yet.
PC Speaker Ok
Keyboard – Canadian French Layout Ok

Special Keyboard Keys:

Volume Up / Down Ok
Mute Ok
Media Play/Pause toggle Partially Play works, Pause does’nt (restart the song instead of pausing)
Media Stop Ok
Media Skip Next Ok
Media Skip Previous Ok
Power button Ok Turn off the computer without confirmation… It can be very frustrating when your kid pushes it just before you save your work.
Fn + Volume Up / Down Ok
Fn + Mute Ok
Fn + Brigthness Up / Down Ok
Fn + Numeric keypad Ok Behave correctly depending if NumLock is On or Off
Fn + CRT/LCD I don’t know
Fn + Suspend I don’t know
Fn + Scroll Lock I don’t know
Fn + SysRq I don’t know
Fn + Wireless (on/off) Ok But there is no visual indication that wireless on/off has been toggled. ifconfig still show an ip address when wireless is off (maybe by design… I’m too used to ipconfig from Windows ;) ). You need to use iwconfig to see if the radio is on/off.

Additional Software Installation I performed:

Automatix Automatix is a tool that help you install additional stuff in Ubuntu.  You can find more information about automatix at http://www.getautomatix.com
Additional Multimedia Codecs
(using Automatix)		 Those codecs allow watching proprietary multimedia format like Windows Media Movies
aMSN An Instant Messenger for the MSN protocol
The only thing I find out with this software is that it has a pretty ugly fonts by default. I have to take a look at plugins to make it better.
KeePassX This is a password manager that is multi-platform. There is also a Windows version called KeePass. I moved from PasswordSafe because this one has nice alternative with both Linux and Windows so I can use the same password database file from every environment I’m using.
Firefox Extension:
Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer		 This is a pretty nice tool. I use it to synchronize my work/laptop/home desktop bookmarks. It can be configured to store its synchronization file on your own WebDAV location (or on Foxmarks servers). The only thing is I’ve seen sync problems while multiple Firefox browser was open. To work around I configure it to synchronize manually so I initiate it every once in a while.
Firefox Extension:
Sage		 This is an extension used to subscribe/read RSS/Atom feeds
Firefox Extension:
Stumble Upon		 Nice tool (that needs registration) to get you to random sites based on your profile. Random sites are chosen based on the rating of other members with a profile like yours. I discovered a lot of nice sites using it.
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