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Hardware Specifications of this Inspiron 9300:

This laptop is operating (very well!) under Linux Kernel version 2.6.16 + patches.

Installation Notes

• I have upgraded the kernel to 2.6.16 + patches, and customized it for the Pentium-M and actual hardware etc.. This may not be necessary for others. My kernel .config file and all of the patches applied (on top of stock 2.6.16) are here. Speaking of which, both this kernel and the stock (K)Ubuntu kernels include the libata_passthru patch for using my hdparm utility on the SCSI libata managed drives. Ditto for smartmontools when used with the right flags.
  Eg. "smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda"


• The 2.6.16 kernel already includes the latest ipw2200 driver and ieee80211 protocol suite, but I had to grab/install the corresponding firmware for this. Remember that Fn-F2 is required (by default) to turn the transmitter on/off. The green WiFi LED above the keyboard also now works with my latest kernel patches, though it does not turn orange once connected.
  
  
• Once KDE is up, go into the "Control Center" and from there to "Power Control" and "Laptop Battery" submenus, and tailor the settings to taste. Begin with the far right tab for "ACPI Config", where you should "Enable" all of the options (they all work!). Then "Apply" and exit from the menu, and then return back into it again to set the rest of the options. Things supported include automatic suspend-to-RAM on lid closure etc..
  
  
• Due to a bug in KDE 3.4 and 3.5, it is recommended that one set the Lid Switch Closed action to Off, so that the ~/.xsession file does not grow indefinitely huge with bogus error messages. This is good for me, because I actually prefer having the lid switch not suspend the machine. Note that it will still turn off the backlight (good!) regardless.


• The ALPS-touchpad was not fully supported in the stock kernel, but the latest kernels already include the updated alps.c driver, so upgrading the kernel fixes this problem. It was also necessary to get the latest synaptics touchpad X11 driver (separate from the kernel driver) to go along with this. I used synaptics-0.14.4 for the new X11 driver module and synclient program etc.. Here is my (updated 20-August-2005) /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, with touchpad support and cloned SVGA output.


• The Vertical scroll pad now works just fine everywhere. The Horizontal scroll pad is mis-configured by default in Firefox. I fixed it by going to URL about:config and setting mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action=1 (0=fontsize, 1=scrolling, 2=back/forth) and mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines=1, and mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.sysnumlines=false.

  I also use the SmoothWheel Firefox extension, but this breaks horizontal scrolling in all versions up to (at least) June 2006. There is a patch to fix this, though. Here is a replacement smoothwheel.jar with the patch already applied.



• To get the Front-Panel media buttons working, it is necessary to map them to the standard XF86-Audio button symbols on X11 startup. A script to do that is here. To have it run automatically in KDE, place it (or a symlink to it) into your ~/.kde/Autostart/ directory. The volume up, down, and mute buttons are handled internally by kmilo (which you might need to install: apt-get install kmilo). To have xmms use the play, pause, prev, next, and stop buttons, I had to download and install the appropriate package: apt-get install xmms-xf86audio and then enable it in the xmms preferences.


• Suspend-to-RAM works!
  "echo -n mem > /sys/power/state"
  The keyboard Fn-StandBy key can also be enabled to do this, by following these instructions. The standard (K)Ubunutu 5.10 scripts do work, but are slower than they need to be. I have substituted my own suspend script on one of the two machines here.


• Suspend-to-Disk (aka. "software suspend") works!
  "echo -n disk >/sys/power/state"
  I have also set up the Fn-Hibernate key to do this, as described here


• The built-in Bluetooth device is invisible until activated by the keyboard Fn-F2 sequence, at which point it then appears as a hot-plugged USB Bluetooth dongle. Very nice! Linux automatically loads the driver for it. I followed these instructions to allow my PalmOne Zire72 to surf the web via PPP through the Inspiron 9300. I also have set up /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf for automatic operation with a couple of AIRcable Serial Adapters, which compensate for the lack of built-in serial ports on the Inspiron 9300.


• The stock Linux-2.6 (prior to 2.6.13) libata drivers have buggy ATAPI error handling, which results in random system lockups from time to time when doing heavy disk I/O, but only while the DVD-RW drive is empty. The (K)Ubuntu desktop polls the DVD-RW every two seconds for disc insertion, and (when drive is empty) each poll fails and triggers the buggy error handling code. So either just leave a disc in the drive and it won't fail, or upgrade to kernel 2.6.13 (or higher).

General notes and opinions on the Dell Inspiron 9300

• Fix the ~/.xsession-errors issue: By default, Kubuntu (both 5.04 and 5.10) will slowly fill up the hard drive with bogus error messages in the ~/.xsession-errors file, when run on a laptop that does not have an ACPI interface for controlling the "lid action". This also interferes with power-saving modes when running on battery. Read more about this issue here. To fix the problem, go into the Control Center, click on the Power Control section and Laptop Battery subsection, and then the Button Actions tab. There you should find the Lid Switch Closed section. To stop the waste, click the Off setting, and then Apply. Problem solved.


• Get a spare hard drive caddy: Order a spare hard drive tray from Dell, and install a second 2.5" laptop drive into it. This way one can easily swap a different drive into the machine to test newer distro's, like Dapper, without disturbing the main installation.

  Dell Part Numbers for the Inspiron 9300 internal hard drive tray / caddie:

  	G5044  Hard Drive Tray and Bezel          (CAD$10) X 1
  	8267R  Hard Drive Internal Connector      (CAD$ 9) X 1
  	5X488  M3x3mm Screws (need two of these)  (CAD$ 1) X 2
  

• This is a great(!) Linux machine. Waaaayyyy better than expected!


• The DVD+-RW drive is fussy about CD-R media. All of the no-name 48X stuff here burns at only 16X max, but name-brand Maxell 48X media burns at the full 24X speed.


• FujiFilm DVD+R 8X Made-In-Japan media (dunno about the same brand Made-In-Taiwan) burns really fast (less than 11 minutes for a DVD-Video), and is compatible with my ancient (pre DVD+) Panasonic RV32 DVD-Video player connected to the TV. Dynex DVD+R-DL media works fine with it as well, but I had to alter the drive settings to mark recordings as "DVD-ROM" to get them to play on my DVD-Video player.


• The keyboard letter "D" key keeps getting popped off when I'm touch-typing in a sloppy fashion -- my finger manages to get snagged under the cap, lifting it off. Others have also complained of this. My typing style is slowly adapting, to reduce the occurances.