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Fedora Core 8 on Dell Latitude D610
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Introduction
I was ready to replace FC6 with FC7 on my laptop when I discovered that FC8 was released only a few days earlier. The Fedora people don't waste any time...
After the first reboot, I was extremely happy to see that the wireless was found and connected without any intervention from
my part, just like we're used to when the cable is plugged in.
Another thing I've noticed, is that I don't need to kill the Firefox process, if it wasn't closed down correctly. When Firefox
is restarted a small dialog appears and asks if I want to kill the previous session or reload it.. that's nice.
And I don't need 915resolution anymore to get my laptops native screen resolution working.
Last but not least... I'm in tears of joy. My laptop is now able to identify printers on the network, and it prints without any hassle at all. Thank you!
Please note that I have added a few peripherals to my hardware list. For those people who still have doubts about Linux, I feel it is only fair to mention that stuff like webcams and scanners actually will work on a Linux box.
Hardware overview
The hardware howtos in this document is based on the following (you can also visit my smolt profile):
| Name | Specification | WOOTB |
|---|---|---|
| CD-ROM drive | Phillips CD-RW/DVD-ROM CDD5263 | yes |
| Ethernet | Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express | yes |
| Wireless | Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG | yes |
| Mice | AlpsPS/2 ALPS Glidepoint (aka touch pad) PS/2 Track stick (aka eraser) Optical USB mini mouse |
yes |
| Sound | Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller | yes |
| Graphics | Intel 915GM chipset | yes |
| Webcam | Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 | yes |
| Scanner | Canon CanoScan FB630U | yes |
| WOOTB = Worked Out Of The Box | ||
Download an burn DVD
In the old days we had CD's. Now it's a DVD. One single giant 3.2GB download. I hope you have a decent internet connection... I got it from this page (Install DVD: Fedora-8-i386-DVD.iso)
As you can see in my hardware list, my CD drive can read but not write DVD's. That's what happens when you're using an OS that doesn't require a newer and bigger machine, every time a new major version is released :-)
Install Fedora Core 8
Make sure your Bios is setup to boot from CD.. then put the dvd into the drive and boot the machine. You will then be given 3 options... If you don't choose anything and just wait for a few seconds, the installation will automatically proceed to the media check, which you can use to check that your dvd don't have any flaws.
When running the installation in graphical mode, the installer may hang at sbin/loader (this is a known bug). To fix this add "acpi=off" with the grub boot loader, like this:
Insert the installation DVD and start the computer. When the first menu appears, press [tab] and add "acpi=off" at the end of the line. It should look like this:
> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img acpi=off
After installation and initial update, I discovered that I had no battery indicator, and on shutdown the system just halted. The reason for this was of cause that acpi was turned off. To get it working again I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst and added nohz=off in place of the acpi=off parameter. After the next reboot, shutdown worked fine, and to get the battery indicator up and running, just do...
System -> Preferences -> System -> Power Management
In the "General" tab put a checkmark in "Always display an icon"
If you need it, you'll find a comprehensive installation guide at the Fedora website
Update software with yum
When your Fedora is installed and ready to run, you should update the software added during the installation.:
Applications -> System Tools -> Software updater
After a while all available updates are listed. Just click Apply, and it will all run completely automatical. The first update may take a few hours.
Native screen resolution
No problemo...
Video
The default software for video on Fedora is "Totem Player". It sucks... Go to "Add/Remove Software" and uncheck anything named "Totem". Then install:
mplayer
mplayer-gui
mplayerplug-in
Wireless connection
If there is an open unprotected wireless access point near you, it is automatically connected. If that is not the case start NetWorkManager... open a terminal and do:
$ su
Password:
# /usr/sbin/NetworkManager
A new icon appears in the panel, click it to open a list of available access points. The rest is self-explanatory.