My Linux Laptop
3 June 2007[See update at the bottom of this post.]
I got a question today about my Linux laptop, so I decided to write about it here. About six months ago, I got a Dell Latitude D820 with a Dual Core 2.3GHz processor. It has 2 GB memory and an 80 GB SATA disk, turning at 7200 RPM. It also has the NVIDIA premium video, but I did not get the very high resolution screen since my 51 year old eyes can’t make use of it anyway.
My use goals were:
- Browser (Firefox)
- Email (Thunderbird)
- Office suite (Open Office)
- Linux software development
- Web development (Zend Studio)
- Network troubleshooting (Wireshark)
- Bookkeeping (Quickbooks – in a VMWare virtual machine)
- Music
- Video
- whatever else was to come along
When the laptop was received, I formatted the disk and installed Fedora Core 6. I then installed the native NVIDIA drivers. I got my Verizon Wireless Aircard working. Got VMWare installed, popped in an existing VMWare virtual machine containing Quickbooks, and I was on my way.
I didn’t do badly. I’ve been with it for about six months, and I have no desire to go back to native Windows (sorry, Bill.) I’m going to approach this three ways: What works, what doesn’t work, and what needed a workaround, or causes an inconvenience.
What works
The laptop works. Very well. It boots reliably, displays a stable raster, is responsive to keyboard, internal pointing devices and external mouse both USB and PS2. The OS properly handles everything that Xwindows is supposed to do.
Firefox and Thunderbird do their work perfectly. Well, almost. Firefox quits unexpectedly about once a week, maybe less.
The Aircard works. I use a set of standard PPP scripts to get it going. Note that a Windows machine is needed to set up the card, and to update the PRL every now and again, and Verizon is useless for support in the Linux environment. Note also that not every Verizon Aircard will work the same way. Mine is a 5220.
The internal wifi works. I had to download some packages from the Livna repository for this. There is an issue when the hardware wireless switch is set to “off.” The wifi software can cause one of the CPUs to lock up. I’m writing this in Starbucks, with the intent to upload it via Tmobile wifi.
The Speakup speech synthesizer works well too. This includes the TTSynth product which allows speakup to use the sound card. If you are blind and need a talking machine, this can save you over $900 as compared to Jaws on Windows.
What has unresolved issues
The sound has some issues. Playback is usually OK using ALSA. Recording works fine though the internal mike, but I can’t get any external mike to be recognized. This makes headsets for VoIP, or other speech apps, a problem. Bluetooth has yet to do anything useful, though I haven’t put much effort into it.
I can’t get my Palm Treo to sync over pilot-link or anything that depends on pilot-link. Debugging is just beginning and I’ll certainly post results here.
Added on an edit: I can’t recover from a suspend, and I have never tried to hibernate.
What needed workarounds
As mentioned before, NVIDIA drivers needed to be found. Since they are not released in source, RedHat doesn’t include them in Fedora. They have to be manually recompiled after each kernel update. We’re told that there is a workaround for this but we haven’t hunted for it yet.
I like dual screens when I’m docked. I have several configurations: One screen plus the laptop screen, or, two screens, with the laptop closed. X doesn’t know how to detect the monitor and manage this. The NVIDIA drivers support two screens, but I needed to create a separate X config file for each monitor configuration. Then, I chose to set Linux to boot into character mode. I log in, run a quick script defining where I am, then do startx. Those who want the full X experience, including a graphical startup, graphical login screen and full shutdown from X, will not like this configuration.
There may be a workaround, but I haven’t sought it out. I wasn’t able to get the Gnome widget for controlling a PPP connection to manage my Aircard. I start it with a script.
I wasn’t able to get the Gnome widgets for setting up wifi to work. I do my wifi setup from the command line, either before starting X or in a terminal window.
Conclusion
All in all, I love it. Compared to a Windows laptop, the following differences come to mind:
- It’s much more stable. Doesn’t freeze or go to sleep.
- I never get hit with an unexpected update that messes things up or saturates my connection.
- I’m not suspicious of the motives of the software providers.
- No viruses. No spyware. No malware.
- A super-secure firewall.
- Doesn’t accumulate as much cruft from installed software. The registry doesn’t get bigger and bigger. (There is no registry.)
- Packages install and uninstall cleanly.
- The contents of packages is clearly documented. No wondering what was installed.
- A massive amount of useful software is part of the Fedora (and most other) distributions.
- Much of what is shareware in the Windows world is available as GPLed software in the Linux world. I’ve stopped spending much money on software.
- I can change things if they don’t meet my needs. Everything is open and configurable.
- If things inexplicably don’t work, I can get the source and figure it out for myself, or even extend the capabilities and fix bugs. If I accomplish something useful, I can feed it back and it can become part of the next release.
- Much of what we used to do on hosted servers can be done (or modeled) on the desktop (laptop). Development and problem solving is improved.
- Lots of folks have tried to bring Unix/Linux capabilities to Windows. See cygwin, putty, etc. None of these are as good as the original.
My recommendations for doing this include:
- Be committed to it. it’s not rocket science, but it’s not what you know either. There is a learning curve, and the development philosphy does not favor uninformed or uncaring users. You are much more responsible for your own successes.
- Consider the new Inspiron offering from Dell with Ubuntu preloaded. One expects that all the hardware and drivers will work.
- If you want to use VMWare and virtual machines, be sure youhave enough horsepower and memory. A dual core processor is great since your virt can grab and use one of the cores, while the rest of the machine uses the other.
- Choose the right distro for your own temperment. I would saythat Debian, Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) or Fedora will be great.
- Have a good support network. Try to develop some relationships so you are not relying on strangers in a forum to take an interest in you.
- Google is your friend.
Peace, love and linux,
Ed
Update 2/28/2010:
This has been good to me over the years. I reformatted with later versions of Fedora Core, until this year when I installed Ubuntu 9.10. Ubuntu went in clean and just about everything works, except hot-docking while using dual monitors. Sound, nVidia, detecting hot-plugged USB devices, fancy keyboard buttons (sound, etc) all work. Network manager properly handles the aircard and the USB. I haven’t tried bluetooth. Also, I no longer use a Palm device, so I can’t speak about that support. It feels solid and stable, as if it were OEM. Can’t say much more about something than that.
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