www.josh.sheedy.com/dell

Microprocessor Intel Mobile Pentium 4 1.7 GHz 8 KB L1 cache 512 KB L2 cache External bus frequency 400-MHz front-side bus	Video 128-bit hardware accelerated NVIDIA Geforce 440 Go 64 MB for GeForce4 440 LCD interface LVDS NTSC or PAL S-video or composite TV support
System Information Chipset Inten 845MP Microprocessor address bus 32 bits Graphics bus 32-bit AGP 4X PCI bus 33MHz	Audio AC97 (Soft Audio) Cirrus Logic/Crystal CS4205 1 internal microphone 2 two 4-ohm speakers Volume controls through keyboard shortcuts
PC Card TI PCI 4450/4451 Cardbus controller supports 2 Type I or Type II cards or 1 Type III Cards supported 3.3V and 5V Connection size 68 pins Data width PCMCIA 16 bits	Display Active-maxtrix TFT SXGA+ 15" Diagonal Screen Maximum Resolution 1400x1050 16.8 million colors Refresh 60 Hz Brightness and Contrast keyboard controlled
Memory 256 MB PC2100 DDR memory MAX memory 1024 (2 512MB SODIMMs) Memory clock speed 266MHz	Keyboard 87 Keys Qwerty layout Hard Drive 40 Gigabyte ATA 100 hard drive
Ports and Connectors 9-pin serial connector 25-pin unidirectional, bidirectional, ECP parallel port 15-pin VGA connector audio stereo line in, headphone out, line out. PS/2 6-pin mini-DIN connector 2 4-pin USB connectors 1 Infrared port (standard 1.1) 1 200-pin Dell Docking device 1 S-video out, 1 composite video out, 1 S/PDIF audio out 1 RJ-11 port 1 RJ-45 port 1 4-pin IEEE 1394 firewire port	Battery 2-4 hours battery life 2.5 hours charging computer on 1.5 hours computer off
Communications 1 integrated v.92 56k modem soft modem controller 1 10/100 3-com Ethernet LAN onboard 1 Wireless Mini PCI Wi-Fi (802.11b) support	Physical Size Height: 1.75 inches Width: 13.03 inches Depth: 10.87 inches Weight: 7.68 lbs.

RedHat Install

The installation of redhat was really easy.

First enter BIOS (press F2 during post). Change Boot order so cd-rom boots first. Save and exit.
Insert the first RedHat cd and boot the system.
After post you will be prompted for a type of install. Pressing enter starts a GUI install.
The installation process starts with the system detected hardware.
After this the system will boot the RedHat 7.3 Welcome Screen. Click NEXT.
Select you Language Selection. Click NEXT.
Select keyboard configuration. I selected Generic 104-key PC, US English, Disable dead keys. Click NEXT.
Select mouse configuration. I selected 2 button mouse (PS/2), Emulate 3 buttons. Click NEXT.
Installation type. Laptop. Click NEXT.
Disk Partitioning Setup. I used manual partition with Disk Druid. Click NEXT
I set a 30MB boot partition, 600MB swap, 32000MB root (ext 3) Click NEXT
Package Selection is next. I selected KDE, Dev., Gnome, games. Plus I selected individual package selection. Click NEXT
After Package Selection is X Setup. I just let it pick defauts except I picked DELL 1400X Laptop Monitor and 64MB vid mem.
I selected KDE to boot by default.
Lastly, you are prompted to make boot diskette.
Congrats, you have finished the install. Just remember to change boot order under BIOS.

Post Install Setup

After RedHat installs is reboots, and if you set KDE to boot by default it goes through KDE prefs after login.

Once that has finished you are at the KDE desktop. I then bring up a shell and make a directory for files. I also make a directory under mnt for any NFS shares I need. I then mount a NFS exported file under /mnt. (ex. mount -t nfs amd1333:/mnt/files /mnt/amd1333) I then copy all my updated redhat packages. There are various packages like up2date that will assist you with updating redhat and can be found at freshmeat. I then su to root and update redhat packages. (ex. rpm -Uvh *.rpm)

Video Setup

Next, I setup the video. The drivers can be found on Nvidia's website. There are two drivers you need to download.

The kernel module.
The GLX driver.

If you plan on using the stock redhat kernel you can use the the drivers packages for 7.3 and i686.

Once these have been downloaded you can su root and change to init 3 then login as root. Then you can add the packages (ex. rpm -ivh NV*rpm). You will receive an error about about tainting the linux kernel just ignore it. Next, you must cd to /etc/X11. Make a copy of your XF86Config-4 (ex. cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4.save). Now edit the file and comment out or remove any reference to dri and GLcore. Also, change the NVIDIA Driver from nv to nvidia. I also add the option Option "NvAGP" "3". Last, the subsection Display needs to have modes added. 1400x1050 1024x768 800x600 640x480. A depth of 16. Save and exit.

Here is a copy of my XF86Config-4 if you have any questions.

TO DO: put in setting for video out.

Modem Setup

Next to setup the modem there is a great Conexant website managed by Marc Boucher where you can download the drivers. Download the drivers su to root and install the redhat packages. The install will link /dev/modem to the new device added. Now kppp shoud find your modem when you query it.

Multimedia Setup

RedHat had the i8k module available, but you have to modprobe it. Once this was down I downloaded the i8k source. I then uncompressed the package and did a make, make install. This added 3 programs i8kbuttons, i8kctl, and i8kmonitor.

Now as long as the i8k module is loaded you can use these utilities. For the i8kmon I had to execute with wish at a command line (ex. wish /usr/bin/i8kmon).
The i8kctl displays information from the /proc/i8k file.
The i8kbuttons utility allows you to set the Vol buttons of your laptop.
I use the aumix utility to with i8kbuttons. I put two lines in my /etc/rc.local file
/sbin/modprobe i8k (to load module)
/usr/bin/i8kbuttons -u "aumix -v +5" -d "aumix -v -5" -m "aumix -v m" &

Last, to set the play, stop, ffd, and rwd buttons I had to put four lines in my Xmodmap in /etc/X11
Keycodes may vary so use the xev utility to view your keycodes.
! Inspiron 8200 key bindings
keycode 129 = F31
keycode 130 = F32
keycode 131 = F33
keycode 132 = F34

After a X restart I was able to bind these keys to XMMS.
Under Playblack hold pointer of one of options and press key. (Play > hit play button)

Update

I have just compiled a plugin for the GKrellM that allows you to monitor your processor temp and fan spead. The plugin can be found here.
Just make sure you have GKrellM installed on your system and compile the program (make make install). Make sure the plugin directory is available.

DVD Setup

I had to do nothing more than add one line to my /etc/rc.local file to ready my DVD drive for playback.
/sbin/hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb

I use both Xine and mplayer for playback. I think both projects are great.

Stuff to Come

I hope in the future to provide more information on the Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop. I also hope to give some information on some of my favorite apps not already mentioned. For now here is my Office suite of choice.

OpenOffice

A good 3d linux game called Tux Racer.

Hope this helps, Josh.