Gentoo on dell inspiron 1525

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Hello everybody,

I am a new gentoo user..
Well, potential user, haven't installed anything yet.

I am about to install gentoo on a inspiron 1525 dell
laptop. I was wondering if there is any general advice
you could give me before I proceed...

Any special stuff about the kernel maybe?
Any flags I will have to set?

Thanks in advance!

defenderBG · l33t Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 817

This is a wiki about how to install gentoo on your laptop:
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Inspiron_1525

If you have any more specific questions, dont hesitate to ask.

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Thanks a lot!!

It seems to be a well supported laptop with gentoo as well.
So, seing the specific specs of my laptop I will need the drivers below:

Device Works Driver

Webcam works uvcvideo
Wireless (Intel) works iwl3945
Touchpad works synaptics (optional)
Intel GMA X3100 works i915 in kernel and xf86-video-intel X.org driver
SD and MMC card readers works sdhci
USB works uhci, ehci
Hard drive works ahci
Optical Drive works ata_piix
Firewire works ohci1394
Ethernet works sky2
Intel HD Audio works snd_intel_hda
Hardware Sensors works i8k
Suspend to RAM works s2ram or uswsusp
Suspend to Disk works swsusp

So, I have the name of the drivers. Now, how do I install them?
Should I do anything while configuring the kernel once I start
installing gentoo? Or I install it and use portage to install them
later?

Excuse my lack of knoledge, I use linux a lot of years now but
I never had done something from scratch like now.

EDIT: I tried to make the list above appear in columns but the
format seems to ruin it, excuse me for the mess..

audiodef · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:27 pm Post subject:

Some things you want to compile into your kernel, some things you need to install once you're able to boot into your own system.

There should be an option for your wireless in the kernel config. Make sure you have that enabled, as well as wireless-tools and wpa-supplicant. That way you can manually start your wireless and connect to an access point to continue installing your system after you first boot into it (you can plug it in, too, but you might as well have that old wireless freedom of movement). I have an Inspiron 1720 with Gentoo and everything works! It's just a matter of finding and enabling the right drivers. You can use modules or compile them into the kernel, depending on how you prefer to run things (I prefer compiled into the kernel. For me, it's less mess).
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overkll · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:09 pm Post subject:

Inspiron 1525... I had one of those. Fine laptop for the price. I ended up returning it. Nothing wrong with it. It worked fine with Vista and Linux, but try to use any 3D/OpenGL with Linux and X will lock-up or be brought to it's knees! If you're planning on using Compiz - forget it until the GEM/Mesa/DRM/Xorg/kernel mess gets sorted out. The external speakers are pretty weak as well.

Also, the partioning scheme Dell uses makes installing linux AND keeping Vista tricky. Dell uses 4 partitions, so if you are unfamilar with partition limitations you won't be happy. The Media Direct partition (or whatever it's called) needs to stay at the end of the disk, and the Dell Diagnostics needs to stay at the beginning of the disk. Shrink the Vista partion, scooch it over and grow the Extended partition to add your logical partitions for Linux. Fun eh? If you don't keep Vista, then this paragraph is irrelevant.

The other option and the road I took was returning the Dell and getting a lappy with nVidia graphics. Some may think that extreme, but I'm glad I did.

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

audiodef · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:24 am Post subject:

It should be more or less clear. You already know what hardware you have. Now just jump right into the kernel config and enable the drivers for it. It took me a lot of experimenting and recompiling to get where I am - and I'm still nothing next to some of the real hackers on this board. Always something to learn, there is.

I would say just go right ahead and start configuring and compiling your kernel. Be bold. Be brave. If you get stuck, post here and surely a kind soul will offer words of wisdom.

(Sorry, it's late and I'm feeling poetic and silly. But the gist of it is sincerely meant).
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geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

audiodef · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject:

Whether things work flawless depends entirely on how things are done - that's why I said just dive right in. After you've done this so many times, you know what to do to make it work.

I keep trying other distros and coming back to Gentoo. It gives me the most flexibility. I've certainly banged my head on the wall a time or two but in the end, it's worth the knowledge and flexibility gained.

A word of advice in general: if you need hal, dbus and avahi, emerge those 3 first, without use flags. Then enable those use flags, as well as cairo, X and whatever else you need in make.conf, and proceed with everything else. Run a world update later. The latest portage (both stable and ~arch) has issues with circular dependencies that are triggered by enabling these use flags early on. If you enable them later (and you will need to do that), no problem.
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geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Ok, I will do that, thanks for the advice!

Btw, another question: I had issues with the 2008 minimal installation CD. I can't even start!
(See the thread of another guy with the same problem: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-717779.html)
Then I downloaded the 2007 minimal CD and it works fine, so I was thinking about using that instead.

Is there any problem to use the old cd?

audiodef · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject:

Not for me! I've never even used the 2008 CD. I only have the 2007 CD and it works just fine.
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geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Ok, thanks again!
I'll let you know when I'm done with the installation.

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Okay, so I started installing the system. I had issues with both the 2007 and 2008 cds
so I used the grml live cd (www.grml.org).

Now, everything was going ok until I had to set the USE flags in my make.conf file..
Although the documentation is thorough, there is a point I haven't understood:
When we set our USE flags we need, well, how many do we set? Ok, the answer
is "it depends on what you need". The thing is that there are a buzillion of them:
http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml

I guess I am not expected to see each one and decide if I want it or not, right?
So what is the idea? What is a "normal" number of flags?

For example, I have a laptop. I will use Xfce. It has a CD/DVD burner.
I want programs to support unicode.

So are the options below reasonable?
USE="-gnome -kde -qt3 -qt4 X dbus hal startup-notification xscreensaver
unicode alsa dvd acpi dvdr".

If I scroll down the list I see so many things I need and I don't, but it will
take me a week to write them down!

Any advice on that will be appreciated, I'm so confused... :-/

wjb · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:32 pm Post subject:

Just go with what you've got - they seem reasonable. You can always change them later as you get to understand whats going on.

defenderBG · l33t Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 817

better have a small number of use flags at the beginning, whenever you install a new programm use emerge -av to see the use flags and decide which one you need for the package (echo "<dir/package> <use flags>" >> /etc/portage/package.use or to set them in the USE flag in /etc/make.conf. If you take the 2nd approach, dont forget emerge -auvND world after it.

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Ok, thanks a lot! Got the idea now..

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Could someone also help me with this?

My laptop's graphics card is a Intel GMA X3100.
It needs i915 in kernel and xf86-video-intel X.org driver.

So when it comes to the VIDEO_CARDS variable in my make.conf file,
should I set it to ..err.. what? The Xserver howto only talks about
nvidia and ati cards..

Also, I should set

audiodef · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:17 am Post subject:

Your video card is "intel". ;-)

i810, i915, etc., all use that.

Your input devices is fine. I always use "keyboard mouse" with laptops, and I've never needed anything special for laptop touchpads. Since you have a Dell, don't forget to compile all the "Dell" and "Dell laptop" options into the kernel.
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geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

Thanks again!
So, it will be

audiodef · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:59 am Post subject:

No, you want

VIDEO_CARDS="intel"

i915 (and i810 and such) are included in "intel" now. ;-)

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