Comments on Ubuntu on the Dell Inspiron 1501: Installing Ubuntu on Your Dell 1501

dude. this and the pci=nomsi is genious. one min...

2008-01-19T11:05:00.000-06:00

dude. this and the pci=nomsi is genious. one minor change i would make to the instrucions in the pci=nomsi the command needs to include "/media/disk" at the front end. i am new to this ubuntu stuff but an old dos hack and i somehow figured that out. maybe it is widely known.

I just installed 7.04 on a new 1501. A couple of ...

2007-07-24T15:45:00.000-05:00

I just installed 7.04 on a new 1501. A couple of points:

- I first tried with 6.06 and it would hang at a black screen with or without pci=nomsi. The 7.04 CD worked just fine.

- You can also use F12 to get to the boot menu and skip making your system check the CD on each boot.

Daniel what do you think? Should you upgrade or do...

2007-07-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

Daniel what do you think? Should you upgrade or do a fresh install? Do you want to half-ass your install or download the feisty iso and install it without worrying about problems?

Thanks for that. Does feisty have any of these is...

2007-07-21T19:02:00.000-05:00

Thanks for that. Does feisty have any of these issues with the 2.x BIOS?

What are the implications of installing edgy then using the update manager to upgrade to feisty on the 1501? Does it work properly or should I download feisty and do a fresh install?

Danielin my opinion you should be using bios 1.7 a...

2007-07-21T08:03:00.000-05:00

Daniel

in my opinion you should be using bios 1.7 and feisty

if you want to run edgy just get the right bios

Ok I've installed edgy and fully removed vista. I...

2007-07-21T07:59:00.000-05:00

Ok I've installed edgy and fully removed vista. I'm having a small problem with the brightness keys, whenever I try to use them the screen goes blank then reloads the login screen. I lose all windows which are open.

I have my keyboard set to US English I'm pretty sure.

Any ideas?

Nice guide... took me about ten seconds' work to h...

2007-07-20T22:52:00.000-05:00

Nice guide... took me about ten seconds' work to have ubuntu up and running. The pci=nomsi was already there. Am getting the wireless working as I type this.

I shrank my vista volume by 10g to do this install just as a test, if all goes well this afternoon I'll be wiping the whole thing tonight and installing ubuntu. Not sure whether I should install edgy or feisty though? Still working that out...

this guide is for ubuntu edgy eft 6.10 and only ed...

2007-06-03T15:04:00.000-05:00

this guide is for ubuntu edgy eft 6.10 and only edgy 6.10. download feisty it installs automatically without having to "fix" anything.

as for the other linux distro you're trying to install, i only support ubuntu and ubuntu related projects. edubuntu, kubuntu and xubuntu.

iam a beginner in linux .so i wished 2 use any liv...

2007-06-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

iam a beginner in linux .so i wished 2 use any live cd versions and used the ububtu 6.06.1 lts and knopixx 4.4//infact knopix get easily loaded but ddint show my NTFS parttions.

but in the case of ububtu in normal after the menu system get hanged after an IO bug error that comes after /casper/initrd.gz/ ..then a coplete balck screen and cd drive becomes silent //i waited for 1 hr no chance ..

.i used the help option in menu and found the "noapic nolapic " cmd .it worked and cd get booted ..but didnt mount sata hdd.

later i found ur blog ..when i moved through it i became happy as i though it will be helpful 4 me .but soory man .it cant help ..
i tried pci=nomsi cmd in boot but they shows invalid .and get hanged again.when i added noapic nolapic at the end and after a space used the pci=nomsi ...like
"
...sh - pci=nomsi noapic nolapic "

but this time the it get loaded but no sata detection ...

i may think it may be my mistake as iam a beginner ..so plz help me .

muchas gracias, este manual ha sido de gran ayuda ...

2007-04-07T23:43:00.000-05:00

muchas gracias, este manual ha sido de gran ayuda para poder instalar ubuntu en mi inspiron 1501, ahora me toca continuar con el wifi y la tarjeta de video.

this blog is just perfect :) as it is there are ve...

2007-04-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

this blog is just perfect :) as it is there are very few people going for amd and hence it's more easier to find fixes for 1505 and not 1501.

i could get no ubuntu version installed on this system. it didn't ship with any OS (freeDOS came on a CD, but i never looked at it).
i got another live distro called backtrack 2based on slax installed on to the hard disk and it detects the wifi and the wifi led illuminates once the interface is brought up, but even after setting the gateway and dns, i am not able to ping the gateway. the 1501's ip address itself returns a "destination host unreachable".
anyways, so i did order a few customizations on the 1501 machine such as amd turion 64 x2 instead of sempron, 1gb ram, 120 gb hdd sata(do you think such a large size can be an issue?), dvd rw. the bios version is 2.1.0
so when i boot ubuntu (i started with a dvd version of 6.06 which came with a magazine) before bringin up the boot menu from the cd, it quickly shows that bios has some bug and mentions APIC. so the boot parameters help suggest disabling checking for APIC (what could it be?) using noapic nolapic. things work fine and the live cd gui starts up but whats the use? no wifi, no sound and ubuntu menus are so minimalistic i feel like sayin "1 full dvd and only 10 menu items...arrghh!!" :p
next on, i'd downloaded edgy eft for amd64 (i wonder where to get the md5 value of the iso to match n check for errors) using a torrent from linuxtracker, which often seem to have a good number of seeders and the speed is quite good but the max i get is 30kbps (ISP limit) so each distro download is almost 8 hours waste, coz i can't do anything else on the net. hmm so finally the download gets done. i burn it on a cdrw at 10x and boot the 1501 with it and then...
i choose the default option...didn't add any boot params, it goes
Loading /casper/vmlinuz...........
Loading /casper/initrd.gz...

that's it! it shows a ncurses style loading linux kernel progress bar which gets stuck at 100% and on top the 2nd line just gets stuck at 3 dots. if i wait for like almost an hour it'll progress to 7 dots or maybe 8. but nothing after that.
the pci=nomsi boot param has no effect nor does noapic nolapic
what else do i need to check?
my blog

Thanks for the guide, it seems to have worked.I in...

2007-03-31T13:29:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the guide, it seems to have worked.

I installed XP first and then used Ubuntu, I found that my loading screen as the OS loads is completely colourless, but doesn't have any negative effects.

Also, as Ubuntu reboots and it tells you take the disk out the drive, I found that it didn't want to continue and I had to hold the power button down.

Strangly enough my menu.lst already had pci=nomsi, but I've followed marshall's advice anyway, just to be sure.

Thanks.

another ubuntu user ... thanks to you ... i was re...

2007-03-18T06:49:00.000-05:00

another ubuntu user ... thanks to you ... i was really cross because i intended to use ubuntu when buying my inspiron. then the shock ... thank you very much.

ps: in my case, after the installation, i didn't need to insert 'pci=nomsi' again and when i went into terminal, it was already there - no additional changes needed.

First I deleted all the partitions Dell made. Then...

2007-03-15T08:16:00.000-05:00

First I deleted all the partitions Dell made. Then I installed Ubuntu on my Dell no windows. But if I did dual boot I would:

1. Download all the driver I need from Dell/use the driver recovery CD from Dell.

2. Wipe the Hard Drive.

3. Install windows normally

4. Spend a couple of hours installing the drivers from Dell.

5. Then Install Ubuntu. The Ubuntu CD does the partitioning for you.

6. Notice it's easier to install Ubuntu then Windows form scratch.

Hola,First thank you for your blog. I´m following ...

2007-03-15T04:48:00.000-05:00

Hola,
First thank you for your blog. I´m following all your instructions and i wonder how did you handle partiotions on your Inspiron 1501.

Thanks a lot for this man. I found this site befor...

2007-03-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks a lot for this man. I found this site before buying my laptop and i was confident i'd be able to load Ubuntu on it with your help. I'm installing right now, and if it wouldn't have been for your little nomsi trick, i would probably have tried another distro or settled for Vista, so thanks a lot!

Expect more comments from me on your other posts as i progress through the installation and setup process and again, thanks a lot for your help!

Vista's Disk Management sucks, use gparted.

2007-03-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

Vista's Disk Management sucks, use gparted.

Thanks for posting these instructions. I just inst...

2007-03-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

Thanks for posting these instructions. I just installed Edgy on my shinny new 1501, everything went fine.

Note: Vista allows to resize its own partitions. Find the "disk management" tool in computer management, right-click on partition and choose "shrink". Gparted or qtparted could not do it.
Again thank you!

First are you using a Dell 1501? Are You installin...

2007-02-22T22:26:00.000-06:00

First are you using a Dell 1501? Are You installing Edgy? If the answer is yes, it sounds like grub (your operating system selector) is messed up. Re-install, go slow. The guide works. Over 100 people have used it to successfully install Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft.

It doesnt work for me, it goes wrong after the re-...

2007-02-22T10:20:00.000-06:00

It doesnt work for me, it goes wrong after the re-boot. The re-boot doesnt start Linux it starts Windows xp for me. I can only re-boot with the DVD but the menu.lst is completely empty.

What did I mis, can I still fix it or do I need to re-install again?

greetings,
Niels

dumppost@hotmail.com

Thanks for the info/suggestion. It looks rock soli...

2007-02-14T00:57:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the info/suggestion. It looks rock solid, so if you're brave give it a try. If any one gets it too work let me know.
-----
When you use my guide you do not have to edit the boot param line after kernel updates. It's pretty permanent.

Man u're my salvation... thanxxxxxx aa lottttttttt...

2007-02-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

Man u're my salvation... thanxxxxxx aa lotttttttttttttttt.

You're lucky I read Spanish. I just can't write it...

2007-01-27T13:42:00.000-06:00

You're lucky I read Spanish. I just can't write it. I started a thread on the Ubuntu Forums for a fix for Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake and it was never solved. I like everyone else wanted to run Edgy on my Dell 1501. I have no advice for you except to download and burn Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 and use that. I am sorry that I can not help you with Dapper.

Usted tiene suerte yo puedo leer español. Yo apenas no lo puedo escribir. Empecé un hilo en el Ubuntu Forums para un fijar para Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake y nunca fui resuelto. Yo no tengo consejo para usted menos descargar y quemar Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 y utilizar eso. Siento que yo no le pueda ayudar con un Dapper instala.

Segui tus instrucciones al pie de la letra y nada ...

2007-01-27T11:00:00.000-06:00

Segui tus instrucciones al pie de la letra y nada no me detecta mi disco. Tengo una 1501 dell con AMD Turion 64x2 el HDD es el Fujitsu y no funciona ni con el pci = nomsi, ni con el apci = force irqpoll, siempre se queda en la deteccion del HDD al momento de estar instalando, mis distro es ubuntu-6.06.1-desktop-amd64.iso
Porfavor ayuda

Thank you very much for the how-to

2007-01-21T09:20:00.000-06:00

Thank you very much for the how-to