GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
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Dell Inspiron 6400 (Ganesha)

Ganesha is a Notebook with 1GB of memory, a 100GB hard disk, a DVD$\pm$RW Dual Layer burner, a 15.4" screen, and a wireless card. The machine came with MS/Windows XP installed so the machine was originally set up for dual boot (now part of the Debian GNU/Linux install options). In 2011 [110421] it was set up with the intention of building a FreedomBox server running on Debian, but the time was too early. It became togaware.com.au, my local server. In 2013 [131215] it became the prototype EcoSysL server, also serving ecosysl.com in addition to togaware.com.au, and Ubuntu 13.10 was installed to bring it up to the same level as the other Togaware servers.

A default install using the Sarge 3.1r2 Debian GNU/Linux Installer, booting from a DVD+RW was performed (18 April 2005). The DVD image was obtained using jigdo-file (see Section 3.6.2). The system was fully upgraded to Sid (5 October 2008) with no problems.

A default install of Ubuntu 9.04 (5 September 2009) brought the computer up to date again.

Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.1 was install 21 April 2011, setting it up as an experimental FreedomBox.

Ubuntu 13.10 was installed 15 December 2013, setting it up as ecosysl.com.

Working: Dual Core 1.83GHz CPU, 1680x1050 resolution with Intel 945GM (i810), Broadcom Ethernet (b44), Intell 3945 Wireless (ipl3945), USB, CD/DVD, Flash Card Reader (sdhci), sound (snd-hda-intel).

Not working: Suspend, hibernate (although the command s2disk from the uswsusp package seems to work).

Not tested: Modem.

Issues: (see Troubleshooting below for resolution):

• The hard disk was recognised as /dev/hda5 in the installed kernel (2.6.8) and as /dev/sda5 in the upgraded kernel (2.6.16).
• The vesa video driver was chosen by default, but i810 should be used (081005 with Etch the 915resolution package is no longer required to get 1680x1050 (wide 8:5) resolution).
• Wireless with a kernel version later that 2.6.17 worked out of the box. With a kernel version less than 2.6.17 you need to install the Intel ipw3945 driver, but once installed it works nicely. The network-manager package, under at least kernel version 2.6.18, can handle WPA-PSK and connects no problem.
• After moving to kernel 2.6.16 the CD/DVD stopped being found since the libata module was claiming the device, but failing to recognise it, and a later led-generic module load could not then claim it. The ATAPI option had to be enabled for the kernel and then the drive started being recognised. Apparently fixed in 2.6.17