Ubuntu on a Dell Latitude D400

My hardware configuration

Memory: 1 GB
Hard Disk: 40 GB
Processor: 1.7 Ghz
Bios version: A08

Installing Ubuntu

I had no particular problem installing Ubuntu 5.10 ( Breezy Badger ) from the CDROM. I didn't keep a Windows partition, as I have Windows98 bootable CDROM for doing BIOS updates.

However, the following things didn't work immediatly:

The X server would crash when switching to the console and then back (BIOS problem, need update to A08).
APM doesn't work on this Dell D400 (and will never, so use ACPI).
Suspend-to-RAM: the X server would crash on return from the suspend mode, leaving a blank screen.

The partition table

A 4 GB partition for the distribution /
A 4 GB partition for the system variable files /var
A 2 GB partition for the swap (it is needed if you want to use Suspend-to-Disk)
A 30 GB partition for the system home /home

I moved some parts of the system between the partitions:

/usr/local/ is a link to a directory /var/local/
/usr/src/ is a link to a directory /var/src/

This can be useful if you want to replace the distribution with another one (by cleaning /), since the /usr/local contains programs that you have compiled yourself, and /usr/src will probably contain your modified kernel.

Recovering from these problems

Updating the BIOS

At that point, my BIOS version was A03, so I updated to version A08. As I didn't have a Windows dual-boot, I couldn't do this operation easily...

Here is what I did:

Download the file D400_A08.exe from support.dell.com.
Use your swap partition as a Windows partition (mine was /dev/hda3, so you should replace it with your config in what follows)
- Stop using it as a swap: swapoff /dev/hda3
- Comment the line for /dev/hda3 in your /etc/fstab file (by prefixing it with a #)
- Create a Windows file-system on it: mkdosfs /dev/hda3
- Update the partition table: fdisk /dev/hda3 (use the 't' command to change the tag to 'b' for the swap partition (FAT32 partition) and then 'w' to write the new partition)
- Mount the partition somewhere: cd /mnt/win; mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/win
- Copy the D400_A08.exe file on it, and un-mount it.
You need to execute a Windows 98 boot to update. Since I didn't have a dual-boot, I had to boot from a CDROM. Personnally, I used an old Windows 98 installation CD, asked it to boot on the CDROM without installing to get a DOS prompt and then:
- Move to the newly created Windows partition: C:
- Execute the update program: D400_A08
If you don't have a Windows 98 installation CDROM, you can use the Dell Latitude BIOS update images (you need to burn a cdrom with it) from this page , I couldn't use them to update my bios, but they contain a Windows 98 boot, which is the only thing we need :-)

After this, your X-server should behave correctly. If it is not the case, you should try the 855wrap and 855patch programs (something like 855patch 32768 in the "start" part of the /etc/init.d/xorg-common.sh script). So, now, we have the Suspend-to-RAM normally working.

Installing Suspend-to-disk

Go to this page

I had to change the names of the firmware for my wireless card in /lib/hotplug/firmware: for that, I renamed the files of my former 2.6.12-9-386 kernel that I didn't use anymore: rename 's/-9-386/-hibernate/' ipw*

Suspend-to-Disk works flawlessly after the BIOS update.

Some other information

Result of the cat /proc/cpuinfo command

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 9
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1700MHz
stepping        : 5
cpu MHz         : 599.534
cache size      : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe est tm2
bogomips        : 1191.21

Result of the mount command

/dev/hda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/hda5 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda2 on /var type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,size=10M,mode=0755)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

Result of the fdisk /dev/hda command

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77520 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1        7751     3906472+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2            7752       15502     3906504   83  Linux
/dev/hda3           15503       19378     1953504   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda4           19379       77520    29303537    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           19379       77520    29303536+  83  Linux

Result of the lspci command

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Memory I/O Control Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Configuration Process Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet (rev 01)
0000:01:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device ac47 (rev 01)
0000:01:01.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device ac4a (rev 01)
0000:01:01.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments: Unknown device 802b
0000:01:01.3 System peripheral: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8204
0000:01:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)

Up one level