Dell D600
Older Dell Latitude D-series laptops can still be useful online devices. While they are getting quite long in the tooth, running Ubermix can give them a second life in the classroom.
General Comments and Ideas:
- 512MB of memory works, but it generates a lot of disk swapping. More memory is better.
- I lower the resolution to 1024x768 so the user will have a better experience.
- Wireless doesn't work right away so make sure you have a wired connection to get started.
- If your model of D-series has an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 or similar chip, definitely update the video drivers.
- D-series laptops with i915 graphics (such as the D510) may need "nomodeset" added to the GRUB linux entry.
- Web browsing, Google Apps, and Libre Office run just fine. Anything more and the user experience will be less than desirable.
- I enabled "tap to click" in mouse options since some of these old laptops have broken primary mouse buttons.
Fixing Wireless (for Latitude D600 and D505):
- Press CTRL+ALT+T to open a terminal window.
- Remove the newer broadcom drivers by typing "sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source".
- Install the specialized broadcom drivers by typing "sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer".
- Restart.
- If the above driver doesn't work, try "sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer" instead.
Updating ATI Video Drivers (for Latitude D600):
- Follow the instructions on the AMD Video Acceleration page to install
Changing Display Resolution (for Latitude D600 with ATI chip):
- Press CTRL+ALT+T to open a terminal window.
- Type "xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1024x768 --rate 60".
Notes about resolution changing on the D600:
- LVDS is for the laptop's integrated LCD screen. You can change the resolution of other video devices by changing LVDS to the following:
- VGA-0: Analog VGA output.
- S-video: Integrated TV output via s-video.
- DVI-0: Not available unless using a dock with DVI output.
- For more information, see Ubuntu's help page at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution
I have tested the above fixes on the following Models:
- Dell Latitude D600 with ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 Graphics Chip
- Dell Latitude D505 with Intel 855GM Graphics Chip
