Computer & Web Solutions

Dell Latitude CPi D266XT

Table of Contents

Install Linux
Sound Configuration
X Windows Configuration
3Com Modem Card
Links to Other Resources

Installing Linux Red Hat 6.2

I no longer have this computer.  As work would have it I had to give up this computer for a faster one.  Check out my Inspiron 7500 page for the computer I have for work now.

I choose Red Hat Linux over distributions of Linux because this Linux seems to have most of what I want in an Operating System. You can get Red Hat Linux at http://www.redhat.com. Other version of Linux that you might fun use full are Caldera, Debian, Slackware, and S.u.S.E.

For the best performance I would suggest upgrading the BIOS to A08. Go to http://support.dell.com to get the most up-to-date BIOS for your computer. I installed the current version of Linux with BIOS A06. I had no problems following the instructions provided by dell for upgrading the BIOS with Linux on the computer.

With the Red Hat CD I set my computer's boot order to CD-ROM, Floppy, Hard Disk. This was the easiest way to install this version of Linux. If you do not want to change your BIOS you can attach the floppy on its external cable and use the boot floppy that is provided. The only thing I found that I had to do out side of the default setup instructions was that I had to make my partitions by hand. If I let the setup program make the partitions I would wipe the whole hard drive clean. So since this is not what I wanted to do I made three Linux partitions on my 6.4GB hard drive. I have a 2GB Dos partition where I have Windows 98 SE and Windows NT 4.0 installed I have a /boot partition which is 24MB a / partition which is 2GB a Swap partition which is 72MB and above that partition I have another 2GB Dos partition. Once I created the /boot, /, and the Swap partition the rest of the setup was sit back and watch.

I installed the KDE desktop instead of the GNOME desktop because I like the look and feel of KDE over GNOME. Any screen shots would come from the KDE desktop on my computer.

(Update 11-18-2007)

I had a person contact me that they were having problems installing current version of linux on this system. I would like to note that the original CD-ROM drive that came with this system does not like CD-R/CD-RW's that have been recorded at new high speeds. I have had to record the CD at 1x for the install the work correctly with out getting kernel errors while trying to install the version of linux you want.

Sound configuration

I tried to use the /usr/sbin/sndconfig and this helped me to get close to the settings I needed to get the sound to work. I can at this time only get my CD-ROM to play music and hope to get the wav files to work. Here is my conf.modules file for my sound.

alias sound sb
options -k sb io=0X220 irq=5 dma=1
options sound dmabuf=1
alias midi opl3
options opl3 io=0x388
options cs4232 io=0x530 irq=5 dma=0

To make changes to the conf.modules I used kedit this is a great GUI editor that comes along with KDE. On my old systems I used to use emacs to make all of my changes.

X Windows Configuration

In the Install process I found the Neomagic screen type and I picked a LCD 1024x786 which is what came with my computer. I have on this web site for downloading my XF86Config file if you cannot get your X Windows to work try using this file. If you have one of the Cpi's that did not come with a 1024x786 screen you will have to use a different file.

Most of the web sites that I have been to always have horror stories about setting up the X Desktop, and I had no problem setting up my X Desktop.

3Com Megahertz 56K Global Modem

Model 3CCM156

Red Hat 6.2 found this device without any extra working. I have not found any problems with this modem yet also I have not done any testing of the modem yet.

Links to Other Resources

http://www.redhat.com
http://support.dell.com
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop
http://www.acqualan.com/misc/cs4237b.html
http://www.pihl.org/linux/linux-dell.html