# Experience with a Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop ?

## xr31Daisy

I'm thinking of getting a Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop.

I won't boot the preinstalled Windows XP even once, but instead replace it with Gentoo (1.4).

I took a look around, the linux compatibility seems to be good enough, and there seems to be lots of info on this machine on the web.

As a final check : 

1. does anybody have a good reason why I really should reconsider my choice ?

2. Since I want to go with WLAN, should I get Dell's "True mobile 1150", or would I be better off buying a wireless card elsewhere ?

3. And is this laptop powerful enough to run linux ?

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## ZagiFlyer

FWIW I have the "cousin" of that model - a Latitude C840. Gentoo does well on it, and the installation was a breeze.

In response to your question about using Dell's "True Mobile" card, you just need to find out a few things about the card:

1) Is it 802.11b compliant? It almost certainly is, but if not you should not use it. 

2) Does it use the Prism chip set? This is an extremely common wireless chip set (used by Orinioco, etc.), and if the Dell card uses it, drivers will be no problem.

If you plan to use your laptop in a WEP environment, install Gentoo first and emerge wireless-tools before you require the WEP encyption key. 

The laptop is *easily* powerful enough to run Linux.

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## Bogo

I have an Inspirion 4150, and gentoo runs great on it. My friend bough the same laptop, and he got the truemobile wireless internal card,and it works great for him. Just a few tips, when you turn on your computer, start hitting the F2 key asap so you can get into bios and put the cdrom at the top of the boot list. They try to get you to agree to the license, and it comes at you instantly. If you get to the license screen, pressing any key will agree to it, and then you will have sold your soul.

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## swingarm

I have an I8200 and installion was real easy.  To answer your questions:

1. I don't know how it would get any easier but I don't have experience with other Laptops(well, except for my previous Laptop an I8000)

2. I have the Truemobile 1150 and it uses the generic Orinoco drivers now whether you should use it or not depends on you, I use it because I live in a fairly technically unsophisticated neighborhood and am not worried about people piggybacking off my connection.

3. Plenty powerful enough.  I've never, ever had a compiling error on this Laptop and I've done about 15+ installs(I'm a perfectionist) and have recompilied my Gentoo kernel more times then I can count.

The only problems I'm having are getting DVD playback to work without glitching, I think this is due to something with Gentoo(Linux) and the Hitachi/LG 24X CDRW/8X DVD ROM Combo Drive which I'm still working on.  The Alsa drivers are kind of raw, they pop, click, and lose sync.

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## kybber

Having installed Gentoo on a latitude 810 (which isn't all that different), I can only join in what the others are saying: Installation is a breeze, and it's plenty powerful enough to run Linux. Heck, if it can run WinXP, then what would you expect?` :Wink: 

 *xr31Daisy wrote:*   

> I'm thinking of getting a Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop.
> 
> I won't boot the preinstalled Windows XP even once, but instead replace it with Gentoo (1.4).

 

Ehm... I would seriously reconsider this. Run XP at least for a few days and test out all the hardware. Also consider keeping a small partition with XP on it for dual-booting. If there's something wrong with your laptop, then Dell won't be able/willing to help you unless you have the original installation.

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## xr31Daisy

OK, Thanks everybody.

I was curious to see if anybody had some negative feedback, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I guess it's now time to check just how much money I have.

And I'll go with the TrueMobile wireless card.

kybber, about the support, you've got a good point. But I'll take my chances, and just keep the WinXP CD around, just in case.

BTW, I should have added a smiley to question 3. It was just a joke ...  :Wink: 

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## jeb-c4

I have a 4100 and it works great.

Anyway, the one and only problem with the truemobile card (rebranded orinoco) is when you want to update firmware.  Dell releases their own, but I wanted to use the stock orinoco 7.52 firmware to be able to use airsnort.  Anyway here is a link to some usenet posting on how to do it.

Original Post

What I had to do -- updated instructions

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## pilla

take a look at 

http://www.linux-on-laptops.net

for some tutorials to install linux on 8200s.

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## kybber

 *Bloody Bastard wrote:*   

> take a look at 
> 
> http://www.linux-on-laptops.net
> 
> for some tutorials to install linux on 8200s.

 

Hmm... Perhaps you meant http://www.linux-laptop.net/?

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## pilla

Yes, I meant.... sorry for the mispelling.

 *kybber wrote:*   

>  *Bloody Bastard wrote:*   take a look at 
> 
> http://www.linux-on-laptops.net
> 
> for some tutorials to install linux on 8200s. 
> ...

 

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