Dell Mini: Migrating from XP to Linux
Since Dell aren’t selling the Ubuntu-based Minis in Australia yet, I had to `settle’ for the full XP version; certainly not something I regret, as XP runs awesomely on it. Now I’m wanting to migrate to my preferred production OS: Linux. I’m not fussed about the flavour. My preferences were initially openSUSE, Fedora Core, Ubuntu, etc… From what I’ve found thus far, openSUSE is very hard to get working on the Dell Mini. I won’t go into details but suffice to say it’s non-trivial.
I’m now turning my sights to Fedora Core 9. Fedora was one of the first Linux OSs I ever used. I like it. Evolving from RedHat, it’s quite a bit different from the Debian-based Ubuntu that I’m so used to now, but I really want to try it again (from all reports it’s quite a cracker). It appears some XP-model Mini owners have had some success installing Fedora 9 (here and here – both bloggers are named John/Jon; conspiracy? You decide…). The main issues unsuprisingly arise from the horrible Broadcom wireless card and the Atom Motherboard network adapters. These issues can be overcome and I hope to detail my success soon.
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I have installed Intrepid Alpha 6 on my Aussie Dell Mini 9. It has been a good ride so far. Wireless worked out of the box as did bluetooth. Had to do John Carr’s trick to get sound and had some issues getting it to boot to anything other than a recovery console but a recent update fixed that.
I enjoy getting each nights updates to Intrepid, it just keeps getting stronger and stronger and I am also looking forward to installing the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
HTH’s
Whytey
Thanks Whytey,
I remember your posts from John Carr’s blog
Good to hear Alpha 6 has fixed most of your issues. I’d install it no probs if I didn’t need it to be solid, as I’ll be using it for work/uni producion quite a bit. I’m sure it’s stable enough but I just don’t want any unnecessary headaches. I’ll almost definitely install the final release (possibly the beta).
Having said this, though, I realise Intrepid could solve a lot of issues other distros might throw up
Cheers,
Kris