Linux on the Dell Inspiron 1501

Installing Linux on the Inspiron is complicated by Distros not recognizing the Hard Drive.
This is the case with SUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu and I believe there are other Distros the same.
There is one Distro that does install straight from the disc and that is Mandriva 2007.

I have successfully installed Mandriva 2007 on my Dell Inspiron Laptop-model 1501 which has an AMD dual core processor.I used the 4 cd version i586.It recognized my hard drive -something that has proven a problem for other distros on this machine -and manged to get online using the wireless set up by using the windows driver copied on to a cd rom and using the System config tool to set up the network(courtesy of the inbuilt ndiswrapper).It works very well both the wireless set up and the 2007 distro.
However been used to SUSE I was not too happy with the overall Mandriva setup as its very commercialized in my view.
I have used SUSE for years on my PC after testing out other distros and I really like this distro.
It did not unfortunately recognize my hard drive.After scouting about the web for a bit I found a solution which is simply to type in “pci=nomsi” at the command line of the boot up screen of the installation.
However despite my best efforts I could not get my wireless set up to work though on my PC the wireless system works with SUSE 10.2.
I had come across Ubuntu which is based on Debian.Debian has always appealed to me because of its un commercial nature and it really is open and free but I have not managed to install it on any computer.
Ubuntu is a very user friendly version of Debian and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Linux.

There are some very good guides available on the web (just google Ubuntu Dell inspiron 1501)on how to install Ubuntu and get your wifi up and running.

Xscrabble For Ubuntu

Xscrabble is a game based on the popular board game Scrabble.It was written for the UNIX system as a student project by Matt Chapman way back in 1994.It has been packaged in RPM format for some Distros and it has been ported for the Mac X variety of UNIX.In Linux it runs on the X Window system.

To date there is not a package available for Debian /Ubuntu(Debian based) -I submitted a request to Ubuntu asking them if they could come up with a version-which means using the tarball package written for UNIX.

I have tried various ways of getting this nice little game on Ubuntu.

I tried the latest tarball version downloaded from a Linux software site

but it did not install.

I tried using the 'alien' package to convert the rpm package to deb. With some rpm's the conversion worked well enough to allow an install but the actual program failed.

I installed all the libXaw libraries (needed I believe to work the widgets) using the software installer package and libXaw8 from Ubuntu's download page (Ubuntu -- Package Download Selection)and tried all of the above again. I even tried adjusting the makefile according to the instructions written as Linux guru stuff on the web.

Eventually I came across a tarball downloaded from Matt Chapman's web page the writer of the xscrabble program back in 1994.

Found at:

http://www.belgarath.org/programs

and this worked. You will note that this is version 1 and not the 2 series which I believe has been amended by someone else.

Once extracted using the archive roller-I just extracted to my Desktop -it extracts to a folder called xscrabble-the readme file in the extracted folder needs to be read!

If like me you are not a Linux guru it can at first glance be a bit intimidating but in actual fact is quite straightforward.

First change directory in your terminal program to where you extracted the tarball.In my case this was

cd / home/ross/Desktop/xscrabble -note the capital D for Desktop.

then run

sudo xmkmf

make Makefiles

make

Once the build process was run I copied the three files OSPD3.gz, scrabble permutations and xscrabble.scores from the Desktop folder xscrabble to my home directory in a folder I called xscrabble(different from the one on my desktop). As instructed in the readme file I renamed Xscrabble.ad to Xscrabble and I simply placed this in my home directory outwith the xscrabble folder that I had created.

During the build process two executable files are created in the src folder in the extracted folder-xscrabble- on your desktop. These are xscrab and xscrabble I copied these to folder

/usr/games -you will need to use sudo nautilus in the terminal command line to allow you to do this(gives nautilus super user rights). This puts the two executables in a directory contained in the $PATH variable .

The game works by typing xscrabble in the terminal command line.

You might see some warnings written about fonts when the program initiates but the program seems to work well enough and will do me until some wizard comes up with a tailor made for Debian/Ubuntu.