Linux Laptop Dell Inspiron 1501 Fedora 18 KDE

I needed a computer to dedicate strictly to printing. Linux uses Cups for printing and it's really not the most secure thing you can run on your computer. I've read posts on securing Cups, but most articles you read say if you have the computer attached to any type of network, Cups should probably be avoided ! So I had an older Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop laying around and I decided to install Fedora 18 KDE on it to see how it would run. If things worked out I would use that computer strictly for printing, and not connect it to the internet for anything. It worked out great with a few upgrades and about $22.00 worth of hardware.

The first thing I did was run a live install of Fedora 17. It clunked away and everything seemed to load great. I did an actual install and decided it was usable but it was a bit clunky with the original 512 megs of ram that came with the computer. I found 1 gig memory sticks on amazon for under $8 a stick,I ordered 2 with shipping the upgrade costed me under $22.00 and now gave me 2 gigs of memory compared to 512 megs. Money well spent in my opinion.
1GB RAM Memory Upgrade for Dell Inspiron 1501 (DDR2-533, PC2-4200, SODIMM)
I installed the memory and it was just what the doctor ordered. It took away most of the clunkiness and the computer was running pretty well. I've wanted to upgrade to Fedora 18 for some time now and decided to try Fedora 18 KDE. I downloaded an ISO of Fedora 18 KDE Spin from the Fedora website burned the ISO image to disk using Brasero on my other computer and ran the install on the Inspiron 1501. It wasn't uneventful, here's how it went.

I booted the computer and hit f2 and set the boot order to boot from the cdrom. I then placed the Fedora 18 KDE disk in the cdrom and rebooted the computer. The disk started chugging away and when it finally loaded I got a screen full of vertical green lines. So I rebooted the computer again and this time I highlighted Fedora 18 install, hit tab which brings up the basic install configuration settings, and added nomodeset to the end of the configuration. This fixed the problem in Fedora 17 but not with Fedora 18. Same problem. I then did a little research and found that by deleting the quite command and adding nomodeset to the end it would load fine. I'm guessing in quite mode it skips a couple drivers or something. So for the tweeted version, Highlight Fedora 18 Install, tab, in command line delete the quite option, and add nomodeset to the end and you'll be on your way.

Fedora 18 does most of the work for you after that. When I got to the partitioning part of the install, I simply set all the partitions to delete, and set it to automatic partition configuration. This deletes the XP install, removes the Dell factory backup, and replaces everything with Fedora 18 KDE. If you are planning to run a dual boot system with a different OS, or you want to save the Dell factory backup this is not the way to do it. However, doing it this way, Fedora set the partitions, handled the swap, and did everything for me with no problems. I was surprised to see the Grub bootloader installed, but I'll look into that down the road.

My Fedora 17 install was running Gnome desktop, the Fedora 18 KDE ran the KDE desktop. For the Dell Inspiron 1501 I would strongly suggest KDE. It ran so much better than the Gnome desktop in my humble opinion. The other surprise I received was that the Wireless was recognized immediately. No configuration, just type in your password, set up Kwallet, and your surfing the net. Rock on, My Dell Inspiron 1750 was a nightmare getting the drivers to work for the wireless. No problem there with the Inspiron 1501 !

Seeing I had internet I loaded Konsole, and added yum install yum-security then installed all the security updates using yum update --security. I then installed all my software using yum. Libreoffice, Gimp, Scribus, Gedit. Played around a bit and everything worked out great. Thats the only software I need for this computer but with the memory upgrade I think it could handle just about anything you threw at it.

There are a couple small issues but nothing to bothersome. Apparently there is a small bios issue with the AMD64 processor that comes in this computer. I did some research and there is a way to reflash the bios to fix the problem. Everything seems to work fine right now for what I want to use this for so I don't think I'm going to do that. Who knows, maybe one day when I'm bored and looking for something to post here I'll tackle that issue. The other thing I noticed is when the computer shuts down I get a weird green pattern that flashes when the computer is shutting down. Again this is nothing that seems to affect the performance of the machine for what I'm using it for.

The sole purpose of this machine is to have a computer dedicated strictly for Printing, and not connected to the internet, or networked to any other machine in the office. Now when I make a flyer design, or any type of advertising or anything that needs to get printed, I can just save my work to a cd, or copy it to a usb pen drive, open it in the other machine and print it from there. Sometime this week I'll do a post on setting up an HP Printer for the Dell Inspiron 1501 and Fedora 18 KDE.

On a final note, if you found this blog looking for information about running Linux on the Inspiron 1501 I hoped this article helped some. I would strongly suggest using Fedora 18 KDE it ran much better than Gnome on this machine, and I highly recommend the memory upgrade. For the $20.00 you spend on memory you're really treating yourself to a much more pleasant user experience. As always, thanks for following, hope you found this interesting and check back soon for updates. Next week, HP printers, Cups, and more on the Dell Inspiron 1501.

Dell Inspiron 1501, so long Windows XP, hello, Fedora 18 KDE. Upgraded memory to 2 gigs from the original 512 megs and this thing runs great. Strongly suggest running Fedora 18 KDE on this machine.