sing along... "oh the dummy and the dell, the dummy and

Post Reply New Topic

... dell, what's he gonna screw up next, the dummy and the dell?" sung to the tune, "The farmer and the dell"

I bought a Dell Latitude c840 for $400 from my brother-in-law, a couple of years ago.
He got it at a city auction (he buys and rebuilds computers then sells them).

Long story short... (bet you never thought you'd hear me say that!)... this is now my Linux machine... or it will be some day!

Here's the current specs..

harddrive: IBM Travelstar HD 40GB ATA/IDE 4200
memory: NANYA DIMM 512 and NANY DIMM 256
cd drive: Samsung CD-MASTER 24E model SN-124
Dell floppy disk 3.5in. 1.44MB
Modem Daughter card = PCTEL Modem
No mini PCI card

Software:
Windows XP sp/2 and Office
Assorted software
UBUNTU live cd

I recently ordered this...
# Matsushita MIC 8X CD-R/CD-RW Laptop Drive UJDA330 Bare Drive
# 8X CD-R Write speed
# 24X CD-ROM Read Speed
# 4X CD-RW Rewrite Speed

I got this one because an online search for Linux compatible hardware for the latitude came up with this model.

I am looking for a new drive also. I am planning moving up to a 5400 with 60 or 80GB. It will have to be ATA since I have no means that I know of for creating a SATA connection inside.

I will also increase my RAM to 1GB.

Sound decent so far?

Oh... and guess what? I have some other questions too....hehe...

Any suggestions on HDD's?
I am currently also waiting for a Seagate Momentus 120GB 7200 SATA drive for my MacBook to come in next week so I can swap that out for my 60GB drive (I'm also getting this HUGE Adobe software package that I will be loading into the Mac).

My concern with hardware is compatibility with Linux-based OS's.
The page I used to find my CD drive is old enough that I desire more recent info on the hard drive.

Memory? Should I ditch the 256 and add another 512, or do you all recommend I go ahead and buy a new matched set of 512's?

Does anyone know what I can do with the extra bay that the floppy disk drive is in?
I'm not using floppies anymore (just got rid of my betamax, 8-track, and Yugo too ), and I wonder what I can put in the empty space?
A little duct tape over the opening and I could store my thumbdrives in it... or maybe a pad of paper?

This computer will be my learning toy for Linux.
I plan on starting out with Ubuntu and who knows where I'll go from there?
There is this little idea in my head that says... "Hey! Someday you could just turn this into a server for yourself!"

This thing is a BRICK, by the way. It's hard to imagine this being a much sought-after laptop at one time.. compared to my MacBook that is.

As far as Linux compatibility is concerned...I've never heard of any problems with Linux and any kind of drives (other than perhaps card adapters). Pretty much any HDD or CD-ROM drive should work without much effort. The same goes for RAM.

The things that give people the most issue on the hardware side with Linux are video cards, sound cards, and network adapters (specifically wireless network adapters). As long as you aren't using anything too recent on that front (which you aren't), then you really shouldn't have too much trouble.

As for memory, I'd have to say that you'd need at least 512MB of RAM to use Ubuntu decently. It can run with as little as 128MB, but that'd be just like running XP with 64MB...you just don't want to do it.

I'm still trying to sort through all the nuances of operating a Linux system in a 'Windows World'.
I say that since most things are geared towards Microsoft.

I know 512 would be fine... I just can't let go of the feeling that 1GB... IS BETTER!
Anyway, memory is relatively inexpensive.

I keep thinking that eventually I will strip the computer of everything except the Linux version I have on it.
Meaning... windows will likely go away... just to de-clutter my machine of stuff I don't really need.

I have windows on my MacBook running in bootcamp and parallels, so I don't need it on the other laptop.

I did a quick Google for "Dell Latitude c840 linux" and the article at the top, http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/c840/, seems pretty happy.

With 768Mbytes, you'll have 50% more memory than me, on this machine... so you should find it happy to run XP under VirtualBox (which slows my 1.6GHz P4 machine a bit, when I'm running Firefox in there, and a second Skype, and a Windows update, and an AVG scan, and still running Seamonkey and Apache and a mass of other stuff on the host Ubuntu/Gnome/Compiz system, from a 7Gbyte partition).

SLOW DOWN... SLOW DOWN THERE LAU... you're talking too fast for me

So you have Ubuntu with XP running as a virtual with VirtualBox (I'll have to check that one out)?

All the other stuff... firefox, skype, avg scan, etc. I understand.

My maching is also a P4, btw.

Right now, I'm downloading Ubuntu to put onto my MacBook (geez it's gonna get crowded in there!), I only have 188 of 696 so far and I think it's going to take a little while longer. Although I seem to recall that it speeds up when it hits the half-way point.

I'll check out that virtualbox after this.
Is it necessary to run XP as a virtual or just that you like to do it that way.
I've only played around with dual OS on my mac and I'm not sure things how similar it will all be to do the same on the dell.
I used bootcamp when I first put XP on my mac, then recently when my daughter put parallels onto her macbook, I decided to do the same... I like it

I just hope I don't screw up my mac the way I am shoving all this stuff onto it.
Since I already have OSX, and Windows on partitions of their own, I'm hoping I can still put Ubuntu on without any hitch.
I've got some space for a partition that's around 11GB, I believe... I'll have to recheck the stats.
I'm under the impression that Ubuntu takes up less than that?

Thanks for you comments folks... the only reason I'm doing this whole Linux thing is because of you people here.
You've inspired me to slide the slippery slope of silicone saturism (had to think of something that would rhyme)

Yeah, 11 gigs should do for Ubuntu.