This page offers some experience on how an install of SuSE 10.1 Linux went on a fully loaded $5000 Dell Latitude D820.

I've recently upgraded this laptop to SuSE 10.2, so this page will not be updated further. 

Configuration

Here is the output from lspci.

Here's a screenshot of Xgl/Compiz running. To take a screenshot like this with the default desktop effect hotkeys, you have to change the accelerator in Gnome from print (printscreen) to CTRL+ALT+print. From there you can rotate the cube with CTRL+ALT+Mouse1 and tap the printscreen key with your nose.

Details

The installation CD had no problems with any of the hardware aside from the EVDO card (and possibly the modem, but I'll never use it anyway). After loading the proprietary nVidia driver from here I enabled Xgl by using this page. So far Xgl has been very stable on this laptop (aside from *.swf files crashing Firefox - update with smart and it seems stable), I'm very happy with it. One catch: DON'T go into Sax in the Gnome Control Center. I'm not sure why, but after setting up the driver and turning on Xgl, if I enter Sax and save the changes it detects, the keyboard doesn't work under X. It's a simple fix to get back to your X config before Sax changed it if you've done this (CTRL+ALT+F3, login, cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.saxsave /etc/X11/xorg.conf, reboot).

I borrowed a Think Outside bluetooth keyboard to test the bluetooth on the D820 out. It appears that there's a nasty bug in kbluetoothd that makes using it a pain, so I just went with the command line tools, hcitool and hidd. For simple HIDs (Human Interface Devices), put your device in pairing mode, use hcitool scan to find the MAC, then hidd --connect MAC Address to connect.

One of the features of SuSE 10.1 is NetworkManager, part of Gnome. I initially had some issues with it not working correctly (ie, wireless wouldn't work 80% of the time) but that might have been partially my unfamiliarity with NetworkManager (make sure you're typing in the right kind of key - hex or ascii). After setting my wireless up about 5 times it now switches from wired to wireless correctly. My only advice here is don't be afraid to reboot after setting it up before using it (it also can be slow to switch from one device to another). My only gripe with it is WPA support is still somewhat flakey (ie, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't for no reason) but I think that's a problem with wpa_supplicant, not NetworkManager.

Another small catch with SuSE 10.1 is the ipw3945 driver that is used on the D820. It's been compiled without monitor support. This means you won't be running Kismet in any worthwhile capacity without installing the newest ieee80211 subsystem and ipw3945 drivers from the Sourceforge projects, just make sure to uncomment the monitor lines in the Makefile of the ipw3945 drivers before compiling. One odd thing I ran into while trying this is the ipw3945 drivers do not make install. You have to load them with a ./load script, which I put in my boot.local file.

The dual core T2600 chip runs great. There was one detail in setting it up however: cat /proc/cpuinfo only showed one processor. Woops! As it turns out, it's due to ACPI. I run without ACPI a lot so it doesn't interfere with VMWare. But it looks like no ACPI = no dual core. Here is the results of /proc/cpuinfo before and after.

Installing smart

In SuSE 10.1, the updating capabilities are completely broken. Your best bet to get updates is to use the smart package manager. Otherwise you're in for a world of pain trying to get YaST to update anything correctly. Why they did away with YOU and went to libzypp I'll never know. At any rate, smart is a (wait for it...) smart choice. Save that joke and laugh at it later.

Here is how I installed smart with the Guru packages and what it looked like:

Loose ends...

The Dell Wireless 5700 EVDO card

The Dell Wireless 5700 EVDO card (also called the Novatel XV620 I think...) I'm still working on. Here's the result from kcmshell kcmusb:

Here's the relevant results of cat /proc/bus/usb/devices:

T: Bus=05 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 6 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=413c ProdID=8114 Rev= 0.00
S: Manufacturer=Novatel Wireless Inc.
S: Product=Novatel Wireless EXPD CDMA
C:* #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 64 Ivl=128ms
E: Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E: Ad=84(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=04(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms

When I do a modprobe usbserial vendor=0x413c product=0x8114 I get two (?) devices that show up under /dev: a ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1. I'll try to put together a script for pppd later.

The Fingerprint Reader

I've started to investigate the fingerprint reader. Here's the output for it from kcmshell kcmusb:

Check back later for more information.