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Dell Latitude E5400
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Dell Latitude E5400 laptop.
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Dell Latitude E5400. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Dell Latitude E5400 page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Dell Latitude E5400 specifications page.
| Name | Dell Latitude E5400 |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0GHz |
| Screen | 14.1” WXGA Widescreen |
| RAM | 1-4GB |
| HDD | 80-250GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | Intel 4500MHD Graphics Accelerator |
| Network | Ethernet, Intel 5100 802.11abgn, Bluetooth |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | |
| Sound | Yes | |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| WWAN/3G | Not Tested | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested |
Notes
Graphics
Graphics works perfectly with the “intel” driver of xorg. You get a nice WXGA widescreen. You will need Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10 or something released around this time for support.
Wireless
The Intel 5100 wireless controller work but you need to use a Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.27 or higher.
Sound
For sound support, you will need to install ALSA version 1.0.18 or greater. Since most Linux distributions do not include this as standard you will need to install it manually. See our guides section for installation instructions on several distributions
Touchpad
Touchpad does not work in multi-touch mode.
Summary
The Dell Latitude E5400 works well with Linux as long as you use a Linux distribution which includes kernel version 2.6.27 or higher.
Discussion
How do you change from portrait to landscape view on the Dell E5400?
Found the answer myself!!
Ctl+Alt+ up arrow key
I have a dell latitude e5400 and I installed WoW ya Im a geek lol… but I assume the video card isnt good enough it just shows like red and green and another color. I shows the bottom bars and everything but it wont display anyhting but one huge color. Any ideas.
My laptop works fine with Ubuntu 9.04, there is just one problem, when ever X shuts down (in example, if I am shutting down my laptop, there is a brief moment when X is down, and there is only text on the screen, before the progress bar kicks in, the screen flickers madly) I hope the this issue will be resolved either when Ubuntu 9.10 is released or if I change distro, I have tried the latest Arch, it worked fine, but with Ubuntu is just flickers. However During boot the screen works fine through BIOS and GRUB, so I do not think it is a lose connector.
I am thinking of switching to Fedora of openSUSE.
ive installed fedora 11 on my laptop and cannot get the wireless to work (new to linux) can someone help me theron4life@gmail.com
Apparantly openSUSE got some updates for the wireless drivers: it now supports the BCM 4312 out of the box. You can use it as a native wireless driver, e.g. you can use the Network Manager and you don't have to hassle with ndiswrapper or wicd. :)
I've written something more detaied about the E5400 on Gentoo: http://guido-flohr.net/dell/latitude-e5400/
hi, great guide… many thanks…
just one problem of very low audio. i've upgraded from alsa 1.0.17 to 1.0.19, but the problem persists. how to check if i'm still using the 1.0.17 version?
thanks
matteo
i am haveing some trouble with sound on my laptop and i am not to sure where to go with it. i was wondering if some one on here can help me… i can get sound and i can hear everything but you have to really listen to hear it. at full sound it's still rather hard to hear it. I am in college at itt tech and i do presentations and previews on my laptop and no one in class can hear anything. if anyone has any advise let me know rocketgirl181990@yahoo.com
Dell Latitude E5400
Ubuntu 8.04 installed near perfectly,only issue was the Broadcom Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01) which eventually installed with ndiswrapper without problems (from an Ubuntu how-to) and so far seems stable. But might only support WEP, still cannot connect with WPA
I was finally able to connect to a WPA network with the BCM 4312 wireless card, but only with the wicd network configuration utility (which replaces network manager). The SSID also had to be broadcasted, as it would not connect when they were hidden. Boo.
ndiswrapper gave me the same results, although I did not test with wicd so I don't know if it will actually work.
Info:
DIstro - Ubuntu 8.10
kernel - 2.6.27-11-generic
Module - wl