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This is a guide to running Linux with the Dell Inspiron 700m laptop. The Inspiron 700m is a subnotebook from Dell which has good support for Linux.
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.
If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.
| Name | Dell Inspiron 700m |
| Processor | Intel Pentium-M 735 1.7GHz |
| Screen | 12.1” WXGA |
| RAM | 512MB |
| HDD | 40GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD-ROM |
| Graphics | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 |
| Network | 10/100 Ethernet, Intel 2200 802.11g Wireless |
| Other | 2 x USB2.0, 1 x Firewire |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | |
| Sound | Yes | Use the snd-intel8x0 module |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | Use the ipw2200 module |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | No | |
| PCMCIA | Not Tested |
As default the native screen resolution of the Dell Inspiron 700m is 1280×800, however due to the way the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 functions this resolution would not be usable right away. You can view our Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950 guide for more information.
Some versions of this laptop use the Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g wireless controller. This wireless controller is functional when using the ndiswrapper module. For installation instructions, you can view our Configuring the ndiswrapper module guide. There are also some experimental modules available for this card which are available here. At this time these drivers are still under development and may not be totally stable.
There were no problems in getting the Dell Inspiron 700m working when used with an up to date Linux distribution. It is recommended to use a Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.16 or greater, such as Fedora Core 5 or Ubuntu 6.06.
Discussion
I am running Ubuntu Jaunty, 9.04 on my Dell Inspiron 700m laptop. I have also tried Mint Linux Gloria, version 7 as well on the machine. I like the plain vanilla Ubuntu better, so here I am. My 700m has 2 Gig of RAM, which is the maximum this machine can handle and 5400-rpm 80 gig drive. Ubuntu Jaunty runs exceptionally well. No, I am not set up for EXT4 file system, only EXT3 on / and /home partitions which is my usual setup for linux. Yes, I understand that you should have separate partitions for /var and others but I like to keep my setup simple.
sorry, forgot to mention that everything works (video is actually Intel 855GME, not 900) except the SD card reader–when you plug in an SD memory card, it mounts but then the whole machine freezes. I only have a 1 Gig SanDisk card. I have read somewhere that it only works with 512 Meg card or under. In Windows XP, the built-in card reader works fine. My wifi works beautifully, even better than Win XP. It's an Intel 2200 B/G mini pcmcia card. One thing I noticed, battery does not last as long under Linux and machine gets a little warmer as well, things I didn't notice when it was running Win XP before.
Ubuntu Hardy works fine
I am currently (07-06-08) running Ubuntu Hardy. It works fine in terms of hardware. In previous version of Ubuntu (Gutsy), the wireless was achieving only 802.11b performance, but after I upgraded to Hardy, it is working at full performance (802.11g). SD card reader might be working but I'm not sure, I tried 2GB card, it worked only once and didn't later on. I think the chipset for SD reader is not compatible with cards greater than 1GB, so it might work with latest Linux distribution and <1GB card.
There are couple handicaps that might be either hardware related or distribution related.
1) Sleep: This function was not working in Gutsy but in Hardy it's working, sort of. About 20% of the time the machine freezes when attempting to sleep. So, I need to shut down the machine with on/off button (even R-E-I-S-U-B trick does not work) which causes instability in the software that were running during crash.
2) Extended desktop: I tried multiple times to make this work but I failed repeatedly, in three different versions of Ubuntu (Feisty-Gutsy-Hardy). I don't know if this is a Intel Graphics driver issue or not. Maybe it can be solved by modifying the Xorg.conf, but I couldn't.
Finally, couple words about the overall performance of Ubuntu in (my) Inspiron 700m; I had 512MB RAM initially when I installed Ubuntu and the system performance was very very poor. I needed to literally wait for some applications to start. I increased the RAM to 1.2GB and it only helped the waiting time to get shorter but still the system performance is not as good as it's reported by other Ubuntu users with other laptop brands.