This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which drivers you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required drivers have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

Page Contents Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Summary

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Dell Vostro 1000 laptop.

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Specifications

Name	Dell Vostro 1000
Processor	AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2GHz
Screen	15.4" WXGA Widescreen
RAM	2GB
HDD	120GB
Optical Drive	None
Graphics	ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
Network	Ethernet, Dell 1390 (Broadcom) 802.11bg

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
HDD	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes
Sound	Yes
Ethernet	Yes
Wireless	Yes
Modem	Not Tested
USB	Yes
Card Reader	Yes
ExpressCard Slot	Not Tested

Notes

The ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 is not properly supported by Xorg yet so you will need to install the proprietary ATI driver to get a properly functioning display. Support for the 1150 was only recently added to the ATI driver so even if your distribution of choice includes this driver it may not be new enough to support the 1150.

The Broadcom based Dell 1390 wireless controller does not function properly yet with the open source drivers available for it so you will need to install ndiswrapper. You can get the required Windows drivers from here.

For best hardware support you should get a Linux distribution which uses kernel version 2.6.22 or higher.

Summary

The Dell Vostro 1000 is not the best laptop for Linux because of the need to use ndiswrapper and the proprietary ATI drivers.


Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.