Linux on Dell Inspiron 2100

Configuration:

Linux Version:

RedHat 7.1 install from CD.

The 2100 boots nicely off of the external CD and the RedHat installer understands the screen, mouse and keyboard, so starting up was easy.

Partitioning:

This turned out to be the most difficult part of the process. The machine arrived with 1 large FAT32 partition for Windows ME taking up most of the hard drive. There was also a small unallocated portion of the drive (35 cyl) before the Windows partition.

As I suspected that this unallocated space was used for the BIOS suspend function I did not want to eliminate it and I certainly had space to spare. However, PartitionMagic 6.0 would not create new partitions without reclaiming this space. I used PartitionMagic only to re-size the Windows partition down to 7G, which it did without difficulty.

I booted from the RedHat CD and selected Custom Installation. I then used fdisk (from the RedHat install) to create Linux /boot, swap, / (root), and /home partitions. I created a separate partition for /home so I could potentially re-install without losing data. I considered a separate partition for /usr/local as well, but ultimately decided against. In retrospect, I probably should have split the Windows partition for the same reason, but didn't. After writing the new partition table with fdisk, I went back and used Disk Druid (also from the install CD) to assign mount points to the Linux partitions. The final disk setup was as follows: 

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *        35       926   7164990    b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda2   *       927       929     24097+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           930       995    530145   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda4           996      2432  11542702+   f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5           996      1505   4096543+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6          1506      2432   7446096   83  Linux

Installation:

The rest of the installation was uneventful. I kept the defaults on all hardware menus expect mouse, where I selected the ALPS GlidePoint as suggested in some of the Inspiron 4000 accounts. As I was performing a Custom install, it presented a menu of packages to install. I selected all non-server packages (which when installed consumed a total of 2.3G). The actual package installation went off without a hitch.

The system installed and booted perfectly: X windows and audio worked without further configuration.

LILO:

LILO was setup for Linux and DOS boot and both work as expected. I added the line: append="mem=256m" to the Linux section of lilo.conf and re-installed LILO. This may be superstition, but earlier versions of RH only recognized 64M by default.

Misc:

I also disabled the daily updatedb cron job, which seemed to start up, exercise the disk, and run down the battery at inopportune times.

I tend to get about 2.5 hours of development type work from the 34wh battery, which is acceptable.

The fn-suspend function works very nicely for both Linux and Windows and saves many reboots (which are fast enough but tend to drain battery).

All and all, I am very pleased with this machine and with RH7.1.

Disclaimer: This is intended as a narrative of my experience loading Linux on an Inspiron 2100 laptop. It is not intended as advice or recommendations. Your results may vary.