I used the sarge netinstaller. You can't use the 2.6 kernel, because it doesn't recognise the hd, so use the 2.4 kernel while installing. Then I had to supply VGA=771 at the lilo boot prompt for the net installer to get the config menus to display correctly. When I had installed debian, I tried upgrading to 2.6.8, but whatever I did it just kernel-panic'ed. Then I decided to try 2.6.11, which worked if I changed /dev/hdaX in the kernel options to /dev/sdaX. If you use grub, you change this in /boot/grub/menu.lst. I have no idea about lilo, because I have never used it
Though I discovered a few problems with it -- after installing gnome, the laptop hung a few seconds after starting hald -- solution was to disable dbus altogether. This is a known bug. Then I couldn't get my dvd burner to work, it wasn't even recognised. I joined the linux-dell-laptops mailing list and asked, and a kind person told me the solution: I needed to change #undef ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI to #define ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI in include/linux/libata.h in the kernel source and then recompile. After reading http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc/insp6000/ (which btw is a good source of info on running linux on an inspiron 6000), I decided to go for the newly released 2.6.12.1 kernel, which can be downloaded from kernel.org. Here's my .config. A good description of what is needed to be compiled in is on this page (it seems to be offline currently though, and google hadn't got any cache of it), and do also check the fglrx debian packages page. What I did was that I took the debian stock 2.6.11 kernel config, ran make oldconfig, and then I checked so that it had everything needed, according to those pages. I enabled support for 1-4gb ram. On the stock 2.6.11 kernel, ~140mb was wasted because this wasn't enabled. Also, vesafb didn't seem to work on 2.6.12, it just caused the screen to go black. So I left out the VGA=XXX kernel option.
Yes, I know that my kernel is bloated -- but it works. Maybe I'll come back to it later, and try to make it smaller. I compiled it with make-kpkg --append-to-version whatever kernel_image and installed the resulting kernel package.
The dvd burner works fine on 2.6.12.1, at least for reading. I haven't tested burning yet.
UPDATE: Support for 1-4gb ram was enabled in the stock kernel was enabled, so I dunno why I couldn't use all of my memory. Also, I have been able to burn cds with k3b, after doing chmod a+rw on /dev/sg0, /dev/scd0 and /dev/sr0. However, I never succeeded to burn anything with gnome baker or graveman, for reasons I haven't investigated yet.
UPDATE AGAIN: I compiled and installed the debian 2.6.14 kernel. It works well. It seems like vesafb not working was my own fault, as when compiling with a config based on the debian 2.6.14 vesafb works, but not when compiling with the old config I got from the 2.6.11 kernel.
I decided to immediately upgrade to x.org, because it offers better hardware compatibility. I used this unofficial apt repository.
UPDATE: I do not recommend that repository anymore, as it causes trouble when upgrading to the xorg in etch. If you used that repository because I recommended it, please e-mail me, and I'll try helping you to get rid of it. A backport of xorg for sarge is now available on backports.org.
First I used the ati driver with this xorg.conf, it worked very well after I had commented out Load "GLcore" and Load "dri" (before I did that, I just got the error "no screens found"), but it didn't offer any 3d acceleration. So I decided to try fglrx. I installed the debs from http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html (all but the kernel module binary, which I'll have to compile myself). I then ran module-assistant build fglrx, but that failed with an error. I found the solution on this page. Follow the advice of FoxMan:
UPDATE: note that the following modifications to the source was just needed to get an old version of fglrx to work on 2.6.12 kernels. module-assistant build fglrx should work now.
"You'll have to change all calls to dev->slot_name, because this is not supported by the newer linux kernels anymore. You can use the function pci_name() instead. So just change dev->slot_name to pci_name(dev) and it should compile :)
The other problem is caused by firegl_public.c. It uses the function inter_module_get, you'll have to replace it with the function inter_module_get_request. But inter_module_get_request accepts 2 parameters, inter_module_get appears 3 times in the file. The first time it has to be changed to inter_module_get_request(x,y), the second inter_module_get_request("drm","drm") and the last to inter_module_get_request("drm_agp","drm_agp"). And that's it :)"
I then cd'd into /usr/src/modules/fglrx and ran ./make.sh, which completed without any problems at all. NOTE: do not attempt to run module-assistat build fglrx again. Because that resets the fglrx source to how it was before you modified it. Then follow the info you get at the end of the compilation (mkdir /lib/modules/kernel-version/misc, copy fglrx.ko into /lib/modules/kernel-version/misc and run depmod -ae). Then it is time to restart X. Run fglrxinfo, and if it says something like "OpenGL Vendor String: Mesa", you haven't succeeded. Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for the reason. If it says "OpenGL Vendor String: ATI Technologies Inc.", you have succeeded. Now go run some 3d games, like planetpenguin-racer :). NOTE on composite extension: the fglrx driver doesn't support the composite extension. If you enable it, 3d acceleration will be disabled. Enabling it will also give nice 'effects' on your screen :)
I've gone back to using the ati driver that came with Xorg, as I've noticed that fglrx is very slow for 2d in some cases (especially when switching workspaces) and it's buggy in some cases (try for example using the guifications of gaim and get a noficiation will you're scrolling in a firefox window, also try right-clicking in the message area in X-chat and wait until there's a new message).
Download the ipw2200 driver, the firmware and the 2.6.12 patch from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/. Untar the driver and patch it. i had to explicitly tell it what file it was going to patch. Untar the firmware and put it into /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/. Now, do make && make install. Then modprobe ipw2200, and put ipw2200 into /etc/modules, so you don't have to modprobe it after every reboot.
UPDATE: The changelog of ipw2200 1.0.5 states that it compiles without any patch on a 2.6.12 kernel, therefore that patch ain't necessary. I'm running ipw2200 1.0.4.
UPDATE AGAIN: I've tried 1.0.6 and 1.0.8, and neither worked. I've been in contact with a person who had the same problem. I do not know if the same thing applies to the 1.0.5. As I upgraded to a 2.6.14 kernel, it has ipw2200 1.0.0 in the source tree, so I just chose to build it as a module when configuring it. The 1.0.0 driver works very well, except that I sometimes get a firmware error in the logs which also says that the firmware was restarted. The connection has worked flawlessly, however, so I wouldn't have noticed this if I hadn't looked in the logs.
modprobe acpi-cpufreq && modprobe cpufreq-userspace && apt-get install powernowd. Put acpi-cpufreq and cpufreq-userspace into /etc/modules. cat /proc/cpuinfo to see if it's working. If it does, it should list "cpu MHZ" as something lower than the maximum clock speed. For me it's: "cpu MHz : 798.136" when running at the lowest speed.
UPDATE: Note that if you have compiled the cpufreq userspace driver into the kernel, as I have, you don't have to modprobe it.
UPDATE AGAIN: I found a more efficient way, but it also requires more time to set up. you need to modpobe acpi-cpufreq && modprobe cpufreq-ondemand. Then you need to apt-get cpufrequtils and change /etc/default/cpufrequtils to enable the ondemand speedstep governor. The ondemand governor increases the cpu speed when it's needed much more rapidly than powernowd does.
Also note that if you're on a pre-2.6.11 kernel, you should modprobe speedstep-centrino instead of acpi-cpufreq.
Nothing more complicated than doing apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils, and then running alsaconf. A small problem is that the master volume control doesn't work. Controlling pcm works fine.
Worked very well on xorg, even though I didn't do anything special to make it work, though it didn't have any of the special features with the default driver, and I have made no attempt to enhance this. I've heard that there's an ALPS Glidepoint kernel patch (or xorg driver, or whatever it was), but I haven't tried it. Also, I haven't found out how to disable the touchpad when I've got an external usb mouse connected.
UPDATE: Solution for all problems above: I modified my xorg.conf to look like this and then I made syndaemon start when X started. Note that the touchpad has a section of its own now, with special settings and all.
For this I used xbindkeys. I've heard that lineakd should work well too. To make the volume up, down and mute keys work, I bound them to aumix -w+10, aumix -w-10 and mute, respectively. aumix comes in a separate package and includes the mute command. I have noticed a bit of delay between me pressing a multimedia key and it taking effect, though I haven't had motivation enough to try out for example lineakd, though I may do it in the future.
UPDATE: I tried lineakd, and it rules for my multimedia keys. It does stuff immediately when I press the key, and also provides a nice on-screen display. However, to make it work on an Inspiron 6000, you need to add the following to your /etc/lineakkb.def:
[DELL-6000]
brandname = "Dell"
modelname = "Dell Inspiron 6000"
[KEYS]
Play = 162
Previous = 144
Next = 153
Stop = 164
VolumeUp = 176
VolumeDown = 174
Mute = 160
Eject = 161
[END KEYS]
[END DELL-6000]
Then you can select the inspiron 6000 config from the configuration gui of lineakd and select the commands you want to run for each key when it is pressed. There was just one key I couldn't get to work: the eject key. It's probably related to X though, as the eject key doesn't even give a keycode in xev.
Here's my dmesg, after doing all this. I have no idea what is causing the codec-semaphore and codec_read errors. Also, I have no idea what is causing "allocation failed: out of vmalloc space - use vmalloc=<size> to increase size.". At least these errors haven't caused anything bad to happen for me.
UPDATE: note that this was the dmesg I got for the 2.6.12 kernel.
If you have any suggestion on how to improve this page, find any error, have any question on it or just want to tell me that a tip on this page worked for you, please e-mail me and say so. That will give me motivation for improving it.
E-mail me (Alexander Toresson)