Dell Mini recommendations

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ivanovnegro
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Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:20 pm

My mom gave me a Dell Mini 10 with an Intel Atom processor and 1 GB RAM. I have no idea what to put on it. It is the weakest hardware I ever had to play with.

I think I would prefer Xfce as the DE and some sort of Debian on it. I ask here because I want to give it back to her with Linux installed on it, so no WMs or else I would go for something like spectrwm.

It needs the fucked up b43 firmware for wifi. That is why I need a LAN cable to install Debian even with the non free ISO.

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GekkoP
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by GekkoP » Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:36 pm

^ Oh yes, that b43 is a bitch.

pidsley
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by pidsley » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:42 pm

I'd go Debian stable with LXDE. I used to use an Atom all the time.

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vic
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by vic » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:22 pm

^A good choice. I have a similar setup on my eee with 2 GB RAM. Everything works well as long as I do one thing at a time. Surfing on the web is a pain though. Web pages is getting more and more heavier to load every year. So one have to be patient.
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franksinistra
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by franksinistra » Thu Nov 23, 2017 4:18 pm

Damn right, i still have a netbook from 2008 (N270 atom, much weaker than that Dell Mini) gutted, put a single delta fan (from an old IBM X3400) on it, and turn it into a home spotify-client. Running chromium in it is already a strain, and this laptop limits installed RAM to just 2GB. I only installed xfwm4 from the repo (not full blown XFCE) in it.
rice no more.

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gutterslob
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by gutterslob » Fri Nov 24, 2017 2:28 am

^ That's actually a good idea. Plug in into power full time, wired LAN connection, tuck it away somewhere cool, and use it as a headless client of some sort.

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:43 pm

Thanks guys. Debian stable will be it. Probably LXDE instead of Xfce.

If it were for me, damn I would just put a WM on it and enjoy using it on the train. :)

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wuxmedia
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by wuxmedia » Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:32 am

^^ chrome/ium runs headless as well, I saw somewhere. not sue if that's any use though.
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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:52 pm

Debian Stretch perfectly installed with LXDE. Only problem is the mouse cursor is somehow invisible. Never saw something like this. I can see it. But it disappears like a weak wifi signal. It is only lightly visible on the right edge of the screen. In other words the mouse or touch pad works but the cursor is not there. Changing the theme does not help.
What could be the problem?

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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by pidsley » Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:20 pm

^ Does "lspci" tell you the machine has intel video? Try removing the xserver-xorg-video-intel package and restarting (yes I know this seems wrong, but please try it anyway -- the intel driver has some known issues and this should fall back to the modesetting driver).

Do you have any xorg config files? Are you using a touchpad? Have you tried connecting a USB mouse? Is the xserver-xorg-input-libinput package installed, or just xserver-xorg-input-synaptics?

Did you install 32 or 64 bit?

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 4:53 pm

Yes, it has Intel video.

Removing the driver leads to a black screen without LightDM showing up.

No xorg conf file here. Yes, it is a touchpad and an external USB mouse is not working, it does the same invisible cursor behavior.

I installed the 32 bit version.

The black screen impedes me to see if the other xorg packages are in use or not.

I will try the recovery mode and the other packages you mentioned.

I know that in save mode in some other distributions I had the cursor but not when I installed and tried them normally, so it is not Debian specific.

First I have to fix the black screen. It seems I need the Intel driver back but this machine does not allow me to access a virtual console.

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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by pidsley » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:08 pm

Crap. Sorry about that. I thought you'd be able to switch to another tty and reinstall the intel driver if it broke. ctrl-alt-f2 doesn't work? Let me do a little more research.

You should be able to boot without LXDM by editing the grub kernel line at boot time (press 'e' when you see grub) and add

Code: Select all

systemd.unit=multi-user.target
to the end of the kernel line. You should now boot into a console.

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:24 pm

No worries.
pidsley wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:08 pm
Crap. Sorry about that. I thought you'd be able to switch to another tty and reinstall the intel driver if it broke. ctrl-alt-f2 doesn't work? Let me do a little more research.
I thought the same but this keyboard somehow does not let me switch consoles. There lies the problem.

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:32 pm

pidsley wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:08 pm
You should be able to boot without LXDM by editing the grub kernel line at boot time (press 'e' when you see grub) and add

Code: Select all

systemd.unit=multi-user.target
to the end of the kernel line. You should now boot into a console.
This also does not work. Wow. What fucked up hardware. Not very compatible. Let my try some more things otherwise I can reinstall, I won't lose anything but kill a kitten because of a new install. Not even recovery mode works.

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:40 pm

Update: The last line for the kernel was my fault. I tried it again. I think there was a typo.

Now reinstalling the Intel driver. But so far thank you Pidsley. I feel like trying out Linux for the first time. :D

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:50 pm

I installed the synaptic driver because I hoped it would work. libinput is installed. Still no mouse pointer.

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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by pidsley » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:59 pm

Does anything change if you try

Code: Select all

sudo xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
?

I really have no clue at this point. All the searches I have tried pointed at the input or video drivers. Sorry.

(edit) I suppose you could try Debian Xfce or Lubuntu -- Lubuntu might have drivers and a kernel that would work better with that hardware (or might not).

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:18 pm

I already tried Lubuntu and some other distros. All lose the cursor. It is not even present at install time or in the live session. Something is wrong with this Dell.
Under Windows 7 it worked but it was a pain to use the touchpad because I could not adjust it to my liking.

The command does nothing either.

I hope I find some more ideas.

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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by pidsley » Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:23 pm

Can I see the full output of "lspci -knn" ? I will try searching if you give me more information.

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ivanovnegro
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Re: Dell Mini recommendations

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:45 pm

Code: Select all

lspci -knn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27ac] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub [1028:02f4]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [1028:02f4]
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci_hcd
00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci
	Kernel modules: ehci_pci
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
	Kernel modules: intel_rng, lpc_ich, leds_ss4200
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] [8086:27c4] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
	Kernel modules: ata_piix, ata_generic
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000c]
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [1028:02f4]
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

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