Tue 25 Mar 2008
Dear Lazy web: anyone with a Dell XPS M1330 + Ubuntu out there ?
Posted by magicfab under Advocacy , Dell , English , Libre , Linux , Tech , Ubuntu , Ubuntu PlanetSo tonight I was asked what I thought of the Dell XPS 1330 with Ubuntu pre-installed… not having seen one I took a few minutes to search on the vast cyberspace only to come back empty-handed.
So… can anyone of those lucky enough to have ordered one report their experience somewhere public ? Or just point my incompetent searching skills to any existing blog posts or reviews ? I can’t seem to find any! Thanks!
March 25th, 2008 at 22:53
Have a look here: http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1165
March 25th, 2008 at 23:07
I have Ubuntu 7.10 installed on a M1330 — but bought before Dell pre-installed. I picked the LED/nVidia/Intel-N/Bluetooth options and haven’t really run into unsolvable issues with hardware support.
I found this link helpful:
http://www.nervous.it/2007/11/linux-dell-xps-m1330/
March 25th, 2008 at 23:22
Piotr: Jono bought his 1330 before Ubuntu was available pre-installed on it.
Mike, all: I am only seeking actual Dell + Ubuntu pre-installed reviews / reports *not* Dell + Vist/XP then Ubuntu. Tx anyways
March 25th, 2008 at 23:45
Je sais que ce n’est pas exactement ce que tu cherches, mais en attendant, voici:
http://reviews.dell.com/2341/709/reviews.htm (quelques-unes concernent Ubuntu).
http://reviews.dell.com/2341-fr_ca/709/reviews.htm
(toutes concernent Ubuntu).
Idem:
http://reviews.dell.com/2341-es_es/709/reviews.htm
Voilou!
March 25th, 2008 at 23:58
Jean-Luc: all excellent except NONE refer to Ubuntu pre-installed Dell systems.
March 26th, 2008 at 0:43
I purchased one (with Ubuntu Gutsy pre-installed), everything was working out of the box (though I haven’t tested the HDMI port yet). It’s a sweeeet laptop, really is. Awesome battery life, nice brushed metal finish, good keyboard, very handy sensitive media keys. Wifi worked out of the box as well. I strongly recommend it.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:36
Check out this link and the guy’s previous posts:
http://adventuresinopensource.blogspot.com/2008/03/laptop-review-dell-xps-m1330n-ubuntu.html
March 26th, 2008 at 2:51
http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/102528/
german but many users with this subnotebook
March 26th, 2008 at 5:35
I have a friend who bought one of these. Everything works out of the box, except the HDMI output that segfaults X. It quite a nice box, good looking at light. I am a bit jealous.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:57
I also bought one with Gutsy. Its shiny, quite fast and I’m very happy with it - money well spent and windows tax avoided.
Not everything worked perfectly out of the box though. One thing that irritated me was getting the built in microphone to work. I hate having to fiddle with alsa-setting that I don’t really understand and feeling like a tosser saying “testing, testing” (or more colourful phrases) repeatedly . Fortunately, there is a fix on Dell’s site (http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.10/Issues/Built_In_Digital_Mic_Does_Not_Work)
Still haven’t got an external microphone to work but since the internal one is good that OK. Anyway finally great to have skype working with the built-in web cam.
A real irritation is the ipw3945 wireless module dropping or locking during heavy transfer weights. Apparently this can be fixed by blacklisting it and using the iwl3945 module which i haven’t tried.
A minor irritation was that compiz fusion doesn’t work out of the box with the Intel graphics card (but does work with the nvidia card). So much for being moral and buying the graphics card supposedly well supported by open source drivers.
Last thing that didn’t work perfectly out of the box was the eject button and I’ve yet to get around to fixing that.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:54
I bought one. I have some problems with Kubuntu though…
March 26th, 2008 at 8:42
Check my blog. I posted a review some time ago on planet ubuntu.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:45
Mine arrived the other day. Wireless works, webcam works, everything I’ve tried works just fine. Quite pleased with the laptop.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:49
Here is some doc in french:
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/dell_xps_m1330
enjoy!
March 26th, 2008 at 11:37
Salut Fabian,
“NONE” is a bit too much
Ok, it seems that this is reviews for M1330 (whatever os). But you can search and find some with ubuntu preinstalled:
Example: http://reviews.dell.com/2341/709/reviews.htm?pageNumber=2
review 23: “I bought the Ubuntu version of the M1330 […]”
March 26th, 2008 at 13:23
Jean-Luc: you’re right, I only searched page one! Much appreciated, tx.
Maciej: wow! exactly what I was looking for.
Antoine: lots of details! Tx.
Thanks to all who replied, I’ll most probably make a summary post.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:33
I originally purchased a m1330 in nov 2007 with Vista per-installed and replaced it with Ubuntu 7.10. It’s been running really fine since then. Everything works, wifi, bluetooth, video-out on all ports (hdmi, vga) - I personally use dual-monitors setups both at work with hdmi and at home with vga all with Gnome+Compiz-Fusion. Some good links for Ubuntu+x1330:
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Products/Consumer
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallingUbuntuOnADellXPSM1330
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=622378
Have fun,
Colin.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:56
Hi, I also bought a Dell XPS M1330 with Ubuntu pre-installed. Was toying with this laptop for some time already vs. getting a (cheaper) Dell laptop w/ Ubuntu pre-installed, mostly to display that I really support their move. So the offer of an XPS M1330 w/ Ubuntu was just what I wanted and was the final point to drive my decision home to buy such a sweet thing…
I’m very, very happy with my laptop. Most of the things I needed worked out of the box.
Issues I’ve seen so far:
1. Compiz did not work out of the box. Did work after overriding Compiz’ safety checks, though. Seems to be fixed w/ Hardy, from what I’ve heard.
2. The card reader does not like my SD card… Still need some time to figure out what’s up with this.
Everything else worked fine for me (hardware buttons, wifi, …).
I didn’t test external monitor output and the DVD player (although LinDVD is preinstalled), though.
I don’t have Bluetooth and don’t have a fingerprint reader in my laptop.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:59
i have an m1330 running ubuntu 7.10. so far i’ve gotten everything working that i can think of that i would use in windows. most of it out of the box. wireless, apm, nvidia, integrated webcam/mic (the webcam also works with flash with the vloopback module so you can use sites like stickam), sd reader, dvd and cd playback/ripping/burning (i converted the lindvd mandriva rpm to a .deb and use k9copy/k3b), fingerprint works with gdm and pam, ir remote works with media players and firefox, all the media buttons work, i can play wow with wine (about to try out cod4), my logitech bt v470 mouse works great, ushare works better than the windows media extender, etc. so far i haven’t had a problem getting anything working. i finally got an hdmi cable so that’s pretty much the last thing i need to set up. all in all it’s a great laptop combined with ubuntu. i also have a m1210 running fc8 and everything works too in case anyone wanted cheaper 12″ laptop with dedicated graphics.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:10
for clarification, i bought a system with the fingerprint reader then used the ubuntu iso dvd provided by dell. the pre-installed ubuntu systems are $50 cheaper but i really wanted the fingerprint reader and already had a dell dvd to boot up with.