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Re: [LUG] Dell Running Linux Survey

 

Neil Stone wrote:
> 
> TBH, Dells driver CD's for windows are actually quite good.. you insert
> the CD, it detects your hardware and gives you a list of drivers to
> install based upon it's detection.
> 
> Still, 1 hour and 2 CD's (XP and Dells drivers)

Sounds pretty bad to me, compared to the 20 minute Debian installs we
usually manage on DELL hardware (except when the Debian folk have
changed their GPG keys!), which would be a quicker if I got better
organized with the mirrors and such like.

DELL are pretty good with the Linux drivers these days, and I've noticed
a lot of their support CDs are Linux based, so they may be a lot closer
to what folks here would like than is immediately obvious.

I wonder if a lot of the comments about DELL drivers could be resolved
by a few more website admins at the DELL website making sure we know
exactly what drivers DELL have available, and what to use them with.

Probably not the laptops and desktops, but server side they have all the
Redhat drivers and kernels and patches available. I've hit issues trying
to reuse some of these through inadequate details of what works with
what precisely, just the effort of pulling new stuff out for someone who
isn't as experienced as a Debian kernel team member, and the perpetual
"upgrade BIOS, upgrade firmware for x, y, z and come back if it is still
a problem" response from support.

Perhaps I should have asked for a "generic Linux firmware checker" from
DELL to tell me, without downtime, what I'll need to upgrade to get back
to supported/preferred versions. Hmm - that one might be doable by DELL,
given a few standard kernel interfaces exist in your distro......


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