Dell XPS M1330n w/ Ubuntu 8.04 Review

Ever since Dell started selling systems with Ubuntu, I considered buying one as a show of support for the pre-installed Linux market. I have been playing with Ubuntu since version 5.04 (Hoary) and have used it regularly since version 6.06 (Dapper). For the past 6 months I had been running 7.10 (Gutsy) primarily on my Lenovo Thinkpad T61, but I decided I wanted a smaller, lighter, and more portable workstation. Consequently last week I purchased a Dell XPS M1330.

The specs are as follows:

• 2GHz Core 2 Duo
• 2GB RAM
• 160GB hard drive
• nVidia 8400m GS graphics w/ 128MB onboard memory
• DVD burner
• 10/100 NIC
• Intel 3945 ABG wireless
• Bluetooth
• Firewire
• SD card reader
• 2x USB
• HDMI & VGA video out
• VGA Webcam
• 13.3” screen with LED backlight
• 4.5 lbs (with the 6-cell battery)

As shown in the picture, the system comes with a slip case, manual in binder, Ubuntu 7.10 CD, Webcam application CD (for Windows), and a small 65W AC adapter.

Although I ordered my new laptop with Ubuntu 7.10 installed, I wanted a dual-boot setup with Windows XP for gaming and Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) for everything else. Consequently I removed all of the partitions that Dell had setup on the machine, which include a recovery partition which can be used to reinstall the system (you can also download Dell's custom Ubuntu DVD image). I setup my new partitions as follows: 40GB NTFS (XP), 25 GB ext3 (/), 80GB ext3 (/home), 4GB (swap). As you can see I setup my system with a separate /home partition which is very handy for reinstalling your OS without losing any of your data or settings.

The following is a list of what works out of the box after installing Ubuntu 8.04:

• Wifi (I connected to my router using WPA encryption without issue)
• Bluetooth (I successfully connected to my cell phone but have not really played with this too much)
• Suspend/Hibernate – Resume
  
• Webcam & Built-in Microphone (installed Cheese and I can take pictures and video with the webcam, make sure you set your Digital Input Source in the Alsa Mixer to Digital Mic in order for the webcam's built-in microphone to work)
• Headphone Jacks, Speakers, & Microphone Jack (in order for the 2^nd Headphone Jack to work you need to enable the Surround output in the Alsa Mixer and Unmute it, to use the Microphone Jack set the Digital Input Source to Analog Inputs, set Input Source to Front Mic and make sure you check the Capture recording levels in the Alsa Mixer)
• SD Card Reader (works with SD and SDHC cards)
• USB ports
• DVD Burner
• 10/100 NIC
• Firewire (mounted external hard drive without issue)
• HDMI and VGA video outputs (works perfectly using the nVidia Settings application which can be installed with Apt)
• Media Control Buttons (volume & eject buttons work well, but the play/pause, stop, next, and previous buttons only work with certain applications)

The following is a list of of tweaks and fixes that I made to get my system working as close to perfect as I could:

• Hard Drive Load Cycle Bug fix (without this I experienced some rather disturbing clicks every so often due to the hard drive parking its read heads too often, which can shorten the life of the hard drive)
  
• Add Dell's Personal Package Archive into Apt
• Blueman bluetooth manager (adds functionality not present in the built-in bluetooth application)
• Wifi activity LED fix (without this the Wifi LED does not turn on regardless of Wifi state)
• CPU Scaling (set your CPU to run lower speeds while idle and on battery power)
• Temperature Monitor (keep track of your CPU's temperature)
• Configure Logitech Mouse (enable all those special buttons' custom abilities)
• Firefox 3 custom bookmark icons (this was necessary because firefox's bookmark icons do not match the applied icon theme and instead default to the horrible root icon set, to remedy this create a custom userChrome.css file in your home directory's /.mozilla/firefox/~.default/chrome folder)
• Configure the Home button using the System-Preferences-Keyboard Shortcuts application
  

Problems I have yet to find solutions for:

• After Resume from Suspend the 2nd CPU core goes into performance mode, staying constantly at the maximum clock speed (Update - 6/28/08 - this appears to have been fixed in one of the recent kernel updates)
  
• Screen Brightness adjustment is not very sensitive, one button press (Fn+Down) takes the screen from full to half brightness
• There doesn't seem to be a way to turn off the Bluetooth radio other than the wireless switch (which also turns off the Wifi) except in the bios

Additional helpful websites:

• Ubuntu Dell XPS 1330 Wiki
• Dell Linux Wiki
• Another Dell XPS M1330 Review

Overall I have been very pleased with this system. It has a fantastic form factor which is light and thin. The keyboard is very good and in many ways I actually prefer it to the Thinkpad's. The LED backlit screen is very sharp and has considerably better contrast, brightness and viewing angles than the Thinkpad's. The glare due to the reflective coating is also minimal. I do wish that the touchpad were larger (a gripe I shared with the Thinkpad) but it works fine in general, and I use a wireless mouse primarily anyway. I am most pleased that this machine runs cooler than the Thinkpad and with considerably better battery life, most likely due to the much smaller screen and more efficient backlight. So far I have been able to get around 4 hours of use with the wireless off and the screen set to half brightness and over 3 hours of general use with the wireless on.