Dell keeps improving Linux support

. . . keeping an eye on the penguin

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Jul. 17, 2007

There's been no major improvements in Dell's Linux software support, but there have been small, but handy, improvements in Dell's support offerings. For Dell Ubuntu laptop users, an important addition is the availability of the Conexant modem driver for the Inspiron E1505n and 1420n.

Both laptops use embedded WinModems. Normally, these modems won't work with Linux because they require, as the name implies, built-in support from Windows. After downloading and installing the Conexant drivers, though, Ubuntu users can put their modems to work.

Dell is also offering more 'do-it-yourself' support for its Linux server customers. The company is now offering a hardware repository (for server drivers and utilities and its server management program, OMSA (OpenManage Server Administrator) version 5.2. In addition, the company has opened a software repository for its servers.

Curiously, while Dell officially supports on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Novell's SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), the hardware repository also includes files for CentOS and Scientific Linux. These are both Linuxes that are primarily built from RHEL source code. In addition, there is also support for Fedora, Red Hat's cutting edge community Linux.

According to the Direct2Dell site, all of the software contained in the hardware repository is official, supported Dell software. It's a different story in the software repository.

Here, system administrators can find both community supported open-source utilities and Dell supported open-source utilities. In either case though, all of the software contained in the software repository is supported only via the Linux-PowerEdge mailing list. The software in this repository is community-support only, with no SLA (Service Level Agreement) or other guarantees. The software repository also includes a few files to help run Debian on Dell servers.

In the future, Dell will allow server customers to contribute content to the software repository. Further details on this will be released on the Linux-PowerEdge mailing list.

For people who like to get their hands dirty in Linux, Matt Domsch, Dell's Linux software architect wrote, "One of the coolest tools to come out of the Fedora Project is Revisor, which makes it blindingly simple to create your own custom Linux distribution, where you get to choose the packages you wish to include."

Using Fedora and Revisor, Domsch came up with a recipe for creating what he calls the Dell Firmware Updates LiveCD.

Domsch's guide on creating your own Dell Firmware Updates LiveCD can be found on this Dell Linux wiki page.

--Steven J. Vaughan Nichols

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