[algar32]

I tried running linux mint and that wasnt as snappy as i wanted it to be and took up 4gbs of harddrive space. I picked linux mint because i thought it was a port of ubuntu which i was told had the drivers built into the kernal. Well linux mint didnt have the sound or the wifi drivers that i needed. Can anyone point me at a good os which is lite but has the drivers built in? Or give me a list of the necessary xp drivers. thnks.

[reflex]

I'm surprised that sound didn't work. As for the Broadcom WiFi that's normally in the Mini 9, it's common to need to install the drivers. In some distros, like Ubuntu, it's easy. In some, like Debian, it's hard.

[algar32]

ok thanks for your help. Seeing as i dont want to install all unnesacary xp drivers could you point me in the direction of the two nesecary drivers ? ( sound and wifi I)

[reflex]

In Ubuntu, the best/easiest way to install the Broadcom WiFi driver is to install the appropriate software package ("bcmwl-kernel-source") via one of the the package managers (like Synaptic). I expect a similar procedure will work in Linux Mint.

As for the sound driver, it should be included. Maybe sound was muted by default (I think this has affected some people). The next time you run Linux on the Mini 9, open a terminal, and run "alsamixer". It's a simple mixer app that let's you adjust speaker volume, mic volume, etc. If there's no sound driver, you won't see all those options. If a input/output is muted, it'll have an "M" at the bottom of the control. Press "m" to mute/unmute when a control is selected.

And about XP, it should run well on the Mini 9, and there should be a thread somewhere around here listing what drivers are needed and where to get them.

[algar32]

yah i saw the the thread with xp drivers... But do i need all of them? I saw some of them said windows 7. I am sure they are compatible but do i really need them? Thanks.

[reflex]

You don't need the 7 drivers, and they aren't compatible.

[algar32]

so i just need everything else that was on that guys list?

[holmes4]

Why are you looking at threads when Dell provides a support page with the drivers?

[piratesmack]

I recently started using this Puppy Linux mod on my 10v.
Puppy Linux Discussion Forum :: View topic - Special Puppy431 for broadcom 4312 (and other?) wifi cards

It comes with the broadcom driver preinstalled, so wireless should work out of the box (at least it did on my 10v).

Only needs 105MB to install, and can coexist with Windows or even another Linux distro on the same partition.

[ish05]

linuxmint9 has been my os for a few months now. Everything works of the box. Your sound may be on mute. wireless drivers have to be activated through the proprietary hardware drivers app. Good luck with your mini. Windows XP runs well on the minis, but as you can see, installing drivers is a hassle. Linux is growing at such a pace that I feel it has surpassed MSWindows. I'm currently trying out pclinuxos 2010 kde. It may not be the fastest os, but it gives me my bling and its been working very well. With PCLOS2010 all proprietary hardware was activated.