Dell Inspiron 1525

Introduction
This article is dedicated to the Dell Inspiron 1525, which can be bought with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. As it already ships with Linux, most (if not all) hardware should run.

Selecting codec chip model
This needs clarification.

Using the microphone
To activate the microphone you have to enable all Capture and Mux channels (left and right) and also set Input Source to Digital Mic.

On one system, the built-in speakers were playing from the surround channels. If you are not getting sound, be sure to check that your surround channels are not muted.

Wireless
There are many different Broadcom chips that can be shipped with Dell Inspiron 1525. Therefore, make sure you find the correct drivers for the Broadcom card you have.

Broadcom 43xx kernel driver
Your chip may be supported by b43 or b43legacy drivers. See the Broadcom 43xx article for list of supported/unsupported devices and useful information. If your chip isn't supported, you can use Ndiswrapper or Official Broadcom driver - both work well.

Ndiswrapper
Use the driver provided by Dell. The DRIVER_US folder contains the driver information file bcmwl5.inf which then can be used with Ndiswrapper.

Official Broadcom driver
Emerge net-wireless/broadcom-sta.

Framebuffer
This table lists kernel command line parameter "vga=" suitable for use with vesafb.

Kernel Configuration
Here is a working kernel configuration for this laptop.

Dell Inspiron 1525