The horror in the Dell

[mdlbear]

Looking back, I can see that the trouble began the day I started to configure a new desktop computer for work (I'd been using a rather ancient 400MHz machine with a large but very fuzzy monitor; my boss had suggested that I order a new one).


Since the company buys mostly Dell computers (we get a discount), and since if you order a workstation they'll ship it with Linux factory-installed, that's what I did. I quickly settled on a Precision 560n workstation with a gorgeous 20" LCD monitor, 1600x1200. The best video card for the job looked like the ATI FireGL E1, dual-monitor capable and one of the few that was specified as driving the display at full resolution.

Since I didn't see the card in RedHat's hardware compatibility list, I called Dell technical support and checked to make sure it was supported. That was the fundamental mistake. Never order hardware that isn't certified as being fully supported.

Finally everything was configured, the PO was signed off, and our procurement person called up Dell to order it -- only to be told that they didn't make that model with Linux. Never mind that I'd configured it on their website the previous day. The sales rep (not our usual one; she was out that day) pointed us at another, similar configuration (larger case, Xeon instead of P4; about the same price). OK, we went with that.

And waited.

A week passed. So we called, only to find that a fan was on backorder. Estimated ship date March 13^th, which was then about two weeks away. So we went back to the original configuration, which of course was available after all. They expedited it and it arrived three business days later. I was in a meeting, of course; before I went home I only had time to unpack it and plug it all together -- and to try out the new monitor on my old machine: gorgeous.

It took an unexpectedly long time to configure the machine. Normally you install your Linux distro, the installer auto-detects your hardware and asks you a few questions about your network and display preferences, and you're off. In this case the OS had already been installed, so it was up to the boot-time new-hardware-detection program, (called kudzu -- this should have been a clue). It didn't ask the right questions, made some stupid assumptions, and set me up with a 1024x800 display. Cute.

After another hour or so of fiddling with /etc/X11/XF86Config to fix the resolution and add my favorite trackball alongside the USB mouse, I was ready to tweak the gdm config file to give me three independent X servers on separate virtual terminals, which is the way I prefer to work: one for my regular desktop, which I leave logged in for months, one for experimentation, and one for root. (And in the darkness bind them.)

It wouldn't switch VTs -- in fact it scribbled on the top of the display and locked up the display, monitor, and keyboard. Even logging in from the network and killing the X server didn't fix it -- reboot time. Several times. Update from RedHat using their network update service, once I figured out how to register my new machine and update its "entitlements". Of course, without my three desktops I couldn't get much work done in this configuration. The update didn't fix it, of course.

So then I figured, well, might as well at least try to do some work anyway, and moved over the (still fairly new) 120GB drive, with my home directory, /usr/local, and /opt on it, from the old machine. Nice case. Nice rails, with little rubber grommets to reduce noise. Cabling a little tight... Eventually it worked.

That's when I noticed that RedHat 8.0 had a few pieces missing. No elm -- I was using one of the commands in that package. No ical -- that's my calendar program. No Java. No Tomcat web server -- there goes the development environment for my current project. OK, time to upgrade it back to 7.3, which fortunately was on the new disk, too.

Ah, that's better!

Finally, it's time to see about a new video driver. Check Dell's website: it's the same version as the one I have, but I install it anyway. Reboot. I noticed that it's not just a video driver; there's a kernel module of some kind packaged with it. Dell provides a wrapper that re-installs the module when you upgrade your kernel.

Check ATI's website. It's newer -- AHA! says I to myself. But it still doesn't fix the problem. Reboot. Reboot and try it on RH8.0, too. Reboot. This is beginning to get old; the last time I rebooted my old machine was some time in January when I installed the big disk.

Time to call Dell technical support. Right. The first tech I spoke to didn't even sound like she'd even heard of Linux. But she said it wasn't an installation problem. The second tech (reached via a different path in the menu tree) said it was RedHat's problem. I pointed out that Dell provided the driver, but...

So off I go to RedHat's tech support. The tech expressed bafflement and told me to submit a bug report. So I did that -- Bugzilla I can deal with. Took most of the afternoon to put in a good, thorough writeup.

Bright and early the next morning (this brings us up to this Tuesday, I believe) I find a "closed: NOTABUG" message in my email. Seems it's not supported because the driver contains a proprietary, binary-only kernel module. After banging my head on the desk a couple of times I fire off an email to Dell tech support. Well, actually I use a web form, because support's email address isn't anywhere on their website.

Back comes an email, generated by what they grandly refer to as an Artificial Intelligence program. Probably grep, at a guess. It apparently noticed the keyword "linux" in the subject line and spewed forth several pages of installation hints, finally pointing me at Linuxcare for support. Oh, they have support contract with Linuxcare, do they?

Off we go to Linuxcare. I submit my bug report on the form they provided -- again -- and get back an email saying they don't support Dell anymore. Actually, I'd already figured that out from the fact that their collection of downloadable drivers was last updated in 1999.

Back we go to Dell. Reboot, to satisfy myself that, no, it didn't work with the kernel they originally shipped, either. I couldn't remember whether I'd tested before or after the update. Reboot back to 7.3 to get some work done. Fire off a reply to Dell's 'bot. Fire off another email (now that I have their address; it's support@dell.com, of course) to inform them that their 'bot is giving out obsolete information.

Get back email from a clueless tech who asks me not to use HTML in my mail, and asks for details. My best guess is that he'd never seen angle brackets used Usenet-style for quoting before. Rephrase the details. Repeat the reference to the bug report, this time including some quotations.

Get back email from another clueless tech about the 'bot: sorry you're having trouble with your computer, please tell me your service tag number and what OS you're running, and give details. And some boilerplate approximating "I hope the problems you're having with your computer don't reflect the quality of service you expect from Dell". It's about your website, you moron. (By this time I'm SHOUTING.) And at this point I can tell you exactly what kind of service I've come to expect from Dell.

One more exchange because I'd typeo'ed the service tag ID. Then silence.

Finally get back email from first clueless tech: Dell doesn't support Linux. Try Linuxcare. My most recent email pointed out that I'd already tried that. Silence.

Meanwhile, I'm checking out Dell's support forum. It's poorly organized and slow as molasses, but I register and post a query. Figure it can't hurt. Silence.

By now I've had to register no less than five times: Dell's tech support, Dell's forums, RedHat's update service, RedHat's Bugzilla, and Linuxcare.

Finally get around to tracking down and reading their support contract -- it only covers hardware. Surprise.


Moral of the story, never buy any hardware that doesn't have open-source drivers. Never trust a sales droid. Never buy from Dell. Keep away from RedHat 8.0 -- anything.0, for that matter. Go down to Fry's, throw something together out of standard, supported parts, and put Debian on it.

Oh, well. The machine is nice and fast, the monitor is stunningly beautiful, and some day maybe someone will come up with a video driver for the FireGL E1 that supports multiple VTs.

And somewhere at Dell is the person who packaged up that driver and certified the board for use with Linux. Wonder how he'd look with...

Comments

[eleccham.livejournal.com]

I put together a machine for my father recently for under $1000 that was pretty darn close to top-of-the line... it's amazing how cheap they are these days.