Solved A quick Dell Latitude question - edited, more help needed

[Beachcomber]

Hi all, it's been a wee while since I posted on here, mainly because everything's ticking along nicely running Mint on the Dell Latitude 5490 you guys helped me purchase over a year ago now. So nicely, in fact, that both my mum and my brother are wanting to make the switch to laptops running Linux too! They're both on Apple devices at the moment - my mum on an iPad that barely works anymore because it's too old to update (even though the machine itself is fine!!!)... and my brother uses an iPhone. I'd have to set everything up for them and teach them how to use it, so (as I'm highly non-technical), I'm wanting to get something as close as possible to the one I've got, just so I already know how to use it. I'd really appreciate one of you knowledgeable lot giving this laptop a quick glance before I go ahead and spend someone else's money!

My one is a Dell Latitude 5490 Core i5-8350U, with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. I paid £115 for it (I'm not sure I'm going to get such a good deal this time).

I can't find any nice-looking ones with 16GB and 512GB SSD - most of them seem to be 256GB. Is that enough? I'll be honest, I don't have a clue. THIS is one that's jumping out at me. It's a Core i7-8650U 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD for £249.95 + £30 P&P.

I'd love a second opinion, or I'm open to other suggestions if you've seen a better deal or better specs anywhere else. The advice here was invaluable when I bought my laptop, so I thought I'd run it by you all this time too - hope you don't mind!

 

[Condobloke]

Welcome back.

The price shows as £274.95

It comes with Windows 11. Will installing Linux void that warranty?

That machine would be very quick. Quite impressive.

256 GB is the same as mine. It is more than big enough, however I use an external drive (connected via usb) to store Timeshift snapshots, Backups, Music and Data on. So, if the main drive goes south for some reason, my important stuff is safe(ish)

 

[KGIII]

Will installing Linux void that warranty?

Nope. It'll negate your software support, but the hardware is still warrantied.

(US laws, at least. Likely also mostly global.)

 

[Alexzee]

Just a suggestion:-

Before you purchase a new pc go online of the manufactures website and download the (Asus, MSI, Gibabyte) motherboard's manual. The more you know (key for the BIOS and etc.) about that machine the more at ease you'll be.

I always make sure the wifi is covered in the Linux kernel at the very least.

I'm with our member @Condobloke an additional external for your Timeshift snapshots will make a difference.
Allowing them to fill up the 256 GB drive will fill up very quickly thus not allowing you to perform system updates.

 

[kc1di]

I have a Lattitude 5310 with 16 gigs and 256gig ssd and it works very well and meets my needs. so I'd say if you find one at a good price go for it.

 

[Beachcomber]

Welcome back.

The price shows as £274.95

It comes with Windows 11. Will installing Linux void that warranty?

That machine would be very quick. Quite impressive.

256 GB is the same as mine. It is more than big enough, however I use an external drive (connected via usb) to store Timeshift snapshots, Backups, Music and Data on. So, if the main drive goes south for some reason, my important stuff is safe(ish)

It still says £249.95 for me. Are you outside the UK?

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'm going to show how little I know now! I was just about to say that I didn't think I had Timeshift activated, but it turns out I do! Where do the files get stored? I can only see the last two (today and yesterday) in the File System folder.

 

[Beachcomber]

I always make sure the wifi is covered in the Linux kernel at the very least.

Sorry (again), I'm not actually sure what you mean by the wifi being covered?

 

[Fae3iSUx]

Hi all, it's been a wee while since I posted on here, mainly because everything's ticking along nicely running Mint on the Dell Latitude 5490 you guys helped me purchase over a year ago now. So nicely, in fact, that both my mum and my brother are wanting to make the switch to laptops running Linux too! They're both on Apple devices at the moment - my mum on an iPad that barely works anymore because it's too old to update (even though the machine itself is fine!!!)... and my brother uses an iPhone. I'd have to set everything up for them and teach them how to use it, so (as I'm highly non-technical), I'm wanting to get something as close as possible to the one I've got, just so I already know how to use it. I'd really appreciate one of you knowledgeable lot giving this laptop a quick glance before I go ahead and spend someone else's money!

My one is a Dell Latitude 5490 Core i5-8350U, with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. I paid £115 for it (I'm not sure I'm going to get such a good deal this time).

I can't find any nice-looking ones with 16GB and 512GB SSD - most of them seem to be 256GB. Is that enough? I'll be honest, I don't have a clue. THIS is one that's jumping out at me. It's a Core i7-8650U 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD for £249.95 + £30 P&P.

I'd love a second opinion, or I'm open to other suggestions if you've seen a better deal or better specs anywhere else. The advice here was invaluable when I bought my laptop, so I thought I'd run it by you all this time too - hope you don't mind!

Hi,

In March, I bought a used HP ProBook 430 G5 with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 16GB RAM, and a 128GB SATA SSD for £75.

I later upgraded it to 32GB RAM (maximum supported) and replaced the 128GB SATA SSD with a 256GB NVMe SSD. The upgrades were straightforward since the components are easily accessible through the back panel.

You could take a similar approach—buy a Dell model you like, then upgrade the RAM and/or SSD yourself. It will likely cost less than buying a pre-upgraded laptop from eBay.

 

[Fae3iSUx]

Sorry (again), I'm not actually sure what you mean by the wifi being covered?

He likely meant checking whether particular Wi-Fi chipset works properly in Linux at all, prior to buying. Certain chipsets, like Broadcom, have historically been problematic on Linux—though it’s less of an issue now than it was a decade ago. Very new, cutting-edge chipsets may also not work in Linux right away, as support often takes time to be added.

 

[darry1966]

Yep Dells are great Linux machines. Very steady I own an older Dell - Debian based Spiral Linux runs great on it.

 

[Beachcomber]

That machine would be very quick. Quite impressive.

256 GB is the same as mine. It is more than big enough, however I use an external drive (connected via usb) to store Timeshift snapshots, Backups, Music and Data on. So, if the main drive goes south for some reason, my important stuff is safe(ish)

Hmm, I think I might need some more advice here!

I bought two laptops, a 256GB for my mum, and a 512GB for my brother. The 256GB came this morning, and I've set it up on Mint Cinnamon, but it is painfully slow! It can't run Youtube videos even on 720p without it breaking up and going grainy, and all web pages are slow to load. I was expecting it to be able to handle that sort of thing no problem! Most of the memory is still free and there's absolutely nothing else stored on the machine. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

I don't think it's an internet connection problem as mine works fine on the same connection, and hers is slow using an ethernet cable too. I'm afraid now I've wasted her money!!

 

[Condobloke]

The two sizes you have shown above are the drive sizes. Whether they are hard drives (hdd) or solid state drives (SSD) ...?...ssd's are faster than hard drives.

We need some info.

In the terminal (either type in :ctrl+alt + T ...on a blank desktop.....or, click on menu and type in terminal, and the press enter.

Copy and paste this command into the Terminal and hit enter. Then copy and paste the result into your next post. (edit, select all, ....then edit, copy)

inxi -Fxxzr

(copy and paste it....the spaces and capitals etc are important)

Dont panic, Linux does not usually behave like this. There will be an answer....the info will help find it)

 

[Beachcomber]

Ok, I'm logged in now on my mum's machine. This is what I've got:

System:
Kernel: 6.14.0-37-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.6.4 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin dm: LightDM
Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 5490 v: N/A
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 08NJ82 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 0816
UEFI: Dell v: 1.33.0 date: 12/12/2023
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 58.9 Wh (99.0%) condition: 59.5/68.0 Wh (87.4%)
volts: 8.4 min: 7.6 model: LGC-LGC8.820 DELL DV9NT78 serial: <filter>
status: charging
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-8250U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 500 high: 800 min/max: 400/3400 cores: 1: 400 2: 400
3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 800 7: 400 8: 800 bogomips: 28800
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
arch: Gen-9.5 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917
Device-2: Realtek Integrated Webcam HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 0bda:568c
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0
screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x0810 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 158
diag: 354mm (13.9")
API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: iris device: 1 drv: swrast gbm:
drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa
Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) device-ID: 8086:5917
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
driver: N/A device-ID: 8086:5917 device: 1 type: cpu driver: N/A
device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71
API: ALSA v: k6.14.0-37-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d7
IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Dell driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:003e temp: 42.0 C
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:e007
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.2
lmp-v: 8 sub-v: 25a
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 18.25 GiB (7.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Micron model: 1100 SATA 256GB size: 238.47 GiB
speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 233.18 GiB used: 18.24 GiB (7.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C pch: 31.5 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 1949
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com zena main upstream import backport
2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.48 GiB used: 2.16 GiB (14.0%)
Processes: 276 Power: uptime: 4m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 255
target: graphical (5) default: graphical
Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 running-in: gnome-terminal
inxi: 3.3.34

 

[Fae3iSUx]

@Condobloke he shared inxi result above... Everything looks good, I have the same CPU in my HP ProBook laptop, works great in FullHD Youtube videos. I use XFCE environment.
Is it Cinnamon compositor using GPU acceleration and eating resources, preventing smooth video play in FullHD?

 

[kc1di]

Ok the inxi readout looks pretty good I also have a Lattitude dell and it work great. The one this you can do to speed it up would be to swap the Hdd for a SDD. other that that you can try some of the suggestion found here

Speed Up your Mint!

Easy tips, tweaks and tricks for Linux Mint and Ubuntu, both for beginners and for advanced users. Complete starter's guide with simple how-to's.

easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com

 

[Condobloke]

Is it Cinnamon compositor using GPU acceleration and eating resources, preventing smooth video play in FullHD?

Could be.

@Beachcomber , try the steps outlined here....specifically for Cinnamon

Speed Up your Mint!

Easy tips, tweaks and tricks for Linux Mint and Ubuntu, both for beginners and for advanced users. Complete starter's guide with simple how-to's.

easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com

(dont discard this link, you may need to refer back to it)

After installation, did you install any drivers at all?

 

[Condobloke]

@osprey, do you see anything in the inxi above that would slow this machine down noticeably?...the user complains of :

It can't run Youtube videos even on 720p without it breaking up and going grainy, and all web pages are slow to load.

....and the poor guy is worried he may have wasted his mum's money !

 

[osprey]

@osprey, do you see anything in the inxi above that would slow this machine down noticeably?...the user complains of :
t can't run Youtube videos even on 720p without it breaking up and going grainy, and all web pages are slow to load
....and the poor guy is worried he may have wasted his mum's money !

@Fae3iSUx reports good performance in post #14 with the same cpu, so that's positive.

What comes to mind at the moment with those symptoms from the OP is to check the internet connection and speed, maybe run: speedtest-cli in a terminal few times and see if it's consistently at the speed it's supposed to be.

Another thought is to check that the firmware is the latest. One can run, as root or sudo:
dmesg | grep -i firmware, and if there's any missing, install it.

Generally, ensure the latest of software is installed, so keep the system upgraded to the most current.

A negative finding I guess would be a hardware issue in the gpu, so checking that might be useful. There's info on that provided by @dos2unix here: https://www.linux.org/threads/testing-your-gpu-setup.65131/

 

[Condobloke]

@osprey, Thanks, mate.

 

[Condobloke]

@Beachcomber, the post above.....run the suggested tests please.

Be sure that all available updates are installed. The Update manager can be accessed via the menu and typing in update manager, or in the system tray (near the clock).....the small shield may have a red dot present. If the red dot is there, updates are available. There may be quite a few seeing this is a fresh install.

Install ALL of them.