This page is no longer maintained as I have upgraded to FC4. FC4 works quite well. Some of the information here may still be of use for FC4. I have also experimented with Fedora Core 5 Test 2. FC5T2 took a small amount of effort to get installed due to video issues during installation.
Recent modifications:Basic installation of Fedora Core 3 went smoothly. There are still a few kinks to be worked out. The biggest problem was that after every other boot, the laptop froze. See below for a fix.
Overall, I am very pleased with this laptop running Fedora Core 3.
Warning: Some of what is written below is from memory and may contain mistakes. Let the buyer beware.
| Hardware Component | Status Under Linux | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pentium M 1.60GHz | Yes | Speed step works. |
| 17" 1920x1200 UWGA Display | Yes | Sparkles! |
| ATI RV350 - Mobility Radeon 9700 M10 | Yes | Reported as 9600. 3d acceleration with ATI drivers. |
| NEC DVD+/-RW ND-6500A | Yes | CD read, DVD read, DVD write tested. |
| Firewire - Ricoh R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller | Untested. | |
| Ethernet 100Base-TX Broadcom BCM4401-B0 | Yes. | |
| Internal Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG | Yes. | With ipw2200 drivers. |
| Bluetooth | Untested. | |
| Sound Card: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM - AC'97 | Yes. | |
| ALPS Glidepoint Touchpad | Yes! | Works fully with 2.6.11 kernel and modified xorg.conf. |
| USB | Yes. | Wireless mouse, flash card reader, iRiver H340, Wacom tablet tested. |
| Suspend to RAM | Yes. | May not work with 3d acceleration. |
| Suspend to Disk | Untested |
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 6 48163+ de Dell Utility /dev/hda2 * 7 1026 8193150 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda3 6839 7295 3670852+ db CP/M / CTOS / ... /dev/hda4 1027 6838 46684890 5 Extended /dev/hda5 1027 2301 10241406 83 Linux /dev/hda6 3577 5945 19028961 83 Linux /dev/hda7 5946 6710 6144831 b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda8 6711 6837 1020096 82 Linux swap
I had to edit the
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1200" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
The following doesn't appear to be necessary following recent updates:
To fix the problem of the laptop freezing after every other boot:
# Speed internet access alias net-pf-10 off alias ipv6 off(Unless, of course, you need ipv6).
VMAJOR=1 VMINOR=1 DRIVER="speedstep-centrino" OPTS="-i 2 -t /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature 65 -a /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/AC/state -p 10 25"Speed varies between 600 MHz to 1600 MHz as load changes.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Touchpad" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Driver "synaptics"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "120"
Option "RightEdge" "830"
Option "TopEdge" "120"
Option "BottomEdge" "650"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.4"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.0"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.02"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "15"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "30"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
EndSection
Note that these settings are NOT the same as for a Synaptics touchpad (even though the ALPS touchpad
uses the same driver). And despite including lines for multifinger taps, the touchpad doesn't seem to
support them.
Instructions on how to install the Intel drivers can be found at ipw2200.sourceforge.net. I used the Fedora Core 3 packages from atrpm.net/dist/fc3/ipw2200. Download and install versions of:
Following an example for a Dell 600 I got the 9200 to sleep and wake up via a suspend to RAM. There was one problem with the wake up and that was that the clicking via tapping the touchpad (but not the buttons) stopped working. With the latest updates, this isn't a problem. I also had to add unloading and reloading of the ipw2200 driver, but this again is no longer a problem.
To get suspend to ram to work:event=button/lid action=/etc/acpi/actions/suspend.sh
event=button/sleep action=/etc/acpi/actions/suspend.sh
#!/bin/tcsh # Script to drive the system to S3: suspend-to-ram # Based on script by andersen_REMOVE_@_THIS_hep.phy.cam.ac.uk # Step 1: Preparing sleep: if (-e /suspending) then echo "Already in the process of suspending. Please be patient." else /bin/touch /suspending /bin/sync # USB doesn't suspend without unloading first /sbin/rmmod ehci_hcd /sbin/rmmod uhci_hcd # Ditto for wireless #/sbin/rmmod ipw2200 # Save the system time /sbin/hwclock --adjust /sbin/service ntpd stop # Step 2: Send sleep command via ACPI echo mem > /sys/power/state # Step 3: Wake-up and reload # Restore USB /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd /sbin/modprobe uhci_hcd # Ditto for wireless #/sbin/modprobe ipw2200 # Restart network time service /sbin/service ntpd restart rm /suspending #xinit /bin/false -- :1 endif
The Start/Stop key will work with Rhythmbox but not the CD player.