Dave Roberts
07-09-2002, 01:03 PM
First, take note of Bob J's Advice
I have a Latitude C810 with 20Gb drive, 8x DVD, 256Mb Ram and Geforce2 Go video. I also was having
problems with getting X to start after installing RedHat 7.2. Before installing RedHat, I used Partition Magic
to split the drive into 3 partitions - 1) 10gb for Windows 2000 Pro (I won't touch XP with a 20 foot pole), 2)
8.5Gb for Linux using ext3 filesystem, and 3) 506Mb for Linux swap space. PartitionMagic installed
BootMagic to safely boot between Windows and Linux, so I had a dual-boot system.
What I ended up having to do is go to www.nvidia.com and get the 2 rpm's to install the nVidia drivers.
Since I could not load Xwindows, this was done in from WIndows (the windows partition was fat32 and
auto-mounted in linux) with the files saved to disk. The files are nvidia_kernel*.rpm and nvidia_glx*.rpm and
ARE kernel dependant. After installing the rpm's using
# rpm -ivh nvidia_kernel*.rpm
# rpm -ivh nvidia_glx*.rpm
I needed to modify the /etc/X11/XF11Config-4 file to change the following:
driver "nv" to
driver "nvidia"
and remarked out
Load "glcore"
load "dri"
entire dri section.
After saving the config file I was able to sucessfully start X and get the source for generic 2.4.16 kernel
which compiled fine.
One note: If you change your kernel, you either need to update the nvidia driver rpm's if the kernel is
RedHat supplied, or download the generic tar files to compile the drivers yourself. Once you have the kernel
compiled and installed and it boots to X, it will flicker a few times and throw an error message saying it
can;t start X, say no to reading the log file and also no to running Xconfigurator - you dont want to run the
configurator because it will overwrite your XF86Config-4 file. Instead, log on in terminal mode, cd into the
directory you either saved the new rpm's in or extracted the tar files into and install again. I recommend
getting the tar files and extracting them to /usr/local/nvidia (you will have 2 subdirectories - nvidia_kernel
and nvidia_glx) since all you need to do is cd into the proper directory (_kernel first then _glx) and run
# make install
It takes about 4-5 minutes total to do both installs and startx will start Xwindows beautifully.
Hope this will help anyone attempting to run linux on a Dell Laptop with the GeForce2 GO video card. If you
have any questions, drop me a line offlist at bobjones68 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Bob J.
Now, this is me, Dave
Here is what got me going... If you know of anyone this might help.
Dell Inspiron 8200 + Red Hat 7.1
First, I bought Partition Magic 7.0 (So I could partition Windows XP) and made three partitions, / (root) /boot (necessary if you want it to boot on the Hard Disk if it's too big), and SWAP. (Partition Magic prompts you to see if you want a swap partition after you tell it your OS is Linux)
Then I downloaded the files mentioned above. One was too large to put on a floppy, so I burned a CD in windows using another PC.
I used the RPM to install the two packages. It complained a bit about having to overwrite and rename a few files, but that didn't turn out to be a problem.
I couldn't be more pleased with how everything works now. Even using an auxillery mouse is no problem. Unfortunately, after trying to install Redhat 7.1 for about the third time, I finally told the setup program I wanted it to start in Text mode. Otherwise it seemed to keep trying to reload the X-Windows program and I couldn't log in. So now, until I figure out how to log in in graphics mode, I still have to log in in Text mode and type "startx"
I don't know for certain, but I have read from people that all these drivers are available in the most up to date version of Red Hat. Probably the others too. So be sure to purchase the latest versions if you don't already have 7.1.
It took me forever to get the XF86Config-4 working right. Here's what I am using. (With much thanks to lots of other web submissions)
# File generated by anaconda. (Not Really!!)
#Section "ServerLayout"
# Identifier "Anaconda Configured"
# Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
# InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
# InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#EndSection
Section "Files"
# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
#? RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "pex5"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"
Load "xie"
Load "freetype"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
Load "xie"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard" #?
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Geforce4"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-75
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Geforce4"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
"640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768"
"800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Server"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
# InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
### End Dave's Trials and Errors
I have a Latitude C810 with 20Gb drive, 8x DVD, 256Mb Ram and Geforce2 Go video. I also was having
problems with getting X to start after installing RedHat 7.2. Before installing RedHat, I used Partition Magic
to split the drive into 3 partitions - 1) 10gb for Windows 2000 Pro (I won't touch XP with a 20 foot pole), 2)
8.5Gb for Linux using ext3 filesystem, and 3) 506Mb for Linux swap space. PartitionMagic installed
BootMagic to safely boot between Windows and Linux, so I had a dual-boot system.
What I ended up having to do is go to www.nvidia.com and get the 2 rpm's to install the nVidia drivers.
Since I could not load Xwindows, this was done in from WIndows (the windows partition was fat32 and
auto-mounted in linux) with the files saved to disk. The files are nvidia_kernel*.rpm and nvidia_glx*.rpm and
ARE kernel dependant. After installing the rpm's using
# rpm -ivh nvidia_kernel*.rpm
# rpm -ivh nvidia_glx*.rpm
I needed to modify the /etc/X11/XF11Config-4 file to change the following:
driver "nv" to
driver "nvidia"
and remarked out
Load "glcore"
load "dri"
entire dri section.
After saving the config file I was able to sucessfully start X and get the source for generic 2.4.16 kernel
which compiled fine.
One note: If you change your kernel, you either need to update the nvidia driver rpm's if the kernel is
RedHat supplied, or download the generic tar files to compile the drivers yourself. Once you have the kernel
compiled and installed and it boots to X, it will flicker a few times and throw an error message saying it
can;t start X, say no to reading the log file and also no to running Xconfigurator - you dont want to run the
configurator because it will overwrite your XF86Config-4 file. Instead, log on in terminal mode, cd into the
directory you either saved the new rpm's in or extracted the tar files into and install again. I recommend
getting the tar files and extracting them to /usr/local/nvidia (you will have 2 subdirectories - nvidia_kernel
and nvidia_glx) since all you need to do is cd into the proper directory (_kernel first then _glx) and run
# make install
It takes about 4-5 minutes total to do both installs and startx will start Xwindows beautifully.
Hope this will help anyone attempting to run linux on a Dell Laptop with the GeForce2 GO video card. If you
have any questions, drop me a line offlist at bobjones68 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Bob J.
Now, this is me, Dave
Here is what got me going... If you know of anyone this might help.
Dell Inspiron 8200 + Red Hat 7.1
First, I bought Partition Magic 7.0 (So I could partition Windows XP) and made three partitions, / (root) /boot (necessary if you want it to boot on the Hard Disk if it's too big), and SWAP. (Partition Magic prompts you to see if you want a swap partition after you tell it your OS is Linux)
Then I downloaded the files mentioned above. One was too large to put on a floppy, so I burned a CD in windows using another PC.
I used the RPM to install the two packages. It complained a bit about having to overwrite and rename a few files, but that didn't turn out to be a problem.
I couldn't be more pleased with how everything works now. Even using an auxillery mouse is no problem. Unfortunately, after trying to install Redhat 7.1 for about the third time, I finally told the setup program I wanted it to start in Text mode. Otherwise it seemed to keep trying to reload the X-Windows program and I couldn't log in. So now, until I figure out how to log in in graphics mode, I still have to log in in Text mode and type "startx"
I don't know for certain, but I have read from people that all these drivers are available in the most up to date version of Red Hat. Probably the others too. So be sure to purchase the latest versions if you don't already have 7.1.
It took me forever to get the XF86Config-4 working right. Here's what I am using. (With much thanks to lots of other web submissions)
# File generated by anaconda. (Not Really!!)
#Section "ServerLayout"
# Identifier "Anaconda Configured"
# Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
# InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
# InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#EndSection
Section "Files"
# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
#? RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "pex5"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"
Load "xie"
Load "freetype"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
Load "xie"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard" #?
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Geforce4"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-75
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Geforce4"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"
"640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768"
"800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Server"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
# InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
### End Dave's Trials and Errors