Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 16932
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2025/04/04 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
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1999/11/20-24 [Computer/HW/Display, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:16932 Activity:low
11/20   the ATI AGP Rage Mobility M-1 doesn't seem to be supported
        by the xfree86 stuff on:
        http://www.xfree86.org/cardlist.html
        correct me if i'm wrong.
        \_ It's not, yet.  Most of Dells new laptop chips aren't.
        \_ USE LINUX!  Windows supports my video card right outta the box.
           RIDE BIKE!  So Windows must be a better OS.
                       \_ damn straight!1!!
        \_ Check out these two pages:
                http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~steveh/inspiron
                http://www.coralys.com/linux/dell7500.shtml
           The Dell Inspiron uses the Mobility, and the first page lists other
           laptops that also have that chip.  Apparently it's supported
           reasonably well. When you get it working, please mail me to let me
           know how well your X runs on it as I'm interested in getting a
           Mobility-based laptop. -mogul
2025/04/04 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
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Cache (1892 bytes)
www.eecs.umich.edu/~steveh/inspiron -> www.eecs.umich.edu/~steveh/inspiron/
Includes FREE URL redirection, email forwarding, and DNS. This site provides information on installing and running Linux on all laptops with the ATI Rage LT Pro, Mobility-M1, and Mobility-P video chipsets. If you have relevant information to contribute, please send me an 24 email and I will add it to this site. Inspiron 3000 users -- check out the I3k sites in the 25 Other Inspiron Links section. If you are a new Linux user and need more general information such as Linux installation and configuration, you should go buy and read one or two books from the 26 recommended reading list to guide you along your new journey into the Linux world! If you are considering purchasing a Dell but haven't done so yet, buy it through 27 Ebates and you will get an additional 1% cash back off Dell's website price. In addition, Ebates will donate 10 meals to the World Food Program for every person who joins. Information on this page should be relevant to all distributions of linux. However, since I personally use 28 Debian, my instructions may need to be modified if you are using a different flavor such as 29 Mandrake, 30 RedHat, 31 SuSe, 32 Caldera, or 33 Slackware. If I am missing any information regarding a different Linux distribution, provide me the details and I will add it. Please read this page carefully and follow the instructions step by step. You can post questions and get assistance from other enthusiastic users. Take full advantage of this resource -- that's why it's there. If you still decide to email me a question (or find the information on these pages invaluable), I would appreciate it if you first visit some of my sponsors. Amazon, Dell, etc) also help support the time required to keep this site up to date. None of the material may be reproduced without permission. No Warranties:This information on this site is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.
Cache (8192 bytes)
www.coralys.com/linux/dell7500.shtml
It did not take long to realize that laptop prices were exorbitant! I don't like things that don't perform so rather than spending money in a configuration that was not meeting my needs, I decided not to buy any. Luckily in 1999 through a combination of factors this became possible. I registered this domain in July 1999 and have been working on it ever since. This laptop is going to be my production system on the road. So I had several systems in mind, including the Inspiron 3500, 3700 (available in Europe in November, too late for me), 7000, Compaq 1920 and Gateway. At some point I decided on the Inspiron 7000, and just when I was about to order it became phased out with the 7500. Dell announced earlier this year that it will begin shipping Linux on their Inspiron line but that has not materialized yet and I just couldn't wait for them to take the leap. Getting your system up and running in the least time possible takes getting informed by reading this page and those in the Resources section, and following these simple instructions. Here you have two options, either wipeout Windows 98/NT and make Linux the sole operating system on your laptop, or make it coexist with the evil OS. I chose for the 2nd option because as much as I hate Windows, I need it because my scanner (HP-3200C) isn't supported by Linux, and because my newly bought 23 Wacom drawing tablet (Graphire) is an USB model and unfortunately 24 USB is not yet supported by Linux (actually you have to recompile the kernel and enable this experimental feature). Besides, God knows when MetaCreations 25 Painter Classic would be available under Linux (The 26 GIMP comes quite close). If you choose the first option (Linux alone) then skip the Windows part, then follow with the next section. Whatever you do you have to keep in mind that the Linux root partition (the one where the kernel resides) must be under cylinder 1023. Repartitioning: Keeping Windows The basic strategy here is to shrink the Windows partition to make space for Linux, and doing it without losing that or having to reinstall Windows. I know of two options: Power Quest's Partition Magic or FIPS. Before proceeding with the shrinking, you must first defragment your disk, for example using Window's ScanDisk utility. It is better if you do this before installing anything else on your Windows partition. Once the defragmentation is done you can proceed with the shrinking of the partition. Warning: This is delicate operation, things may go wrong so make sure you have a backup of anything that you don't want to lose. You can install it on a floppy (not on the hard disk) and boot from there (I have not done that myself). If on the other hand you don't have it at hand you don't have PM and don't want to buy it you can still use FIPS. FIPS usually comes included with your Linux distribution, on Red Hat Linux it comes in the dosutils directory. In any case you will end up with Windows in the first partition. That is not a problem if you Linux boot partition will be under cylinder 1024. In this step you will end up with two partitions, one for Windows and the rest for Linux (not formatted yet). Repartitioning: Doing Linux Well, now that you have reached this phase you will need to do some further Linux repartitioning and reformatting, but that you should do from within Linux using the fdisk or the Disk Druid, it is only a matter of choice. The actual repartition and formatting will actually be done during the installation, but before getting there you have to examine your Linux needs present and future. The /boot partition will contain the kernel, if you install a new kernel you will have two here in case the second one doesn't work. Normally 10MB would be enough -though the kernel is growing rapidly- but many people use 16MB. Unfortunately the Disk Druid either gave me too little or too much so I had to go for 22MB. Usually the rule of thumb is to make the swap partition twice the amount of RAM on your system to improve performance. As you see you can even make it bigger but it will be a waste, in this case Disk Druid didn't let me have 127MB. I have a big one because I sometimes build large packages, keep projects directories and have several accounts setup. And last but not least a large partition for the rest, so anything you install will be dropped here, if you make it too little you will run out of space and then you will be in trouble. Later on after you have properly installed Linux you can make your Windows partition available to read (and possibly write) from Linux by adding the following entry to your /etc/fstab: /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98 vfat noauto,ro 0 0 Make sure you use the right partition, in my case it is the first as used in this setup. If you don't change the BIOS setting you will have to create a boot diskette. EXE program provided with your distribution (Red Hat: see the dosutils directory). Make sure you have the right information, some things you can skip and configure later. At some point you will be asked if you want LILO installed on the Master Boot Record (MBR) or in the root partition (in my setup this would be /boot). Make sure you run lilo afterwards to make the change take effect on the next boot. EXE it will not see more than 64MB unless I use that tag. The vga=792 line is very important, it means 1024x768x24bpp. If you are very worried about people breaking into your machine in single user mode (linux single) then you should add the two lines restricted/password. EXE: mount -tvfat -orw /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98 mkdir /mnt/win98/linux cp /boot/vmlinuz /mnt/win98/linux/ umount /dev/hda1 Booting using the Windows 95/98 boot loader Later on I will explain why we need that maestro line in the file even when booting Linux, for now just take my word. EXE program provided with your distribution in the same directory. The Inspiron 7500 comes in several models depending on how much money you put into it, this isn't very clear from Dell's site but it got clarified to me on the Dell Forum: * I7500VT (high end) has a 15" SXGA+ LCD screen with a maximum resolution of 1400x1050. The I7500 comes with an ATI Rage LT Mobility - P chipset, this is the same used in the newer I7000's. Earlier I7000 models used an ATI Rage (not the Mobility version). The default system comes with 4MB video memory but you can have an upgrade to 8MB at the time of purchase. At this point you have two alternatives, either you go cheap or buy the commercial X server. Unfortunately the commercial version is a bit expensive ($199 for laptops), you have to weight the alternatives, your needs and your budget and take it from there. X-Windows: The commercial alternatives I can think of two commercial versions, one by 27 XIG and the other by 28 MetroLink. These servers usually offer more features and better performance. X-Windows: The free alternative The ATI chipset is supported by the Mach64 X-server from the 29 XFree86 foundation. For it to work properly the kernel's console drivers have to be compiled with the Mach64 and Frame Buffer options. Run the Xconfigurator and you will be asked some questions. When asked for the type of card select "Unlisted", it is at the end of a very long list. In spite of the long list of similarly tempting "ATI Rage/Mach64" entries you must avoid selecting them. You will also be asked for the monitor type, select "LCD panel 1024x768". Select the amount of video memory (on the 7500 it's either 4MB or 8MB). Then at some point you will be asked which server you want to use, select "Mach 64" in this short list of about 6 server types. Everything should go well and after the probing it should show you an X session with a Yes/No dialog, the display should not be fractured or messed up. Then if this went well (and it should) it will tell you that it will use a default configuration of 1024x768x32bpp and your 30 XF86Config. Setting up sound The Inspiron 7500 uses the ESS Maestro 2E sound chipset. Typically in Linux having sound support involved recompiling something. Luckily for some time already some distributions (such as Red hat) have been shipping a kernel with OSS/Free sound support. On my desktop system where I have a Sou...