I've spent a lot of time installing and configuring Fedora Core 4 on my Dell Inspiron 700m. I decided to write this down for my own reference and so that you all don't spend your valuable time on things which I learnt the hard way.
OK, so here is where the fun begins! ;-) Almost all of the following require you to be root.
I have Intel Pro Wireless 2100 card in my 700m. To check which one you have, run:
#lspci | grep Wireless
which should give an output like:
02:01.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
If you get an output which says the adapter is 2200, then scroll down for some tips regarding that.
/lib/firmware directory.
#make. After that run #make install to install the driver.
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
#reboot command on the terminal for this) and wireless networking should now be working.
Here are some tips from Thomas Savarimuthu:
Actually, i had an Intel 2200 BG mini PCI card and hence i had to guess (from IPW2100 URL) and find the right URL for IPW2200 - http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net. Even though i downloaded the correct firmware, i had trouble connecting to my office wireless network, since it is a closed and encrypted wi-fi network. So, i knew that i had to explicitely declare the SSID and WEP KEY in a config file, but i don't know which files to edit and what parameters to add. After a quick search i found the necessary information from one of the reference link you mentioned in the bottom of your page. He had mentioned about the parameters and configuration files to edit.
I had to add the following parameters into
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
DEVICE=eth1( if you want non-root user to start/shut this port)
IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes(put your closed network name)
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
TYPE=Wireless
ESSID="xxxxx"
CHANNEL=1( in cased of WEP key in "Shared" security mode)
MODE=Managed
SECURITY=Restricted
and create a new file
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/keys-eth1to add the corresponding WEP key as below:
KEY=XXXXXXXX (HEX or STRING)More over the IPW2200 driver available in the kernel-2.6.11 works fine if i just download and copy the corresponding firmware to
/lib/firmware.
I was fiddling around with getting wireless lan to work.Thomas Savarimuthu told you to put
SECURITY=Restricted( in cased of WEP key in "Shared" security mode) in/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1, but this doesn't work.I found a hint in http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-beta-list/2003-July/msg00848.html , removed
SECURITY=Restrictedin/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1and addedKEY="restricted 12345678901234567890123456"to/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/keys-eth1
To get the screen resolution of 1280x800 (the default for Dell Inspiron 700m) follow these steps:
#make to compile the package. After that, run #make install to install it. Make sure you have the C compiler and other libraries installed. (Thanks to James McIntosh for pointing this out).
#gtf 1280 800 60 to get a modeline for your laptop. On my laptop it gives:
# 1280x800 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 49.68 kHz; pclk: 83.46 MHz Modeline "1280x800_60.00" 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -HSync +Vsync
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file in the Monitor section. You can refer to my xorg.conf (Note: You can use a simple editor like gedit to edit a file, e.g. #gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf &. The & at the end of the command runs the program in the background, so that you can keep using the terminal).
"1280x800". I also removed all other modes from the line.
#855resolution -l which gives an output like :
855resolution version 0.4, by Alain Poirier Chipset: 855GM (id=0x35808086) VBIOS type: 2 VBIOS Version: 3104 Mode 30 : 640x480, 8 bits/pixel Mode 32 : 800x600, 8 bits/pixel Mode 34 : 1024x768, 8 bits/pixel Mode 38 : 1280x1024, 8 bits/pixel Mode 3a : 1600x1200, 8 bits/pixel Mode 3c : 1920x1440, 8 bits/pixel Mode 41 : 640x480, 16 bits/pixel Mode 43 : 800x600, 16 bits/pixel Mode 45 : 1024x768, 16 bits/pixel Mode 49 : 1280x1024, 16 bits/pixel Mode 4b : 1600x1200, 16 bits/pixel Mode 4d : 1920x1440, 16 bits/pixel Mode 50 : 640x480, 32 bits/pixel Mode 52 : 800x600, 32 bits/pixel Mode 54 : 1024x768, 32 bits/pixel Mode 58 : 1280x1024, 32 bits/pixel Mode 5a : 1600x1200, 32 bits/pixel Mode 5c : 1920x1440, 32 bits/pixel Mode 7c : 1280x800, 8 bits/pixel Mode 7d : 1280x800, 16 bits/pixel Mode 7e : 1280x800, 32 bits/pixel
7d or 7e (not tried) as these are 1280x800 modes. So run, #855resolution 7d 1280 800 and you should get an output like:
855resolution version 0.4, by Alain Poirier Chipset: 855GM (id=0x35808086) VBIOS type: 2 VBIOS Version: 3104 ** Patch mode 7d to resolution 1280x800 completewhich means everything is OK. Don't worry, you won't see any changes in your screen right now.
/etc/rc.local file:
if [ `runlevel | cut -f2 -d' '` -eq 5 ]; then #runscript 855resolution 7d 1280 800 fi
#alsamixer.
m. (i.e. turn it on)
Esc. Sound should now be working.
The following applies only if you have an NTFS partition on which windows is running. To check that, run #fdisk -l | grep NTFS
If you see a line like
/dev/hda2 * 7 2456 19679625 7 HPFS/NTFS, then it means that you are having your windows ntfs partition on
/dev/hda2.
I will now explain how to read files from the ntfs partition.
#/sbin/modprobe ntfs. There should be no output. Now you are all set.
#mkdir /mnt/windows #mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows -t ntfs -r -o umask=0222
#ls /mnt/windows/ should show you your windows files. Note that you can only read from the partition, you can't write to it. There are other modules available which can write to ntfs too, but I haven't tried them since I don't want to take the risk.
#yum -y -install compat-libstdc++-33 to get the libraries.
wine from http://winehq.org/site/download-rh. I am using the i686 package of wine 20050524.
#wine. It will create default directories, etc.
~/.wine/config
# wine /root/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Mozilla\ Firefox/firefox.exe
, and install realplayer (windows version) from www.real.com through it. (At the end of installation, real player hangs, but after restarting, everything works ok for me).
Realplayer plugin incompatibility with firefox arises due to the fact that firefox is compiles with gcc > 3.2 where as the stock realplayer download from real.com is compiled with gcc 3.2.
The solution to this problem is finding realplayer compiled with gcc > 3.2. here is the link to such a realplayer version ......... it is not the latest release, but works with raaga.com, musicindiaonline.com and smashits.com https://helixcommunity.org/download.php/954/RealPlayer-10.0.3-rc1-rhel4.src.rpm.tar.bz2
installation is kind of warped. rpm puts the install.bz2 in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES .... so make sure /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES directory exists.
anyway here are the steps
tar -jxvf RealPlayer-10.0.3-rc1-rhel4.src.rpm.tar.bz2 rpm -ivh --nodeps RealPlayer-10.0.3-rc1-rhel4.src.rpm mkdir realplayer cd realplayer tar -jxvf /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/install.bz2
First, my configuration. I've a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop since eight months. No problems with this box - it works well.
In Jan 2005 I installed Linux Fedora Core 2.0 on this box (dual-boot, XP Home on the other partition). The default Mozilla that came with this FC2 dist is version 1.6. I downloaded RealPlayer and JDK and got raaga.com to work.
Usually the Red Hat Network comes up time and again for autoupdation, and it installed Mozilla 1.7.3.
Thereafter, raaga.com stopped working! After that I didn't know what happened.
After four months of (trivial, naive) fighting I just got a new installation of FC2 on the same box, to work. Here are some points to consider.
I suspect we need to pay careful attention to the version numbers and the gcc/glibc that was used to compile, and its compatibilities.
Hope these points help to some extent. Please write back if you could get your box to play raaga.com without using Wine.
#chmod +x jre-1_5_0_03-linux-i586.bin and then #./jre-1_5_0_03-linux-i586.bin to install the plugin.
#mv jre1.5.0_03 /opt/
#ln -s /opt/jre1.5.0_03/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so More details at: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/java.html#Linux
Here's how to get your box to hibernate and wake up as in Windows.
/etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf
/etc/grub.conf and add resume2=swap:/dev/??? (i.e. your swap drive) to the end of the kernel line. For example, look at my grub.conf Note that your swap drive may be different.
# cd /root/ && mkdir myinitrd/ && cd myinitrd/ (create temporary directory) # gzip -dc < /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4_cubbi8_swsusp2.img|cpio -i (unpack the current initrd) # gedit init & (edit the init-file and include these two lines after mount -t sysfs ... and before echo Creating /dev: echo Activating software suspend echo > /proc/software_suspend/do_resume # find . | cpio -o -c | gzip -9 > /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4_cubbi8_swsusp2.img (create the new initrd) # cd .. && rm -rf myinitrd/ (Cleanup)
#hibernate
I use xmms for listening to mp3s and xine for viewing DVDs, etc. You may also need the MPlayer package to play Windows media files. Here's how to get it.
/etc/yum.conf
#yum --enablerepo freshrpms install xine xmms mplayer
At this point everything was working fine, except that my laptop was unusually hot (as compared to Windoze). It turns out that although CPU throttling is inbuilt in the kernel (and works fine), hard disk is not put in the 'spin down' mode automatically.
Here's what I've done till now:
/etc/sysconfig/harddisks and add -m16 to the EXTRA_PARAMS line. Alternatively, uncomment the line MULTIPLE_IO=16 (Suggested by Stephen Lau). This will reduce the hard disk usage and considerably reduces power consumption. For more details see #man hdparm.
#./install in the directory where you extracted all the files. I am still experimenting with it's options, so keep checking this page for updates.
I could not get a terminal by hitting Alt+Ctrl+Fn (for example try Alt+Ctrl+F1). It turns out that this is a documented bug on bugzilla: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=160470. To fix this bug, download this file as /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a and restart. Now the problem should be fixed.
Please send me any comments, corrections and suggestions at : scs49 at cornell dot edu. All corrections/suggestions will be acknowledged. My only aim of maintaining this page is to make life easier for other people.
Here are a few useful links
Last updated: November 01 2005
The latest version of this document can be found at : http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~scs49/install_linux.html
Built with gvim on a Dell Inspiron 700m running Fedora Core 4