Linux Laptops
 

Hello all,

My name is Brandon Allen i work for Max Computer Station. we are tryingto put out a line of linux pre installed machines. however we are having a problem with the SiS 630 chipset. when i place a monitor on it it works just fine. but the actual LCD pannel in the laptop is off centered at 800 X 600 it is like the 0,0 point on the screen is in the middle of the LCD and the picture is wraping around to the diffrent sides of the screen. so i end up with 4 blocks with a black cross in the middle of my screen.

has anyone had other problems with this. i have used the manufacturers linux drivers but that is what i got AFTER the installation of those. before that i got nothing but the X server droping once i did startx.


-Brandon Allen
Sales@maxstation.com
http://www.maxstation.com

you might want to check out www.linux-laptop.net for details on hundreds of laptop installs with linux.. might have a workaround for that specific model and video problem.

It just occured to me that the best way I've found to tune X with a laptop is any distro with XF86Setup installed, a sort of GUI that probes your hardware and starts X with minimal settings. Then you tweak up from there. Debian comes to mind as one with it on there as default.

Then you can just keep a stack of 3.5s lying around with the file /etc/X11/XF86Config on them. As long as the monitor, video chipset, and version of XFree86 match, you can swap in the config file and won't have to repeat configuration every time. This worked out really well with 4 pos old LapNotes (what a brand name!) with both 3.x and 4.x XFree.

Luck,

Finegan