Dell Inspirion 2600
 

Hi Guys,
I have a problem with running X server on my laptop.

I have installed SuSE 7.0 on my laptop (Dell Inspirion 2600). I am able to start X server with resolution 640x480 but cannot increase any further. The manual that came with the laptop has documentation that, max resolution could be 1024x768. The specification are as follows in the manual :
Video Type : direct AGP integrated graphics
Video Memory : UMA, shared with system memory
LCD interface : SPWG
Type (active-matrix TFT) : XGA

I have used generic VGA (svga) in XF86Config.

Could you provide any insight as to what I should do to improve the resolution ?

This laptop had XP installed earlier and the resolution was definitely better than what it is now.

Thanks in advance ...

-linbie

I have an Inspiron 2600. I used to run Slackware, and now I run Kubuntu 5.04. I have xorg running at 1024x768. I had to flash my bios to get X to work properly. What revision of the BIOS do you have?

[edit] I have BIOS revision A07. I would also suggest trying a more current distro.

You may need to change the settings in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" if using xorg or "/etc/X11/xfree86.conf" if using xfree86. You need to make sure you have the correct driver set.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "your driver name"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "your video card type"
EndSection

You will then need to set up the screen resolutions .

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

The Depth is the colour depth 8, 16 or 24
Modes is the screen sizes to use.

Thanks 65.. and Mike,
I have BIOS version A03.

Where would I find the driver set from ? I don't know where to look for. Earlier it had XP and the driver came with the XP installation.

Which distro is confirmed to have worked with this config ?

Please let me know.

Thanks a lot ....

-linbie

I have personally ran Mandrake 9.1, Slackware 9.1, Slackware 10.0, Ubuntu Warty and Kubuntu Hoary all on this laptop with no problems whatsoever.

The BIOS flash can be found by searching for "Inspiron 2600 BIOS" in the tech support section of Dell's website. There are instructions there on how to flash it.

You need google your video card to find a linux driver for it. When you find it and install it you then setup your xserver config file. You may already have the driver installed with your linux kernel. You need to tell us all about the video card and any driver info. you may know.

Hi 65_289, Michael,

I have installed the Linux distro on a Desktop .. went smooth ..

On the laptop I have put back WinXP again .. however still had the problem of low resolution display ... downloaded the XGA extreme driver from Dell site, installed it .. got the desired resolution ...

Thanks ...

Hi Guys !!!
As per suggestion of 65_289, installed new BIOS (ver A07) on the laptop. Burnt a SuSE 9.1 distro from a free download yesterday night and installed it.

Everything is just fine now.

Thanks a lot 65_289 and Michael ... also everyone else out there :-)

-linbie

Glad to hear it's all good!

Now, however I have another problem ...

I can't find gcc, make, gmake, jdk ...

I remember very well I have installed the development package, the gcc-lib directory is created with all the libraries .. but without gcc it is useless.

on doing "rpm -qa|grep gcc" all I get is gcc-lib

Would anybody know where to get these tools from ?

I find it very strange .. the SuSE 7.0 had all of these. Later version of the distro has many useless tools and packages (for me ...) but not the essential ones.

Thanks ...