(1)
I have a current windows xp laptop and want to change over.
I have issues with the fact that the drivers for my video card is impossible to find, and I'm sure there are other things also.
I'm looking for a linux driver for the ati 7500 mobility.
Dell doesn't have anything (what a surprise) and ati tells me to check with dell.
Does anybody know of like a linux driver database, where i can acquire new drivers for my numerous different devices?
(2)
Is there a software out in the linux community that will recognize the hardware that is on the system that does not have a working driver loaded into it?

I think that there are some generic XFree drivers for it somewhere, but I'm not too sure. You'll doubtfully be able to get 3D performance though, if you wanted that. I forget the exact name, but someone else might know. This is basically a "there's hope out there" post.

Sorry to repeat this, but does anyone know of something like this?

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Laptops and Handhelds and has been moved accordingly to help your
thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Have a look at the following links,
http://www.linux-laptop.net,
http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/Status6.html#6
http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/ati.html

Call www.linuxcertified.com, they do have good tech support and solutions. Perhaps they can help.

i was playing arounf this weekend with knoppix and my brother laptop (a dell somethingorother), which i think has the mobility raedon 7500. it seemed to work pretty well, although all i did was tool around in kde, but it came up with no problem....i donno if you will be able to get acceleration worth anything...but most ppl dont really play games on laptops anyway

I've never had problems with ATI cards under Linux (currently using Mandrake 9.1 on a Sony VAIO V505, as well as 9.2 on a Dell desktop), but then I don't play games on it! Have you tried installing a distro yet or are you just looking for drivers pre-install?

I would say, get a cheap copy of Mandrake 9.2 if you want a distro that'll recognise the maximum amount of hardware "out of the box" - you can always switch to something funkier that requires more work once you've cut your teeth on something user-friendly

I run SuSE 8.2 on a Dell c640 Laptop with the ATI Radeon 7500 chipset driving the graphics. You need to use the opensource ATI drivers and DRI to get OpenGL functionality. There are a few games that have a problem with that setup (Neverwinter Nights for one), but most stuff runs ok. One of the bigger problems I encounter is that there is no easy way to identify the laptop's monitor. Using the pre-sets for a Dell LCD doesn't yield proper modelines for all the various resolutions, so what I get (until I fix it) is things that should display as 640x480 in a window in the upper left field of view...

To recap; There are no proprietary drivers for the Radeon 7500... so you are stuck with the opensource drivers.

I'm just wondering if I will lose the multi-monitor support?
Currently under XP I can plug into a TV and broadcast my video.
I'm assuming the opensource drivers will not support this?
I have also been told that laptops run on a special type of operating system, is this correct?
For some reason I feel this person is full of SH!T.
But I could be wrong.
I'm assuming I can load linux and go back to XP if needed with out any loss of functionality except for the unsupported hardware under linux.
Can I contaminate my laptop with a fresh format on linux?
I'm assuming it would be similar to windows. reformat and partion under the appropriate file system, and it is clean and ready for what ever os I load. Is this correct?
I'm also curious on if I can install dual operating systems. XP and linux.
Can lilo give you an option to load one or the other?

Probably not.

They may, the nvidia drivers for my laptop do. Have a look at the DRI web page.

No.

You could be right.

Yep, the only time I boot my laptop into XP is when I need to download some footage from my DVcam.

No.

Yep.

Yes, I dual boot Slackware and XP with lilo.

To dual-boot XP and Linux, you just need an empty partition (one of the reasons I like Sony laptops is they come with the hard drive already divided into 2 partitions) - most modern distros should happily install themselves into the empty space without XP even noticing. You can access Windoze FAT32 (and in more recent distros, NTFS) partitions from Linux, which makes sharing MP3s and other documents between the two OSes v easy, but Windoze can't see your Linux partitions.

N.B. If you have to reinstall Winodze from scratch, do it before you install Linux, or the master boot record will be overwritten and you'll lose lilo (there is a way to get it back, but it's easier to just avoid the problem in the first place!).

is there a tutorial to make sure the dual boot install is done correctly?
I'm looking to dual boot either red hat or slackware.
I want to start trying out new distros, so it would be nice to find a tutorial for both.

My Compaq Evo N800c has Mobility Radeon 7500 and runs Knoppix via CD very well, which is a Debian-based distro. So obviously this hardware is supported, I suspect it is in the ability of your distro installer to help set this up, which I believe Knoppix is very good at.

I have dual booted Mandrake 9.2, none on a laptop or with Mobility Radeon 7500, and have had a lot of success. I run a P4 256 RAM, P1 200MMX 128 MB RAM, and P1 120 64 MB RAM all with SSHD, XVNC Server, SAMBA 2.2.8a Workgroup networked to a P4 512 MB RAM w/XP.