Hi, I'm hoping someone will offer some insight to this problem.

I have a gateway solo 9300 laptop, some of you might be screaming at this point, but please hear me out.

So far I have gotten vector linux to work, and netBSD, but only in shell mode. Naturally I have tried to configure the XF86Config file several times and have not been very successful. The only time I was able to get XFree to work was with netBSD, but I could not get it to go any farther. i.e. with Gnome or KDE. I have since tried to get netBSD to work again in hopes that I could retrace my steps and get X to work again. However my efforts have been in vain.

If anyone knows the exact vertical and horizontal sync rates are for this laptop are I would greatly appreciate it. I believe the model of the screen is a LG phillips LP150x2, the x1 model is for the 15.1" model, and I have the 15.7" model.

One other avenue I have tried is using a Red Hat 9.0 cd, however every time I try to boot it to try and install. The system hangs when it tries to load the OHCI 1394 driver. I tried using the "linux nousb" and "linux nofirewire" options before it boots, but no luck. If anyone has some info about this that could help, please feel free to say something.

If you want the actual XF86Config file let me know and I'll get it.

Thanks a whole lot Rylan

as important as your XF86Config is your /var/log/XFree86.0.log file, which will tell us what is really going wrong. maybe attach it to a post or put it on a website so we can see.

Also, and most importantly, you haven't told us what graphics chipset you are using - this is crucial!! Preferably send the output of /sbin/lspci -v

With laptops, it's not usually the screen that's the problem. How old is this machine? for most new ones, the screen properties should be auto-detect. it's the graphics driver that's the usual cause of problems.

cheers

Did you try google? I'm sure you could find some info on Gateways site, maybe even someone else who has setup linux on their solo 9300...

I did a search for you and found....

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~steveh/inspiron/gw9300.html

Thankyou, thankyou Netzien
Where ever you found that website, I was able to extract the information I needed to get the right configuration working. That was a life saver, XFree works great on my system, and I'm able to run xinit, and startx and go right into the window manager prompt. When I looked on the website, it showed the exact horizontal and vertical sync range for my gateway. Once I changed it to those exact values, it worked great. I'm not too sure if all laptopts use similar settings, but those worked for my machine. Sincerely rphook