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Old 01-24-2011, 02:53 AM   #1
psionl0
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Question Is slackware feasible on COMPAQ SR5240AN?


I have been considering setting up slackware on my HP COMPAQ SR5240AN (it has been a great success on my laptop).

Before going ahead, I tested with Puppy 5.20 but it found no specific video driver. Although Xorg has a 1440x900 setting, the resulting desktop was oversized and the graphics quality was poor (text being almost illegible). I could tweak the horizontal and vertical refresh rates to make the desktop slightly undersized but could do nothing about the quality.

A check of the HP website revealed that there are absolutely no Linux based video drivers for this machine (they must be joined at the hip with Microsoft) nor anywhere else on the net.

Is there a way around the video problem or is my desktop doomed to be burdened with vista for the rest of it's life?

The monitor is a COMPAQ WF1907
and the microsoft driver is CPQ_WF1907.icm
 
Old 01-24-2011, 04:25 AM   #2
adamk75
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The monitor is typically irrelevant. What's going to matter is the video card. Do you know what it has?

Adam
 
Old 01-24-2011, 05:08 AM   #3
psionl0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adamk75 View Post
The monitor is typically irrelevant. What's going to matter is the video card. Do you know what it has?

Adam
Not without taking the computer apart - and I have sexy fingers.

If the monitor is a WF1907 and the driver is a WF1907 then I'm guessing that the video card is . . .
 
Old 01-24-2011, 05:26 AM   #4
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If this is your computer http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...riesId=3548178 and you have an onboard video card (Where you connect the monitor will be with all the other connections and not lower down) then you have Nvidia graphics.
 
Old 01-24-2011, 05:27 AM   #5
chrisretusn
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My guess based on this; Compaq Presario SR5240AN Desktop PC Product Specifications Compaq Presario SR5240AN Desktop PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

It would be Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE

I have an older version Compaq S3300NX running Slackware-current with zero problems.
 
Old 01-24-2011, 05:30 AM   #6
adamk75
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If it is an integrated geforce 6xxx GPU, I don't know why Puppy would have such an issue, but there are three drivers that should work with that video card at the monitors native resolution: nv, nouveau, and nvidia. And they all work with Slackware 13.1.

Adam
 
Old 01-24-2011, 05:52 AM   #7
psionl0
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Found this at http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/biz...odTypeId=12454 and it had this to say about the graphics card:
Quote:
Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE

*Integrated video is not available if a graphics card is installed.
  • Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE
  • Uses up to 256MB of PC memory (with 512MB or more total PC memory)
  • Also supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards*
The PC came straight out of the shop 3 years ago and almost certainly has not had a separate graphics card installed.
 
Old 01-24-2011, 06:04 AM   #8
psionl0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adamk75 View Post
If it is an integrated geforce 6xxx GPU, I don't know why Puppy would have such an issue, but there are three drivers that should work with that video card at the monitors native resolution: nv, nouveau, and nvidia. And they all work with Slackware 13.1.
Your post came up while I was doing more research. The only other puppy related info I could tell you is that when the initial puppy boot up screen came up (the one that lasts 5 seconds) the text was overflowing on the LHS (but during the boot sequence, the text was positioned correctly).

Puppy problems not withstanding, is it worth trying slackware just in case it works or is more research needed?
 
Old 01-24-2011, 06:07 AM   #9
adamk75
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Well if you want to install Slackware, install Slackware :-) If you have problems with it, post here and let us know.

Adam
 
Old 01-24-2011, 06:17 AM   #10
allend
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You can always draw on Pat Volkerding's personal experience! From the Slackware 13.1-current ChangeLog
Quote:
Sun Nov 14 23:58:42 UTC 2010
...
x/mesa-7.9-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
I was on the fence with this upgrade, and in fact it sat in /testing for
days with mesa-7.8.2 queued instead. But it seems the Intel driver really
does need this version of Mesa or there are major problems with compositing
(most of them leading to an X server crash).
If X crashes at start, try disabling compositing. Create a file named
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/disable-composite.conf with this in it:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
The machine that had issues here was using an onboard nVidia 6150SE.
Using the nv, nouveau, or even the vesa driver, X crashed at start unless
compositing was disabled. However, everything works perfectly when using
the binary nVidia drivers, and odds are that most users with decent nVidia
hardware are doing just that. So, that's the situation with nVidia and
Mesa as observed here for now. Hopefully the defaults will work better
soon, but meanwhile if you have nVidia hardware you may have to either
disable compositing or obtain and use nVidia's binary drivers.
 
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Old 01-24-2011, 09:18 AM   #11
psionl0
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PROBLEM SOLVED!!! Thanks guys.

As it turned out, all I had to do was install puppy's nvidia package. Now the screen is rock solid and clear as a bell.

I just love how everything suddenly happens instantly instead of having to wait for ages (except my internet connection which has been temporarily slowed down to 64 Kb/s).

Once I have backed up 3 years worth of data I will be definitely installing slack.

Thanks again for your help.

psionl0
 
  


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