Hi,

I'm trying to install RedHat 7.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop. I'm having problems setting the monitor resolution during the install. No matter what resolution I choose the picture is messed up. The laptop has an Nvidia GeForce 2 video card and an Ultra XGA monitor. When asked to pick the type of monitor I'm choosing the monitor with the description "Dell 1600x Laptop Display". One other strange thing is that one of the refresh rates was set to 1 Hz (the other laptop monitor choices had the same refresh rate at 57-75 Hz.) I changed the 1 Hz to the "57-75 Hz" value. I've also tried the "Dell 1400x Laptop Display" and the "Dell 1280x Laptop Display" to no avail.

Does RH7.1 not support the Dell Ultra XGA monitors? Is my problem coming from the incorrect refresh rate? Anything else I can try?

Thanks in advance for the help.

your best bet is to check out www.xfree86.org for hardware support for your video card and or www.linux-laptops.org for maybe info on getting linux installed on that specific laptop.

I hav the very same probleme .. inspiron 8100 and red hat 7.2 cant config the moniter , i trayed all the possible presets i can ...but nothing happend .. i hope (mwhitlock) reterns to tell how he get it to work ... if i find a way i will do the same

Yes, I'm having a very similar problem. I'm trying to get X working on Red Hat 7.2 with my Dell Inspiron 8100, with 16 MB Nvidia GeForce 2 Go and SXGA (1400X1050). I've found posts at other sites where the problem is fixed (mostly with the 1600X1200 screen though), but I can't reproduce the fix...

What I've tried (after downloading these rpm files):

-rpm -ivh kernel-source-2.4.7-10.i386.rpm
-rpm -ivh NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313.rh72up.i386.rpm
-rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313.rpm
-XConigurator, and chose Dell 1400X monitor and resolutions at 16-bit 1400X1050 and lower resolutions
-emacs /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and replaced "nv" with "nvidia"

With this, trying to start X doesn't work and I get:
"Fatal server error
no screens found"

I've also tried XConfigurator and choosing the Dell 1600X monitor, and/or leaving XF86Config-4 with the "nv" setting, but nothing helps. I've seen another post where the Dell i8100 SXGA display was used, but for my XConigurator, this choice isn't available. Does anyone know what to do? I checked the X Free site for new versions of XF86Config, but they say that the Nvidia GeForce 2 Go isn't supported with it! (So I didn't install it.)

Also, I'm getting a "Starting wine: [FAILED]" message at login. When I try to login, Linux starts loading things just when I begin typing my login, and it ends with this error message about wine. I'm not sure if this is related to my Nvidia problem (likely not), but anyway, I changed my boot commands in GRUB by adding "single" at the end of the "kernel" line, then disabling wine with "chkconfig --level 3 wine off" at the root prompt. With this change, the automatic activity when first trying to login still happenned, with the other programs up to wine still loading, and then Linux gaving me back the control. I can't figure this out either.

Your help would be great for both of my problems. If you can, please give detailed directions as I am new to Linux!

For anyone who would like to see some good examples of how to fix the Nvidia problem, try these sites with good explanations (that didn't work for me--hope you have better luck):
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/9120
http://www.ironorchid.com/jjinux/inspiron_laptop/
http://www.hackboy.com/~alx/articles..._insp8100.html
http://home.olemiss.edu/~tschumpr/i8100.html

Alright! It's working! What a long weekend...

I ended up installing Nvidia's source driver from their website, and removed
Load "GLcore"
Load "dri"
from XF86Confit-4.

Cheers!

Hey guys.

what about the Integrated Network Card? Does it also works under redhat 7.2? Or did you guys selected another Nic card with Dell, like 3Com?

Murtix..

I have an Inspiron 8100 with the mini-PCI card (modem and network card). I haven't tried my modem, but my network was recognized by RedHat, and I didn't have to do any configurations.

Hi, jimmery

Seems I have the same problem as you did. I wand to install RH7.2 on my dell inspiron 8100, which is same as yours I think.
So could you please tell me step by step how to change any config and what I should download? I am new to linux.

Thanks a lot.
if possible please email me at wand@linuxquestions.net.

wand

Hi there wand...

If you look at my first post in this discussion, I show what I tried at first. If you look at my second post, I say that I was successful after installing the Nvidia driver source (from their website). If you read the Nvidia help section on their site for the installation of these drivers, your questions will likely be answered. I am competely new to Linux too, so I can't offer better advice than this.

Good luck.