dell latitude c610 refuses to take any distro....

dogged28 · 12-28-2007, 11:45 PM

i was given a dell latitude c610 with 256 megs of ram and p3 processor. not a bad machine so far just one issue. the only linux distro that will install is DSL and i'm not fond of dsl. i've tried ubuntu, fedora core, debian, even arch linux and still nothing. arch linux fails to run the gui (i know but i like the interface from gnome). dsl installs with no issues whatsoever. the rest will start to install then just fargle on me with either the i/o buffer error on hdc message or no error at all just stops. this is including just sitting there and letting it go to see what happens after 30 minutes of being on it's on. i'm still a linux newbie and would like to get this thing going so i can focus on Linux+. any ideas would be greatly appreciated or other distro suggestions that would get me closer to my cert goal Linux+. thanks in advance.

thedonkdonk · 12-29-2007, 01:11 AM

On a machine with those specs i would try XUbuntu. http://www.xubuntu.org/get It should have all the drivers you need and uses less resources. Try installing that and let us know what errors you see when installing.

Thanks,
James Glenn
www.thedonkdonk.net

elliott678 · 12-29-2007, 02:50 AM

I have a C600 running Arch very happily, setting up the xorg.conf did take a little bit of work, that screen isn't able to be auto detected.

My xorg.conf:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X.org Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
        FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "record"
        Load  "xtrap"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Mouse0"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "Protocol" "auto-dev"
        Option          "Device" "/dev/mouse"
        Option          "HorizEdgeScroll"       "off"
        Option          "RTCornerButton"        "0"
        Option          "RBCornerButton"        "0"
        Option          "LTCornerButton"        "0"
        Option          "LBCornerButton"        "0"
        Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor0"
        VendorName      "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName       "Monitor Model"
        HorizSync       31-68
        VertRefresh     50-85
        Option          "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "NoAccel"                   # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWcursor"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "Dac6Bit"                   # [<bool>]
        #Option     "Dac8Bit"                   # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DMAForXv"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ForcePCIMode"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "CCEPIOMode"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "CCENoSecurity"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "CCEusecTimeout"            # <i>
        #Option     "AGPMode"                   # <i>
        #Option     "AGPSize"                   # <i>
        #Option     "RingSize"                  # <i>
        #Option     "BufferSize"                # <i>
        #Option     "EnablePageFlip"            # [<bool>]
        #Option     "Display"                   # <str>
        #Option     "PanelWidth"                # <i>
        #Option     "PanelHeight"               # <i>
        #Option     "ProgramFPRegs"             # [<bool>]
        #Option     "UseFBDev"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "VideoKey"                  # <i>
        #Option     "ShowCache"                 # [<bool>]
        #Option     "VGAAccess"                 # [<bool>]
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "r128"
        VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName   "Rage Mobility M3 AGP 2x"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes   "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

esaym · 12-29-2007, 10:58 AM

I have never had any trouble getting any distro on my c610. My lcd is the 1400x1050 version and I have both the ati m6 card and the nvidia geforce2 card. hdc sounds like the cdrom drive? I mine is a "Samsung CD-RW/DVD-ROM SN-308B". Maybe try ebay and buy a used dell cdrom drive for it that is the same as mine or at least different than the one you got?

I think it is a great laptop. I have ran slackware 10.2, kubuntu 6.06 and currently debian-testing. I only use KDE.

plmmsg · 12-29-2007, 08:43 PM

Hi,

Recently I have install Fedora 8 on my Dell C600 but the max. display size is 800x600. How can I change to 1024x768. Graphic card ATI Rage 128 M3.

Thanks

elliott678 · 12-30-2007, 03:51 AM

See that config file I posted? Copy that to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

dogged28 · 12-30-2007, 10:20 AM

thank you all for the responses. it's been a long time since i was able to touch linux and get back into the fun of a stable system and away from winblows. unfortunately, my job is all windows as is my wife so this laptop is my only linux haven/heaven. but, knowing as soon as i posted this for help it worked. i burned the latest Ubuntu at about 32x speed and it took. i'm sure the rom drive has alot to do with my issues so replacing that is top of my list. a question for you esaym: when you install does it install as scsi or ata? this installation labeled the drive as scsi, is that normal?

elliott678 · 12-30-2007, 11:56 AM

There was a change in the kernel a while back, I don't remember which version, but all HDs show up as sd* instead of hd* now by default.

plmmsg · 01-01-2008, 09:13 PM

Hi Elliott678,

After copy to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Screen is now 1024x768.
Thanks for your advise.

linuxquestions@romram.se · 01-05-2009, 05:00 AM

If you take a look at this link, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Resolution, you can read about the reason to the problem. Then you can try to enter just the HorizSync values into your Monitor section in your xorg.conf. This will most probably solve the issue for you. If not go on and enter the VertRefresh values as well.

This solved it for me.