Laptop and VGA recognation

zillah · 03-14-2005, 03:34 AM

I have got Laptop hp pavilion ze5170 , and VGA card is ATI Mobility M6, I tried to install Mandrake 10.1 official, but It could not recognize VGA propely, what should I do? Is there Linux's driver ? and if there is one, how can I go through the processes to install this driver?

Thanks

mjrich · 03-14-2005, 02:14 PM

Which drivers have you tried ?

Anyway, the easiest thing to do would be to email this fellow: http://www.freewebs.com/unforgivensworld/laptop.html and ask him to email you a copy of his XF86Config (or Xorg.conf) file.

Alternatively, you could try the following drivers: ati, vesa, radeon, and also the newest ati driver from www.ati.com (see http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=23054&hl= for a walk-through).

Cheers,

mj

zillah · 03-14-2005, 10:44 PM

Thanks mj

Could you please tell (if you have got idea) how to reach this guy, for the freeweb.

Because I went to his forum, but I could not find his email, and he said:

Quote:

Questions, Comments, Ideas, or Idle chat, please visit my forums.www.chatarea.com/themostawesomesocietyforstuff
(sorry, you'll have to cut and paste)

mjrich · 03-14-2005, 11:20 PM

From the looks of it, you'd have to register to get his contact details (less spam that way, presumably...).

To be honest though, you could probably just have a play with your XF86Config file (or Xorg - it's hard to keep up with which distros are using which one these days) and replace whichever driver you used before, with one of those listed above - vesa, ati etc.

Cheers,

mj

zillah · 03-14-2005, 11:45 PM

I did register, but still I could not find his email.

Quote:

you could probably just have a play with your XF86Config file (or Xorg - it's hard to keep up with which distros are using which one these days) and replace whichever driver you used before, with one of those listed above - vesa, ati etc.

Now I can access command line only, what should I do to play with XF86Config or Xorg, because I can not go to the GUI as you know?

Do I need to reboot form Mandrake CD1 every time I want to change configuration for these two ( XF86Config or Xorg) ? Or I can do it via command line ?

Please advice for that

Thanks

mjrich · 03-15-2005, 01:22 PM

There are two main options: a) login as root at the command prompt, and then run one of xorgconfig or drakxconfig, following the prompts to recreate your xorg.conf file, then running startx and repeating until you have a working configuration; or...

b) Download a cheatsheat for the Vim editor from www.vim.org, then as root

Code:

cd /etc/X11/
vim xorg.conf              or...
vi xorg.conf

and use the cursors to find the section labelled

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0" - or similar
Driver "foobar" - etc.
'
'
'
EndSection

Then edit the Driver entry so that it reads vesa, ati etc., and restart X (startx). Incidentally, you can usually get a pretty good idea of what's wrong, by running

Code:

grep EE /var/log/xorg*                  - might be Xorg*, though

Cheers,

mj

zillah · 03-16-2005, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Then edit the Driver entry so that it reads vesa, ati etc.,

I have got two laptop one of them fine, the name of the driver for disply adapter (Windows system) is:

MOBILITY RADEON 9000

When I checked the name FC2, /etc/xorg.conf the name od driver is:

Driver "RADEON".

Now with the second laptop (the one with problem), the name of driver for display adapter (Windows) is:

ATI MOBILITY M6

when I checked the name Mandrake 10.1, /etc/XF86Config, the name of driver is:

Driver "nv".

Now what should I do with the driver name ? Or how can I make the correct configuration? Do I need to use try and error to find the correct drive? Or should I use one word for the driver's name?

Thanks

mjrich · 03-16-2005, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Now what should I do with the driver name ?

I would try changing it to radeon, and if that doesn't work try vesa, followed by ati. (I.e., just change the word nv to radeon in the XF86Config file on the problematic machine, then try starting X again. If it fails, change it and repeat). Yes, it is a bit of a trial & error process, but there is some method amongst the madness of laptop graphics cards...

An easy alternative by the way, is just to boot up a copy of knoppix on the laptop, and see which driver it uses. Then either edit your config file to fit, or just copy it across.

Cheers,

mj