RedHat 8.0 on Dell Latitude C800
 

This has been discussed in several threads on several bulletin boards, but I have yet to find the right answer. My Dell Latitude C800 with ATI Rage Mobility M4 video (16M SGRAM) could handle RH 7.2 and 7.3 - but 8.0 won't provide an X display. XF86config and the Redhat config file produce an XF86 config file that produces the infamous "no screens found" message. I have tried several variations of posted XF86Config files for the same OS and hardware configuration - none work. I am not exactly a newbie - I'm aware of the issues with the Intel 810 and 815 chipsets. I upgraded to XFree86 4.3.0 to ensure the latest and greatest.
No good. The only new thing I've thought of is that the C800 has an optional docking station - which has never been attached during an RH installation, BTW. But kudzu may recognize the BIOS and be loading another video driver I don't really need.
It's a stab in the dark, I admit.
It is very frustrating to read of other C800 installs of RH8 and ATI M4 video drivers that had no issues.

I am dual-booting to RH8 and Win2K using GRUB. Command-line changes (such as 'vga=normal' on the kernel line) haven't helped either.

During the custom install, if I do a test start of the X server at different resolutions and color depths - I always see the top half of the screen distorted with vertical green lines for the 5 seconds.
This happens on ALL resolutions and color depths. But there is at least one - the one used by anaconda during the OS install - that works without a problem. While not the best, it would do. Is there any way to capture what driver and Xconfig is being used during the install?

One other point - this is not the UXGA C800 display. I believe it is the 15" SXGA+ display, which goes to 1400x1050, not to 1600x1200.

A premium lager to the person who has the right answer.

Found the solution - non-intuitive
 

I get to buy myself a beer - boring.


I believe this is totally non-intuitive - but that is just me. I dropped the laptop in a docking station, connected a Dell monitor and a mouse, and kudzu self-configured the unit and the display works both on the monitor and the LCD display. Once configured, the LCD works stand-alone without whimpering.

Since this laptop is 3 years old - a dinosaur in IT years - it will often be found in a carry bag rather than near a docking station. So it has to have RedHat set up as a desktop machine before it will function as a mobile machine. Very strange. Anyone else have an experience like this?
:newbie:

re: RedHat 8.0 on Dell Latitude C800
 

I had a similar problem with Red Hat 8 on ly Latitude C800. I saw a link on the linux-for-laptops site that pointed me to an XF68Config file that got me going. Here'e the link:
http://marlowes.com/dell/c800_rh_7.0

Good luck. I hope you still need this info, cause I could use a beer right now

Manually set your resolution to 1600x? and you should
be in business. Hooking up the other monitor probably
did the same thing as the install probably read the monitor
settings for the new monitor.

Hi Guyz,
I am having the same problem. I am able to use the the shell mode, but not xwindows on red hat 9.1. I tried different resolution options, but did no good. Can any of the experts out there come up with a solution, I cant wait to use Red Hat on my laptop, am using it on my PC, and its more than just perfect ;)

:Pengy:

WiseGuy

I found that starting with the VESA driver got me the best results . Of course, if you are gaming, VESA is too slow. But it has the advantage that it dooes work. Here is my XF86Config :

John

######################################
# XF86Config for Dell Latitude C800 laptop with 16MB
# ATI Rage Mobility Video card, using VESA driver
######################################

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"# Load "xie"
Load "v4l"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Dell 1600x1200 Laptop Display Panel"
HorizSync 31.5 - 117.0
VertRefresh 60.0 - 60.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Rage Mobility M4 AGP"
VideoRam 16384
Option "UseBIOS" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection