X on a notebook (was Laptop Recommendations?)

[Christopher White]

A timely thread!  :-).

I just got a Dell Inspiron 5000 notebook yesterday, and as of today I'm
dual-booting Win2K and RH 7.0.  Everything works OK (haven't tried the sound
in Linux, but I don't really need it) except X.  I simply can't get X to
come up.  The X-based installer fell back to text because it couldn't fire
up X.  This notebook has the ATI/Rage video chip.  I was hoping that XFree86
4.x would be able to recognize the video stuff, but so far no cigar.

Does anyone have an idea of how to get X to work on this notebook?

Thanx!

--Chris

> "Loraditch, Greg" wrote:
> > 
> > I have been looking at HP and IBM Thinkpads.
> 
> I've done a number of laptops, and really it's all about A) hardware,
> and B) taste.  First, decide if you like the little eraser 
> stick pointer
> (ala Thinkpad, Toshiba) or the synaptics/glidepoint (ala Dell)
> touchpad.  I personally like the touchpad.  Some laptops have 
> both (ala
> HP, some Dell).
> 
> Then, check your laptop out on http://www.linux-laptop.net;
> additionally, check for the hardware compatibility of your preferred
> PCMCIA, primarily ethernet card at http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net. 
> Some laptops are now coming with built in ethernet which is nice, but
> not all of them work. Be careful.  If you laptop can support a TypeIII
> card (the two-slot-high cards), the 3Com 3C3FEM556C is a nice buy and
> fully supported.  Do not get confused and buy the 3C3FEM656C Cardbus
> card, it looks identical but isn't supported.  Generally any 
> 3Com *556*
> or *575* cards are good to go.  I personally use Xircom type III cards
> and spend way too much time debugging them.
> 
> Next would come your distro; an aversion to Debian has been 
> noted, so I
> would say RedHat6.2 or 7.0, Madrake 7.2 or 8.0 (8.0 TBA real soon) or
> the like.  I'm personally downloading the new Progeny 1.0 to 
> try out for
> end-user friendliness.  The important thing mainly is to get a newer
> distro which has either XFreee86-3.3.6 and/or XFree86-4.0.2.
> 
> There are three primary popular video chips: ATI (Rage|Mobility|etc.),
> S3 Savage, and NeoMagic.  The ATI chips are XF-3.3.6 required, S3 are
> XF-4.0.2 required.  NeoMagic can generally just work, but be careful
> with the laptops which share the video and sound ram with dual Neo
> chipsets.  I generally avoid Neo stuff like the plague 
> nowadays.  I have
> yet to see one of these NVidia chipset laptops, so no ideas there.
> 
> Your laptop sound chips vary with the wind; the Maestro 2/2E 
> and Maestro
> 3/3E chips are rather popular by many vendors, and are both 
> supported by
> the latest 2.2.x (2.2.18 and 2.2.19 for sure) kernels, and by 
> 2.4.2+ as
> well.  Again, the Neomagic sound chipset is out there but I avoid it. 
> There are some Yamaha chipsets floating around, but they're not very
> battery efficient so aren't widely dispersed.
> 
> The rest of the crap in your latop should "just work", the video and
> sound are your primary concerns with the ethernet coming in right
> behind.  If you need a modem, you're on your own -- I use one 
> as little
> as possible these days. :-)  (However, the 3C3FEM556C noted above has
> everything you need, but is pricey at ~$210)
> 
> Another ramble from:
> -te
> 
_____________________________________________
Christopher T. White
Manager of System Administration
SoftQuad Professional Services
SoftQuad Software, Inc.
1310 Redwood Way, Ste. 120
Petaluma  CA  94954
Voice: 707-794-7000 x16
FAX: 707-794-7009
http://www.softquad.com