I just bought an Inspiron 710m and installed Fedora Core 5 on it. The install went flawlessly. The only potential "gotcha" was choosing the proper screen mfg/resolution-- there was no option for a Dell laptop LCD with 1280x800 resolution, but there was an option for a Generic laptop LCD with this resolution. I'm also currently struggling with getting the Wifi up and running but this is probably due to the the fact that (1) I'm a Wifi noobie and (2) I don't have a wireless router at home to experiment on. Oh, and I did have to install support drivers for the Intel Pro Wireless 2200, but that was fairly painless using Yum and the Livna repositories. (Don't let that last bit of jargon scare you, if/when you get to that point, it's easy to do with a little help from forums such as this.)
I went for a pure Linux laptop (goodbye Windows and no looking back), but I did create a dual-boot FC4 and Windows XP desktop using a Dell machine at home. The only problems there were partitioning the hard drive (I used Partition Magic) and getting the proper driver for the embedded ethernet board from the Intel website. I believe that driver is now included in FC5, which goes to show you how quickly things are getting better and easier with Linux distros, especially Fedora.
If by "coexist with Windows" you mean that you have to share files between the two operating systems, then most distros should support mounting an NTFS partition. If you're just referring to being able to boot Linux then turn around and boot Windows, that's possible with the distros I've seen. Dual booting has to do with the boot loader.
The main thing to realize is that you're probably going to have to do some tweaking somewhere, sometime. It would require some effort even to get two copies of Windows on one computer. But, hey, people in the Linux community are the kind that don't mind rolling up their sleeves and tackling a job head-on. Otherwise, they wouldn't be running Linux. And that isn't to say that Linux is hard. Nowadays, getting a distro like Fedora or Suse to install on a computer doesn't require any arcane knowledge at all. Setting up any operating system from scratch on any hardware is a bit of work.
From Chile? No, that's just my screen name. I'm from San Diego-- a little less exotic :-)
There is a solution to the 1280x800 resolution problem, Alain Poirier wrote a small program that changes the resolution modes of the vbios for the 855 Intel chipset. It lives here:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/apoirier/
The syntax is pretty simple (it may be different for you):
panzer# ./855resolution -l (Lists modes)
855resolution version 0.3, by Alain Poirier
Unfortunately this has to be done (except the xorg.conf bit) everytime you reboot, I just stuck the path to the 855resolution binary in my /etc/rc.local and it does it on boot. I however am still trying to get my soundcard to work! Does anyone know what chipset the 710m uses?
Robert of Santi
2 Posts
0
April 24th, 2006 17:00
I just bought an Inspiron 710m and installed Fedora Core 5 on it. The install went flawlessly. The only potential "gotcha" was choosing the proper screen mfg/resolution-- there was no option for a Dell laptop LCD with 1280x800 resolution, but there was an option for a Generic laptop LCD with this resolution. I'm also currently struggling with getting the Wifi up and running but this is probably due to the the fact that (1) I'm a Wifi noobie and (2) I don't have a wireless router at home to experiment on. Oh, and I did have to install support drivers for the Intel Pro Wireless 2200, but that was fairly painless using Yum and the Livna repositories. (Don't let that last bit of jargon scare you, if/when you get to that point, it's easy to do with a little help from forums such as this.)
I went for a pure Linux laptop (goodbye Windows and no looking back), but I did create a dual-boot FC4 and Windows XP desktop using a Dell machine at home. The only problems there were partitioning the hard drive (I used Partition Magic) and getting the proper driver for the embedded ethernet board from the Intel website. I believe that driver is now included in FC5, which goes to show you how quickly things are getting better and easier with Linux distros, especially Fedora.
Good luck!
Robert of Santiago
jzamoras
9 Posts
0
April 25th, 2006 03:00
Robert of Santi
2 Posts
0
April 25th, 2006 23:00
If by "coexist with Windows" you mean that you have to share files between the two operating systems, then most distros should support mounting an NTFS partition. If you're just referring to being able to boot Linux then turn around and boot Windows, that's possible with the distros I've seen. Dual booting has to do with the boot loader.
The main thing to realize is that you're probably going to have to do some tweaking somewhere, sometime. It would require some effort even to get two copies of Windows on one computer. But, hey, people in the Linux community are the kind that don't mind rolling up their sleeves and tackling a job head-on. Otherwise, they wouldn't be running Linux. And that isn't to say that Linux is hard. Nowadays, getting a distro like Fedora or Suse to install on a computer doesn't require any arcane knowledge at all. Setting up any operating system from scratch on any hardware is a bit of work.
From Chile? No, that's just my screen name. I'm from San Diego-- a little less exotic :-)
Robert of Santiago
iscri
1 Message
0
May 12th, 2006 10:00
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/apoirier/
The syntax is pretty simple (it may be different for you):
panzer# ./855resolution -l (Lists modes)
855resolution version 0.3, by Alain Poirier
Chipset: 855GM
VBIOS type: 2
VBIOS Version: 3104
Mode 30 : 640x480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800x600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024x768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280x1024, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3a : 1600x1200, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920x1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640x480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800x600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024x768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280x1024, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4b : 1600x1200, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920x1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640x480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800x600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024x768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280x1024, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5a : 1600x1200, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920x1440, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 7c : 1280x800, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 7d : 1280x800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 7e : 1280x800, 32 bits/pixel (Use this)
panzer# ./855resolution 7e 1280 800 (Sets Res)
855resolution version 0.3, by Alain Poirier
Chipset: 855GM
VBIOS type: 2
VBIOS Version: 3104
** Patch mode 7e to resolution 1280x800 complete
panzer#
The set xorg to use the new resolution:
This goes in xorg.conf
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
Unfortunately this has to be done (except the xorg.conf bit) everytime you reboot, I just stuck the path to the 855resolution binary in my /etc/rc.local and it does it on boot. I however am still trying to get my soundcard to work! Does anyone know what chipset the 710m uses?
jzamoras
9 Posts
0
May 12th, 2006 11:00
Best