Dell Latitude 830 & FC5

[peers]

So I'm installing FC5 on my new Dell Latitude 830. I can't say it's been an easy process, but I thought I might document some of my steps for others:

1) Base graphical install didn't work too well. I tried a text based install but that wasn't working horribly well either. If you get the black screen on a graphical install, try fn+f8 (and maybe fn+f7). It finally came up for me like that. I also tried using "linux vesa" as a commandline prompt, and the no-acpi/no/apm switches. Make sure you install kernel development packages.

2) The broadcom BCM5755 did not work out of the box. I downloaded the latest pci.ids from pciids.sourceforge.net, and then placed them in /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids.
reboot. Then download & install the linux 3.71b driver from broadcom. reboot. You should find eth0 now.

If you have trouble mounting a usb drive, try using /dev/sdb1 rather than /dev/sdb for the device.
mkdir /mnt/flash
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/flash

to disable selinux, look at /etc/sysconfig/selinux. I was getting lots of errors/warnings.

finally, if you get a graphical install running, it will want to run X. and x doesn't work yet (I have to go install graphics drivers, but I need a network card+yum first). So append a " 3" (space 3) to the end of your boot line to run in text mode. Under grub, edit the boot config, edit the boot line, (e, e) then space-3, return, and B for boot.

more as I figure it out.

If anyone knows a way to get gcc 3.2.3 (not 3.4) running on FC6+ I'd be all ears. I need to run old gcc for a couple of projects I work on that run on RHEL3...
--eric

[twn250]

Is there a reason why you are not installing F7?

[peers]

Yes, I'm not installing FC7 because FC5 was the last release of Fedora to provide true gcc 3.2.3 backwards compatibility. Do you know how to get a gcc 3.2.3 + binutils running on FC7? I'd be psyched to upgrade!

From my original post:
>If anyone knows a way to get gcc 3.2.3 (not 3.4) running on FC6+ I'd be all ears. I need to run old gcc for a couple of >projects I work on that run on RHEL3...

[pete_1967]

Originally Posted by peers

>If anyone knows a way to get gcc 3.2.3 (not 3.4) running on FC6+ I'd be all ears. I need to run old gcc for a couple of >projects I work on that run on RHEL3...

http://gcc.gnu.org/faq.html#multiple

Basically you need to compile the other one at least from source.

(The problem with FC5 is that it is no more supported so you won't get updates for it.)

[lazlow]

Have you tried the compat-libstc++-296 and compat-libgcc-296? Bbetween those and the 33 versions they should have you covered.

As deployment support ended for RHEL3 around the first of July, have you looked into upgrading the work servers to RHEL5 or something?

Maybe updating the projects (or starting to) would be a good idea.

[peers]

Thanks Pete & Lazlow. I'll look at compat 296. I tried compiling gcc from source once on FC6 - it failed when using it due to incompatibilities with the binutils (as/ld). I'm going to try again today for a complete-from-scratch build. I agree moving from RHEL3 to RHEL/CENTOS5 would be a good idea. But managing a 250 person conversion to a new O/S is not a task undertaken lightly. (especially since I'm not the IT guy).

I tried installing FC7 last night. but It wanted device drivers for my DVD drive. I tried changing the bios settings (no luck - ATA->AHCI). Running with various switch (noachi) didn't work either. So I unpacked the iso and set up an ftp server - no luck. So after 3 hours of searching (and reading that I should just wait until fc8), I ended up trying an fc6 install. Text based install worked, and then I downloaded the nvidia drivers & got X up and running.

[gcreager]

I've been playing with a new d830 for the last week and I've seen similar problems. I can load Linux successfully when I have the thing docked, and it really looks pretty cool with the 2407 monitor but I see nothing on the main laptop screen when I start it up as a non-docked system.

I tried rebuilding the system from scratch with the system undocked but I got the dreaded black screen. I thought I'd tried fn+f7 but to no avail. I'll try fn+f8 later this evening.

Sound, with 2.6.22.1-41.fc7 #1 SMP is still problemmatical. I've got it working with a Plantronics headset, though, and that'll work 'til the machine sound sorts out.

Wireless networking with the Intel 3945 chipset is also an interesting problem: If I set it to not come up on boot in system-config-network, I can't start it after boot either as root or as a user. Current (ugly work-around? Start wired and wireless networks, then down both interfaces and restart just the wired interface (I'm docked at the office, after all).

I've been looking and haven't found too many fixes for these issues. I'm open to suggestions. It's a shame I can't get F7 up as fast and easy as CentOS 4 came up on the old D600!

TIA!
gerry

[peers]

gcreager: I updated to the latest kernel+nvidia drivers for fc6 (I couldn't get fc7 to load at all...)
I attached my xorg.conf for the panel by itself.

rebuilding gcc 3.2.3 is hard... First it won't compile because gcc 4 doesn't like to compile it. So I rebuilt binutils 2.16 from scratch and installed gcc 3.4. Then I pointed at these two things (with configure) and "make bootstrap". It succeeds up to the point that it wants to llink with libc.so.6:

/xgcc -B./ -B/usr/local/gcc323/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/ -isystem /usr/local/gcc323/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/include -isystem ...

/lib64/libc.so.6: file not re.cognized: File format not recognized


have you tried network manager for the 3945 + the drivers + firmware from intel? That's how I got it running on my inspiron 9300. Once I get gcc + my other builds running I'll tackle this.

--eric

(eric_peers@yahoo.com)

[gcreager]

Eric,

Thanks. I'll look at this shortly. Gotta get some carpentry done now or we don't have a bed tonight!

F7 does load and in dock is great. I've gotta get it pushed out to work in the field so I can use it now. I may drop back to FC6 for the time being to get things working and let the dust settle.

Again, thanks for the xorg.conf
--
gerry