XP/ FC1 on inspiron 5150

[Marc Schwartz]

On Thu, 2004-03-11 at 14:02, Pierre De Boeck wrote:
> Thanks a lot Marc,

Happy to help Pierre. More than anything, I was trying to be sure that
you were not going to make this more difficult than it needs to be.

I have been using RH since 8.0 on my older i8200 laptop, followed by RH
9 and FC1 on that same system, without problems or the need to compile a
kernel.

> So it seems that I can now start the installation
> but could you give me the settings that you used during the first
> install, namely
> 
> - the mouse settings (I have a touchpad and a USB mouse)

To get both to work required some manual editing of XF86Config AFTER the
installation was complete. The external USB mouse was recognized during
the install, which precluded the touchpad from working until I made the
changes.

See my version of the file here:

http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-March/msg01089.html

which I recently posted in another thread. Note the mouse related
sections.

> - the video settings (graphic card, monitor, resolution)

I have the UXGA 1600 x 1200 display with the 64 Mb NVidia 5200 card. I
don't recall which display you had, but I was able to use the Dell LCD
setting that was appropriate for my resolution. If that does not work
for you, try the generic LCD panel at the proper resolution.

Note that I had to use "linux text" when I did the install, as none of
the GUI based settings worked for me.

> And was the NIC detected during the installation?

Yes. I am behind a router and I have defined IP address assigned to each
computer rather than using DHCP. I don't know how you are configured
network-wise, but you will be prompted for the requisite information
during system setup.

> And for ACPI? is it enabled by default or do I have
> to edit the grub.conf file after the firs reboot?

I had to add the ACPI related settings after configuration. There is a
part of the installation process that will prompt you for kernel
options, but I did not specify acpi at that time. You might want to try
a default setting during the install and then come back and play around
with other options in grub.conf after you successfully boot up. I would
recommend keeping the default options and then setting up a duplicate
kernel boot section in grub.conf that you can then edit. Thus if you
mess something up, you can boot into the known working kernel config.

> And lastly, is your system the same as mine or if not,
> what are the differences?

I have:

3.2 Ghz P4 with Hyperthreading (I disabled HT in the laptop's BIOS after
noting problems with the SMP kernel). So I am using the UP kernel.

2 GB RAM

60 GB 7200 RPM HD

DVD+R/RW

Dell TrueMobile 1400 WiFi

Broadcom 56k internal modem

> I asked all these questions as I am rather a linux newbie
> and I fear above all a frozen system that prevents me to reboot
> even with XP. :-) 

Not a problem. Just be sure that when you do the GRUB configuration, you
install Grub to /boot and NOT TO THE MBR. If you do the latter, you
overwrite XP's boot and then are dependent upon GRUB. That is not a bad
thing, but I have found that using the approach that I do seems to make
dual-booting easier, at least for me. Follow the instructions on the web
site that I posted in the prior message for more information.

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

You might want to consider picking up a copy of one of the Fedora books
that have come out in the past few months. There are a few of them
listed at Amazon.com and/or you may have a local bookstore that has
them. I would look through them first before buying. If you have other
computer books, you will know that each author has an individual writing
style and organizational structure that can help or hinder your
comprehension. Having a good up to date reference book on the desk next
you can be very helpful.

HTH,

Marc