Need help with Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Steven J. Brown wrote:

> Can anyone help me get Fedora Core running on a Dell Inspiron 8600 
> notebook?  The problem is that it's got an unusual wide-screen monitor 
> (runs at 1680 x 1050).   I've tried various selections  during text-mode 
> installation, but none have worked so far.  I also tried manually 
> inserting "1680x1050" into the XF86Config file, but that didn't help.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.

you don't mention what kind of video card you have.  i have an 8100 with
an nvidia geforce 2 go card, and i'm running FC 1, with the 1600x1200 LCD
display.  in fact, i don't even have the nvidia module loaded.  when i
installed FC 1, apparently, the "nv" driver worked just fine, and i have
no overwhelming need to mess with it.  i don't do high-speed games or
anything, so i'm happy so far.  i'm sure at some point i'll load the
nvidia module but, for now, it ain't broke.

anyway, here's my /etc/X11/XF86Config file, which works just peachy.  
customize to suit your tastes.

# XFree86 4 configuration created by redhat-config-xfree86

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "single head configuration"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
	InputDevice    "DevInputMice" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the 
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
	RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
	FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "fbdevhw"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
#	Load  "dri"	# removed by rday
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#	Option	"Xleds"		"1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#	Option	"XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
# or:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
#	Option	"XkbVariant"	"nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:nocaps"
#
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
	Option	    "XkbRules" "xfree86"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "PS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/psaux"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
	Identifier  "DevInputMice"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Dell 1600x1200 Laptop Display Panel"
	HorizSync    31.5 - 90.0
	VertRefresh  59.0 - 85.0
	Option	    "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nv"
	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
	BoardName   "nVidia GeForce 2 Go"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1600x1200" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection