Install Redhat Linux 9.0 on Compaq EVO N800v

Install Red Linux 9.0 on Compaq Evo N800v

Detail of my Compaq Evo N800v

Processor

Intel® Pentium® 4 Mobile 1.7 GHz

Chipset

Based on Intel i845

Memory

512 MB RAM

Harddisk

30 GB Hitachi DK23DA IDE Drive

Videocard

ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 AGP (LW), 64 MB RAM

Screen

14" 1024*768

DVD/CDRW

Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2102

Floppy drive

None

Soundcard

SoundMax 3 Integrated Digital Audio

USB

NEC Compatible USB 2 Controller

Network

Intel PRO/100 VE

Modem

Lucent Win Modem

Pointing device

PS/2 compatible

Infrared

FIR (nsc-ircc on port 0x3e8, IRQ 3, DMA 3)

 

Installation of Redhat linux 9.0
 

Originally the laptop is shipped with a preinstalled Windows XP with a single 30GB partition. XP is convenient for those computer newbies unless you can tolerate the fact that it getting slower and less stable with more and more intalled software. Although my desktop computer has already dominated by linux, I still consider leaving a Xp there just incase I am using some softwares that don't have linux version yet (seems still quite a lot, isn't it? Games etc.:))

So I try to install linux parallely with current Xp system. The following is the print result of parted:

Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-28615.781 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
1 0.031 6149.882 primary fat32 boot
2 6149.883 6251.857 primary  ext3
3 6251.889 13052.812 primary ext3
4 13052.812 28615.781 extended lba
5 13052.843 13274.296 logical  linux-swap
6 13274.328 28615.781 logical  fat32

I am using the Grub as a boot loader. Make sure that the linux /boot partition is within the first 8GB of you harddisk, otherwise it may complain a boot problem. I installed the boot loader on the first sector of the /boot partition and use the boot loader of Windows Xp to load grub. This will not make any change the MBR which is safer and more convenient if you want to upgrade or change your linux installation later.

The following guide taken from http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

  • Install GRUB on the first sector of the /boot partition. DO NOT INSTALL IT ON THE MBR!.

If you are performing the Red Hat installation, for the "Boot Loader Installation" screen:

  • Select "Use GRUB as the boot loader"
  • Select Install Boot Loader record on "...First sector of boot partition".
  • After finishing the Red Hat installation, reboot into Linux. If you don't have a boot disk, try booting in linux rescue mode

If you already have Linux installed:

  • Run the following command (e.g. assuming /boot is /dev/hda2): grub-install /dev/hda2.

    • If you don't know which partition contains /boot, run the df command and check the output.

  • Edit /etc/grub.conf and make sure there is an entry for your version of Windows. For reference, here is a copy of my/etc/grub.conf file.
  • Determine which partition contains the /boot partition by running the df command. You'll see output like this: 
Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3              8665372   1639580   6585612  20% /
/dev/hda2                46636      5959     38269  14% /boot
/dev/hda6               513776    189504    324272  37% /osshare
none                    256624         0    256624   0% /dev/shm

 From this output, we see that /boot is on /dev/hda2.

  • Make a copy of the Linux boot sector onto a floppy or onto a FAT32 partition. We'll name this copylinux.bin.

To make a copy onto a floppy:

  • Mount the floppy drive if it's not mounted (assumes /mnt/floppy exists): mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
  • Run the following command: dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

    • Substitute the path for the if= parameter (the input file) with the appropriate partition from the previous step. E.g., set if= to /dev/hda2.

To make a copy onto a FAT32 (vfat) partition:

  • Mount the FAT32 partition if it's not mounted yet. If it isn't listed in the df output, it hasn't been mounted yet.
  • Run the following command: dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/osshare/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

    • Substitute the path for the if= parameter (the input file) with the appropriate partition from the previous step. E.g., set if= to /dev/hda2. Substitute the path for theof= parameter (the output file) with whatever is appropriate for your system. The example here (of=/osshare/linux.bin) is for copying onto a FAT32 partition called osshare.

  • Reboot into Windows
  • Copy the linux.bin file to C:\
  • Run notepad and edit C:\boot.ini. Note that C:\boot.ini is a hidden system file, so it probably won't show up in Windows Explorer. To edit the file, try:Start->Run and enter: notepad C:\boot.ini. Add the following line at the end: c:\linux.bin="Linux"

If your C: filesystem is NTFS (not FAT32), you must edit C:\boot.ini as a user with administrator-level privileges.

To make C:\boot.ini writable, you can either :

  • Use Explorer:
    • Go to Tools->Folder Options->View and select Show hidden files and folders and deselect Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
    • Right-click on the file, view theProperties and uncheck Read-only. You can now edit the file.
    • After editing the file, restore the settings to their original state.
  • Use the command-line:
    • Make the file writable: attrib -R -S -H C:\boot.ini.
    • After you've finished editing the file, put the settings back: attrib +R +S +H C:\boot.ini

For reference, here is a copy of myboot.ini file.

  • Reboot again. You should be able to pick either Windows or Linux. Selecting Linux will start GRUB

    • It is recommended that the Knoppix is an excellent choice to do the job

You can refer to the following FAQs for any problem that might encountered during the installation using grub.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4622


Problems followed

Compaq evo N800v is not APM compatible, it fully relies on ACPI power control interface. Linux' ACPI support on redhat 9.0 with kernel 2.4.20-8 is not implemented. Features such as the battery status, hibernate, standby are not available. I especially found that using APM under linux the system seems generating more heat. Even with the bios option ˇ°cpu fan always onˇ± enabled, it is still not satifactory. 3D support for radeon is not working, although the 2D part works just fine. So i figure that it will be a good idea to try the newly released linuxkernel

Build and install the new kernel 2.6.3

  1. download the kernel 2.6.3 as a tar file from http://www.kernel.org/
  2. extract the kernel source to /usr/src/
    cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.3/
    make xconfig
  3. config the kernel is really a very time consuming job, you can refer to other sources of faqs or howtos. I am not gonna introduce that. You can refer to the following link for detail.

    4. http://www.linux-sxs.org/upgrading/migration26.html

    http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html

    I also attach my kernel config file here which you can use on your N800v and hopefully everything works.

  4. make sure to pay attention to the following

//this enables the 3D support and AGP function
Processor type and features --->
<*> MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
Character devices --->
<M> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)
[*] Intel 440LX/BX/GX and I815/I820/I830M/I830MP/I840/I845/I850/I860 support
// Enable your chipset instead of the above.
[ ] Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 DRI support)
 
#
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
#
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y

#
# APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS Support
#
CONFIG_APM=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT=y

 
#
# USB support
#
CONFIG_USB=y
# CONFIG_USB_DEBUG is not set

 
#
# Miscellaneous USB options
#
CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS=y

 
#
# USB Host Controller Drivers
#
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD=y

 
#
# USB Human Interface Devices (HID)
#
CONFIG_USB_HID=m
CONFIG_USB_HIDINPUT=y
CONFIG_USB_HIDDEV=y

 
#
# USB HID Boot Protocol drivers
#
CONFIG_USB_KBD=m
CONFIG_USB_MOUSE=m

 
#
# DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems
#
CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y
CONFIG_VFAT_FS=y
CONFIG_NTFS_FS=y

 
# for chinese character support
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_936=y

 
#
# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=y

 
#
# Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
#
CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y

 
#
# PCI devices
#
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=y

 
#
# Graphics support
#
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_FB_VGA16=m
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
CONFIG_FB_RADEON=m
CONFIG_FB_RADEON_I2C=y
CONFIG_AGP=y
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=y
CONFIG_DRM=y
CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m

  1. install module-init-tools from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/
  2. then make (may take as long as 20 mins)
  3. make modules_install
  4. make install (this will modify the grub.conf automatically).
  5. cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot (important!!!)
  6. refer to the two links that previously give for modules config.


Now you can reboot the computer to enjoy the new kernel. If there is any problem you can always switch back to the old kernel, which is still on the harddisk.
 

Getting DRI 3D support on redhat

In order to run 3d programs and games, you must have the DRI drivers enabled.

The Direct Rendering Infrastructure (dri.sourceforge.net), also known as the DRI, is a framework for allowing direct access to graphics hardware in a safe and efficient manner. It includes changes to the X server, to several client libraries and to the kernel. The first major use for the DRI is to create fast OpenGL implementations.


Check your XF86Config file under /etc/X11, you'll probably find the following, or you want to use text editor to add the missing lines by your self


Section "Module"
  Load "dri"
  Load "glx"
  ...
EndSection
...
Section "Device"
  Driver "radeon"
  ...
EndSection
...
Section "dri"
  Mode 0666
EndSection

The following are taken from my configuration file with some optimization.

Section "Module"
 Load "dbe"
 Load "extmod"
 Load "fbdevhw"
 Load "glx"
 Load "record"
 Load "freetype"
 Load "type1"
 Load "dri"
EndSection

 
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Videocard0"
 Driver "radeon"
 VendorName "Videocard vendor"
 BoardName "ATI Radeon Mobility 7500"
 VideoRam 32768
 Option "AGPMode" "4"
# This increased FPS from 609 to 618.
 Option "AGPFastWrite" "True"
# This had no measurable effect, but it may increase instability of your computer.
# You may also need to set it in your BIOS.
 Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"
# This improved FPS from 618 to 702. It also is "risky" but few people have reported problems.
EndSection

Make sure dri and glx is loaded, and device driver is ˇ°Driver "radeon"ˇ±. Then open your xterm or any term you are usi
glxinfo |grep rendering
ng now , try the following command

 

if you get a ˇ°direct rendering: Yesˇ±, then congratulations you can try your favorite games such quake III then, otherwise you may have to install the latest dri modules.
 

Download from the DRI.sourceforge.net,

Nightly snapshots of the DRI drivers for Linux are available from [WWW]http://www.freedesktop.org/~dri/snapshots/. You must install the [WWW]XFree86 binary from the extras directory or you will not be able to start up XFree86 with the new 2d modules. To do that, use bzip -d XFree86.bz2 to decompress the binary, chmod 4755 XFree86 if you don't have a setuid wrapper on your system, and replace/usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 with the new binary. If you are using a radeon 8500 or higher (8500, 8700, 9000, 9100, 9200, etc.) choose the r200 shapshot, otherwise choose radeon (7000, 7200, 7500, etc.).

follow their instructions step by step.

http://dri.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/Documentation

you may also have to insert a line into your rc.sysinit
action $"Initializing Radeon: " modprobe radeon
to enable the newly installed radeon modules.