I ran across a post in a forum on the Gentoo Forums that pointed out a VERY dirty hack to get the ATI Mobility x1400 working correctly at the correct resolutions.  I haven’t check to see if anything else is working (3D, accelleration, etc) because all I really needed was correct 2D working at 1920×1200.  I was able to get my laptop to work now with 1920×1200 resolution which just looks great.  One issue that I’m having is that when using the console, my font is fuzzy. Fuzzy meaning the pixels around the words are constantly turning on and off in some places.  This is not the console in Xorg, but the one when you hit ALT-F1 …

The only way I was able to get the ati drivers to compile correctly was to switch from using the -mm kernel branch to the standard gentoo sources branch.  I was then able to get the ati drivers to install correctly.  After that I was able to switch a driver out with one at this website.  At that point, everything worked correctly.

Since I switched kernels, my wireless card has stopped working again.  Since I want this laptop for work, which I have a wired connection at work, I’m not too worried about it.  I’ll get it working eventually, just need to spend more time getting it to work with the non -mm kernel. 

So here’s the issue, I bought the Inspiron E1705 with the upgraded video card option, which was the ATI Radeon Mobility X1400.  I also got the upgraded monitor, so the resolution on the monitor is 1920×1200.  Looks great in my opinion.  The issues are that there is currently no support at all for the video card in linux.  You can use the vesa drivers, which will give you a resolution of 1600×1200, which really does get annoying seeing things stretched.  The open source radeon drivers do not work with this chipset, and for some reason ATI has not released any linux drivers for this video card.

I’m going to keep a lookout for solutions on getting this video card working at the correct resolution in linux.  If you are a linux user, I would recommend that you try to get an nVidia card instead of an ATI if at all possible.  nVidia has already released linux video drivers for it’s newest mobility chipsets.  If I had that option when I got this laptop, I would definitely taken that option.

Well, the Dell Inspiron E1705 I bought showed up yesterday.  Only showed up two weeks before they said it was.  No compaints on this end.  Pretty nice laptop, all in all.

I’ve already started to install Gentoo Linux on the E1705.  Been taking notes what I do along the way.  With all new hardware, this is going to take a little bit to get everything working.  At this time, I have a somewhat stable system running.  I’m still trying new things constantly, so I haven’t gotten to the point to write a good guide to follow as of yet. 

For example, I have just gotten the Intel 3945ABG wireless network card to work, but to do so I’m using the mm-sources kernel tree (linux-2.6.16-rc6-mm2).  I have gotten xorg to work using the vesa drivers, but I am having issues with the ati-drivers (not sure if they will even work at this point).  I think I might stick with this kernel though since it did end up having a lot of nice things added, card reader support and a scheduler for multi-core systems.  I think by the end of this week I’ll have a nice guide up though.  I’ll put the lspci output up now though.

There is also one more issue I might need to solve first.  When trying to install my Windows XP Professional that I had got from school, I always get a blue screen of death during the installation.  Something about the pci.sys is causing trouble.  Still looking into that issue, but it was using a Windows XP Pro installation disk that did not have any service packs.

Decided to get a new laptop.  I’m going to give my old one, Inspiron 6000, to my wife to use since it is a lot better and nicer than her old laptop.  One of the main reasons for the upgrade is because my laptop is the laptop that I use at work, and I really could use a larger screen with a higher resolution.  The purpose of that is so that I can see more things at once: development screen, debugger, testing screen, etc.  Really helps out.

The new laptop I’m going with is another Dell.  I know I said I would not do another Dell, but after looking everywhere for the exact laptop I wanted, Dell was the only one that offerred the screen / resolution that I wanted.  Really came close to getting an HP, but even though they had the size screen I wanted, they didn’t offer the resolution.  The new laptop is an Inspiron E1705, which I think is basically the home edition of the Inspiron 9400.  I have no idea why two different Dell departments named the same exact laptop the same.

Once I get the laptop, I will be installing Gentoo Linux on it.  This time around I plan to write the documentation on how to install it correct WHILE I’m installing.  On the Inspiron 6000, I would do it then try to remember what I did which didn’t work out well at all.  Look for that in April, since the laptop is not supposed to be delivered until then.

Here’s the specs:

Processor: Intel Core Duo T2300 (1.66 GHz / 667 MHz FSB)
Memory: 1GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm
Monitory: 17 inch Ultra Sharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 HyperMemory 256MB
Hard Drive: 60GB 5400 RPM SATA
Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/- RW Drive
Wireless: Intel PRO / WIreless 3945 a/g Mini Card

I decided it would be a lot easier if I just created a seperate page that I could keep updating on how to install Gentoo Linux on an Inspiron 6000.  This would make it easier on me to just update one place instead of just throwing the updates into seperate posts or going back and constantly changing that post.  Also divided the sections up and made it a little easier to follow alongside the gentoo documentation.  You can get to it from the Pages section on the side bar or the direct link is here.