laptop with ATI mobility

[geezy]

OK I was going at my problem before all wrong. I finally figured out I don't have an NVIDIA card afterall, but instead I have an ATI mobility 128 AGP 4X, with an M4 AGP 4X chip type. I have a dell inspiron 8000 and I've installed Mandrake 9.1 on my linux partition. X won't start and I'm still assuming it's because of my graphics card. I've gone to the ATI website and for mobility they tell you to go to the manufacturer's of your laptop website. So, I went to the dell website and you have to list that your looking for video drivers and then your OS, but they only have red hat linux listed for any linux system so I chose that. The only video driver they have is for ATI mobililty 3/ mobility 4. It says at the website
this rpm installs correct XF86config-4 file for portable LCD panel that can do 1024x768 with ATI Rage Mobility M3 chipset. XFree86 4.0.1 is required.
I'm not sure if it matters if I have an M4 chipset and it's for the M3 chipset, but that's all they offer. After I install the rpm it says
XConfig-atimp3-1024 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 saved as /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.rpmorig

If I look at the files my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 is the same as my /dell/X11/XF86Config-1024 I think. I'll post one of them here. My problem is that X still won't run. I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions??

I also was told about a link to http://dri.sourceforge.net for drivers. Does it make sense to download something from them

Here's my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"
Load "xie"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
VertRefresh 60
Modeline "1024x768" 65.000 1024 1048 1065 1344 768 770 776 806
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "SWcursor"
#Option "HWcursor"
#Option "Dac6Bit"
#Option "Dac8Bit"
#Option "ForcePCIMode"
#Option "CCEPIOMode"
#Option "CCENoSecurity"
#Option "CCEusecTimeout"
#Option "AGPMode"
#Option "AGPSize"
#Option "RingSize"
#Option "VBListSize"
#Option "VBSize"
#Option "UseCCEfor2D"
#Option "PanelWidth"
#Option "PanelHeight"
#Option "UseFBDev"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "r128"
VendorName "ATI"
BoardName "Rage 128 Mobility LF"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
EndSection

[mdwatts]

Anything from

As what rid3r posted and the driver documentation at www.xfree86.org and search our own JL forums for 'ati mobility'.

http://mirror.ati.com/support/driver.html

that I posted in your *cough* Nvidia thread?

[jlmb]

You should check Dell Inspiron 8000 (http://holbrooks.org/linux/delli8k/)


Also check http://www.linux-laptop.net/dell.html


Try searching Google Groups (http://www.dejanews.com) for further help.

I don't have a laptop (yet, looking forward for a DELL) so I can't be more useful right now.

[geezy]

I didn't find anything very useful at the XFree86 website and can't really find much in the forums that useful

[Icarus]

I think your looking too far ahead right now, DRI won't work until you have a working GUI...can't drive a car without wheels. ;)

What happens when you startx? Does it go black and stay black or return with a "can not start X" error?

Check http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html as they have quite a few (dozen) listing for the 8000, the links will have HOWTOs, xf86configs and other tricks, tips and hints for the laptop...

Feel lucky there are so many, I have a 600m...how many of those do you see listed? ;)
And one of them is mine... :(

[mdwatts]

grep EE /var/log/XFree86.0.log

[geezy]

When I startx it goes black and come back with a long log and error messages.

[jlmb]

Originally posted by mahdi
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/dell.html

I didn't know they had a .com and a .net , that's kinda weird, don't you think?
Just a thought anyways...

[geezy]

grep EE /var/log/XFree86.0.log
gives me
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) Failed to load module "pex5" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "xie" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) R128(0): No valid modes found
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

[geezy]

I reinstalled and chose the vesa driver instead of the one it automatically chose (ati rage 128) and it seems to work fine. This is exciting!! Will this restrict me for any reason in doing certain things or will it just work ok??

[Icarus]

It works fine that way, just don't try to use anything with OpenGL...unless you like 5 seconds per frame ;)

[geezy]

what is something that uses OpenGL?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by geezy
what is something that uses OpenGL?

:rolleyes:

G4L search results for 'opengl applications' (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=opengl+applications&btnG=Google+Search). :)