Dell Latitude C400 can't use 24bit/1024x768

aycan · n00b Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 3 Location: Turkiye

I'm using a dell c400 with latest gentoo. It has i830 chipset.
The problem is the BIOS on this laptop doesn't have a AGP APERTURE SIZE configuration.
Kernel driver for i830 cannot allocate more than 1MB for AGP so XFree86 can't use 1024x768 with 24bits. I can only use 1024x768 with 8bits.

But if you use Accelerated X server (commercial) you can get 24bits. XiGraphics has a kernel module that can setup more than 1MB of video memory(I don't know how).

So I think there are 2 solutions. First if dell added support to BIOS for AGP mem size, kernel doesn't get in trouble. Second is the kernel driver for i830 should be updated in order to allocate more memory.

These are my experiences, I hope they gives laptop buyers a point of view.
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Aycan iRiCAN
Core Computer Security Group
http://www.core.gen.tr

chadh · Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2002 3:50 pm Post subject:

I can verify this. The Latitude C400 (and there is probably an Inspiron equivalent) is not supported well by XFree86, so plan on shelling out about $100USD for XiG to get a useable X server.
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Chad

wixtech · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 1

In order to address the display problem on my Dell C400 laptop, I downloaded Xi's LX driver (Summit-LX 2.1-5). My problem is that the xsvc driver (xsvc-3.0-25) will not install properly when I "rpm -i xsvc-3.0-25.i386.rpm". What I get back is "error: failed dependencies: /bin/sh is needed by xsvc-3.0-25".

I have verified that sh exists under /bin. Any idea what I can do to fix the problem? Your help is most appreciated.

chadh · Posted: Thu May 02, 2002 10:39 pm Post subject:

That is not how you want to install the driver. If XiG doesn't provide a tarball version of the package, then you will need to emerge rpm2targz and run that on the rpm, and then install the package manually.

You could also try to --force --nodeps rpm, but I really don't recommend that.
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Chad

MacMasta · Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2002 11:24 pm Post subject:

rpm -i --force --nodeps works just fine.

Anybody have any luck getting alsa working?

earlydaysofsin · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 13

This link shows you how to get X working properly without shelling out $ for an X server:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/linux/c400.html

unfortunately you need to remember to do this each time X or the kernel is upgraded.

earlydaysofsin · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 13

Finally managed to complete this ... had to patch the ebuild in the end. If any one else is interested ill post how i finally got this working

bos_mindwarp · Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2003 12:16 am Post subject: Re: Finally

Salze · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2002 Posts: 52 Location: Germany

Hi!