Gentoo working on Alienware Area-51m 7700

sircaren · n00b Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 6 Location: Iowa

So, I've got Gentoo installed and running quite well on my alienware area-51m 7700 laptop
Stats if you care.

Just curious if there is enough interest to write a howto on this? Honestly, when googling and such, didn't find many people even asking how to do it, but I'll write one if others are trying and failing. I was able to get pretty much everything working, including dual booting with windows on the sata raid - which was a bit of a chore lol. Anyways, if there is interest in the information, let me know.
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SirCaren

joejag · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:13 pm Post subject:

Hey,

My friend has the same laptop as you and was trying to install gentoo today but got confused on how to interact with the RAID controller. A howto would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks,
J.

Maedhros · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:23 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo - this isn't a support request.
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bladdo · Guru Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 334 Location: NJ

DAMN how the hell do you afford that?!?
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s0be · Apprentice Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Posts: 240

I have a 7700 sitting on my lap. I have everything but the webcam(new chipset apparently) and the modem(seen that the vendor provides a linux driver.... but I dont intend to use it) working. Some neat things can be done with the synaptics drivers for the touchpad.

Also, using the ondemand schedular seems to have lowered the burn my theigh factor.

Right now, I'm using Composite, GLX, and RenderAccell and not having trouble with transparent windows or glx gears.

any questions can be directed to s0be@s0be.com

s0be

(my work flipped the bill for mine... I'd never spend more thatn $2500 on a laptop)

Scoody · n00b Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 69 Location: Norway

Maybe not the right thread, but would the Sentia work with Linux?
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Scoody.

battery · n00b Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

I'm having a problem with installation on the 7700;when I finally reboot to go into my installation, the RAID controller goes offline and refuses to activiate causing me to reinitialise the array.

I think I'm screwing up the partitioning (it's a little dodgy with fdisk) or grub setup.

A howto would be fantastic

Eldrin · n00b Joined: 24 Jun 2004 Posts: 26

rishi · n00b Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Australia

Hey, I'm stuggling through an install on the Alienware Area-51m 7700 right now. A HOWTO would be very helpful indeed!

Also, people might find this thread useful if they are struggling to dual boot the raid:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2716121.html#2716121

Also, anyone made any progress with the web cam yet?

Thanks,
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Rishi
Melbourne, Australia.

scorpion7700 · n00b Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 39 Location: USA

I got it working on mine. I could probably post the kernel config settings (or describe them) if necessary. I also had some trouble with the nVidia linux driver, so I could describe the solution if anyone has the same problem I did (kernel module loads but fails to initialize). I'm not sure how much of the hardware works, though. From what I've heard, everything *should* work. Also, I found this site to be helpful: http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/alienware/

scorpion7700 · n00b Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 39 Location: USA

Oh, and one more thing. The following xorg.conf modeline works for the 1440 x 900 LCD: