This page contains some basic pre and post installation information on how to install Linux on a HP Pavilion N 3410 Laptop for newbies. While installing Linux Red Hat 7.0 on this laptop, I faced some installation problem on some isssues. Partitioning hard disk was one of them. I, along with many other people ( I have known from the mailing liasts) had hard time figuring the right configuration of X for the Trident cyberblade chipset, used in this notebook. Thanks to many anonymous users who provided important helps.
Last Update:
02/18/01
Computer Description:
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Linux Distribution :
I am currently using Red Hat 7.0 on this notebook. I tried Red Hat 6.2, and Mandrake 7.2 as well. But, I found some problems which i didn't spend much time to solve. So I decided to go with Red Hat 7.0 even though it developed a bad reputation for being unstable in some Linux groups. So far I didnt face any major problem and X works perfectly in Red Hat 7.0.
You can download Red Hat 7.0 from the Red Hat offcial ftp site, or from any of the mirror sites.
Please read the Documentation provided for the installation of Red Hat 7.0 before you start anything. It will help you a great deal once you start the installation.
Partitioning The Hard Disk:
This notebook comes with two partitions on the hard disk by factory default. The first partition is about almost 274 MB and used for hibernate purpose. The second partition uses the rest of the disk spaces and is used for Winodws Me.
Inorder to install Red Hat 7.0 you will need to add atleast two additional partition by resizing the partition used for Windows Me ( known as C drive). One for The basic Linux system, and one for the swap purpose. Red Hat 7.0 suggests that you add one small additional partition for the boot purpose. So, in my system currently i have 5 partitions.
274 MB Hybernate Purpse (Factory default)
2248 MB C drive, used for to hold the Windows Me system ( Resized using fips from 4456 MB of Factory default)
14 MB /boot, used for the boot purpse of Linux ( Added by using Disk Druid)
128 MB swap partition for Linux ( Added by using Disk Druid)
2116 MB /, used for to hold the basic Linux system ( Added by using Disk Druid)
As this notebook comes with Windows Me, and untill now so far i know Partition magic doesnt work on Windows Me, you have to use some other software to make partitions on your hard disk.
Windows fdisk will make the partitions as needed, but it will destroy all the data while partitioning even your existing windows.
I, myself used fips. You can download it from that link, or use if fips is provided in the Red Hat cd. Read this documents before you use fips. It is pretty much straight forward. Run fips from Ms Dos prompt, most of the answers you have to provide is a Yes, or No. At a certain point it will ask you for the size of the first partition, specify the size you intend to use for your windows partition ( formally known as C drive). At that point it will divide your hard disk into two pieces without destroying any data and thats all you need for now. Once the installation starts, you can use DiskDruid (described in the next section) to make additional partitions for the swap space and others.
Basic Installation:
Boot from your Red Hat cd in the cd-rom and the installation will start automatically. If you press enter on the prompt it will start the GUI mode of installation. I, myself got 320x200 resolution for the installation and it was totally unusable. So, type "text" in the prompt and start a text mode installation.
When you will be asked to specify the partitions, use Disk Druid. If you have used fips to create one additional partition, there will be three partitions. The first one (hda1) is used for the hibernate purpose, second one (hda2) is your main windows partition, and the third one (hda3) is the partition created for Linux. Now, you have to modify your third partition (hda3) to create the additional partitions for Linux system. Delete the third partition using Disk Druid. At this point you don't have any data on this third partition (hda3), so you dont lose any data by deleting it. Now, add three more partitions using the free space that you got by deleting the third partition (hda3). The first partition of those newly added three should be of 14 MB and of ext2 file system for boot purpose and should be mounted at ( /boot ). The second one should be of 128 MB and of swap file system. The third partition should be created for the rest of the Linux system and using the rest of the free space ( Check the box named " Grow to fill" option ), it should also be of ext2 file system and should be mounted at ( / ).
See the Documentation of How to use Disk Druid if you have any problem in this approach.
Rest of the installation process is pretty straight forward once you have read the documents.
Configuring X :
Do not let Red Hat 7.0 to probe your video card or monitor, even if you do, don't test it. Doesn't matter what configuration probed by Red Hat 7.0 you use, it will start X with a 320x200 resolution and it will be unusable. Atleast, it happened to me.
So, once the installation process is over, log in to your system as root. If by accident you have specified to boot the system in GUI at the end of installation and when you crank up your system and you wind up with a fuzzy looking or way too big interface to use, hit (alt+ctrl+backspace) to get the console mode and edit the X configuration to get a nice usable GUI. If after hitting (alt+ctrl+backspace), the system backs into the GUI, hit (alt+ctrl+F2), it will give you a text based interface to edit the existing X configuration.
Red Hat 7.0 comes with XFree86 4.0.1 and for this video chipset XFree86_SVGA driver is used, which will be installed automatically during the installation.
But you can check if it's installed or not, type
rpm -qa | grep XFree86
If it says the XFree86_SVGA is installed, you are ready to go, but if not, you can install it from the Red Hat 7.0 CD. Mount the CD, and go to the /RedHat/RPMS directory of the CD and type
rpm -ivh XFree86_SVGA*.rpm
It will hopefully install the driver. If not, type
rpm -ivh --force XFree86_SVGA*.rpm
[*****I received some mails concerning an error while using this XF86Config file. It is because of the difference of formats how this file is copied. If you get an error while running 'startx', and it says "Keyword expected" then you should use XConfigurator, or XF86Setup to create a XF86Config file and then edit that newly created file to make it look like the one I included here. ****]
Use this XF86Config file generated manually. Save this file in your hard disk and place it in the directory named /etc/X11/
Save this XF86Config file in your any windows directory (eg. C:\temp) directly from this site or by using a floppy. Now when you boot your Linux, mount your windows partition (hda2) from the Linux system.
At first create a directory in your Linux system where you want to mount the windows partition. In my system it is /mnt/windows (create a sub directory named 'windows' in the directory /mnt )
Type
mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows
Now, you can find all your windows data in /mnt/windows directory.
Copy the XF86Config in the /etc/X11 directory by typing
cp /mnt/windows/temp/XF86Config /etc/X11/
(assuming you saved the XF86Config file in the C:/temp directory)
It will overwrite your old XF86Config file.
(Remember all the file and directory names are case sensetive in Linux unlike Windows)
Now, you will have to edit your Lilo configuration. Edit the file named /etc/lilo.conf
Append the line vga=788 in your lilo.conf file. Here is a sample of my lilo.conf file, which will certainly be different from your lilo.conf. Don't use my lilo.conf. It may not work in your system. You can see my lilo.conf for just to know where you should append that line.
You have to run lilo to activate the change. Type lilo in the console and hit enter, it will activate the new change.
Now reboot your sustem. You should see a penguine picture on the top when the system starts up.
Once you are logged in type "startx", and it will take you to your default GUI which is GNOME in Red Hat system. If you want to use KDE, type "switchdesk kde" and then type "startx". It will bring up the KDE environment.
Here is a sample of the GUI i get on my notebook.
You may need to edit the XF86Config file to adjust your keyboard and other settings. Consult the documents provided for xfree86 at their own web site.
[*****I recently received a mail from Mr. David Alderand. He, after using my XF86Config file couldn't make his mouse to work, If you face the same problem, here I attached how he said that problem was solved.
" ... everything worked fine. That is to say,
"startx" fired-up an X session with the Gnome Desktop Environment. The
mouse was not working at all. The cursor was bouncing all over the place and opening
up applications on its own just as I was trying to move it around. I typed
"ctrl-alt-del" and used the tab and enter keys to logout and back into the
command prompt, edited the line that says:
Section "Pointer"
Protocol "PS/2"
to:
Protocol "PS/2"
In other words, I deleted PS/2 and re-typed PS/2 and now the mouse works
fine, too.I guess by modifying the XF86Config file and then saving it, even though I
actually did nothing to change the contents, the file was saved as the correct file type.
I'm glad it works, and I thank you for your help.
David Alder.****]
Sound :
This notebook uses Ess Maestro 3 Pci Audio chipset. Red Hat 7.0 can probe this sound card but doesnt yet support it. But OSS has a driver which is not free works on this chipset. You can get a free driver which works fine on this chipset from Zabbo.
Pcmacia:
Red Hat 7.0 comes with the Kernel version 2.2.16-22 which has full Pcmcia support, I myself use a Pcmcia NIC, and a Pcmcia modem. Linux recognizes both of those cards as soon as they are plugged in. And they are fully functional without further modification of the configuration.
I use PCMPC100 - EtherFast 10/100 PCMCIA NIC Card Built by LinkSys.And, it works nice.
Modem:
This notebook comes with a software modem, which untill now is not supported. So, you can't access internet using this built-in modem. I bought a Pcmcia modem ( 3COM - MEGAHERTZ ) for me to access internet when i am on Linux.
Comments or Questions can be sent to ashiq@uab.edu
