x86_64 laptop recommendations?

Tue Jan 4 12:51:36 UTC 2005

On Tuesday 04 January 2005 04:48, John Haxby wrote:
> My laptop is due for replacement and I'd like to replace it with an
> x86_64-based one.   Does anyone have anything they recommend or
> recommend avoidng?   My main requirement is that it should have a
> 1920x1200 screen: my old Dell laptop has that and I don't want anything
> smaller.   Built-in wireless is also a definite plus, preferably with
> some chipset that is natively supported by Linux.

I recently (late November) purchased a Compaq R3000z with the 1920x1200 screen 
and am well pleased with it.  For some reason, the Compaq is slightly cheaper 
than its more or less identical HP equivalent.

After squeezing down the size of the WinXP partition (I got the slightly 
faster 80GB disk), I did both FC3-i386 and FC3-x86_64 everything installs and 
use a minimal install as a "boot director" to select what to run (WinXP, 
FC3-i386 or FC3-x86_64).  One caution, there appears to be something wrong 
with FC3 install (anaconda) because it does not reliably initialize grub into 
the MBR so you will need to bootup in rescue mode and manually execute:

  grub-install  '(hd0)'

The only thing I have not gotten working yet is builtin wireless (there is no 
x86_64 driver available yet) and USB mouse.  While you can get a USB mouse to 
work if you boot acpi=off, that is no solution since you need acpi=on (the 
default) so that you can change the cpuspeed on the fly otherwise you run at 
low speed.

Getting the display to work took some work but it does work.  First of all, 
you cannot configure 1920x1200 with system-config-display but need to hard 
create a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (mine is attached).

Then you have a problem in that if you switch from the graphical display to on 
of the text VT screens, the display loses sync.  One solution is to use the 
"special-key"+F4 to select the alternate display during bootup but before any 
graphical stuff starts  (even if you do not have an alternate display 
connected) ... I disabled rhgb.  For some reason, this makes everything work.  

Of course it is difficult to get the timing right so I use a slightly 
different solution which, some claim, may have other problems even if it has 
worked for me.  I added a simple script as /etc/init.d/startfb to load rivafb 
during the boot (after disabling rhgb so no graphics starts).  This enables 
the frame buffer for text mode and, again, "fixes" the text-mode sync when 
you also use graphics.

BTW, I do NOT use nvidia's driver but instead the nv driver from xorg-x11.  
For one thing, I could not get nvidia's driver to work.

OK, so the remaining problems are that the synaptic touchpad does not have 
full functionality (only works as a dumb two-button PS2 mouse), the USB mouse 
does not work with acpi=on, and there is no builtin wireless driver for the 
x86_64.  Check bugzilla for other info on the problems I found as well as 
possible others..

One source of info that I recently found is 
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000

Google will also find other sources of info.
-- 
Gene
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# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config
# Handedited for 16:10 on R3000z with nvida adapter and nv driver

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Default Layout"
	Screen      0  "WUXGA Screen" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
#	InputDevice    "Touchpad" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "USB Mouse" "AlwaysCore"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the 
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.

	RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
	FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "fbdevhw"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
#	Load  "synaptics"  #Touchpad
	Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
	Option  "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#	Option	"Xleds"		"1 2 3"

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#	Option	"XkbDisable"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
# or:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
#	Option	"XkbVariant"	"nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:nocaps"
#
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Touchpad"
	Driver      "synaptics"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/event1"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto-dev"
	Option	    "LeftEdge"		"85"
	Option	    "RightEdge"		"830"
	Option	    "TopEdge"		"85"
	Option	    "BottomEdge"	"650"
	Option	    "FingerLow"		"14"
	Option	    "FingerHigh"	"15"
	Option	    "EmulateMidButtonTime" "110"
	Option	    "MaxTapTime"	"110"
	Option	    "MaxDoubleTapTime"	"110"
	Option	    "ClickTime"		"110"
	Option	    "MaxTapMove"	"110"
	Option	    "LockedDrags"	"0"
	Option	    "MinSpeed"		"0.3"
	Option	    "MaxSpeed"		"1.0"
	Option	    "AccelFactor"	"0.02"
	Option	    "LTCornerButton"	"2"
	Option	    "LBCornerButton"	"3"
	Option	    "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "0"
	Option	    "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "20"
	Option	    "EdgeMotionMinZ"	"55"
	Option	    "EdgeMotionMaxZ"	"80"
	Option	    "EdgeMotionUseAlways" "1"
	Option	    "UpDownScrolling"	"1"
	Option	    "VertScrollDelta"	"20"
	Option	    "HorizScrollDelta"	"20"
	Option	    "CircularScrolling"	"1"
	Option	    "CircScrollDelta"	"0.1"
	Option	    "CircScrollTrigger"	"2"
	Option	    "TouchpadOff"	"0"
	Option	    "SHMConfig"		"on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "USB Mouse"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option      "SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "WUXGA LCD"
	VendorName   "Compaq"
	UseModes     "16:10"
	HorizSync    30-90
	VertRefresh  50-75
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "nVidia Inc. Geforce4 440 Go 64M"
	Driver      "nv"
	VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"
	BoardName   "NV17"
	VideoRam    65536
EndSection

Section "Modes"
	Identifier	"16:10"
	#1280x800 @ 60Hz hsync: 50.66 Khz, pclk: 83.91 MHz
	ModeLine "1280x800" 83.91 1280 1312 1624 1656  800  816  824  841
	#1680x1050 @ 60Hz hsync 66.23
	ModeLine "1680x1050" 154.20 1680 1712 2296 2328 1050 1071 1081 1103
	#1920x1200 @ 60Hz hsync 75.67
	ModeLine "1920x1200" 210.68 1920 1952 2752 2784 1200 1224 1236 1261
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "WUXGA Screen"
	Device     "nVidia Inc. Geforce4 440 Go 64M"
	Monitor    "WUXGA LCD"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1920x1200" "1680x1050" "1280x800"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection

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