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FC4 and Asus Z70Va

post #1 of 24
9/3/05 at 4:14pm
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to get Fedora Core 4 to work on my asus z70va and I can't get widescreen resolutions to show up. First, for those of you trying to get the FC4 install to even start, this is what worked for me:

(1) Boot to the FC4 cd/dvd
(2) type some garbarge kernel name to generate an error message about an invalid kernel name ('garbage' worked fine for me)
(3) then type 'linux text' to get the installer to start

I couldn't get the graphical installer to work nor get the installer to work without generating the error message first. I would always have a kernel panic before the setup even got to probing my hardware.

Now, after the install, X11 won't start because it can't detect the x700 graphics card. I hopped on ATIs website and downloaded the FGLRX drivers and installed them (needed to use --force). After I installed them, I configured my xorg.conf to use the xglrx drivers instead of the standard vesa. Viola! X11 starts up now.

Which leads me to where I am right now... I can't get any widescreen resolutions to show up. The only modeline I defined in xorg.conf was 1680x1050, but for some reason, when in gnome, I can only select from non-widescreen resolutions; 1680x1050 doesn't even show up as an option.

Does anyone know what I can do to get widescreen resolutions to work? After I tackle this, I'm going to work on getting audio, wireless, and the acpi modules working.
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post #2 of 24
9/3/05 at 5:31pm
is FC4 really worth all this trouble?
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post #3 of 24
9/3/05 at 5:49pm
Thread Starter 
Well, not if there's another linux distro that works. I'm assuming since it's a problem with X11 that the problem would be universal no matter the distro.
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post #4 of 24
9/3/05 at 7:10pm
granted, but if audio, wifi and acpi doesn't work right......i assume there have to be distros that will at least get those running out of the box.
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post #5 of 24
9/3/05 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
That's what I'm wanting to find out
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post #6 of 24
9/6/05 at 9:20pm
I've been trying to get Xandros on mine, but it's being a pain in the butt. I'll try to get into the text installer one more time, but last time it didn't work.
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post #7 of 24
9/6/05 at 10:10pm
xandros is pretty sh*ty. tried it, erased it, went back to ubuntu (5.04)
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post #8 of 24
9/6/05 at 11:52pm
try either ubuntu or suse.

and i was getting kernel panics in suse, and i found out it was because it was a corrupt iso. are you sure all your cd's are working correctly? reburning it fixed it for me.
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post #9 of 24
9/9/05 at 3:05am
Thread Starter 
I know the problem isn't with the DVD because:
1) I'm not the only one with this problem of kernel panics
2) I ran the MD5 checksum against the DVD and it passed

Gentoo didn't work out so well, I guess it's time to try Ubuntu unless someone got widescreen to work yet. I can't see this being a problem with FC4 since the file I'm messing with is xorg.conf, not really FC settings.
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post #10 of 24
9/9/05 at 10:16am
you should be able to manually edit the resolution in xorg.conf
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post #11 of 24
9/10/05 at 11:03pm
Thread Starter 
I did... and that's part of the problem. After adding the modeline for 1680x1050, I can't select it inside FC4.
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post #12 of 24
9/13/05 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
xandros is pretty sh*ty. tried it, erased it, went back to ubuntu (5.04)
As a linux n00b, I figure it's a good place to start. It's gotten great reviews, especially as far as the UI is concerned, and I don't have a lot of time to put in to getting a more complex distro to work.
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post #13 of 24
9/15/05 at 1:20am
well, you convinced me. I'm posting this from ubuntu. Everything I've needed seems to work fine, except that when I changed the resolution from the lowest possible it acted all wierd. That was before I installed drivers for the GPU though, so it's inconsequential. No chance to test the wireless yet, I'll see if I can get to a hotspot tomorrow.
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post #14 of 24
9/16/05 at 2:36am
Linux will be hard to configure on all laptops... I've got a very sucessful gentoo install on he z70va using a 1/3 install. Check out my website for info on howI configured everything
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post #15 of 24
9/16/05 at 12:01pm
Thread Starter 
I got widescreen working in FC4 last night. If anyone wants, I can post my xorg.conf after I'm done looking over it a lil bit more tonight. On another note, I can't get sound to work but I'm using ALSA and it detected the highdef intel chipset. Did sound work out-of-the-box on gentoo?
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post #16 of 24
9/20/05 at 12:57pm
if you could post your xorg.config, that's be rockin'. I've been having some problems with the resolution myself.
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post #17 of 24
9/21/05 at 2:19am
Thread Starter 
Fedora Core is being, to put it mildly, a bitch. I cannot get the snd-hda-intel module to work at all. I'm going to try using gentoo, and since bawigga seems to be having moderate success with it, I suggest you try gentoo as well.
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post #18 of 24
10/26/05 at 7:05pm
I have the solution to your sound problem. Alsa loads with the sound muted. You need to run alsamixer from the command line. Then you use the arrow keys to move the cursor under the little squares with the "MM" in them press m and it unmutes it. There can be several mutes so use the right arrow key and go through the whole mess. I figured this out after pulling my hair out loading new drivers and fighting with the rpm packages.


Tattooz
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post #19 of 24
11/9/05 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tattooz
I have the solution to your sound problem. Alsa loads with the sound muted. You need to run alsamixer from the command line. Then you use the arrow keys to move the cursor under the little squares with the "MM" in them press m and it unmutes it. There can be several mutes so use the right arrow key and go through the whole mess. I figured this out after pulling my hair out loading new drivers and fighting with the rpm packages.
Tattooz
Presuming he has the same issues I do (which it sounds as though he does), this is definitely *not* the problem. I've loaded dozens of machines with various Linux flavors and know well to open up alsamixer (or whatever) and turn things on...the problem with my new 5720, though, is that the driver it picks isn't working. Running alsamixer fails, in fact.

I'll supply more details in a message later; my machine is packed up and I'm on my way to work.
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post #20 of 24
11/22/05 at 6:55am
I've been running a new ArchLinux beta. Setup from scratch was great. I didn't need to compile a single module myself.

My next is to undervolt the x700.
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