| Purpose |
The purpose of this page is to help others configure Linux on their Hewlett Packard Pavilion N3330 Notebook computer.
| Hardware |
| Processor | AMD-K6-2, 533 MHz |
| Memory | 64 Mb (8Mb devoted to video), 100 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 5.0 Gb |
| CD-Rom Drive | 24X CD-ROM |
| Diskette | 1.44 Mb floppy |
| Display | 12.1" 800x600 SVGA TFT |
| Modem | Internal ESS ES56CVM-PI 56K, V90 |
| Mouse | Synaptics Touch Pad |
| Sound | ESS Maestro card (version 3?) |
| Video | Trident Cyberblade i7 AGP card |
| Ports | 1 USB, 1 serial, 1 parallel, 1 port replicator, 1 RJ-11 modem jack, 1 microphone, 1 headphone, 1 PS/2 mouse/keyboard, 1 Kensington lock slot |
| PC Cards | 1 Type I, II, or III, zoomed video support |
| Weight | 6.7 lbs |
| Price | ~$1300 (Staples) |
| Installation |
I installed RedHat 7.0. When I attempted to fire up the GUI installer, I got
320x200 resolution, which was unusable. I then switched to the text
installation which went smoothly. If you enter Setup (the F2 key), you can
configure the machine to boot off the RedHat install CD-ROM, so a
pcmcia.img boot floppy is not needed. Don't worry about trying to
get X windows working during the install. It won't work using the XF86_SVGA server
at any reasonable resolution. We will take care of the X problem in post install
process.
Initially I attempted to install RedHat 6.2 but was unable to get past the first screen without the machine locking up?
| X-Windows |
Apparently XFree86 4.0.1 in RedHat 7.0 supports the Trident Cyberblade i7 AGP graphics card. However, all three configuration tools, XConfigurator, x86config, and XF86Setup lead to 320x200 resolutions. So use the vesa framebuffer method which works fine. There are 4 steps to this process.
(1) You need to install the XF86_FBDev rpm from the RedHat 7.0 installation CD.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS rpm -Uvh XFree86_FBDev-3.3.6-33.i386.rpm(2) You need to change the X link in
/etc/X11 from the SVGA server to the FBDev server.
cd /etc/X11 ls -l X rm X ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_FBDev X
(3) You need a new XF86Config to use the FBDev. Here's my /etc/X11/XF86Config:
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
# FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection
Section "Keyboard"
Protocol "Standard"
AutoRepeat 500 30
XkbKeymap "xfree86(us)"
EndSection
Section "Pointer"
Protocol "PS/2"
Device "/dev/psaux"
Emulate3Buttons
Emulate3Timeout 50
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "notebookTFT"
VendorName "HP"
ModelName "notebookTFT"
HorizSync 31.5-90.0
VertRefresh 55-90
Modeline "1024x768" 75 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Trident CyberBlade (generic)"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
VideoRam 8192
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Driver "FBDev"
Device "Trident CyberBlade (generic)"
Monitor "notebookTFT"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
Modes "default"
EndSubsection
EndSection
NOTE: The Modeline is for 1024x768 resolution. I couldn't find a 800x600 modeline
for the FBDev server. I don't exactly know how this works, but it seems to work fine.
If anyone has a 800x600 modeline that works I'd be glad to add it to this page.
(4) You need to modify the /etc/lolo.conf file to envoke the vesa frame buffer.
Here's lilo.conf:
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
linear
default=linux
# vga necessary for 800x600 frame buffer support
vga=788
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16-22
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hda2
other=/dev/hda1
label=dos
The vga parameter specifies the resolution to the frame buffer
device.
NOTE: Don't forget to execute the command /sbin/lilo to get your /etc/lilo.conf changes
written to the MBR.
| Other |
The boot process doesn't seem to recognize the sound card, and I've not pursued trying to get it to work. The built-in modem appears to be a PCI Winmodem.
| Conclusion |
The HP Pavilion N3330 works well (except sound). If you found these instructions
helpful, please give back to the Linux Community in a similar way.
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