Fedora Core 2 and Compaq Presario 2500 (2570US)

[MASantangelo]

I have decided to completely port my laptop over to Fedora Core 2 since it seems to work extremely well on my desktop.

However, I cannot locate a suitable driver for the following:

ATI Radeon IGP 345M (as reported by Windows Device Manager)
Broadcomm 54g MaxPerformance 802.11G (wireless device, ndiswrapper best bet?)

I have found sites about the IGP 345M but I tried to follow them and they are too complex for a linux noob (I have bought 2 linux books but they have not arrived, nor am I at home to get them yet )

The Wireless device I am fairly sure will work with ndiswrapper (as it is the same on my friend's laptop who used it to get it to work).

Any tips?

[Void Main]

I'm afraid I can't help much with either of those questions although if you provide the links that you do not understand about your video card I would be more than happy to look them over and try to explain anything in them. I would suggest posting your question on the ATI Linux forums. I would think you should have the best luck there.

As far as your wireless, Broadcomm are not very Linux friendly about releasing specs about their chipset so all Broadcomm based cards as far as I know have to use proprietary drivers from Broadcomm. My suggestion would be to ask for help from your friend if he has the same card and got it to work under Linux. Feel free to post the steps here to help anyone else out there that may have the same card (even though I'm not too keen on supporting proprietary hardware/drivers).

I use a LinkSys card with an Atheros chipset. The chipset drivers are not built in to the kernel (some chipsets are supported by a stock kernel) but there are open source kernel modules (drivers) called "madwifi" for it that compile easily and work very well.

[MASantangelo]

I would gladly switch to one of the more supported cards, however I would like to use the card built into my laptop, it's a little more convenient that way.

I'll post the steps when I find them again...

Alot of it involved rebuilding the kernel, something that I have never done before and am wary of doing (it doesn't sound all that fun to be honest).

I'm also having a problem with ndiswrapper that maybe one of you could help me understand...

[root@Ops ndiswrapper-0.8]# make install
make -C driver install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/msantang/Documents/Linux Tools/NDISWrapper/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build SUBDIRS=/home/msantang/Documents/Linux Tools/NDISWrapper/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver DRV_VERSION=0.8 modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build'
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `Tools/NDISWrapper/ndiserapper-0.8/driver'. Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build"
make[1]: *** [default] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/msantang/Documents/Linux Tools/NDISWrapper/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make: *** [install] Error 2
[root@Ops ndiswrapper-0.8]#

I think it has something to do with FC2 in and of itself.... but I'm not sure.

[MASantangelo]

Specifically, this link.

really long link

About half way down. "Getting the Radeon working in accelerated mode"

I'm not sure how to get it going.. Copying which files to where and such.

=|

[Void Main]

I believe I know what the problem is with your ndiswrapper. I think it is having a problem with the space in the directory name (blah/Linux Tools/blah). Try putting the source in a directory path that does not contain any spaces and see if you have more luck.

I just downloaded, compiled and installed it without a single error and I am running the same kernel you are. I compiled/installed it in two steps, a "make" and then a "make install" although just doing a "make install" should do both:

Code: Select all

[voidmain@laplinux ndiswrapper-0.8]$ make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build SUBDIRS=/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/d river DRV_VERSION=0.8 modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build'
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/wrapper.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/iw_ndis.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/loader.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/ntoskernel.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/ndis.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/misc_funcs.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/proc.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/divdi3.o
  CC [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/hal.o
  LD [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/ndiswrapper.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST
  CC      /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/ndiswrapper.mod.o
  LD [M]  /home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver/ndiswrapper.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/viodmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C utils
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'
cc -Wall -g   -c -o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.c
gcc -o wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx.o
cc -Wall -g   -c -o loadndisdriver.o loadndisdriver.c
gcc -o loadndisdriver loadndisdriver.o
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'


Code: Select all

[voidmain@laplinux ndiswrapper-0.8]$ su
Password:


Code: Select all

[root@laplinux ndiswrapper-0.8]# make install
make -C driver install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build SUBDIRS=/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/d river DRV_VERSION=0.8 modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build'
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST
make[2]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/build'
mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/misc
install -m 0644 ndiswrapper.ko /lib/modules/2.6.6-1.435/misc
/sbin/depmod -a
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/driver'
make -C utils install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'
install -m 755 loadndisdriver /sbin
install -m 755 ndiswrapper /usr/sbin
install -m 755 wlan_radio_averatec_5110hx /usr/sbin
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/voidmain/xtra/ndiswrapper-0.8/utils'
[root@laplinux ndiswrapper-0.8]$


[Void Main]

Specifically, this link.

really long link

About half way down. "Getting the Radeon working in accelerated mode"

I'm not sure how to get it going.. Copying which files to where and such.

=|

First off, does X work right now on your system except it's not accelerated for 3d? Did you read the thread at Red Hat that they linked to? The two *drv.o files would go in your "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers" directory, the XF86Config would go in the /etc/X11 directory although under FC2 it really should be called "xorg.conf" rather than "XF86Config" (the X server is now Xorg instead of XFree86 like on all previous versions of Red Hat). It will recognize the old config file name though. Since you are new I would be a little careful about doing this if you already have X up and running because if something doesn't work and X stops working you need to know how to get around and edit files without a graphical environment. Not having a Radeon myself I can not test any of this to give you specific help that I know will work.

My suggestion is that if you already have X working then you should be able to replace your existing xorg.conf file with the "Device" and "Screen" and "Modes" sections shown in that link (assuming all of your hardware is the same). Just make sure you make a backup copy of your "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" or your "/etc/X11/XF86Config" before making any changes to it so if you do mess up X you can just restore that backup copy. Same for the X drivers you copy into "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers". Good luck on this one.

[MASantangelo]

X being a GUI interface for 'nix right?

<--- Noob remember? xP

If so, yes, I'm running in an X server that works fine.... I had a driver manually configured and if that's the case I'll open it up and try again.

ndiswrapper didn't like the long directory name, I moved it to just /tmp and it worked fine. Thanks! =D

[Void Main]

ndiswrapper didn't like the long directory name, I moved it to just /tmp and it worked fine. Thanks! =D

Actually, it wasn't how long the directory name was, it was the space in the directory name as I mentioned in the previous message.

[MASantangelo]

That's what I meant... Sorry, just glad that it was something simple.

And i've already killed the x server once before while muddling around with my ati card... I fixed it in about a half hour of fumbling around (and using another computer to walk me through how to do it). Wasn't fun though. But when a simple game like Chromium (which comes with FC2) gets < 3 FPS, I can't stand it... so I'll continue to work on it till I get it working.

[MASantangelo]

Okay... finally getting somewhere with this ATI situation...

The site I'm following says

"You need a configured kernel source tree installed. Make sure you have run at least make dep on your kernel tree or the build will fail."

I need a configured kernel source tree? I'm a little lost on that... anyone have an idea?

DRI Wiki

Is where I'm working from. I've got up to 1.1.6 Building the DRM on Linux and am currently stuck...

[Void Main]

The "make dep" is something you would do on a 2.4 kernel and isn't required on a 2.6 kernel. In fact to compile kernel modules on 2.6 you really shouldn't even have to have the kernel source installed. You should have enough for a module compile in /lib/modules/<kernversion>/build but this module doesn't really have any specific instructions for 2.6 that I see. If you did want to install the source and build your own custom kernel on your Fedora 2 system with apt installed you would:

# apt-get install kernel-sourcecode#2.6.6-1.435
# cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.6-1.435
# cp /boot/config-2.6.6-1.435 .config
# make oldconfig
# make all

and if you wanted to install it you would:

# make install

which should add an entry to your boot menu (/etc/grub.conf) but not make it the default. Edit your /etc/grub.conf to change the default (numbering starts at 0). Then you would point to /usr/src/linux-2.6.6-1.435 for your source when building your modules.

[Linux Frank]

Linux questions forum

The above thread contains a lot of details. There is apparently a cut and paste some code solution for you x driver. Two things I would pint out. 1. Some of the early links are missing, but some are reposted later on in the thread. 2. It is actually for xfree86, so I do not know if this will easily fit for x.org (the old x driver software versus the new one being used). Void might be able to help out with the conversion, if any is needed. Search their Fedora forum, there are other topics on this very subject.

[Tux]

http://www.fedorafaq.org/#radeon

Useful?

[MASantangelo]

http://www.fedorafaq.org/#radeon

Useful?

If it were something that simple I wouldn't have come here to ask... :-p

ATI does not support Mobile device drivers, it's something my laptop company (compaq) would do. Compaq is not 'nix friendly unfortunatly.

And yes, I did actually try it before shooting it down... it wasn't happy.

Killed X actually.

[MASantangelo]

Just in case any other people need to know... The walkthrough at Fedora Forum for ATI Radeon IGP works definetly.

Thanks for all your help too