New Dell e1505, several Fedora 7 problems

[SideshowMel]

Hello there, I have left random posts along the way on my troubles with Fedora on my new Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop, but I think maybe now I should post my full specs in the hopes that somebody out there might be able to help me out.

Let me begin by saying that I currently have FC6 running stable with a Vista dual-boot and Dell MediaDirect3 all working fine. Not too bad, except I really had hoped to set up Fedora 7 from the get-go. I even timed the laptop purchase around its release. I can't get wireless working in FC6, and I have a post about that here:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...d.php?t=148278

Anyways, I have tried installing FC6, Fedora 7, Ubuntu 6, Ubuntu 7, and the Ubuntu 7 "alternate". All have had significant X problems except FC6. So, my first problem with Fedora 7 was this:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...d.php?t=157986

That was resolved with a quick GRUB change, so when I reinstall Fedora 7, I can change that very easily. My next problem with Fedora 7 is that the X server won't load. What happens is this:

I install Fedora 7 like normal, apply the GRUB change mentioned in the above thread, then it starts booting. The inital screen comes up, where it asks me to accept the license agreement, choose my security settings, and (a new one for Fedora) requests to send my hardware configuration to the Fedora team. This last part is really the part that is funny, because I have sent them a hardware configuration that actually is not working for me.

Right after accepting all those options, it starts trying to load the OS, and the cursor (just the standard "x", not the pointer with the swoosh around it) appears. It tries and tries, but eventually it comes up with a very vague error message that says something to the effect of "The X server has tried * times in * minutes to load. Something bad might be happening." and the only option is "OK" which just makes it repeat the whole cycle again.

The weirdest thing is that FC6 works fine (the DVD I've had since it was released, too, not a re-spin or anything) but F7 doesn't.

My true hope is that this and other similar posts might help out the FedoraUnity team develop a re-spin that might fix some of these things, because Duli says that F7 supports my wireless card natively, which would be a HUGE bonus because of my current wireless problems in FC6.

From the limited information I could find on this, I think perhaps I'm waiting on a patch for something (can't find the post again and it's in the history of my home computer), but I really don't know *****. (It's amazing, too, because people at my work think I'm a god just because I manage all our Windows servers and can figure out dumb stuff like mail-merge in MS Word.... this is why I'm posting here, trying to get Fedora working, because I want to continue to progress.)

So, if anybody out there can help me either get wireless working on my stable FC6 install or help me get F7 working, all help is appreciated.

So, without further ado, I think it would be best if I posted my FULL specs for everybody to see. My hope is that some super-peeps can help a lowly n00b such as myself. Thanks for your time and for reading my many random posts. Sorry it took so long to consolidate all my problems into one central thread.

1 MJ450 PROCESSOR, MEROM, T7200, 2.0, 4MB, DIRECT CURRENT, BURN 2
1 DF263 ASSEMBLY, ADAPTER, ALTERNATING CURRENT, 65W, MOBILE 2007, LITEON, WORLD WIDE
1 JP969 KIT, SOFTWARE, DELL MEDIA DIRECT, 3, VSTA, DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE
1 DF771 CORD, POWER, 125, 1M, C7, 2P, DUAL, UNITED STATES
1 NC929 KEYBOARD, 87, UNITED STATES, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, SINGLE POINTING, D PLUS SERIES
1 KC736 CASE, CARRYING, NYLON, BACK PACK
1 FF058 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4WSXGA+, VIDEO ELEC. STDS. ASSOC., GLARE WIDE VIEWING ANGLE, QUANTA DISPLAY INCORPORATED
1 KN358 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, COAXIAL, LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, SINGLE, 6400
1 NF882 BEZEL, ASSEMBLY, PLASTIC, LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.4, 6400
1 NC293 CARD (CIRCUIT), NETWORK, MINICARD, 3945ULD, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
1 CW725 CARD (CIRCUIT), WIRELESS, INTERNAL, BLUETOOTH, 355, VSTA
1 GM477 KIT, SOFTWARE, OVERPACK, VU32, DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 JN149 BATTERY, PRIMARY, 11.1V, 9C, LITHIUM, SANYO, V2
1 WF148 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 256MB, M54, I6400
1 MN922 HARD DRIVE, 100G, Serial ATA, 9, 72, SEAGATE, M72, V2
1 XK514 KIT, SOFTWARE, MCAFEE, 8, COMPACT DISK DRIVE, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 DT610 ASSEMBLY, DVD+/-RW, 8X, NEC CORPORATION, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO
1 XD720 ASSEMBLY, BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP), NOTEBOOK, DISCRETE, 6400
2 Y9530 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 1GB, 667, 128X64, 8K, 200

[stevea]

Ouch - too much information - not enough detailed question.

WRT to your wireless problem - it seems that the only problem is that your NetworkManager isn't associating the authentication with the particular AP. Enter the correct authentication using NM left-click & "Connect to other wireless network", After doing that - if you as asked for the wireless authentication just hit "cancel".

I'm not sure what the logic is inside of NM, but when it doesn't know how to associate an AP with a particular authentication set it just asks you (again and again). Also - I've never been able to connect to an authenticated network with a hidden SSID - so the AP can't hide it's SSID.

If you still have troubles try doing a "tail -f /var/log/messages" in a window and then poke NM into re-connectinfg to the AP and see what appears (or post it here).

BTW the other thread had you loadng a lot of uneccesary packages. You should just need the firmware load for FC6. F7 has *all* the intel wireless stuff installed.

FWIW your Dell parts-list is not very helpful. Boot FC6 of the F7-live CD and post the output of "lspci".

====
There is probably something wrong with the X11 configuration which The Fedora7 installed for you.
I suggest that you interrupt the grub bootup (hit any charactger, select the kernel you want to boot, and hit "e" for edit), Select the line that begins with "<indent>kernel ....", and add a "1" (numeric one) to the end of the line. The "1" tells the kernel to boot in single user mode which won't bring up X11. The hit <return> and 'b' (for boot). The commands are a little imprecise but you get the idea.

If that works you should a shell prompt in text more on the screen.

I have no idea what graphics chip you have in your laptop. Try "less /etc/X11/xorg.conf" command. This will list the X11 config for your system. I *suspect* that the <Section "Device"> section is wrong. It probably has a few lines in it like < Identifier "Videocard0"> and <Driver "xxxxx"> .

If you have an independent graphics chip, change the "xxxxx" part to "vesa". Then reboot. That may solve the problem.

Also post the output of "lspci" If you can boot knopix os any other live CD and get this that's fine.

[SideshowMel]

sory for the long posts. I have wireless working in FC6 now, but it's VERY spotty and I have to type my PSK in 2-10 times to get it woking. I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the timeout (maybe too low), since it takes a long time to connect in Windows. Is it possible to increase the timeout for wireless authenticaion?

Hopefully this will go away if I can get F7 running. Here is lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X1400
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
03:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

[SideshowMel]

There is probably something wrong with the X11 configuration which The Fedora7 installed for you.
I suggest that you interrupt the grub bootup (hit any charactger, select the kernel you want to boot, and hit "e" for edit), Select the line that begins with "<indent>kernel ....", and add a "1" (numeric one) to the end of the line. The "1" tells the kernel to boot in single user mode which won't bring up X11. The hit <return> and 'b' (for boot). The commands are a little imprecise but you get the idea.

If that works you should a shell prompt in text more on the screen.

I have no idea what graphics chip you have in your laptop. Try "less /etc/X11/xorg.conf" command. This will list the X11 config for your system. I *suspect* that the <Section "Device"> section is wrong. It probably has a few lines in it like < Identifier "Videocard0"> and <Driver "xxxxx"> .

If you have an independent graphics chip, change the "xxxxx" part to "vesa". Then reboot. That may solve the problem.

Also post the output of "lspci" If you can boot knopix os any other live CD and get this that's fine.

The Driver in the xorg.conf file was already set as "vesa". Any more suggestions?