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Red Hat 7.2 Install on Dell Inspiron 4100 HOWTO

Updated: $Date: 2005/02/19 18:12:58 $
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Disclaimer: This document is provided "as is" without warranty. Use at your own risk. In no event shall I be liable for any damage resulting from the use of this work.

Linux installation has come a LONG way in terms of being user-friendly. However, you will run into problems (challenges? learning opportunities?) when installing Red Hat 7.2 Linux on a Dell notebook if you have the following components:

This guide will help you install Linux on an Inspiron 4100 that has Windows 2000. Most of this guide is still relevant to users of other Dell notebook models and/or Windows XP/Windows NT, because the key aspects of the notebook that impact installation are the Nvidia video driver and Actiontec modem.

I hope you find the content on this page useful (and accurate). Please email me with feedback or questions.

Table of Contents

Partitioning

The notebook came with Windows 2000 Professional installed on the entire hard drive. I wanted to be able to dual-boot Windows 2000 or Linux. This requires re-partitioning the hard drive to support both a Windows partition and Linux partitions.

Partitioning must take into account the infamous BIOS 1024 cylinder limit. The BIOS of older systems can't access data beyond cylinder 1024, which is ~8.5 GB. A simple way to avoid the BIOS 1024 limit is to create /boot within the first 1024 cylinders (~8.5 GB) of the hard drive. If you have multiple hard drives (disks), /boot must be on the first hard drive.

Here are some options for where to create /boot partition.

  1. (What I did) Shrink the Windows partition such that there is 50 MB of unused disk space at the beginning of the drive and lots of space after the Windows partition. You can install the /boot Linux partition in this first 50 MB and avoid any potential issues with the 1024-cylinder limit entirely.
  2. Shrink the Windows partition such that it does not cross the 1024 cylinder (~8.5 GB), and install the /boot partition right after the Windows partition.
  3. Use LBA (Logical Block Addressing). LBA allows you to boot beyond the 1024 cylinder. In order to use LBA, your BIOS must support it. In addition, for LILO, you must also add a flag to enable LBA support. GRUB supports LBA "out-of-the-box"

To non-destructively shrink the Windows partition, you can use the free software program fips (please note that fips does not currently support NTFS partitions). Another option is the excellent commercial product Partition Magic. It has an easy-to-use GUI. Unfortunately, the tool that comes with Red Hat 7.2, Disk Druid, does not have the ability to shrink existing partitions. Once you've shrunk the Windows partition, you can use Disk Druid during the Red Hat Installation to create all the partitions you need for Linux.

I chose the first option listed above, and my partitions are, in order (sizes are approximate):

Creating a Boot Disk

During the latter part of the Installation process, you have the opportunity to create a book disk (also commonly referred to as a boot floppy). This is recommended, but you probably have the CD drive in the modular bay and your floppy drive isn't mounted (unless you are fortunate enough to have the accessory cable that allows you to connect the floppy drive to the parallel port). You could try to remove the CD drive and pop in the floppy drive, but this may cause the install program to freak out. Thanks to linux rescue mode, you can skip boot disk creation during the installation. Post-installation, you can boot Linux in rescue mode and enable your system to dual-boot. After doing this, you should have no problem getting into Linux to create a boot disk.

Booting Linux in Rescue Mode

If you don't have a boot disk or you have a boot disk but the system fails to start up correctly (e.g. because the X Window system isn't working), here's how you can boot in rescue mode:

  1. Make sure that your machine boots from CD drive before the hard drive
  2. Put Disc 1 of Red Hat 7.2 into the drive and re-start your machine
  3. At the Linux prompt, enter linux rescue
  4. Specify your keyboard and language stuff. Your Linux partitions will get mounted under /mnt/sysimage.
  5. Run the following command: chroot /mnt/sysimage
    This neat command makes /mnt/sysimage your root directory. So the filesystem looks the way it would if you booted up normally

X Window Configuration

The following information assumes you have Nvidia GeForce2 Go as your video driver.

You are either reading this because

Here's how to get the X Window system working:

  1. Download an NVIDIA_GLX file and an NVIDIA_kernel http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_archive. E.g.:
  2. Copy those files onto /osshare (or some other partition visible to Linux). The GLX RPM is too big to fit on a floppy. Don't try to download and install the i386 kernel RPM file; you'll get error messages if you run it. If you want to make sure these are the right files for you, download and run NVchooser.sh
  3. If your machine is trying to start X Window (i.e. you are not running in text-only mode) and crapping out, do the following
  4. Reboot into Linux. Your system should start up in text-only mode
  5. Install the 2 RPMs you downloaded. E.g.:
  6. If you don't have the file /etc/X11/XFree86Config-4, try this one (and make sure to remove the .txt extension).
  7. Delete /etc/X11/XFree86Config if it exists (this is used prior to prior to XFree86 version 4)
  8. Modify /etc/X11/XFree86Config-4
  9. Create a file in your home directory called .xinitrc and put one line in it: exec gnome-session
  10. Try to start X Window with the startx command
  11. If all looks good, change the /etc/inittab runlevel to "5". You can delete the ~/.xinitrc file if you wish (it's no longer needed)

Modem Configuration

Most Inspiron notebooks use Winmodems instead of regular modems. What the heck is a Winmodem? It's a modem that is more software-driven than hardware-driven. The Linmodems.org site has a lot of kick-ass information on Winmodems.

If you have an Actiontec MD56ORD V92 MDC Modem, the following procedure is for you. Conexant makes the chipset that goes into the Actiontec modem (I figured out that Conexant is being used by looking at C:\DRIVERS\3F382\DEL2486K.INF). So what Linux actually needs is a Conexant driver to get the modem to work.

  1. Download the HSF (softmodem) driver from http://www.mbsi.ca/cnxtlindrv/hsf/downloads.html. Follow the instructions to determine the appropriate "Distribution-specific binary package" to download based on the kernel architecture and kernel version.
  2. Install the RPM. E.g.: rpm -ivh hsflinmodem-5.03.03.L2mbsibeta02060200k2.4.7_10-1rh.i686.rpm
  3. Go to Start->Programs->Internet->Dialup Configuration and create an Account. It's similar to using Dialup Networking on Windows

Appendix

Step-By-Step Install Guide

Following are the steps to install Linux on a spanking new notebook.

If you are new to Linux, you should consider getting the book Learning Red Hat Linux from O'Reilly. It's a quick and useful read, and it comes with the Red Hat 7.2 CDs. Keep in mind the following:

Linux installation steps:

  1. Non-destructively "shrink" (resize) the Windows partition to create room for Linux
  2. Reboot and hit F2 on the Dell splash screen. On the 3rd screen, change the BIOS order such that your machine will boot from the CD drive before the hard drive
  3. Insert Disc 1 of the Red Hat 7.2 distribution into the CD drive and reboot. The Linux installation program will begin
  4. At the prompt, hit <Enter>. The GUI installation program will start up
  5. Continue through the "Keyboard" and "Mouse" sections. The install program may incorrectly pick your mouse; change it if it looks wrong to you. If you have a 2-button mouse, make sure that "Emulate 3 buttons" is checked
  6. For the "Install Type", choose "Custom". This gives you the most control / flexibility during the process
  7. For "Disk Partitioning", select "Manually partition with Disk Druid". You should set up at least 3 partitions
  8. For "Boot Loader"
  9. Unless you have specific needs, stick with the defaults for "Network Config", "Firewall Config", "Additional Language", "Time Zone Selection"
  10. For "Account Config", set the root account password. It's also a good idea to create at least 1 user account
  11. Unless you have specific needs, stick with the defaults for "Auth Config"
  12. For "Packages", I highly recommend you install "Kernel Development". This will install the Kernel source files, which you may need in the future for compiling software from third parties. Since this is a laptop installation, you should also install "Laptop Support". The rest is up to you : )
  13. Make sure the right video driver is selected for "Graphical Interface Config". As it turns out, if you have an Nvidia GeForce2 Go driver, you'll need to replace it with one that works from Nvidia
  14. For "Boot Disk Creation", if you have the parallel port cable for a floppy drive, connect your floppy drive and create a boot disk. If you can't connect your floppy drive, don't worry. You'll be able to create a book disk later in the process
  15. For "Monitor Config" choose the Dell with the resolution that matches what you display was optimized for. I selected "Dell 1400X Laptop Display Panel"
  16. The "Customize Graphics Configuration" section gets a bit tricky if you have Nvidia GeForce2 Go (Dell Mobile) as the video driver. The short of it is the install program has the wrong Nvidia driver, and even if you find a resolution and color pair that seems to work when you run "Test Setting", it won't work once you start up Linux post-install
  17. You're finished with the installation!
  18. We now need to get your system to dual-boot Windows 2000 or Linux
  19. Follow the steps for X Window Configuration
  20. Follow the steps for Modem Configuration
  21. You can also create a Linux boot disk (boot floppy) if you haven't done so yet

Laptop Configuration

If case you were wondering, my Dell notebook came configured as follows:

As I mentioned at the beginning of this page, the only salient aspects of the notebook configuration that impact installation are the video driver and modem.

Acknowledgments

I hope you found the content on this page useful (and accurate). Please email me with feedback and corrections.

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Copyright © 2002 Ed B. Park