Fedora core 7 on Dell XPS M1330

[ritturaj]

Hi all,

I am trying to install Fedora core 7 on Dell XPS M1330 system, But it fails to recognize the hard disk on booting from Fedora core 7 DVD.

Can anyone has solution to this problem ??

I shall be very thnakfull for it

Wishes
Hemant

[dsio]

Yeap, sorry I didn't get to this sooner.

Problem is the 2.6.20.x kernel which is on the Fedora 7 DVD doesn't support the IDE controller in the M1330, because the M1330 is such a new and cutting edge laptop, most of its hardware wasnt in existance when Fedora 7 was released.

It actually isnt the hard disk that isn't recognized, its the CD-ROM drive.

To install Fedora 7, you need to do the following:

First: Download and burn to disk, SUSE10.3 Linux (this is a good choice because its simple, and works with the M1330 since its so new)

Second: When installing SuSE10.3, it should create a 120GB /home partition (ext3) and a 40GB / partition (ext3) assuming you have a 160GB hard disk.

Third: In SUSE, copy the image of the Fedora 7 ISO to / and when I say this, I mean copy the .iso file, NOT the contents of the Fedora 7 install disk. It has to be the .iso file.

Forth: Reboot off the Fedora 7 DVD, and when it asks for installation media, select the hard disk partition that corresponds to / in the SuSE installation as the media source. That 40GB partition will then act as the install media, while the 120GB partition is where everything is installed to.

Fifth: You then need to use a USB thumb drive or a memory stick to copy over a 2.6.22 kernel rpm, an updated nash rpm, and a few others, because although Fedora 7 will work now, the network card wont, the CD-ROM wont, and wireless wont, because they all need a 2.6.22 kernel.

Sixth: After its running a 2.6.22 kernel, you can then use the NIC to update your whole fedora, at which point everything but wireless will work.

At this point, you need to start getting tricky. You need to download the kernel source, and apply a series of patches which combine some intel tweaks with a few other odd tweaks, and add the mac80211 wireless stack into the kernel, and compile it.

Then install the intel wireless drivers and they should work (sort of).

Then you need to download the latest alsa mercurial build, patch it a bit, and then you can get woring sound.

At this point in time, absolutely everything on my M1330 works correctly, and I have documented all my tomfoolery, sent info on the sound card to ALSA, sent info on the wireless issues to intel, and notified RH about the workarounds needed to get it even running.

Suffice to say, I'm fairly sure Fedora 8 will work out of the box with 100% support for everything.

[Samuknow]

Wow, sounds simple...LOL

[Daniel ~]

It's MUCH easier on a desktop, ... but YOU wouldn't know that would you? ":O}