Linux on HP Pavilion ze5400

[Pablo_21]

Hi, could anybody run x-window on a pavilion ze5400? I cannot deal with Xconfigurator. There's a problem with the video card.
Any hint?
Pablo.

[Steven E. Protter]

1) Tell us what the video card is.
2) Try going for 640 by 480 or 800 by 600 screen resolution.

Some of those higher settings are too much for the Pavillion video cards.

Is this a laptop?

Is it on the hardware compatability list for your Linux distribution?

3) Tell us your Linux distribution and version: example Red Hat Linux 9


Going with more current distribution is more likely to get you a correct configuration. The later versions have consistently improved hardware support.

SEP

[Bruce Copeland]

Pablo:

I presume your ze5400 has a Radeon IGP 320M, 340M, or 345M integrated graphics adapter like most other models in the ze4000/ze5000 series. These RadeonIGP systems are often not probed correctly unless you are using the very most recent versions of XFree86. There is a radeonIGP driver patch for XFree86 4.3.0 that works pretty well:

http://www.mail-archive.com/xfree86@xfree86.org/msg03279.html

Also a few of us are using patched kernels and a special dri patch for XFree86 4.3.99.9 that allows us to have working 3D hardware acceleration:

http://bugs.xfree86.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314

Even so, most of us use manually configured /etc/X11/XF86Config files. You can find a few different variants of XF86Config on my ze4100 web site:

http://www.cybersym.com/pages/linux-ze4100.html

Bruce

[rcmikey]

The previously mentioned patches for the ATI IGP are likely your best bet... especially if you want to use 3D accelerated video.

If basic 2D is all you need, though, you can configure the "vesa" driver instead of the ATI driver in RedHat 9. It will work, but just for basic video (no 3D). If RedHat's tools already tried to configure the system and cannot start X... just change the line in XF86Config from "radeon" to "vesa" and it should be able to start X.