Fedora 7 64bit on Vostro 1400

I hope this can be helpful to anybody who wants to install Fedora 7 on their Vostro 1400 (or maybe 1500). I started a second thread because I couldn't change the
title of the other thread.

========================= Vostro 1400 =========================
Core 2 Duo 5470 (1.6GHz, capable of 800MHz, 1.2GHz and 1.6GHz with speedstep)
intel X3100
WXGA+: 1440x900
80G hard drive
512 MB from Dell + 512 MB bought from a local store


================= Progress of Fedora 7 x86_64 =====================
1. move windows pagefile to recovery partition (D: in Windows)
turn off windows restore on all partitions
disable hibernation just for now (we'll turn it back on after disk shrink)
at command prompt: powercfg -h on|off
well, I don't have permission to issue the command, use disk cleanup to
remove the hibernate file. How do I enable it later?
Defragment hard disks, there is no progress indicator anymore (guess how
long it will take?)

2. shrink C: partition from 70GB to 12GB using windows vista disk management
utility
First time: shrink it to 36GB, shutdown and reboot to see if it works
Second time: download Gparted live cd and use mkxf86config.sh to create
xorg.conf so that GParted can run
Windows vista spend a long time (almost 20 minutes) in Startup Repair,
but finally it worked. Just let it work. Since Dell didn't give me
a copy of the Windows Vista Home Basic install DVD, I was really worried
if the partition shrink doesn't work. I emailed Dell and they will
ship me a copy of Vista installation disc in a few days.

3. Now that linux can read and write NTFS with the help of FUSE and ntfs-3g
we can create all windows partitions in NTFS
wait, sda6 will be formated as FAT32 since hard drive will be used as
the installation source for Fedora
Again, all new partitions are created with GParted
sda1: 78MB (some unknown partition Dell created)
sda2: D: Dell Recovery, unchanged, 2GB, also home for pagefile and tmpdir
sda3: C: OS, 12GB, vista home basic
sda4: extended partition
sda5: F: Data, 20GB, NTFS
sda6: G: FatData, 4GB, FAT32
sda7: /boot, 100MB
sda8: /usr, 8GB
sda9: /home, 14GB
sda10: /opt, 7GB
sda11: /, 7.9GB
sda12: linux swap, 1GB
On a side note, I might have destroyed Dell Media Direct partition.
I didn't know what Dell Media Direct is about when I was doing
partitioning. Oh well, I don't know what I have missed. So I don't miss
anything.

4. Format /dev/sda5 (F: NTFS), /dev/sda6 (G: FAT32) in Vista
Download Fedora 7 DVD image (iso file) in Vista, put it into G:/fedora7/
burn a disc

5. Install Fedora 7 with source from local hard drive (/dev/sda6, fedora7/)

6. Post Install fixup #1
Get Broadcom Netlink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express working
Solution: upgrade kernel to support the card
Run package updater: 160 updates available

7. Post Install fixup #2
Get xorg.conf right: display size for 120x120 dpi
7.1 download graphics driver from intellinux, fix src i830_lvds.c
to set pfit_control = 0 even when zooming to remove fuzziness
autogen.sh, configure, make, replace with the new src/.libs/intel_drv.so
Voila! Crisp clear now!
One problem remaining: when log off, the intel driver seems unable to
restart and system crashes, try turn off DRI and DRM to see if it helps
To Be Continued: get mesa and 3d stuff working (Beryl and CompizFusion)
For now, just disable all fancy stuff and get X server stable
7.2 forget about 7.1, just download the xorg-x11-i810 rpm from testing/
repository, it will remove the fuzziness. Don't waste your time
configuring and compiling your own intel driver. This is what I have
now, since it is easier to upgrade and maintain.

8. Get hibernation working so that I can keep the previous work state
8.1 suspend to memory just worked by itself by pulling menu
after wake up, we need to do ctrl-alt F1 then F7
we can setup the power management scheme to auto-suspend after closing
the lid and auto-wakeup after opening the lid, great!
Actually, this can be fixed nicely, see item 15 later
8.2 hibernate to swap disk
It also worked like a charm from the menu (of power management applet).
So, no need to install kernel-tuxonice from atrpms, then.

9. Post Install fixup #4
Set up the wireless network DELL broadcom 1390 card
rmmod bcm43xx_mac80211 and blacklist this module in /etc/modprobe.d
download and compile ndiswrapper and install 64bit WinXP driver from DELL
Use Inspiron E1501 and WinXP 64 to select driver, unzip .exe file
Test suspend and hibernate with wireless driver, wireless lost after
wakeup, however, it doesn't interfere with suspend, good!
But it seems will interfere with hibernate, which will hang on
"Suspending Consoles". Put SUSPEND_MODULES="ndiswrapper" in
/etc/pm/config.d/suspend_modules and chmod +x suspend_modules
solves the problem.

10. Chinese input
Scim miraculously started working after I login in Chinese once. Now the
repeated sequence would be scim-restart and reload configuration.
Now I think the trick is: Menu->System->Preference->Personal->Input Method
choose use custom input method: scim and log out and back in.
You are good to go. Don't use the system default.

11. Post Install fixup #3
Sound not working
Try driver from GATech,
wget http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/suse/projects/alsa/snapshot/driver/.tgz
./configure --with-cards=hda-intel
make, make install, reboot
The trick is not tell soundcard-config you cannot hear the sound, instead
you should use a mixer to turn on the digital-1 of STAC9228 mixer because
it is by default muted. I think the first time I configured the sound
card, I can see the mixer, but there is no sound because it is by default
muted. Had I turn it on the first time I configured sound card, I won't go
into so many trouble. I don't know if there is an option to un-configure
soundcard.
However, there is no sound for the speaker. Only the headphone works.
Fixed, in modprobe.conf, add "options snd-hda-intel model=3stack"
and run command "service alsasound restart" to make it into effect.
Now we need to restart alsasound after hibernate, again, let's hack the
/usr/lib/pm-utils/bin/pm-action, No, it doesn't work either. alsasound
refuse to stop in the script. I don't know if anything get locked up.
Oh well, at least we can run "service alsasound restart" manually.

12. Post Install fixup #4
Logout still won't wake up the screen
In that case, maybe we want to turn glx back?
Don't do always restart server, it will interfere with hibernate/suspend
Well, don't logout then, other options are suspend, hibernate, shutdown.
This is my personal laptop, how ofter do I need to logout?
Will see if there is any vbe option that can be tuned in gdm.conf, later.
A temporary solution: in vt 1 as root:
> killall gnome-session; vbetool post
will bring you right back to the login screen

13. Data and Task Migration from old laptop
- all linux data in home directory
- mail, calendar,
- config firefox (flash, mplayer, mplayerplug-in), xmms, scim, acroread
- config openoffice, terminal, fonts,
- Windows data, and mounting windows partition (fat32 and ntfs), make sure
that linux hibernate will umount them and remount them to keep
windows file system consistent (details: system/windows/winPartition)
- TODO:
- bookmarks?
- cell sdk
- re-install intel compilers

14. Stuff on Vista side
- Migrate all data from old laptop
- tweak and tune Vista, see system/windows/TweakVista_1.1.pdf
or search tweak guide tweak companion vista on-line for the website

15. Fixed intel video problem after wake up from suspend using vbetool post
put in /usr/lib/pm-utils/bin/pm-action script
####### Hand tuned by me to fix the video problem ######
CONSOLE=`fgconsole`
chvt 1
####### End hand tuning ######

pm_main "$ACTION" "$REVERSE"

####### Hand tuned by me to fix the video problem ######
/usr/sbin/vbetool post
chvt $CONSOLE
####### End hand tuning ######
Now rethinking this, probably we can install a user defined hook into
/etc/pm/sleep.d directory to deal with video. Well, if this is working,
why break it. Next time we upgrade pm-utils rpm, keep this in mind.

16. what else? to be continued...
Right now, Fedora 7 x86_64 on Vostro 1400 is running great.
Mi sa like it.