Dual Boot with WinXp and Fedora 4 64

1. Disk Defaults were two fat32 partitiions.  The first was a primary partition and the second an extended partition.  I created a second primary partition at the end of the first two after shrinking the second.  Fedora 4 automatic partitioning failed.  Deleted the 2nd partition and recreated it as a primary partition.  The linux partition was then created as an extended partition.  Fedora automatic partitioning worked perfectly with a functioning dual boot after copying the linux boot partition to WinXp as a file.

Keyboard

1. Worked from  the start

Video - Radeon Mobility X700, 128MB DDR memory

1. Default Generic Vesa Drive 800 x 600 worked at the start

2. Plan - Install ATI driver

Synaptic Touchpad with 4-way integrated scroll button

1. Did not work with the choice of a ps2 mouse although this selection worked fine with the system rescue CD which I used to partition the hard drive.

2. Changed to synaptic touchpad as the choice and it worked for one boot sequence but disappeared on subsequent boots and failed to function

3. Extra USB mouse works fine.  Bluetooth mouse doesn't work as Bluetooth is not functioning.

4. Plan - install Xorg/XFree86 synaptic driver

5. Installed the driver and doesn't work.  I think I need to install some modules.

6. I got a nice tip described below in the suggestions.  I added i8042.nomux to my grub kernel line.  My touchpad works - double click, central rocker switch, buttons, etc.  Thanks to Will.

Storage - 100GB Ultra ATA hard drive

1. Worked from start

Gigabit Lan

1. Not tested

Wi-Fi Wireless - broadcom lan 802.11g

1. Not working

2. Installed ndiswrapper-1.3.rc1 - seems to work (followed website instructions)

3. Driver one - 80211g - downloaded from Wiki - "driver present, hardware present",  message log said "Not a 64 bit driver)  - iwconfig no wlan present.

4. Driver two -  BCMWL564 _ generic 64 bit driver from Linuxant - "driver present", hardware not mentioned - iwconfig no wlan present

5. Driver three - 80211g - from  WinXP on my machine - identical to Driver one from the Wiki - "driver present, hardware present" - iwconfig no wlan present

6. Driver four - 80211ga - from WinXP on my machine - "driver present, hardware present" - iwconfig no wlan present.

7. Driver five - 80211g 64 bit driver from Acer for my Ferrari - "driver present, hardware present" - iwconfig no wlan present.

8. I am stumped for the present.

DMA

1. Unknown - I don't know how to test

ACPI

1. Unknown

2. Getting weird error when I boot to the command line.  They are repetitive and I can ignore them.  Example "ACPI - 1138 ***error: Method execution failed [ \_SB_BAT1._BST] (Node ffff810037ff9e40), AI_NOT_FOUND"

USB

1. Working - see USB mouse above

Optical Disk - Dual layer DVD burner

1. Working with cd burning - from the beginning

Firewire

1. Working - from the beginning

Bluetooth

1. Not working

Sound

1. Not working on install

PowerNow

1. Unknown

External Video - VGA and DVI

1. Not tested

Modem - V92 56 Kbps

1. Not tested

5 in 1 Card Reader

1. Not tested

Quirky Behavior

1. Synaptic touchpad driver default working for only one instance of linux, failed to work on subsequent reboots despite driver switching, etc.

Comments and Suggestions

1. Hi,
   
   I also have an Acer Ferrari 4000 Laptop running FC4. You might try the suggested workaround (adding "i8042.nomux" as an argument to the kernel parameters) in the following bugzilla entry:
   
   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=139072
   
   I have found it towork on my Ferrari 4000.
   
   -Will
   
   

Fast Real-Time clock

With Fedora Core 4 the Acer Ferrari 4000 the real time clock (date and

time displayed in upper right corner of gnome desktop) goes about

twice the normal rate. Adding the following kernel parameter to the

/boot/grub/grub.conf fixes the problem:

no_timer_check=0

The following link has more information about it:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?referrerid=195877&threadid=355084

LAN

The Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5789 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express

works out of the box for FC4. It also works for 2.6.13-1.1526_FC4

kernel in the FC4 update.

USB

It works for the 2.6.13-1.1526_FC4 kernel. I was able to mount maxtor

external drive.

SOUND

Seems like some machines deviate from the default settings. I found

useful hint on setting up the sound so the speakers work on the

machine, Step 7 from:

http://www.expertofficepc.com/linux/hp.html

7. Double click on the speaker icon on the upper. Click on

Edit>Preference, scroll down and check external speaker and click on

close. Click on the Switches tab and check off External

Amplifier. Sound is now set up.

WLAN

ndiswrapper 1.4 compiled from http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net does NOT work.

I had more luck with ndiswrapper 1.2 and followed steps 5 and 6 on:

http://www.expertofficepc.com/linux/hp.html

Be sure that the wireless is on (the rightmost button on the

front). The button is a toogle. So if it doesn't work the first time,

hit the button and retry. If the wireless is working and transmitting

data you should see the button flicker for the packets sent and

received.

-Will