The video chip used in the Toshiba 6100 is the NVIDIA GeForce 4 420 Go.

 

Depending on the exact model of 6100 you have, the video RAM may be 16M or 32M - check this from the specifications before going any further.

 

 

During RH Linux 9.0 installation, the chip is probed as NVIDIA GeForce 4 and the "nv" driver is selected.

The LCD monitor cannot be automatically probed, so use "Generic Laptop 1024x768", and accept the 24-bit colour depth suggested by the installer.

 

 

This invokes a generic NVidia driver with 1024x768 resolution: quite acceptable for most purposes. A basic XF86Config file is created in /etc/X11/. This sample file may be useful if you want to return to default settings later.

 

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Installing the proprietary NVIDIA drivers:

For a really sparkling display, you will need to get the videocard manufacturer's Linux drivers.

 

Check this page for the latest drivers, but see the note below, first...

 

At the time of writing, there are all kinds of problems with kernel/driver/glibc compatibilities. For example:

Red Hat 9.0 shipped with a broken glibc, and you will not be able to run OpenOffice or xmms with the NVidia driver until you have updated your system using (e.g.) up2date or Ximian Red Carpet

If you run up2date as of today (07/07/03) the kernel will be updated to version 2.4.20-18.9. The NVidia installer "NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run" only seems to work with kernel 2.4.20-8 and below.

I am indebted to Alexandre (Sasha) Kozlov for his solution. Perform a full update using up2date or Ximian Red Carpet. Go to this site, and download the package compatible with your hardware/distribution. For example, if your kernel version is 2.4.20-18.9 (do uname -r to check) the correct file will be:

 

nvidia-graphics-kmdl-2.4.20-18.9-1.0_4363-11.i686.rpm

 

Install the package, and if there are no errors so far, change your default run level to "3" in /etc/inittab, make a backup of your XF86 Config (/etc/X11/XF86Config) and modify it as follows:

 

"Module" section:

 

Remove the line> Load "dri"

Remove the line> Load "GLcore"

Ensure you have the line> Load "glx"

"Monitor" section:

 

For a basic setup, all you need is:

 

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Monitor0"

VendorName "Monitor Vendor"

ModelName "Toshiba 6100 LCD Display"

HorizSync 31.5 - 150

VertRefresh 50.0 - 100

Modeline "1024x768" 97.40 1024 1072 1192 1416 768 768 771 809

Option "ddc" "off"

EndSection

 

"Device" section:

 

It's very important that the Driver line is changed from "nv" or "vesa" to "nvidia". Also, remember to check the amount of video RAM you have, and decide whether you want BackingStore on or off. (Must be off if you are using Win4Lin).

 

 

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "Videocard0"

Driver "nvidia"

VendorName "NVIDIA"

BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 4 420 Go"

VideoRam 32768

Option "BackingStore" "Off"

EndSection

 

"Screen" section:

 

You can add more modes as required, but note that each must have a valid modeline in the "Monitor" section. The "Virtual" line disables the display panning that would otherwise occur by default, and forces the driver to display everything within the confines of the screen dimensions.

 

 

Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen0"

Device "Videocard0"

Monitor "Monitor0"

DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"

Modes "1024x768"

EndSubSection

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1024x768"

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubSection

EndSection

 

 

 

Once the modified file has been saved, exit the root account, login as a normal user and you can try starting the X-server:

 

$ startx

With a bit of luck, you will have a functioning display. If not, check the /var/log/XFree86.9.log file for pointers to what went wrong. Useful key commands at this stage are:

 

<Ctrl> <Alt> <BkSp> to kill the X-server and revert to text mode

 

<Ctrl> <Alt> <Fn> <;> to switch screen modes (if you have more than one)

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you make a mistake and get a bright white screen, kill the X-server immediately to avoid irreparable damage to the LCD display. All of the above instructions are given without any warranty. They may not work in your case, and worse, they may cause damage to your PC. Use them at your own risk!

 

Assuming the drivers have installed correctly, you can change your default runlevel back to 5 in /etc/initttab.

 

If it didn't work for some reason, all I can suggest is that you consult the Linux and NVidia Graphics forum.

 

 

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Example:

Here is a sample XF86Config file to play with:

24-bit NVIDIA example

 

Copy this to your /etc/X11/XF86Config file, as appropriate, having made a backup first. Note that only the 1024x768 modeline is working properly at the moment - I will try to get the other screen resolutions later...

 

 

 

Note: If you have problems with a black line at the right hand side of the screen, try adding the following line to /etc/modules.conf :

 

options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=2

 

 

 

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External Monitor/TV settings

This is really difficult. The Toshiba 6100 hotkey display switch (Fn F5) is not properly supported under Linux, and the NVidia driver implementation supports it even less... Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any solution that allows monitor switching under Red Hat 9.0 with the NVidia 4363 driver! Please let me know if you can help...

 

If you do not mind using the standard Vesa driver at 16-bit colour depth, you can use an external monitor or TV by using the following procedure:

 

Ensure that you have Jonathan Buzzard's Toshiba Linux Utilities, which you can obtain here. The stable version of the utilities requires Toshiba Laptop support either compiled into the kernel or as a loadable module (RH9.0 default). Download the utilities tarball, copy to /usr/local/ and do tar -xvzf. Change directory to /usr/local/toshutils-2.x.x and follow the README for installation instructions. Note that "make install" creates the required special device files if they do not already exist.

The display switch in Jonathan's utilities only works on Libretto notebooks, so you are going to need another little utility named "Toshset" from Charles Schwieters. Copy to /usr/local/ and "untar" as you did in step 1.

cd to /usr/local/toshset-1.xx and follow the README for installation instructions. If you have Toshiba Laptop support compiled into the kernel (not as a module, which is RH9.0 default), you must change the Toshset Makefile so that the line "DEFS = -DUSE_KERNEL_INTERFACE" is uncommented. Failure to do this will cause Toshset to crash with a segmentation fault...Also, you may need to create 3 directories to prevent compilation errors. These are:

/usr/local/man

/usr/local/man/man1 and

/usr/local/man/man8

 

VESA 16-bit dual display

The trick here is to ensure that your monitor settings can apply equally to the internal and external monitors. I have used a very old monitor (Philips 105S) in this sample XF86Config running at 1024x768 pixels. Copy this to your existing XF86Config, having made a backup first, and re-start your computer with the external monitor plugged in.

 

Note: you can change TV regional options (PAL/NTSC) via the computer's setup menu by pressing <Ctrl> <Esc> immediately after switching on.

Login and use toshset -video both to enable LCD and external monitors simultaneously. This works in text mode or from an X-terminal. Other toshset options are int, ext, tv. You can try these, but "tv" will probably only work at 800x600.

Nick: kZo,kZo[home],kZo[work]

Name: Dallas

Location: USA, Iowa

 

Job: Network Administrator for hospital

Network Type: MS Network

Email: Redhat Linux 7.3

 

Just recently gave my resignation as the Network Administrator. Going to leave position here to work on a Server Admin Team for a corporate office in Iowa.

 

You can normally find me on IRC, efnet, #redhat #wipples #jumex and few others.

When starting kde on my system, (I use startx from the command line), I did not like the way that KDE would startup with a baby blue background and then transition to my configured background color. I wanted a way to make the color consistant from the start of the X server until my default desktop was up.

 

KDE starts with the command "exec startkde" usually found in ~/.Xclients-default or ~/.Xclients. "startkde" is a script that, on my system, is in /usr/kde/3.1/bin/ (your system may be different).

 

Within that script are the following lines:

 

test "$XDM_MANAGED" || bkg="-solid #000000"

xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr $bkg

 

As you can see, the startkde script uses "xsetroot" to set its initial color. I have mine set to "#000000" which

is black but you can set the color to anything you like. You can use a utility like "gcolor" to pick a color code that you like or you can use the utility here to experiment. [/url][url=http://www.imagitek.com/bcs.html]http://www.imagitek.com/bcs.html

Which Logos does anyone like?

 



 



 



 



 

How to I see what version of Kernel I have installed?

 

 

You should be able to see the version as a normal user, so open up a console.

 

Once done type uname -ar

 

you should see something like this:-

 

 

[anyweb@localhost anyweb]$ uname -ar

Linux localhost.localdomain 2.4.22-1.2115.nptl #1 Wed Oct 29 17:00:00 EST 2003 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

 

That tells me that my kernel version is = 2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.

Login as root by typing

 

su -

 

in a console. Once done type cat /etc/redhat-release

 

you should see something like this:-

 

 

[root@localhost root]# cat /etc/redhat-release

Fedora Core release 1 (Yarrow).

 

That tells me that I am using Fedora Core release 1 on this linux box.

Quote:please NOTE:- java VERSIONS change quite a bit, meaning that a line such as  

rpm -ivh j2re-1_4_2_02-linux-i586-rpm

 

may now have changed to something like....

 

rpm -ivh j2re-1_4_2_06-linux-i586-rpm

 

please MAKE SURE that you are rpm'ing the correct VERSION of software that you have downloaded otherwise your java plugin will fail to install. The instructions below ONLY refer to the version that I downloaded at the time of writing this howto, of course, versions have changed since then, and as a result, you have to adapt the instructions below, to match the new version of JAVA plugin that you are downloading.

How to change the default login to Xwindows to console or vice versa.

 

do as follows: open a console and login as

 

su -

 

then, as root type the following:-

 

cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.org

 

That has just copied (cp) a text file called 'inittab' to a new text file called 'inittab.org'. The reason for that is incase you accidently screw up the text editing that comes next ;-)

 

 

 

once done, type the following:-

 

vi /etc/inittab

 

that opens a pretty cool (or anal depending on how you think) console based text editor, and opens a text file. Use your up and down (and left and right) cursor keys to navigate the flashing cursor around this file.

Scroll down to the line that reads:

 

id:5:initdefault:

 

^^ yes that line there ^^

 

and change the number five (5) to a number three (3) so that it now reads

 

id:3:initdefault:

 

^^ now it's a 3 ^^

 

 

If you find you cannot type the number 3, try pressing the INSERT key on your keyboard. (hint: pressing INSERT will toggle between INSERT and REPLACE mode, also, pressing ESC will CANCEL out of those modes and allow you to enter commands).

 

Once you have managed to get the line looking like this

 

id:3:initdefault:

 

press ESC to get control back, and press

 

:wq

 

Thats right, just a colon with a w (to write) and a q (to quit)

ok, you are done !

 

now let's exit from X windows, easiest way is to reboot ! so go ahead and reboot, once you have rebooted you'll be presented with a console login prompt...

 

(to get Xwindows to load automatically at boot time change the 3 in /etc/inittab back to 5).

First things first i'd suggest you PRINT this document if you have access to a printer.

 

By default, and out of the box with Red Hat 9 you will have no OpenGL acceleration with your Nvidia card. It will not be optimised for 3D games, or opengl applications. Installing this driver will hopefully fix that and allow you to play Quake 3 and more ;-)

 

To get this support back, you'll need to get nvidias 3d accelerated linux driver and install it as follows, so click on the nvidia link below (for Intel Pentium based systems) or, go to their website directly to download your computers version.

 

nvidia

 

Download that rpm somewhere handy (or check here and get the right driver for your machine) and do as follows:-

 

login as root in a console by typing:-

 

su -

 

Then do

 

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run

 

Now i'm willing to bet that you will get the following error:-

 

NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for Linux-x86 (1.0-4496)

 

ERROR: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before installing. For further details, please see the section INSTALLING THE NVIDIA DRIVER in the README available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

 

OK

 

NVIDIA Software Installer for Unix/Linux www.nvidia.com

 

Dont worry about that, i'm just proving a point here, so lets press 'ok' and fix that problem.

 

Pressing ok will pop up this MESSAGE:

 

Installation has failed. Please see the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

 

One more 'ok' exits from the routine.

 

So.... how do i fix the 'log out of X windows' problem ?

 

do as follows: open a console and login as

 

su -

 

then, as root type the following:-

 

cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.org

 

That has just copied (cp) a text file called 'inittab' to a new text file called 'inittab.org'. The reason for that is incase you accidently screw up the text editing that comes next ;-)

 

 

 

once done, type the following:-

 

vi /etc/inittab

 

that opens a pretty cool (or anal depending on how you think) console based text editor, and opens a text file. Use your up and down (and left and right) cursor keys to navigate the flashing cursor around this file.

Scroll down to the line that reads:

 

id:5:initdefault:

 

^^ yes that line there ^^

 

and change the number five (5) to a number three (3) so that it now reads

 

id:3:initdefault:

 

^^ now it's a 3 ^^

 

 

If you find you cannot type the number 3, try pressing the INSERT key on your keyboard. (hint: pressing INSERT will toggle between INSERT and REPLACE mode, also, pressing ESC will CANCEL out of those modes and allow you to enter commands).

 

Once you have managed to get the line looking like this

 

id:3:initdefault:

 

press ESC to get control back, and press

 

:wq

 

Thats right, just a colon with a w (to write) and a q (to quit)

ok, you are done !

 

now let's exit from X windows, you could exit from X by pressing CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE together or the easiest way is to reboot ! so go ahead and reboot, once you have rebooted you'll be presented with a console login prompt...

 

login as root and type this

 

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg1.run

 

Click ACCEPT to accept the license and then click OK to the 'compiling the kernel' message, and watch as it works it's way...

 

Once done you are nearly there. Let's BACKUP a file thats fairly critical to our X windows operation, by logging in as root and typing:

 

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/X11/XF86Config.org

 

Now, you have to edit the original file, your XF86config file.

 

Login again as root (if you are not already) and type:

 

vi /etc/X11/XF86Config

 

find the line with Driver "nv" (or Driver "vesa") and REPLACE WITH

 

Driver "nvidia"

 

now (taken directly from the Nvidia README)

 

In the Module section, make sure you have: Load "glx" You should also remove the following lines: Load "dri" Load "GLcore" (if they exist).

 

Thats it, save your settings with

 

:wq

 

ok, .... finally, lets test ! logout as root and login as normal user

 

type

 

startx

 

 

 

you'll KNOW you have succeeded becuase the big NVIDIA WHITE login splash screen is there :)

 

(to get Xwindows to load automatically at boot time change the 3 in /etc/inittab back to 5).

 

well done !!