Linux on the Dell Latitude C610

Intro

I recently (Jan 10, 2002) installed Linux on the Dell Latitude C610. I had a couple issues to solve before I got everything to work, so that's the reason for this page. Below are listed my machine specs:

1 GHz Pentium III CPU.
256 MB RAM.
20 GB hard drive.
14.1 inch 1024x768 active XGA+ LCD flat panel.
ATI Radeon Mobility LY video, 16M video memory.
Intel I810 AC97 audio.
Built-in 3C905C-TX 10/100 Ethernet.
Built-in 56Kb WinModem.
Two CardBus slots.
Other ports: USB, PS/2, HD15 video, parallel, port replicator, audio in and out, microphone.

Linux Install Overview

Basically, I got it set up on Redhat 7.2. I tried Redhat 7.1 but could not find support in that version of Xfree86 for the ATI Radeon graphics. I installed Linux along with Windows 98 which came preinstalled. I reconfigured the hard drive using partition magic 5 and slected LILO instead of GRUB for bootloaders. Most things just worked fine out of the box from Redhat.

Video

Using Redhat 7.2, which has Xfree86 4.1.0 the installer will succesfully discover the ATI Radeon chipset. It will use the radeon module. It will not be able to probe the display type. So manually set the following settings:

16 MB Video RAM
Select Monitor type: Dell Laptop 1024X
Screen definition: 1024x768, 16 bit color

My Xfree86 config file is available here.

Audio

No configuration needed. The kernel uses the i810_audio and ac97_codec

Networking

The ethernet card worked without any special configuration, kernel module: 3c59x

The modem is a WinModem, so it's not really usable in Linux. Inserting a Zoom PC card modem worked just fine, confirming the Cardbus is also OK.

Revisions

Author: Eric Jensen

Initial Document: Jan. 10, 2002