[vox-tech] attention installfest attendees: X woes on laptops

[Peter Jay Salzman]

the past 2 installfests have been plagued by people who haven't been
able to get X working "just right" or at all.  *particularly* with
newish laptops.  a common problem is when X, try as you might play with
xvidtune or mode timings, can't seem to cover the entire laptop screen.
we've seen this a bunch of times.

if you're working on a system, particularly a laptop, that looks new,
ask the person you're helping when the laptop was manufactured (they
prolly won't know) or when they bought the laptop.

then compare it with the build date of xfree86.  you can get that
information using X -probeonly 2> X.log  -or-  by looking at a copy of
the X log somewhere in /var/log.

if the computer is newer than the build of X (particularly for a laptop),
there is a good chance that the video chipset is not officially
supported by X.  if their X works, it'll be mostly by accident.  their
chipset is "close enough" to get it "kind of" working.

from here, you need to upgrade X 4.2* if you're using X 4.1.*.   in every
case we tried, upgrading X almost always worked (on laptops).  alot of work
has been done on:

1. ati cards
2. laptop video chipsets

between 4.1.* and 4.2.*.   i happen to know that the recent mandrake
beta carries 4.2.

if anyone here is aware of any distributions that carry 4.2.*, i'd like
to make a list for my own personal knowledge.  please post your info.
:)

thanks,
pete

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