Initial Install

Experiences loading Red Hat 7.1 on Sony VAIO FX-190:

• Graphic install screen jumpy. After I ran into other problems, I try again using text install.

• Disk drive has a 13GB primary partition (DOS C: drive), and a 17GB secondary partition (DOS D: drive). I want to leave C: alone, just install Linux on the former D: partition. Disk Druid won't let me do this -- the disk drive has 3668 cylinders, with the C: partition using the first 1460, which pushes past the notorious 1024 cylinder limit.

  I use fdisk, which takes some fumbling around before I get something usable:

  /dev/hda5	4096M	/
  /dev/hda6	128M	swap
  /dev/hda7	rest	/home

• I get a PCMCIA error message on boot up:

  PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 01:02.0. Please try using pci=biosirq PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin B of device 01:02.1. Please try using pci=biosirq

  No idea what this means.

• Mouse problems: The touch pad looks like a PS/2 mouse; I also had a serial mouse plugged into /dev/ttyS0. It looks like some code recognized one, other code the other. This was compounded by bugs in mouseconfig and Xconfigurator. I installed errata patches for the latter programs, removed the serial mouse, and re-configured the mouse to be an ALPS GlidePoint (PS/2). After getting this working (at least to gpm's satisfaction, on reboot kudzu wanted attention to drop the removed serial mouse from its database.

• Configuring X: Once Xconfigurator would get past the mouse issue, we had to face lack of info (and understanding) of the display system. Video chipset is Intel i815; X identified Intel i810. I set video ram at 8MB, although spec says 11MB. I set display to Generic 1400x1050 Laptop, which makes sense, but testing it at 1400x1050 causes five (or so, don't recall exactly) vertical stripes to appear, as well as some horizontal scanline breakup. I try again at 1024x768, which gives me a clean (albeit smaller, centered) display.

Additional Notes

Thanks to people who sent me these notes/tips: