# Dell Latitude C400 can't use 24bit/1024x768

## aycan

I'm using a dell c400 with latest gentoo. It has i830 chipset.

The problem is the BIOS on this laptop doesn't have a AGP APERTURE SIZE configuration.

Kernel driver for i830 cannot allocate more than 1MB for AGP so XFree86 can't use 1024x768 with 24bits. I can only use 1024x768 with 8bits.

But if you use Accelerated X server (commercial) you can get 24bits. XiGraphics has a kernel module that can setup more than 1MB of video memory(I don't know how).

So I think there are 2 solutions. First if dell added support to BIOS for AGP mem size, kernel doesn't get in trouble. Second is the kernel driver for i830 should be updated in order to allocate more memory.

These are my experiences, I hope they gives laptop buyers a point of view.

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## chadh

I can verify this.  The Latitude C400 (and there is probably an Inspiron equivalent) is not supported well by XFree86, so plan on shelling out about $100USD for XiG to get a useable X server.

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## wixtech

In order to address the display problem on my Dell C400 laptop, I downloaded Xi's LX driver (Summit-LX 2.1-5).  My problem is that the xsvc driver (xsvc-3.0-25) will not install properly when I "rpm -i xsvc-3.0-25.i386.rpm".  What I get back is "error: failed dependencies: /bin/sh is needed by xsvc-3.0-25".

I have verified that sh exists under /bin.  Any idea what I can do to fix the problem?  Your help is most appreciated.

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## chadh

That is not how you want to install the driver.  If XiG doesn't provide a tarball version of the package, then you will need to emerge rpm2targz and run that on the rpm, and then install the package manually.  

You could also try to --force --nodeps rpm, but I really don't recommend that.

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## MacMasta

rpm -i --force --nodeps works just fine.

Anybody have any luck getting alsa working?

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## earlydaysofsin

This link shows you how to get X working properly without shelling out $ for an X server:

http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/linux/c400.html

unfortunately you need to remember to do this each time X or the kernel is upgraded.

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## earlydaysofsin

Finally managed to complete this ... had to patch the ebuild in the end. If any one else is interested ill post how i finally got this working

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## bos_mindwarp

 *earlydaysofsin wrote:*   

> Finally managed to complete this ... had to patch the ebuild in the end. If any one else is interested ill post how i finally got this working

 

Can't someone put this in official ebuilds?

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## Salze

Hi!

 *bos_mindwarp wrote:*   

>  *earlydaysofsin wrote:*   Finally managed to complete this ... had to patch the ebuild in the end. If any one else is interested ill post how i finally got this working 
> 
> Can't someone put this in official ebuilds?

 

AFAIK the current xfree already has the needed patch.

bye

Salze

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