[Cialug] RHEL install Inspiron 9300

[D. Joe Anderson]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2006 at 03:40:52PM -0600, Nathaniel Petersen wrote:
> Not an X server issue.
> 
> There is a problem with most of the latest Dell equipment with this
> issue.  Even the Debian installer will get that 'weird' video issue. 
> While I am not willing to wager without further research, I found that
> adding the "vga=791" to the boot options will resolve the text-based
> install.  No work has been down with the graphical install to know if
> this resolves the graphical install.

Doesn't a problem even in text mode does sound like an unhappy
attempt to use the framebuffer?  maybe vga=ask would be the
thing to use, and then have it not use the framebuffer at all. 

1440x900 sounds like a decidedly non-VESA resolution (Dr. Google
reports seeing some call it WXGA, or WXGA+ or WSXGA).  If the
software thinks it knows what its doing, but it asks the
hardware to do something the hardware can't do, that may give
you trouble.  Maybe the BIOS has some settings to stretch a
normal VESA mode on the screen.  I've seen this work on some
1280x800 or other near-WXGA screens.  While it will be
distorted, it'll be legible and might allow you to progress to
using the full resolution.

This is where it might be fun to throw the latest versions, or
even release candidates or alphas, of the various live CDs at it
(I'm thinking KNOPPIX and Ubuntu here, mostly) just for kicks. 
Increasingly I've been reading/hearing reference to the Ubuntu
Dapper flight 3 CD, but haven't given it a spin yet.

-- 
Joe