Content
Introduction. The purpose of this note is to outline the dual boot setup of Fedora 7 (F7) on a Clemson Laptop Program Lenovo T61 which has the following features:
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 2GHz
- 14.1" WXGA (1280x800) with Camera
- Intel Pro 3945 Wireless a/b/g
- Bluetooth Wireless
- 2 GB memory
- 120GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
- 8X DVD-RW Multiburner
- NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)
Partition Table. The first step is to burn an F7 LiveCD. The i386 version will fit on a CD. The x86_64 version will not fit on a CD so must be burned on a DVD. Booting the LiveCD is complicated by the fact that the kernel on the LiveCD does not recognize the AHCI disk controller. In the BIOS, set the ATA controller mode to "Compatibility". Also, the Nvidia driver on the LiveCD is incompatible with the T61 Nvidia hardware. Here are the steps to boot the LiveCD.
BIOS: set the Serial ATA mode to Compatibility.
Boot the LiveCD.
At the splash screen, hit the tab key then enter: 3.
At the Login prompt type root.
# system-config-display --reconfig --set-driver=vesa
# startx
System -> Administration -> Display -> Hardware Tab -> Monitor type ->
Generic LCD Display -> LCD Panel 1280x800 -> OK -> OK -> OK
CTRL+ALT+Backspace
# startx
The next step is to set up the partitions. The T61 comes from the factory with
three primary partitions with the approximate sizes
54 GB NTFS C partition 54 GB NTFS D partition 3 GB FAT32 service partition
Gparted can be used to delete partitions, move existing partitions, and to create partitions for F7.
Applications -> System Tools -> Gparted
Gparted flagged the C partition as unreadable. The error message said to use chkdsk /f followed by two reboots in Windows.
Boot Windows XP C -> Properties -> Tools -> Error-checking -> Check Now Check the box: Automatically fix file system errors Check the box: Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors Restart After chkdsk is finished, reboot twice
Now we return to Gparted. Note that Gparted uses mebibyte and gibibyte units.
1 mebibyte (MiB) = (1024)^2 bytes 1 gebibyte (GiB) = (1024)^3 bytes
BIOS: set the Serial ATA mode to Compatibility if not already done. Boot the LiveCD. Applications -> System Tools -> Gparted Delete the primary FAT32 service partition. Resize C to 32000 MiB by adding free space after this partition. Move D so that it begins after C and is 45000 MiB. Create a primary ext3 partition after D of size 130 MiB for /boot. Create an extended partition in the remaining unallocated space. Create a logical ext3 partition of size 20000 MiB for /. Create a logical ext3 partition of size 13500 Mib for /home. Create a swap partition in the remaining unallocated space.
The resulting partition table follows. Using the default Round to cylinders option, the partition sizes vary somewhat from the requested sizes. You can use the undo option to fine tune. At this stage it is easy to split the Linux / partition into as many partitions as you want. You could, for example create separate partitions for /usr/local and for /opt. I use the D partition as a shared partition between Windows XP and F7.
| Pri/Log | Partition | Type | Label | Size |
| primary | /dev/sda1 | ntfs | C | 31.25 GiB |
| primary | /dev/sda2 | ntfs | D | 43.95 GiB |
| primary | /dev/sda3 | ext3 | /boot | 133.35 MiB |
| extended | /dev/sda4 | 36.46 GiB | ||
| logical | /dev/sda5 | ext3 | / | 19.53 GiB |
| logical | /dev/sda6 | ext3 | /home | 12.89 GiB |
| logical | /dev/hda7 | linux-swap | 4.04 GiB |
Install. The first step is two burn a F7 i386 or a x86_64 install DVD. Booting the install DVD is complicated by the fact that the Nvidia driver on the install DVD is incompatible with the T61 Nvidia hardware. Here are the steps to boot the install DVD.
BIOS: set the Serial ATA mode to Compatibility if not already done. Boot the install DVD At the splash screen, hit the tab key then enter: vesa resolution=1280x800 Normal GUI installation process: designate /dev/sda3 as the boot partition Boot the LiveCD and use Gparted to set the boot flag on /dev/sda3 Boot # yum update
Nvidia Driver. The Nvidia proprietary driver can be installed as follows.
Enable the Livna RPM repository in yum:
rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm
Then install the Nvidia driver:
yum install kmod-nvidia
Restart X (logout and back in).
The brightness controls currently do not work with the Nvidia driver, nor do framebuffer consoles. To control brightness, switch to a virtual console and use the keyboard controls there, then switch back to the X display.
ATA Controller. After installation and updates, the ACHI mode on the disk controller can be enabled. As root:
# echo 'MODULES="ahci"' > /etc/sysconfig/mkdinitrd # /sbin/mkinitrd -f --with=ahci /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r) Reboot and reconfigure the BIOS.
The first line ensures that the ahci module is included in the initrd in future kernel RPM installs. The second line remakes the initrd for the running kernel.
Pam Keyring. To avoid a second login when NetworkManager starts, pam keyring can be used to automatically unlock the default keyring.
# yum install pam_keyring Edit /etc/pam.d/gdm and add the three indicated lines. #%PAM-1.0 auth required pam_env.so auth optional pam_keyring.so try_first_pass <--- auth sufficient pam_unix.so likeauth nullok <--- auth include system-auth account required pam_nologin.so account include system-auth password include system-auth session optional pam_keyinit.so force revoke session include system-auth session required pam_loginuid.so session optional pam_console.so session optional pam_keyring.so <---
Bluetooth. The hidd daemon fails to Start. This is apparently a bug in bluez-utils. A work around is
Edit /etc/sysconfig/hidd and change
HIDDARGS="--server"
to
HIDDARGS="-i hci0 --server"
80211. The driver included in F7 for the Intel Pro 3945 hardware is iwl3945. The following table indicates what is working for the current F7 updates kernel and the most recent Fedora Project testing kernel. Connections are attempted with 128 bit static WEP starting from a cold boot to avoid issues with hardware caching of essid and bssid.
| kernel | sys-config-net broadcast |
sys-config-net hidden |
wpa_supp broadcast ap_scan=1 |
wpa_supp hidden ap_scan=2 |
NetMan broadcast ap_scan=1 |
NetMan hidden ap_scan=2 |
| 2.6.22.4-65 i686 | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no |
| 2.6.22.4-65 x86_64 | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no |
| 2.6.22.5-77 i686 | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no |
| 2.6.22.5-77 x86_64 |
Testing kernels: http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=8 sys-config-net -> system-config-network utility wpa_supp -> wpa_supplicant NetMan -> NetworkManager
Bug 1. The connections marked yes in the above table can occasionally fail. The system-config-network utility activates the wireless interface wlan0 using ifup wlan0. Activation occurs in two stages: (1) configuration of mode, WEP key, and essid; (2) configuration of ip address and routing. Stage one should culminate in an association with an access point and should produce syslog output
localhost kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready.
Subsequently, dhclient will send a DHCPREQUEST which is typically answered by the DHCP server with a DHCPACK and a connection is made. If for any reason, the DHCP server responds with an DHCPNAK, syslog shows the output
localhost kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready.
and any subsequent communications with the DHCP server fail. The DHCPNAK reply can occur, for example, if the DHCP server wants to deny the use of an existing lease. If this is the case, a fix is to remove the lease files in the directory
/var/lib/dhclient
Bug 2. The Deactivate function of system-config-network does not turn off the ap, key, and essid and leaves wlan0 associated. This is easily fixed by editing the ifdown-eth script.
Bug 3. wpa_supplicant with ap_scan=2 and scan_ssid=0 or 1 cannot associate with a hidden access point, consequently NetworkManager cannot associate with a hidden access point since it relies on wpa_supplicant.
After repeated tries, users report that NetworkManager occasionally connects to a hidden access point. In this case, syslog reveals that the connection is made with ap_scan=1, that is, NetworkManager thinks the access point is broadcast. Why does this happen? If iwl3945 associates with an access point, it caches the essid and subsequent scans will show this essid. NetworkManager may then update its internal lists of access points and mark the access point as broadcast.
Mounting the NTFS Share Partition. Add the following line to /etc/fstab
/dev/sda2 /media/windowsd ntfs-3g dmark=022,fmask=133,uid=500,gid=500,
locale=en_US.utf8,user 0 0
# mount /dev/sda
Browser and Mail. Coming soon.
Suspend/Hibernate. Suspend and hibernate don't work yet.
Services. Here is the list of services that Bill Moss is currently running in level 5.
NetworkManager, NetworkManagerDispatcher, auditd, autofs, bluetooth, cpuspeed, crond, cups, dhcdbd, haldaemon, hidd, hplip, ip6tables, iptables, irqbalance, mcstrans, messagebus, microcode_cti, network, nvidia, readahead_early, readahead_later, restorecond, setroubleshoot, smartd, syslog
Subpixel Rendering The 14.1-inch 1280x800 display supports 107 pixels per inch. In the fonts preference, set the dpi to 107, turn on subpixel rendering, and set the font to sizes 8.
Sound The sound card is not yet supported by F7. It should be supported with alsa-lib-1.0.15.