I will attempt to relate my experience installing Fedora Core Linux on the Dell Inspiron 1000 on this webpage. Standard discalimers apply.
When my Inspiron 1000 arrived, it of course had the default install of Micro$oft XP occupying the whole hard dirve. I shrank the NTFS partition using Partition Magic.
fdisk -l /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 261 2096451 de Dell Utility
/dev/hda2 262 1408 9213277+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 1409 1421 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1422 3648 17888377+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1422 2568 9213246 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 2569 2633 522081 82 Linux swap
My first attempt at Fedora installation was using Core 2. The default boot with no options started to burn out the LCD as soon as the graphical installer attempted to start. Switching to a text install, the install went well and without incident. Booted after install into runlevel 5 and the LCD still had issues, but booting into runlevel 3 wasn't a problem. In runlevel 3, I tried in vain to get system-config-display to run but all attempts even after manually editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf still saw the LCD doing things that could only spell it's ruin. I finally abandoned the thought of using Fedora Core 2.
I next went to attempt to install Fedora Core 1 reminding myself that it still used XFree86 for the X server. The install went well in graphical mode until reaching the 3rd CD when a package install stalled, I don't remember which one in perticlar except that it was a gnome package. I tried several times and it failed at the same point, even tried different media. Eventually abandoned Fedora Core 1.
Next, I went further into my CD archive, and pulled out my Red Hat 9 CD set. This proved to have problems similar to those encountered with Core 2, no X windows or working runlevel 5.
Accepting the risk, I attempted a install of Fedora Core 3 test 2. Success! At least the LCD pannel works running startx from the command line in runlevel 3. Atempting to boot into runlevel 5 just presents a nicely spinning hourglass.
I now have upgraded to Fedora Core 3 test 3 and can boot into runlevel 5.
Fedora Core 3 for the most part should be a straight forward installation. Issues with sound, modem are best researched on the fedora list archives
17 Dec 2004--I have been running the production version of Fedora Core 3 since it became available, I upgraded without incident from the test Core 3 versions. Several people have e-mailed me for my /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Here it is:
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Dell 1400x1050 Laptop Display Panel"
HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "sis"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "SiS 650"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1024x768"
# Modes "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection
This is a nice speedy laptop, base RAM 256mb which runs KDE nicely, my 512mb swap is hardly used. I do recommend this laptop for the user who is technically inclined and can diagnose most issues themselves.
I can be contacted at here to answer questions.
Good Luck, Enjoy!
Terry