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UPDATED AUGUST 2001:

I no longer own any of this equipment, but I am keeping this page around for those of you who are still trying to make the Armada work with Linux.

I have not tinkered with this setup since March or April of 2000, so I don't remember all the specific settings I had, etc. What's in this "howto" is the extent of my information about this process...

Original text (written in Feb 2000) starts below this line:

I am not an XFree guru by any stretch of the definition, so there may be some settings that are redundant or incorrect, but this seems to work for me. At least it will be a starting point for you.

I am running RedHat Linux 6.2 and XFree86 v3.3.5 on a Compaq Armada 4131T. It is the stock configuration, except I bumped the RAM up to 80MB (for Window$-bloat prior to my Linux enlightenment!).

I repartitioned the hard drive to remove the 3MB Compaq Diagnostics partition (you can get the diagnostics as a SoftPaq from their site and boot to it from the floppy drive). The hard drive is set up with a 64MB swap partition, and everything else in the main / partition... not the most ideal way to configure the drive, I suppose, but as I am the only user, it works for me.

After repartitioning the hard drive, I made a boot floppy from the RedHat CD. Then I booted the Armada using the floppy and followed the on-screen instructions to install. The install process found and used my CD drive expansion base automagically.

Just for ha-has, at a later date I also did an FTP install using just the floppy drive to boot from the BOOTNET.IMG image, then the rest via a NetGear FA-410TX 10/100 PC Card (a great card in my opinion -- cheap, flexible, and works perfectly for both Linux and Window$). Both installs were very straightforward with no surprises. Skip the X Windows configuration steps, though, as they don't even come close to a working XF86Config file!

Put this XF86Config file in the /etc/X11 directory:

Section "Files"
  RgbPath            "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
  FontPath           "unix/:-1"   # Uses a Font Server vs. hard-coded paths
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection

Section "Keyboard"
  Protocol           "Standard"
  XkbRules           "xfree86"
  XkbModel           "pc101"
  XkbLayout          "us"
  AutoRepeat         500 5
EndSection

Section "Pointer"
  Protocol           "PS/2"
  Device             "/dev/psaux"
  Emulate3Buttons
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier         "Compaq Armada 4131T"
  VendorName         "Compaq"
  ModelName          "Armada 4131T"
  Bandwidth          100.0
  HorizSync          31-69
  VertRefresh        55-120
  Mode "640x480"
    DotClock         25.175
    HTimings         640 664 760 800
    VTimings         480 491 493 525
  EndMode
  Mode "800x600"
    DotClock         45
    HTimings         800 840 968 1056
    VTimings         600 601 605 628
  EndMode
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier         "Cirrus CL-GD7548"
  VendorName         "Cirrus"
  BoardName          "CL-GD7548"
  VideoRam           1024
  Chipset            "clgd7548"  # This also works as "clgd5429"
  Option             "linear"
  Option             "fast_dram"
  MemBase            0x40000000
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Driver             "SVGA"
  Device             "Cirrus CL-GD7548"
  Monitor            "Compaq Armada 4131T"
  DefaultColorDepth  16
  Subsection "Display"
    Depth            16
    Viewport         0 0
    Modes            "800x600"
    Visual           "TrueColor"
  EndSubsection
  Subsection "Display"
    Depth            8
    Viewport         0 0
    Modes            "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

That's about it! This setup works well for me, and I don't notice too much slowness, especially given the wimpy P1-133 processor! As far as other Linux distributions go, I would imagine the Font Server path might have to be changed to hard-coded paths, but that would be about it.

For more info/enlightenment, I highly suggest going to the XFree86 website and reading about the actual specs in the XF86Config file, and how you should determine your timing settings, etc. It was a big help to me -- that was the only place I found that noted the importance of the DefaultColorDepth setting and the Display Subsection sequence to determine default display mode!

Also, I have been unable to find actual specs from Compaq for the TFT LCD display on the 4131T, so I'm using timing/sync numbers gleaned from Armada 4120's listed on the Linux on Laptops website.

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This work is copyright © 2002-2009 Bruce Timberlake and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License. It may be copied, modified, and distributed freely as long as it attributes the original author by name ("Bruce Timberlake") and URL ("http://brucetimberlake.com/") and maintains the original license. See the license for details.