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Installing Fedora Core 6 on Compaq Presario R3000Z (v0.1)
Last modified: Tuesday June 5, 2007

I'm trying to get as much working as possible as quickly as possible. Your continued feedback below would be greatly appreciated.

The Compaq Presario R3000Z is a low priced but fairly high performance laptop. It was available in many different configurations by special order only, so you could basically pick and choose your options to some degree. The configuration I chose was as follows.

I've also starting working on my Fedora Core 6 Tips & Tricks.

Hardware Summary

For those interested here is the full lspci output:

Fedora Core 6 Compatibility

Preparing for the install

The Compaq R3000Z comes pre-installed with Windows XP which I shank using Partition Magic 7.0 to a much smaller size. I'm told that Knoppix can be booted on such a system and then you can use the ntfsresize  program to shrink the NTFS file system.

I'm told that Gparted available at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ is a very easy way to resize an NTFS partition. It has a downloadable live CD which is only 22.5MB and has an easy to use interface for re-sizing partitions. I have no experience with it but other people reported it works great.

Install Fedora Core 6

You should be able to install Fedora normally on this laptop. When prompted for monitor type choose "Generic Laptop Display Panel 1280x800". Otherwise install it as you like. The trackpad DOES work with the installer but for some reason not in the real kernel once it's installed. It's still easy to fix, see below.

Configuring the video

 Video is finally very easy with this laptop! The open source "nv" driver seems to work just fine now. When I did a fresh install I wasn't even prompted for the display type and it was correctly and automatically identified as a Generic Laptop Display Panel 1280x800.

If you do want to use the proprietary drivers (to use Google Earth or Desktop Effects) the easiest way is to use the packages in the Livna repository. If you used my FC6 Tips page to set up repositories you'll need to disable the Freshrpms repo because the Nvidia driver there isn't as easy to use and conflicts with Livna's. Edit the file /etc/yum.repos.d/freshrpms.repo and add the following line: 

	.
	.
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms
gpgcheck=1
exclude=nvidia-x11-drv*
One thing that's odd is that the shape extension is missing so Desktop Effects don't work quite yet. Then you can go ahead and install the module: 
# yum -y install kmod-nvidia

Configuring the Wifi

 This laptop includes 802.11b/g support through a Broadcom BCM4306 chipset. Fedora Core 6 does include the bcm43xx Open Source driver. It's a little rouge around the edges but does work.

First you'll need the WINE Windows emulator to extract the firmware from the XP driver as well as a tool to cut the firmware out of the drivers: 

# yum -y install wine bcm43xx-fwcutter
Second you'll need to download the XP Broadcom Wifi drivers from HP's support site. The file should be called sp30381.exe . Then run it through WINE to extract the files: 
$ wine sp30381.exe
This will extract the files to ~/.wine/drive_c/SWSetup/SP30381A where you will need to use the fwcuttter you also installed to yank the firmware out of the driver files. You'll need to run this as root as it will install the firmware in the correct system directory. 
# cd ~user/.wine/drive_c/SWSetup/SP30381A
# bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys
Then finally create a file /etc/modprobe.d/bcm43xx  with the following contents: 
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004301sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004307sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004318sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004320sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004324sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
alias pci:v000014E4d0x00004325sv*sd*bc*sc*i* bcm43xx
Then you should be able to load the module and it should appear as eth1  and you can set up that interface as any other wireless interface.

Alternate: ndiswrapper
If you don't want to go that route, you can always use use ndiswrapper. Once you've set up the repositories using my Fedora Core 6 Tips & Tricks you just have to download the driver: bcmwl5a.tar.gz. Then just do this to have the package downloaded from the Livna repository: 

# yum -y install ndiswrapper
# gtar xzvf bcmwl5a.tar.gz
# cd bcmwl5a
# ndiswrapper -i *inf
# ndiswrapper -m
# dmesg | tail
	.
	.
wlan0: vendor: ''
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:4b:97:e2:c8 using driver bcmwl5a, 14E4:4320.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA; AES/CCMP with WPA
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
There you go, you now have a device called wlan0 that you can configure just like any other wireless device. If all goes well, your ndiswrapper  kernel module should automatically be updated when you update your kernel.

Getting the modem working

 Amazingly enough the build-in modem now works and it's truly easy to set up. If you've set up the Livna repository all you need to do is: 
# yum -y install slmodem-alsa
# service slmodemd start
This will install the drivers and start the daemon that manages the modem. Once you have that enabled the modem should be available as the device /dev/ttySL0 . You can test it with the minicom  program.

Other Odds and Ends

 Nothing yet.

Glitches/Problems

 There are a few things that don't work (yet):

X11 shape extension
If you have tips to get this working please E-mail me or leave a comment below.

If you have any leads on getting any more features working please drop me a line.

Other Useful Resources

I used the following websites describing getting this or similar laptops to work with various versions of Linux in the process of getting this laptop to run Fedora Core 3 thru 5. None of them had all the answers in one place however.
Running Fedora Core on a Compaq Presario R3004 - This was the closest guide but it covered the Athlon 64 which has some other minor issues.

Installing Debian-AMD64 GNU/Linux on a Compaq Presario R3000 Laptop - Another good site, help me get wireless working quickly and easily.

Compaq Presario R3120US (R3000Z series), Linux (Slackware 9.1), XFree86 4.3.0 - Yet another site with some more low level details, obviously needed since he's running Slackware. Good info.

R3000 / z5000 Forums - A site with discussions groups containing a while variety of information about this line of Compaq laptops. Lots of good hardware hacking info here.

This comments section below is only for comments, suggestions or corrections for this guide only. Please do not use this for general Fedora/Linux support. If you do require support for something other than what's described here I recommend using Fedora Forums.

Comments From People Like You!
Fedora Core 6 on Compaq Presario R3000Z		Add a Comment add a comment
coop
31-Mar-2007 13:35
when i run the wine sp30381.exe i get a dialog box for Broadcom install-wizard asking for path to install. i'm a newbee trying to learn fc6
this is what i get when i execute wine; output shortened
[root@localhost Desktop]# wine sp30381.exe
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGING: stub
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGED: stub
err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet ReadStyleSheet: skipping optional destination
err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet ReadStyleSheet: skipping optional destination
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGING: stub
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGED: stub
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGING: stub
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGED: stub
err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet ReadStyleSheet: skipping optional destination
err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet ReadStyleSheet: skipping optional destination
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGING: stub
fixme:richedit:RichEditANSIWndProc WM_STYLECHANGED: stub

any ideas??
Vagabond
14-Feb-2007 09:07
You missed the tar command for the Bad Directory, and you did not follow the howto above to turn on the correct repository's (livina) to get the correct programs from yum.

Follow Greg's HowTo...
Max
11-Feb-2007 00:44
hey, i'm running into some probelms. I'm trying it the way you did it on the Dell, in the comment below me, this is what i get


[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install ndiswrapper bcm43xx-fwcutter
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: ndiswrapper
Nothing to do
[root@localhost ~]# wget http://www.gagme.com/greg/linux/bcmwl5a.tar.gz
--22:41:48--  http://www.gagme.com/greg/linux/bcmwl5a.tar.gz
Resolving www.gagme.com... 66.243.147.72
Connecting to www.gagme.com|66.243.147.72|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 165268 (161K) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: `bcmwl5a.tar.gz'

100%[=======================================>] 165,268     74.2K/s   in 2.2s  

22:41:53 (74.2 KB/s) - `bcmwl5a.tar.gz' saved [165268/165268]

[root@localhost ~]# cd bcmwl5a
-bash: cd: bcmwl5a: No such file or directory




am i doing something wrong?
Bryan Turner
08-Feb-2007 14:46
Doing this on a dell (with the same wireless card chipset) I did have to do it differently. Dont know if this is because of the actual wireless that I have or the fact that it is a dell. But I just changed your settings a little. (dell wireless 1350)

# yum -y install ndiswrapper bcm43xx-fwcutter
# wget http://www.gagme.com/greg/linux/bcmwl5a.tar.gz
# tar -xzvf bcmwl5a.tar.gz
# cd bcmwl5a
# bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys
# ndiswrapper -i *inf
# ndiswrapper -m

In your instructions for using the alternate method you did not say that you still had to use the fwcutter. Not sure if that was because of your setup or mine, but I had to in order to get ndiswrapper to work.

Thanks for the great howto.
David Wilson
03-Nov-2006 23:39
Frank Edwards wrote "The USB ports are two 1.1 and a single 2.0 (read the output from your "lspci" command!)."

This is incorrect. The lspci command lists the controllers not the ports. EHCI (USB 2.0) controllers have "companion" USB 1.1 controllers that control 2-3 ports each (if you plug USB 1.1 devices into them). My nForce2 motherboard has 6 USB sockets and lspci lists 2xUSB1 and 1xUSB2 controllers (and all 6 sockets are USB2 capable).
Frank Edwards
27-Oct-2006 08:47
The USB ports are two 1.1 and a single 2.0 (read the output from your "lspci" command!).  The CD-RW/DVD-ROM identifies itself as "HL-DT-ST", but as mentioned, the manufacturer is unknown.  Since it has a UL number, it could be located that way (each manufacturer that applies for UL listing of its products will have its name in the UL database).  Be aware that different units have different screen resolutions; my R3000Z DP533AV has a 17" diagonal LCD which is WUXGA (1920x1200) with 64MB of video RAM.  (Also, some of these units are affected by the HP battery recall circa 2006, so check the S/N of your battery vs. HP's web site.)

Please E-mail Me with any questions or comments, or just post a note below.
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