HOME > MISC > LINUX > COMPAQ R3000Z FC5
Quick Search:

Return to Quick Linux Tips

Installing Fedora Core 5 on Compaq Presario R3000Z (v1.2)
Last modified: Tuesday June 5, 2007

This page is pretty much stable since FC6 has been released.

There is also a Fedora Core 6 version of this guide.

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 5 Tips & Tricks.

Hardware Summary

For those interested here is the full lspci output:

Fedora Core 5 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 5

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.

Enable ALPS Touchpad as a PS/2 Mouse

 Once you have the OS installed add pci=assign-busses  to your /etc/grub.onf  configuration file. Here is an example I use. Your kernel version may be different depending on which version of the kernel you're currently using. 
title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 rhgb quiet pci=assign-busses
        initrd /initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img
Even the scrolling region of the touchpad now works automatically.

Configuring the video

 Video is finally very easy with this laptop! The open source "nv" driver seems to work just fine now. When doing the installation be sure to set the hardware for the display type to Generic Laptop Display Panel 1280x800 and then upon login you'll be able to set the screen resolution to 1280x800 just fine!

Configuring the Wifi

 This laptop includes 802.11b/g support through a Broadcom BCM4306 chipset. Fedora Core 5 does include the bcm43xx Open Source driver but it's still a bit rough around the edges and I haven't been able to get it to work yet so until it's working you have to use the ndiswrapper. Once you've set up the repositories using my Fedora Core 5 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 PCMCIA working
Thanks to Stefano Marelli for bringing this to my attention. There are some workarounds at http://www1.pacific.edu/~khughes/presario-r3120us/#pcmcia that seemed to work at getting PCMCIA working. Apparently getting CardBus cards working is a bit more complicated. I don't have any CardBus cards so it's difficult for me to test that but at least my PCMCIA cards now seem to work fine.

Edit the file /etc/pcmcia/config.opts and add the following code to the end of the file: 

# 32 bit version
include port 0x3000-0x7fff, memory 0xe8100000-0xe97fffff  
# AMD64 version
include port 0x3000-0x7fff, memory 0xe0100000-0xe17fffff
Then just reboot. I didn't have any lock-up issues so I didn't have to do the CORE_OPTS workround. I tested this and found it working just fine with the 2.6.17-1.2174_FC5 config on a 32bit R3000Z.

Configuring the modem

TBD

Other Odds and Ends

 Nothing yet.

Glitches/Problems

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

On-board modem
If you have tips to get this modem working please send it to 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 5 on Compaq Presario R3000Z		Add a Comment add a comment
ValenceParadigm
27-Oct-2006 10:17
Here's a question:

Why would you want to use ndiswrapper which is just a workaround when you have a perfectly functional native driver available?  

Wouldn't you like to be able to use software like Ethereal natively?   For the year-and-a-half that I was using ndiswrapper and the BCML5 sysfile, I got NOTHING out of the card short of basic network connectivity.  Wheee...

The biggest gripe I've got is where's the documentation for SoftMAC?  Its there, I'd like to use it.  "Hello developers:  Time to do documentation.   Start with a man page...  It gets easier from there trust me."

Good morning and welcome to the 2.6.15+ kernel people.

-VP-
I'm sure most people would want to use the native driver but I have found the bcm43xx driver to be not quite there yet.  My laptop's wifi connection drops off at least once a day and needs to be manually restarted
matt
12-Sep-2006 19:12
sorry about posting this note twice, but i think it belongs here.  i tried to delete it from the 'tricks and tips' page, but couldn't figure out that either.  anyway, heres the note:

awesome website, lost of good info.  however, there is something i still don't get.  i have a compaq presario r3460us with all the trimmings listed above (btw, this was lovely to see)  i get to the 'dmesg' step and can get 2 different outputs, neither of which are the proper one.

the first one appears before the bcm43xx driver is blacklisted:

bcm43xx: set security called
bcm43xx:    .level = 0
bcm43xx:    .enabled = 0
bcm43xx:    .encrypt = 0
SoftMAC: Associate: Scanning for networks first.
SoftMAC: Associate: failed to initiate scan. Is device up?
bcm43xx: PHY connected
bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
ndiswrapper version 1.18 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)

and the second one appears after the bcm43xx driver is blacklisted:

ndiswrapper version 1.18 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)
ndiswrapper (check_nt_hdr:149): Windows driver is not 64-bit; bad magic: 010B
ndiswrapper (load_sys_files:213): couldn't prepare driver 'bcmwl5'
ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:111): loadndiswrapper failed (65280); check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

any tips?
Ed McLain
29-Aug-2006 13:46
To anyone trying to get a Broadcom card working under FC5, i386 or XF86_64, I fought this for the longest time till I realised that FC5 now contains a driver built in, bcm43xx.  To get ndiswrapper to work you have to stop this driver from loading, then ndiswrapper works flawlessly.  Just add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist :
blacklist bcm43xx

Save the file and run depmod -a.  Reboot or run:
rmmod bcm43xx iee80211

then modprobe ndiswrapper and everything should be working.  Hope somebody finds this useful.

Ed
Ted
27-Jun-2006 14:04
I have the same laptop, just with the amd 3000 cpu.  My question is, did you get any error messages when installing the windows driver with ndiswrapper?  Using both your driver or the driver straight from compaq, I get to error messages when installing, yet ndiswrapper will report hardware present and installed.  However, there is no wlan0 interface created.  Any suggestions would be appreciated, great page thanks!

Ted
Anonymous
13-Jun-2006 18:48
Try /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper instead of ndiswrapper.
Ash
13-Apr-2006 21:34
Yep, I'm getting the same error on the Fedora Core 5 x86_64 version as Tom stated above.  Are you aware of any wifi driver options for 64-bit?
dominic
09-Apr-2006 00:28
if you click on his 'fedora core 5 tips & tricks' link there are instructions for how to set up the new repositories. i recommend looking at some of his other suggestions on that page, they help make for a pretty decent setup.

the commands (run as root) are:

rpm -ihv http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/5/i386/livna-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

and

rpm -ihv http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/5/i386/RPMS.freshrpms/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm

good luck.

dominic
Tom
05-Apr-2006 18:39
I have virtually the same laptop (with the exception of an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor) and I am trying to configure my wifi using ndiswrapper.  My problem is that I get an error that says yum can't find ndiswrapper.  Did you add an extra repository to find it?  If so, which one?

Please E-mail Me with any questions or comments, or just post a note below.
All pictures and text are the property of Gregory Gulik unless otherwise specified. Please contact site owner if you would like permission to use these pictures for your own purposes or to make comments about anything you see here.