One topic I have not discussed so far is graphics. I should have, but the thing is, I did not have any issues. So I hope it is understandable that I did not. Nate B. sent me a comment on how to set your video to display the full resolution of the screen.
I must confess that this indeed was a big problem during the Fedora Test 3 days when the radeon drive did not recognize the chip in this computer. Before I discuss further, let me tell you what Nate's solution is;
first, go to Administration->Display, then click on the hardware tab. Select
Section "Monitor" and choose the common LCD screen and select 1440x900
Next, edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and add Modeline to it:
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1440x900"
### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
HorizSync 31.5 - 100.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
Modeline "1440x900" 86.73 1440 1472 1800 1832 900 919 927 946 #this is the needed Modeline
EndSection
Last of all,
Click on System->Preferences->Screen Resolution
Select the 1440x900 out of the menu and click apply.
Hope this helps somewhere.
Note that if you wish to do any editing of system level files, you will need to log in as root or use the "su" prefix to be able to achieve the same result. In any case, I found that when I first installed FC5, I did not have an issue with the graphics card anymore. I don't think that I have the modeline in my xorg.conf file anymore. During first boot (see my installation section), you can select the resolution of your screen. It so happens that, FC5, like XP, insists on calling the screen attached to a laptop, generic LCD screen. Once you use the drop down box, you will see that you can select the resolution and set it to what you want. In fact, the relevant lines from my xorg.conf file are as follows;
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Technologies Inc ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1680x1050" "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Now the only "problem" you are going to encounter is 3D. If you wish to play 3D games, you may find that direct rendering is still not supported by this driver and so it might be painful to play. However, I have not been playing any 3D games and so cannot comment on that. Your mileage may vary. I will report further when I do in fact investigate this further. So, stay tuned ......