CentOS 5: install GeForce4 440 GO on Inspiron 8200

The nv driver from CentOS is very slow, firefox 3 is almost unusable. Xorg spikes the CPU up and the fan is going crazy. The driver from nvidia speed it up significantly. Here is how to install.
1.

sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg1.run

2. add Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to fix the black screen problem, looks like (note the line option "NvAGP "1" enables suspend and hibernate, with agpart it does not wake up correctly)

Section "Device"
Identifier     "Videocard0"
Driver         "nvidia"
  Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
Option         "NvAGP"  "1"
EndSection

If you get an error like below, you can blacklist agpgart or in newer kernel pass agp=off in the kernel parameter.

Kernel: NVRM: not using NVAGP, an AGPGART backend is loaded!
$cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status:   Disabled

There is a performance difference when NvAGP is enabled (glxgears -info):

    Option         "NvAGP" "0"
6991 frames in 5.1 seconds = 1382.975 FPS

   Option         "NvAGP" "1"
9940 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1987.856 FPS

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1  in modprobe.conf (breaks suspend to ram)
28095 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5618.965 FPS

Finally, cpu load is much lower, would not spike as before (even idling). The load average was 0.3 even when idling.

$ uptime
09:36:32 up 35 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.07

Also download the driver from Nvidia and ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/

Here is a FAQ for Inspiron 8200.

Below is the complete working xorg.conf

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder57)  Wed Jul  2 12:30:48 PDT 2008

# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Synaptics" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Synaptics"
    Driver         "synaptics"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
    Option         "LeftEdge" "120"
    Option         "RightEdge" "830"
    Option         "TopEdge" "120"
    Option         "BottomEdge" "650"
    Option         "FingerLow" "14"
    Option         "FingerHigh" "15"
    Option         "MaxTapMove" "110"
    Option         "VertScrollDelta" "20"
    Option         "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
    Option         "MinSpeed" "0.3"
    Option         "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 110.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 150.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
    Option         "NvAGP" "1"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

CentOS 5: Install i8kutils

Install i8kutils and gkrellm from fc6.

$ sudo rpm -ivh i8kutils-1.25-11.fc6.i386.rpm gkrellm-2.2.9-10.fc6.i386.rpm 


$ cat ~/.i8kmon
              set config(0) {{0 0}  -1  68 -1  70}
              set config(1) {{1 1}  55  75  55  75}
              set config(2) {{2 1}  65  85  65  85}
              set config(3) {{2 2}  75 128  75 128}


$ i8kctl 
1.0 A08 757JG21 61 1 0 6180 0 1 0
$ i8kctl temp
62
$ i8kctl fan
1 0
$ i8kctl speed
6180 0

$ i8kmon -t 10 -d &

manual fan control
$ i8kfan 2 2

Fedora 9: WPC 11 v3 (ver 3)

Should use the orinoco_cs driver (works in F13).

/sbin/lspcmcia
Socket 0 Bridge:    [yenta_cardbus]  (bus ID: 0000:02:01.0)
Socket 0 Device 0: [orinoco_cs]  (bus ID: 0.0)
Socket 1 Bridge:    [yenta_cardbus]  (bus ID: 0000:02:01.1)

manually bring it up, and other useful commands (as root)

ifup eth0
iwconfig eth0
iwlist eth0 scan

I found fedora 9 is somewhat slow on this dell inspiron 8200 pentium 4 1.8G. (This is related to nv driver issue I found later, see my other post here for detail).