Gateway MX3410 Laptop

[chris_startx]

I recently got a Gateway MX3410 laptop that has a lot of new hardware in it
Being an absolute windoze hater, I started to test Knoppix all versions on it
to see if I can come to a solution for my laptop.
Well, the hardware is as follows:

Display: wide screen, max. res. 1280x800, then also 1024x768 and 800x600
(these last two of course having an ugly aspect ratio, "stretched"
on a 16:9 wide screen). Reported chipset is NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100,
which is supposed to be part of the NVIDIA chipset somehow.
Modem: 56K ITU V92 ready Fax/Modem; name reported in Windows is
"Agere Systems HDA Modem"
Network:
1. Ethernet - NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
2. Wireless - Realtek RTL8185 54M Wireless LAN Network Adapter
Sound: well, the sound part is weird. Device Manager does not report
any hardware for the sound card or chip, but I had to install a so-called
"SigmaTel High Definition Audio Codec", whatever that means. I guess
it is some kind of AC97 codec of some new generation but I'm not sure.
Pointing device: Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad

Well, Knoppixes versions 3.4, 3.6, 3.7 behave pretty weird, in that the keyboard
has a repeat rate very high and a repeat delay very low, basically if I press a letter key
I get the letter repeated 3-7 times. I went to the Control Center and deactivated
keyboard repetition, and keyboard behaved normally, but once I close the Control
Center the setting goes back to what it was and it's the same old story.
I probably don't have to mention that they don't detect any network, display or modem

Then I tried Knoppix DVD 4.0.2 and 5.0.1
Well, at least they detect the ethernet card, but as for the display or wireless, no way!
Honestly, the most urgent problem would be the display.
I did a little googling and I found some french forum with a listing of the X conf file, and
in it a modeline for 1280x800 @ 60Hz:

# Default mode "1280x800": 83.5 MHz, 49.7 kHz, 60.0 Hz
Modeline "1280x800" 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828

So I put this modeline in my xorg.conf, together with the screen res 1280x800 added to
the screen section, but for some reason it does not work. I also specified nv as x driver.
The only thing that happens is that the writing on the display flickers about 8 times
at startup when it tries the nv driver, then aborts and tries the vesa driver with 1024x768
which obviously works.
I don't know what else I could try to make the display accept the 1280x800 @ 60Hz.
I don't even dare to mention the wireless or the modem ....
I have to say, the touchpad is the only thing that works under all knoppixes, even if the
scroll bar on it is not really usable, but anyway...

If anybody reads this (which I honestly don't really expect) and has any ideas about
the widescreen resolution in knoppix, any answers would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe I have to change the modeline? Maybe I missed something?

[gotfoo]

First let me say that I really like Knoppix and I run it on a few other machines. But a few months ago I got a Gateway MX6440 and I had very little luck with most distros except for Ubuntu.

Widescreen = works
Wifi = works
Sound = works
USB = works
Firewire = works
Mousepad = works
Function Keys = works

I still love Knoppix but sometines you reach a point where it becomes counter-productive trying to get someting to work.