Linux on Laptops

Installing Mandrake 10.2 (Limited Edition 2005) on Acer TravelMate 4101LMi

Last updated: 20/Dec/2005

General Hardware Specifications of Acer TravelMate 4101LMi:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Pentium M Processor, 1.6 GHz	Works	Recompiled kernel with centrino and speedstep kernel options.
15" XGA TFT Display	Works	Select Generic LCD Display in Installer
ATI Radeon X600 Mobility PCI-Express Video	Works	Use vesa driver - no 3D acceleration
512MB DDR 333MHz SDRAM	Works	No special procedure required during installation
60 GB Ultra ATA 100 Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Broadcomm Network ... model	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Works	Download Linmodem driver from www.linmodem.com
DVD-RW/CDRW+- Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Intel IP2200BG Wireless Network card.	Works	Download firmware and driver from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net
Broadcom BCM4401 100Base-T ethernet	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
65W/4400mAh Lithium-Ion Battery	No battery status	Smart battery - DSDT is broken - check out http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbs-linux/ for possible future fixes for DSDT. Currently not working.
Intel 82801FB (ICH6 Family) Soundcard	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
Texas Instruments 1394 Firewire controller	Not Tested	Seems to have installed ok and shows as an interface on 'ipconfig'

Kernel version: 2.6.11-6mdk (Mandrake)

Basic Installation of Mandrake 10.2 (Limited Edition 2005)

Mandrake (now Mandriva) is a nice user friendly disto and has a simple to use graphical installation. Most of my hardware was supported, just needed a few tweaks to get centrino and wireless stuff working (See above).
Easy to use graphical installation - just boot off the first CD.
Need to pass 'noapic' as a kernel option else the system hangs immediately after lilo screen.

Setting up additional features

Suspend to disk works correctley on 10.2 (did not on 10.1). Suspend to ram (sleep) does not work however. The system goes to sleep ok, but does not wake up again - video does not restart and keyboard seems inactive.
Scroll areas on the touchpad work fine by default - I believe there are other synaptics drivers available however that allow more advanced features to be enabled.
Co-habits with Windows XP fine - automatically locates XP and mounts it on /mnt/windows.
Download the 'acerhk' package to get some of the special funtion keys and lights working. See http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~tauber/acerhk/

Unresolved issues

Sound system crashes every now and then....did not happen on 10.1 but it does not seem to stop the sound from eworking.
KDE battery meter doesn't function correctly due to smart battery.

Configuration Files

Any Configuration files that you needed to modify

More Specific Information. Specific stuff such as:

Output of 'lspci'

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 04)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon Mobility X600]
06:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
06:01.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
06:01.3 Unknown mass storage controller: Texas Instruments Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
06:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
06:08.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

Contact Information (Optional)

Chris Bunney [email: chris.bunney_NO_SPAM_PLEASE_@bigfoot.com]

Links:

Link to Laptop specs on www.acer.co.uk

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