I have just succeeded to instal Debian on this laptop. It still needs some ironing, but I’m satisfied with the result. I have a fully functional Linux laptop now.
My flirting story started a year ago when I installed Pingo 2.0, which doesn’t support ACPI so the computer was too noisy and hot for any serious work. I decided to leave Windows because I don’t like the way this OS work. I have almost no control over my own computer, especialy with the software I couldn’t uninstall (like IE or Outlook). So a week or so ago (now that I got ADSL) I started to download CD images and first decided to try Fedora, on which Pingo distribution is based.
Fedora Core 3 installs nicely on this laptop with almost no problem except PS/2 external mouse, which didn’t work, but solution is simple. Just add psmouse.proto=imps too boot line in the beginning of instalation, or to kernel line in Lilo/Grub configuration file. After this everything worked fine. If you have problems with graphic instalation (you don’t see the whole screen) then add resolution=1024×768 to boot line (at the beginning of installation) and you will see the whole screen.
Although Fedora is nice and looks good, it still installed a lot of things without me wanting to (this is one of the reasons why I left Windows). After some thinking & searching, and especialy after reading The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough, I decided to install Debian. It was exactly what I was looking for: a simple base install with an easy system for installing additional software (magical apt-get). It was not so difficult as people on net are saying it will (maybe because of my DOS roots). If you have no idea about compiling your own kernel (like me:-) forget the stable Debian (Woody) and download the net-install iso image or the first CD of Sarge. It comes with 2.4.27 and 2.6.9 kernels which both support ACPI. First I installed Sarge with 2.6 kernel and it worked perfectly, except (again!) external PS/2 mouse, which was not recognised and didn’t work. Since this laptop is my only computer and working for a long time with touchpad leaves an aching finger I tried to fix this problem. After extensive search I found out that this is an kernel problem, and since my Linux knowledge is too limited to deal with kernels I gave up and installed 2.4.27 kernel instead. The ACPI works well, some fine tuning will be needed, but for now I’m happy with it.
If (like me) you don’t have really clear idea of what has to be done during the instalation, I would warmly suggest you a very nice and worth reading-before-you-start-to-install manual called The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough available on the net. Even though it deals with Debian 3.0 (Woody) install, it is still very helpful in clearing some basic points which are true also for Sarge install. The new debian-installer (in expert mode) is after all (at least visually) not so different than the old one. I followed the steps described in this walkthrough closely so I will just point out the things that make the instalation on this computer possible.
In order not to forget something I will start in the beginning. At the boot prompt I typed expert acpi=on nolapic (if you intend to use external PS/2 mouse add also psmouse.proto=imps). The second option enables APCI support and the third one prevents the computer from freezing soon after you press the Enter key. I have chosen an expert mode because the Debian installation program has some problems with the Ethernet card (or the computer has some problem with Debian, not sure 
. It finds out the correct one, but installs the additional driver which then makes problems and PPPoE doesn’t work. The solution for this is the use of expert mode which enables you to control all the steps of instalation. Don’t worry this basically means that you hit the OK all the way except when it asks you to install the driver for Ethernet card. It may ask you several times during the instalation to do this and you should always say NO! The best way is to just skip the network and network hardware configuration steps in the instalation process.
If you followed The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough you will probably end up with a Debian-Sarge base install. The first step you have to do (after logging as root) is to write the magic words apt-get install acpid. For me they were really magical because as soon the apt-get finished to install ACPI daemon, the CPU fan, which till then worked full speed, decreased the speed and after while stopped completely. Maybe for you it will not be so “magical”, but the result will be the same – working ACPI!
From here on you are free to instal anything you want. Just follow the instructions in the last three chapters of the above-mentioned walkthrough or do it your own way.
If in trouble feel free to contact me on tuoermin [NOSPAM] gmail.com
Debian installed on 23.3.2005
this document was last changed on 9.4.2005