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Page updated: 7.6.2006
Having to write my diploma thesis I planned to start right off with TeX in order to circumvent troublesome experiences with known office packets. To be independent of the actual location I was in the need of a notebook. It had not to be a high-end large-screen fast-CPU super-small millionaires toy, but a cheap robust platform to run a stable OS on. After browsing through the Linux on Laptop pages and reading some tests about notebooks I tried to buy the Acer Travelmate 512T notebook (as it got good remarks in a german computer magazine test on cheap notebooks). Unfortunately the model was discontinued in the mean time (that is seven month after the test). The Acer hotline told me, that all of the 51x modells (510, 512, 513 and 514) are basically identical in design and hardware, but for the CPU, the display size and some other minor things (DVD instead of CD-ROM or 128 MB RAM). So I decided to go with the 514, which was about 50% more expensive, when my local dealer was able to locate a last 513T which was cheap again.
In the configuration process I followed the installation of the Acer TM 512T in the net (Link 1 Link 2) as it seems to be identical. Thanks to those authors.
| CPU | Celeron 400Mhz |
| RAM | 64 MB |
| Floppy | 3,5"/td> |
| Hard disk | 4.3 GB |
| CD-ROM | ATAPI 24x (*) |
| Display | 12,1" TFT 800x600 |
| Video card | Neomagic MagicMedia 256AV (NM2200), 2.5 MB RAM |
| IR-DA | FIR (pc87108) |
| PCMCIA/CardBus | O2 Micro (i82365), two slots (**) |
| USB | yes |
| Mouse | Synaptics touchpad |
| Sound | ESS-Solo1, built-in speakers, microphone |
| Modem | No. It's a WinLucentModem |
(*) The CD-ROM can be used as a stand-alone audio-player without having to power up the notebook.
(**) For network access I bought a 3COM 3CCFE575CT PCMCIA ethernet adapter
Because I try to refund my MS Windows 98, which was preinstalled, I did not even think of shrinking the existing partition. Instead I repartitioned the hard disk following the advice of a friend in six partitions:
| device | size [MB] | fs | mount location |
|---|---|---|---|
| /dev/hda1 | 64 | ext2 | / |
| /dev/hda5 | 128 | swap | |
| /dev/hda6 | 128 | ext2 | /tmp |
| /dev/hda7 | 1600 | ext2 | /usr |
| /dev/hda8 | 2000 | ext2 | /var |
| /dev/hda9 | 730 | ext2 | /home |
Since you have to reboot a notebook rather frequently (at least until suspend to disk comes into play), you should mount the disks as nocheck in /etc/fstab to speed reboot up.
My debian slink 2.1 CD-Set (Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung) boots right off the CD. You have to install PCMCIA support and you have to set the tcic controller. After installing a basic 28M Linux I further upgraded with some rogue debian/potato CD's from 3/2000 until I had compilers and so on.
The touchpad runs as a PS/2 mouse on /dev/psaux smoothly under gpm. The Synaptics support of gpm v1.17 isn't working here (even the freshly downloaded 1.19 doesn't work at all).
You will need compilers, kernel sources (in /usr/src/linux) and some newer (v3.1.8) pcmcia-cs packet (in /usr/src/modules/pcmcia).
a new kernel is made with:
make menuconfig
make dep
make bzImage modules modules_install
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz
cp System.map /boot
lilo
(Right after making a new kernel, you have to make the pcmcia modules as well, or crash!)
Some hints:
First you have to upgrade your BIOS. Acer has an update on their support pages. Then activate the following options in the kernel config:
[*] Advanced Power Management BIOS support
[ ] Ignore USER SUSPEND
[*] Enable PM at boot time
[*] Make CPU Idle calls when idle
[*] Enable console blanking using APM
[*] Power off on shutdown
[ ] Ignore multiple suspend
[ ] Ignore multiple suspend/resume cycles
[*] RTC stores time in GMT
[ ] Allow interrupts during APM BIOS calls
Install XFree v3.3.6, xserver-svga and XF86Setup and use the later to install the video card ("NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)", 800x600, 24bpp, 104 keys keyboard, german, nodeadkeys). The "Windows"-key can be used as META-key then. Check my XF86Config.
Set in the kernel:
<M> Sound card support
< > Support for C-Media PCI audio chips (Experimental)
< > Ensoniq AudioPCI (ES1370)
< > Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI 97 (ES1371)
< > ESS Maestro
<M> ESS Solo1 (Experimental)
After compiling the ESS Solo1 support in the kernel everything worked fine.
This part took the longest time to accomplish. First, activate the right modules to use in the kernel. Recompile and configure pcmcia-cs to use PnP BIOS support. Then edit the /etc/pcmcia.conf file as shown, or else you will get "TX interrupt hang" messages.