[ltp] Preparing to install Thinkpad 380xd with Debian

[Charles E Taylor IV]

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 11:41:36 -0500
"Dwaine Gonyier" <dwaine_gonyier@mindspring.com> wrote:

> I have recently got tired of Win98 on my Thinkpad 380xd (2635-FAU), and
> have decided to try to install Debian 3.0r1 on it.

I've not attempted to install Debian on a Thinkpad, but nearly everything
on a 380XD should work under Redhat 8.0 "out of the box".

The Neomagic chipset (video) is supported with pretty much any modern
XFree, but I think you might need to download an additional driver for XV
support if you want to play DVDs or Video CDs.  (My 380XD's too slow for
that sort of thing.)

The sound card is supported by the cs4232 deiver, which you might have to
set up manually.

The 380XD is one of the easier laptops to get working, as it doesn't
really have any unusual hardware.

> Is there a good, detailed how-to resource for installing Linux on a
> 380xd(including getting all of the bells and whistles working--APM,
> hibernate, port replicator with extra cardbus slots, compiling the
> kernel with the right APM options, etc.)?

All should work out-of-box on Red Hat 8.0 (except for the sound, which
you'll have to set up the old fashioned way).  APM/hibernate work with no
kernel recompile.  If Debian's using one of the later kernels, it should
probably work as well.

As fot your PCMCIA cards - well, if they have Linux drivers, they should
work without much trouble.  My Netgear ethernet and my IBM modem work fine
by simply plugging them in.

> Thanks in advance. Hopefully I will be able to pull off a smooth
> install. :)

I installed RH 8.0 on my 380XD by putting in the CD and rebooting. :)

> PS: Any partitioning advice? It has a 5GB HD. I will probably keep a
> 200MB DOS partition
> for the hibernate file. 

Just remember to put a bootable DOS on there and copy over PS2.EXE - just
in case you need to change some BIOS settings and you don't have your
floppy disk handy.

-- 
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*  Charles Taylor <tomalek@mindspring.com>
*  Chemistry teacher, Linux enthusiast!
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*  College Chemistry website: http://home.mindspring.com/~charletiv/
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