Linux installation on the Acer Travelmate 800lci

Linux Installation on the Acer Travelmate 800lci

I gained some experience trying out a couple of distributions. You can find the output of "lspci -vv" here.
See my XF86Config file if you want to have a configuration that supports two mice (touchpad and usb wheelmouse).
Among the things I tried were Knoppix 3.2, Debian 3.01, Suse 8.1 and 8.2, Kernel 2.60-test3 and (new) Kernel 2.6.1.
Update: WLAN with Intel supported driver? Read more here.

Knoppix 3.2

Knoppix is a Debian-based distribution which is supposed to have very good hardware support. It's actually a live-evaluation cd but it can also be installed on a harddrive. It uses kernel version 2.4.20 vanilla.
Graphics adapter: Worked at the resolution of the lcd (1400x1050 @ 24bit) out of the box.
Sound: Worked. This notebook doesn't have a hardware volume control (just software keys). So volume can only be adjusted in the application or via some system-wide settings as long as they're not supported by software (which they don't seem to be at the moment)
IDE DMA: DMA works for hard drive and cdrw.
CDRW/DVD: Reading cds worked. I didn't try to burn a cd.
Touchpad: Worked out of the box, except for the nav-key.
Network adapter: This seems to be the biggest problem. No driver support from the distribution.
I was told that in Knoppix version v3.2-2003-07-26 the network adapter is supported. Update: And also in Knoppix version 3.3.
Other stuff: The "<>|" key does not work. Very bad for commandline stuff :(
Other components (modem, wireless, firewire, usb, infrared, etc.) have not been tested yet.

Debian 3.01

I tried installing debian and could not choose the right network adapter, so I quit the installation. Linux without network? I couldn't think of a lot of things less useful.

SuSE 8.1

on: 2.4.19.
Graphics adapter: Didn't work at more than 1280x1024. I had to install xfree86 4.3 which contains support for ATI's Radeon Mobility series. I installed an update supplied by SuSE, which is probably best and easiest. Then it did work, the card identifies with something like "Radeon 250lf".
Sound: Worked. Again: Software keys can't be used for volume control.
IDE DMA: I wasn't able to enable DMA for the harddrive. Tried it using Yast2 and "hdparm -d1 /dev/hda" which returns something like "Operation not permitted".
CDRW/DVD: Reading cds worked. Haven't tried writing yet.
Touchpad: Worked out of the box, except for the nav-key.
USB 2.0: Works (although I don't know whether it's really using 2.0 - my mouse works).
Network adapter: Again, no driver support from the distribution. I found out that you can use a driver supplied to a couple of recent Abit and MSI mainboards with onboard NIC. Check out this thread at linuxquestions.org which contains information about this. You can find a self-extracting windows .exe containing the driver from MSI here. Installation is easy and instructions are provided.
Other stuff: Some of the keys to control certain things (volume, display brightness, display background light on/off) do not work. The display light turns off when you shut the lid though. The numeric keypad, the "scroll", and the "home", and "end" keys do work. The "<>|" key does not work. It worked after the xfree-update though.
Other components (modem, wireless, firewire, infrared, etc.) have not been tested yet.

SuSE 8.2

Kernel version: 2.4.20.
Graphics adapter: Works due to xfree 4.3 which is included.
Sound: Worked, excluding the software keys to control volume. But one seems to be able to control the full volume range via software.
IDE DMA: I wasn't able to enable DMA for the harddrive. Tried it using Yast2 and "hdparm -d1 /dev/hda" which returns something like "Operation not permitted".
Update #1: I finally managed to get DMA to work with Kernel 2.4.20.SuSE, but I had to patch the kernel.
Update #2: The latest kernel update provided by SuSE (get it via YaST2's online update) supports DMA for this IDE controller. No need to patch or recompile anymore :)
CDRW/DVD: Reading and writing cds works.
Touchpad: Worked out of the box, except for the nav-key. Update: With the linux driver for the synaptics touchpad, the touchpad becomes extremely configurable. It supports the nav-key, vertical scrolling using the pad, and double- and tripple-finger actions (for middle and right mouse clicks for example). The driver is already present in SuSE 8.2, but it needs to be configured a bit. Check this page at tuxmobile.org for instructions.
See my XF86Config file for a setup with two mice (touchpad and usb scroll mouse). You can also find my configuration for the synaptics touchpad driver in it.
USB 2.0: Works (although I don't know whether it's really using 2.0 - my mouse works).
Network adapter: The broadcom module (bcm4400) comes with SuSE 8.2, so it works.
ACPI: Battery and temperature stuff seems to work with ACPI. You can also control the centrino CPU features (underclocking) using software easily (find some more ACPI info here as well).
Irda: I tried to connect to a Siemens S45i. After a couple of hours, I gave up. Update: It does work though, find more info about IrDa on the Travelmate 800 under Linux on Rolf's page (German).
Other stuff:

Volume control keys don't work Update: But they do send x key events as can be seen with xev. Bernd describes how to use these to change the volume (in German only, but the scripts are in English of course). Update #2: I saw today that in Gnome you can easily set those keys (and the mute key) to change volume (or mute). Simply go to your preferences and choose "Multimedia Keys". But: volume up and down seem to be swapped in that dialog.
In contrast to SuSE 8.1 the display brightness control keys (and also <>|) work
The display light turns off when you press the appropriate key as well
It is not possible to install SuSE 8.2 from DVD on this machine. The setup will hang where it's supposed to choose packages. Booting from DVD works (e.g. for rescue system), and you can also use the DVD as a source medium after you've completed the installation. Installing from the CDs is no problem. This infortmation is confirmed by SuSE. A dvd region free firmware update for the QSI DVD drive might help. I couldn't find any.

Other components (modem, wireless, firewire, etc.) have not been tested yet.

FTP server as online installation medium for SuSE

I just figured out which server and path to use in order to install packages directly from the net. This did not work last time I tried it, so even if the settings look trivial, this is an achievement.
Go to YaST2, "Software -> Change installation medium". Choose "Add -> FTP". Enter
server name: ftp.suse.com
and as path: pub/suse/i386/8.2
Now, even if YaST takes forever to verify these settings (I had to quit mine because it took so long), it should work. No more need for CDs to install software :)