Debian is maybe the Linux distribution most difficult
to install. I succesfully installed Debian Woody on my laptop Acer Travelmate 230 xv.
This is a short guide that explains how I did it, and is intended to people
that have already installed some Linux distribution. For people that are new to
Linux, I suggest to begin with a easier distribution (e.g.
Mandrake).
This guide is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. Doing the following steps is at your
own risk!
The first thing to do when installing an operating system is
to exactly understand the kind of hardware that is contained
in the computer.
Here is a list of the technical details for the Acer Travelmate 230 xv:
Notice that this step can be done also using another operating system
already installed on the computer.
Insert the Debian Woody NetInstallation CD, and reboot your computer.
Select bf24 kernel image (kernel 2.4) and format your partition
choosing between the
ext2 filesystem (without journaling) and ext3
(a journaled filesystem).
Since the kernel 2.4 in the CD does not support the travelmate's network card, reboot
the computer.
Insert the Debian Woody NetInstallation CD, and reboot your computer.
Select the compact kernel image (kernel 2.4).
During the installation, insert the 8139too module in the kernel
to enable the network card.
If you need a desktop system, and you want it updated with the
latest versions of the applications, then is a good idea to install the
unstable version.
To do that, just open the file /etc/apt/sources.list
and change each stable string to unstable.
To install new packets you have to select them using the dselect
program.
The main commands are:
+ select a packet
- remove a packet
_ remove a packet and the configuration files
/ search for a packet
N repeat the search
Q quit
If you create a user different from root, and you want to use the sound,
open the file /etc/group, and add the user's name
to the audio group.
For instance, if the user's name is scordino, change the line
audio:x:29:
into the following one:
audio:x:29:scordino
To configure X11 (the desktop environment) run xf86config.
For the horizontal synchronization choose the following range: 31.5 - 48.5.
For the vertical refresh choose the following range: 40-70.
This section explains how to configure a kernel 2.6.6 for your system.
First of all, download the kernel from
http://www.kernel.org.
Then uncompress it, enter the main directory, and run
make menuconfig
Here is my .config file to see how I configured my kernel.