View source for Installing Debian 3.1 (Sarge) on a ThinkPad A30p

This is a documentation of some of the installation and configuration steps required for installing Debian/Sarge on a Thinkpad A30p and getting the most out of it.

== Basic installation ==

The recommended procedure is, to get a Debian/Sarge DVD put it in the DVD-drive and boot from the DVD. Proceed with the installation as on an arbitrary computer.

== Components ==

=== ACPI ===

For a detailed description of how to operate ACPI on IBM Thinkpads, take a look at [[How to make ACPI work]]. Further it explains the steps necessary to get suspend to ram and hibernation to work. Be sure to check [[How to get special keys to work]] if some of the function keys don't work properly.

=== Xserver and TV-out ===

The A30p is supplied with an ATI Radeon Mobility 7000 graphics adapter. It comes with a tv output and a tv input connector. The XFree86 supplied by [[:Category:Debian|Debian/Sarge]] contains a working ati driver which supports acceleration and DRI. However at [http://gatos.sf.net GATOS] you can find up to date OpenSource drivers for both, XFree86 and Xorg (while the 7.0 release should come along with the GATOS drivers).

For information on the SVideo out read [[How to get TV-Out working on ATI graphic cards]].

== Kernel ==

This is a short summary on the kernel features needed on the A30p.
The supplied kernel in Debian/Sarge is 2.6.8. It is advisable to get a newer Version. You can use either a newer debianized kernel or get a vanilla kernel. At the time this documentation is written, the latest known version is 2.6.12.4.

Enable support for: ''(recommended: as '''M'''odule or '''S'''tatically compiled in )''

* Modules and module unloading
* Support for Pentium-III processor
* ACPI ([[How_to_make_ACPI_work|how to make it work]]) '''S'''
* cpu-freq with ondemand governor (alternatively userspace governor) '''S'''
* PIIX chipset
* IDE/ATA drives and floppy (at least HDD '''S''' or initrd needed)
* PCMCIA - Yenta cardbus
* e100 network device '''M'''
* usb-uhci for usb host controller '''M'''
* i810 sound card '''M'''
* nvram '''M'''
* i2c '''M'''
* AGP and radeon support '''M'''

If using a debianized kernel, most features are compiled as modules. To get everything to work at boot you should put the according modules not detected by hotplug in {{path|/etc/modules}}:

 ide-cd
 ide-disk
 ide-generic
 psmouse
 acpi
 ac
 battery
 nvram
 cpufreq_ondemand

''(not yet completed)''

/Hm, did you *really* get ondemand governor working on A30p?  My 2.6.14's one wouldn't, and it's documented, as linked/discussed at [[How to make use of Dynamic Frequency Scaling]]./

== Software ==

* acpid
* acpi-support Version 0.21 ''(not contained in Debian, lent from [[Ubuntu]])''
* laptop-mode-tools
* atitvout [http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/lennart/projects/atitvout/  tool for radeon video adapters]
* ati.2 driver [http://gatos.sf.net up to date driver for ATI radeon cards]

=Links=
*This guide is listed at the [http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html TuxMobil Linux laptop and notebook installation survey (IBM/Lenovo)].


[[Category:Debian]] [[Category:A30p]]