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.
Tv output
The A30p is supplied with an ATI Radeon Mobility M6 graphics adapter. It comes with a tv output and a tv input connector. Read How to get SVideo output on Radeon/Rage chips to work.
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 Module or Statically compiled in )
- Modules and module unloading
- Support for Pentium-III processor
- ACPI (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
(not yet completed)
Software
- acpid
- acpi-support Version 0.21 (not contained in Debian, lent from Ubuntu)
- laptop-mode-tools
- atitvout tool for radeon video adapters
- ati.2 driver up to date driver for ATI radeon cards