Re: Debian on IBM Thinkpad 380D
On Fri, Aug 25, 2000 at 11:16:32PM -0500, James Mahoney wrote:
> Hello. I am looking into helping my sister purchase a laptop for her to run
> debian GNU/Linux on. I was wondering if Debian runs fine on the IBM thinkpad
> 380D with 150Mhz pentiumMMX processor, 80 MB ram, 2.0 gig hard drive. For
> more information on this laptop, go to
> <http://www.unbeatable.com/products/laptop/LaptopRB.asp>. I have heard from
> other discussion on this list that the video card might be tough to set up,
> but I am not sure if this is an issue anymore. Any help would be greatly
> appreciated.
Hello,
I've got a ThinkPad 380d, and it was probably my message that caused you to think
it's a tricky one to set up for X.
Since then, I've learned that the most it's able to support for a display is
800x600 at 16bpp. That's a little cramped, but livable. All you have to do
to set it up correctly is pick the Neomagic server from either XF86Setup or
xf86config. Reports vary on the appropriate screen type to choose. I've
gotten away with several. One guide I read said to pick the one in
xf86config that has this line:
4 31.5, 35.15, 35.5; Super VGA, 1024x768 @ 87 Hz interlaced, 800x600 @ 56 Hz
That's worked fine for me.
Besides the video issues, though, which were not so much issues as they were
my ignorance speaking, I've had an easy time with this machine under Debian.
I've got the sound working, PCMCIA was fine once I downloaded Woody's
version of the package to get support for my LinkSys EtherFast Modem/NIC
combo, and all's copacetic. I'm still trying to get the apm settings down
pat, but that's my only nag.
Mine only has 32MB of RAM, so I limit my use of X to fvwm2: no fancy desktop
environments seem to fit. ;-) It does web browsing and emacs just fine.
-Michael
--
Michael Hall
mphall@cstone.net
Charlottesville, Virginia
804.984.3711
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