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Installing Debian GNU/Linux on Acer TravelMate 2490LMi

Last updated: April 2007

Based on Instalación de Debian GNU/Linux en Acer TravelMate 2490 (spanish)

General Hardware Specifications of Acer TravelMate 2490:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel® Celeron® M 430 1.7GHz processor with 1MB L2 cache	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
15.4" WXGA colour TFT LCD, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
Mobile Intel® 940GML	Works	No special procedure required during installation
512MB, DDR2 memory	Works	No special procedure required during installation
80 GB ATA/100 hard disk drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
DVD-SuperMulti Double-Layer drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN Ready	Works	No special procedure required during installation
56K ITU V.92 data/fax modem	Not tested yet	No special procedure required during installation
5-in-1 card reader	Doesn't work	Supossed to work experimental on >= 2.6.20* kernels
Acer InviLink(TM) 802.11b/g Wi-Fi	Works	Works at 11M with the bcm43xx berlios driver for linux. Explanations follow.
Li-ion battery pack (6 cell)	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Intel® High Definition audio support	Works	No special procedure required during installation

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.18-4-686 (Debian package version)

Basic Installation of Debian:

I installed Debian Etch 2 weeks before it was released as Debian 4.0.

Setting up WiFi

Found out the card wifi installed:
# lspci

...
06:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
...

Searching the web found a new native driver -experimental- that works fine: driver berlios bcm43xx driver for linux.
We need the firmware cutter too.
On Debian is really easy, just do:
# aptitude install wpasupplicant wpagui bcm43xx-fwcutter

Configure a home WPA network: # vi /etc/wpa_supplicant/HOME.conf

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=2
fast_reauth=1

network={
        ssid="My_Wifi"
        proto=WPA
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
        psk="my_very_secret_key"
}

Launch the daemon:
# wpa_supplicant -w -D wext -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/HOME.conf -B

And test:
$ gksu wpa_cli

It does NOT works!
STFW and thanks to that Ubuntu Wifi Doc we configure the rate to 11M:
# iwconfig eth1 rate 11M

Re-launch the daemon:
# killall wpa_supplicant && wpa_supplicant -w -D wext -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/HOME.conf

Now it WORKS!! :-))

Sometimes it's needed to request a new IP:
# dhclient eth1

Setting up sound on Iceweasel

# aptitude install libesd-alsa0
# vi /etc/iceweasel/iceweaselrc

# which /dev/dsp wrapper to use
#ICEWEASEL_DSP="none"
ICEWEASEL_DSP="esddsp"

Once as user:
$ esddsp iceweasel

Card-Reader doesn't work

# lspci

...
06:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10)
06:04.1 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.2 Generic system peripheral [0805]: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: (rev 01)
06:04.4 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc Unknown device 0551 (rev 01)

It seems to be experimentally supported on kernel 2.6.20... let's wait.

Impressions

It's a cheap-market oriented laptop, not a beast, that works fine but the MMC Card-Reader and was (at least for me) SO cheap.
Sometimes I'd need more memory but I'm satisfied with it.

Hardware Info:

#cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 14
model name	: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU        420  @ 1.60GHz
stepping	: 8
cpu MHz		: 1596.000
cache size	: 1024 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 10
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx constant_tsc pni monitor tm2 xtpr
bogomips	: 3195.60

# lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
06:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
06:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
06:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10)
06:04.1 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.2 Generic system peripheral [0805]: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
06:04.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: (rev 01)
06:04.4 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)

Contact Information

I wrote a document -in spanish- while I install the laptop, commenting the troubles I was founding.
This document is a resume of it:
Instalación de Debian GNU/Linux en Acer TravelMate 2490 (Spanish).
I would like to receive your comments on: guimi.net.