Putting a Penguin on a Centrino

"This PC is groovy"
My dear friend Vikas Yadav

Preface

I wrote this short document in order to help other people to install a linux operating system on this laptop series.
The distribution i prefer is Debian/Gnu linux, however i think this document can be helpful for some other distributions.

Hardware Components

Component	Informations	Notes
CPU	Intel Centrino(TM) 1.4GHz	It works
Chipset	Intel 852	It works
Hard drive	hda: FUJITSU MHT2080AT, ATA DISK drive	It works
Optical Device	hdc: TSSTcorpCDW/DVD TS-L462A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive	It works
Ethernet	Realtek 8139cp	It works
Wireless Lan	Intel Pro Wireless 2200	It works
Video Card	Integrated Intel	It works
USB Controller	Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM	It works
Firewire IEEE-1394	Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552	not tested
Sound Card	Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller	It works

Turning it on

The Laptop comes shipped with a proprietary operating system named "Windows XP" or something like that.
It boots and shows you an End User License Agreement (EULA).
I simply didn't agree it.
Since i didn't agree i spent days calling the Gateway Customer Service asking for a refund for the unused license.
I only wasted time talking with not so competent people.

Booting

I used a Debian Installation CD for booting (woody).
I booted with the kernel 2.4, but i think it is better, at the end, to install a kernel 2.6 with this laptop since it has a lot of recent hardware.

Hard Drive

I partitioned the hard drive as i liked with cfdisk following the Debian installation procedure. Of course the partioning has surely destroyed the preinstalled operating system.

Choosing packages (Dselect, tasksel...)

I chose not to install any package preferring to use apt-get to download only what I needed. I'm working at Iowa State University (ISU) and a fine network connection is avalaible to me. I manually edited the /etc/apt/source.list file planning to switch to the testing distribution.

Network

The Realtek 8139 lan card worked with no problems. No need of probing the module 8139 since it is built in the bf24 Debian kernel (if i don't misremember). Then

# apt-get update

# apt-get dist-upgrade

# apt-get install lynx

Then i ran

# lynx www.kernel.org

And i downloaded a 2.6.9 kernel from www.kernel.org

Kernel Compiling

Maybe i did something like this:

# apt-get install libncurses-dev

(you need develop libraries for "make menuconfig")

# apt-get install gcc

# apt-get install make

If you miss something... "apt-get" it!

Here my .config file. I didn't spend much time on doing it, so, i know, it is not perfect. However it can be a good starting point. If you "tune" it better, send me the configuration file, please! Of course, I'll update this document.
After compiling, I updated the /etc/lilo.conf, ran

# lilo

and rebooted the system to test the new kernel.

Video Card

A little of comfort with graphical interface.

# apt-get install xserver-xfree86

# apt-get install x-window-system

I like the K Desktop Environment. So i did

# apt-get install kdebase

# apt-get install kdm

The driver to use is the i810 and all other questions asked are quite obvious to answer.

Wireless Netcard

It is a Intel PRO Wireless 2200 card. At http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ you can find an easy and complete howto for this device. All you need to do is getting the source, uncompressing it, compiling and installing it.

# tar -xzvf ipw2200-x.xx.tgz

# cd ipw2200-x.xx

# make

# make install
If nothing goes wrong, now you can load a new module in the kernel

# modprobe ipw2200
I had no time to spend to configure the netcard and i was in an experimental mind state so i installed the package waproamd. It is making the device working, however i'll finely configure it later.

Sound Card

I wasted a lot of time on it...

# apt-get install alsa-base alsa-utils
If you want you can try

# alsaconf
I simply did

modprobe snd-intel8x0
Then remember to run

# alsamixer
and increase the volume and unmute all channel but External. (If you unmute External you may not hear anything) I didnt understand that and i lost more than an hour on such a detail.

NOTE: I had the opportunity to put my hands on another laptop formally identical to mine (another Gateway M320), but I haven't been able to make the sound working at all. The configuration was ok, but there was no sound coming out of the speakers. I just guess Gateway equips same model laptops with different motherboards. So, don't rely completely on this howto even if you have an M320 model.

Feedback

If you find this document useful or useless and you want to thank or to offend me, feel free to e-mail me remembering to put my PANTS off.

Donatello Materassi (materassiPANTS@dsi.unifi.it)