Installing Ubuntu "Hoary" on a Medion MD95400
General Hardware Specifications of MD 95400:
| Hardware Components | Status under Linux | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pentium M 735, 1.70GHz, 2MB Cache, 400MHz FSB | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| Intel 855 PM Chipset | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2200 | Works | Radio enabled by hardware switch - requires acerhk module. |
| 100 GB 5400RPM Seagate HDD | Works | Power key will only boot partition 1, multimedia play key boots partition 3. |
| 15.4 WXGA TFT Widescreen Display, 1280x800 | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| TV tuner card - analogue, DVB-T & FM radio | Should work | Card is correctly identified and drivers loaded but not working. |
| Bluetooth | Not tested yet | |
| 8x DVD dual-layer burner | Reads tested. Writes not tested yet | Need to install DVD playback capability |
| 512MB, SDRAM, 2DIMMs | Works | 2x256MB DIMMS |
| ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 SE, 128MB DDR | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| 8-in-2 multicard reader (SD/MMC/Memory stick/XD/Memory stick pro/CF I + II/Microdrive) | Not tested yet. | |
| Li-ion battery | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| 6-channel audio | 6 channels needs external speakers. 2 channel audio using internal speakers works. | No special procedure required during installation |
| 4 x USB 2.0 | Not tested yet. | |
| Firewire IEEE 1394 | Not tested yet. | |
| 10/100 Mbit LAN | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| 56Kbps/V90 modem | Not tested. | Not likely to be tested. |
This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.10-5-686
Basic Installation of Ubuntu:
- Why to use Ubuntu
It's been the most mature distro I've used so far.
- Obtaining Ubuntu
Download from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ or order a "pressed CD" from http://shipit.ubuntu.com/
- Installing
Boot from the CD and follow the instructions. Here are some partitioning suggestions.
- Post install modifications
See below
Setting up additional features for Ubuntu
- Wireless networking
The Acer Hotkey driver for Linux is needed to switch on the wireless LAN's radio. Compile the module (If you have just finished installing Ubuntu you will need to install gcc and the linux kernel headers) and copy the file acerhk.ko to /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/char
Then load the module and turn on the radio.
$ sudo modprobe acerhk Password: $ sudo echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled
Right click on the Network Monitor icon near the top right of the screen and select Properties.
Click on "Configure". Enter your password then deactivate both your Wireless and Ethernet connections. Select the Wireless connection and click on Properties. Enter your ESSID, WEP key and connection settings then you are ready to activate the wireless connection.
To do: turn on/off wireless networking by pressing the WLAN button.
Unresolved issues or simply untested. (AKA Stuff I haven't got to yet.)
- TV tuner
This one's proving to be frustrating. The card appears to be detected correctly but mythtv and tvtime don't appear to be finding a tv signal. All information is pointing to compiling a patched version of 2.6.12.
- DVD burning
- USB
- Multimedia card reader
- Firewire
- Bluetooth
- Modem
Configuration Files
- Any Configuration files that you needed to modify
More Specific Information. Specific stuff such as:
- df -hl
- lspci
- anything else you feel is relevant or may be useful