This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which drivers you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required drivers have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

Page Contents Authors Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

Authors

Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Acer Travelmate 4272WLMi laptop.

Editing This Page

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Specifications

Processor	Intel Core Duo T2300 - 1.66GHz
Screen	15.4"
RAM	1024MB
HDD	120GB
Optical Drive	DVD+-RW
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon x1400
Network	10/100/1000 Ethernet, Intel 3945 802.11g Wireless, Bluetooth
Other	4 x USB2.0

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes
Sound	Yes
Ethernet	Yes	Use the tg3 driver
Wireless	Yes	Use ipw3945 driver
Bluetooth	Not Tested
56K Modem	Yes	Use the Linuxant driver
USB	Yes
Firewire	Not Tested	Kernel does detect it
PCMCIA	Yes

Notes

On some older version of the kernel the audio will not work. You will need to run a kernel version 2.6.16 or greater (or install the latest ALSA drivers) for audio to work properly.

Currently the open source radeon driver included with X.org does not support the ATI Mobility Radeon x1400. However you can get this working using the proprietary ATI driver.

For best results you should use a Linux distribution with kernel 2.6.16 or greater, such as an updated Fedora Core 5 or Ubuntu Linux 6.06.

With the default pcmciautils package in Fedora Core 5 you will need to boot with the kernel option acpi=off otherwise the system will freeze, updating this package fixes the problem.

There is also a catch 22 problem under Fedora Core 5 as neither the wired or wireless network cards are supported with the default kernel which makes updating difficult. You will need to download the updated kernel manually from another computer and put it on a removable usb drive or if you are keeping Windows on your laptop download it on that partition. Then use the rpm command to install the kernel.

Related Resources

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring an ATI graphics chip
Configuring the audio
Configuring the ipw3945 driver for the Intel 3945ABG wireless controller
Increasing battery life

Summary

Apart from the audio problem and if you don't mind using the propietary ATI driver then this notebook works well under Linux. For best results you probably should choose a distribution which comes with kernel 2.6.16 or greater.


Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.