Again, I’ve tried and install a Debian distro on one of my collegues’ laptop, which is a Dell Latitude D610.
The process is similar to the one for a D510 I’ve described earlier.
Ony that this time, the 2.6.12 is available in testing, which removes the need to get things from unstable.
It seems that the SATA drives will be recognised by default without having to hange the /etc/modules or /etc/mkinitrd/modules config files : just apply the following steps :
- Install kernel 2.6.12 from testing
- Boot with the root=/dev/sdX option instead of root=/dev/hdX
- edit /etc/fstab, /boot/grub/menu.lst, etc.
Still, there are problems once it’s all installed : :
- the suspend to ram doesn’t seem to be working as I expect it : although I configured some acpid event handler, after an “echo 3 > /proc/acpi/sleep” in the lid close handler, it will not resume OK : the disk seems to be working on and on, and the machine is frozen.
This seems to be a common issue for other persons using this model. I’ve read that the problem relates to libata missing a suspend possibility (at least in kernel 2.6.12 – Cf. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-dell-laptops/message/27234).
- The CD drive is not recognized allright. To change that, the initrd should be rebuilt by appliying the following steps :
- Modify the /etc/modules files in order to ask for the following modules in that order :
scsi_mod
sd_mod
libata
sata_sil
piix
ide-generic
ata_piix
- Modify the /etc/mkinitrd/modules file as well to provide the same list of modules
- regenerate the initrd files using something like
mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-686 2.6.12-1-686.
- Modify the /etc/modules files in order to ask for the following modules in that order :
Suspending
The suspend2disk is supposed to work, but I think it’s a bit too difficult to setup for the time being.
In the meantime, I think something can be done with the battery saving in case of lid closed with radeontool which can switch off the lid. See the acpid script here http://da.gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Dell_Latitude_D610#ACPI (paths should be adapted for Debian).
Still experimenting on that machine, so don’t take all these informations for exact.