Maybe the subject is a bit harsh, but currently users trying to
install Debian on a Notebook face more problems than users installing
it on a desktop computer. Compared with other Linux distributions
Debian fails to install on some Notebooks (for example IBM Thinkpad
770) or requires handcrafted boot disks. All things that could be done
independent of any release goal:
- Establish a mailing list debian-notebook (or debian-portables,
debian-laptops) for questions on how to install and configure
Debian on a Notebook.
- Provide a useful notebook-kernel-image and pcmcia-modules package.
It's fine that for most desktop configurations the user does not
have to recompile the kernel. Unfortunately that's not the case for
notebooks. This situation is well known, because Debian already
provides installation disks for Notebooks (tecra images). But for
serious working on the road an apm aware kernel is needed. Or try to
install another kernel: the debian kernel-images don't boot on tecras
and many other notebooks. And when I install a new kernel I have to
recompile pcmcia-modules :-(, so I don't see any sense in the binary
pcmcia-modules package. Or is it provided for desktops with PCMCIA
slots? And you often don't have the disk space to compile kernels on
a small notebook partition... So what I propose is a
notebook-kernel-image package and a corresponding pcmcia-modules package.
- Make a distinction in installation kernels and "normal" kernels or
offer a corresponding kernel package for each installation disk, so
you can update kernels without recompiling them.
I sent some remarks to the maintainers of the kernel and pcmcia
packages, but did not get many responses. Compared with other (german)
distributions Debian lacks much notebook support. The things mentioned
here could be improved although the solutions proposed have to be
further polished and improved.
Matthias
