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