Last updated: 29th November, 2001.

Linux on the Acer TravelMate 200 series.

Specification of the 200 series.

The TravelMate 200 series is the "entry level" notebook range from Acer and currently consists of the following models:- All the series are based upon the Intel Celeron processor, the model number determines the processor speed. The model suffix determines the rest of the specification:- ie. a TravelMate 201T has a 600MHz processor, 12" TFT SVGA display and a 24 speed CDROM.

All the models have the following in common:-

The 202TE also has an IRDA port. Unfortunately, I have no idea about the chipset used.

At the back of the case is a twisted pair ethernet port sealed with a plastic blanking plate. This seems to be there for the 5xx series which seems to use the same shell and possibly motherboard.

Linux installation.

Basic Linux installation using any distribution should be no problem at all, except for a few gotchas!

I've now tried the following distributions, you can find my notes on these installs by following the links below:-

Notes.

The LU'97 modem is totally unsupported under Linux. It will need someone to write a complete software modem before it will work as the chip merely has the hardware to pick up the phone, put it down, send incoming "sounds" to the sound chip and send outgoing "sounds" down the phone line. ie. It's merely an ADC, DAC and telephone line interface circuitry. Agere, the new name for Lucent's microelectronics division has removed all documentation for the chipset recently and the only mention I can find is in this pdf file on the penultimate page (AC-Link software modem). The part numbers CSP1037A and CSP1037B aren't even in the product code number listings anymore!

If you need a modem, I'm afraid it's got to be a PCMCIA one, At least for the time being. (No, it's not the same Lucent modem as the one supported by the ltmodem driver released by Lucent on the quiet.)

I've not tried the USB ports as I don't have any USB devices. Theoretically, the 2.2.18 kernel fully supports USB and the kernel makes all the right noises about the ones built into the machine at boot-time.

One thing to note, to suspend the system using either "apm -s" or the suspend key combination ("Fn"+"F4") it seems as though it will only work after the filesystem has been sync'ed. Funnily enough, the original 2.2.14 kernel from the initial RedHat 6.2 install didn't seem to have this problem. Maybe it's a buglette which has crept into the kernel since then. The 2.4.x series kernels seem to have the same problem as the later 2.2.x kernels. Suspending the system by closing the lid works perfectly.

The APM system in the 2.2.x kernels doesn't seem to be able to control the backlight and the X server's dpms support seems not to work at all. Use the display off key combination to turn the backlight off manually to save power. The 2.4.x kernels don't seem to have this problem.

If you wish to contact me, e-mail me at the following address, removing the "nospam" part:-
steve@nospam.earth.ox.ac.uk .