Acer travelmate 8204 lmwi linux compatible

[enzo2005]

I want to know if the laptop acer travelmate 8204 lmwi is compatible with linux? (gentoo or mandriva or fedora or ubuntu).

[Roxoff]

It probably is. If you post up detailed specs for the hardware on the platform, we may be able to help. Alternatively, have you tried searching Google to see if anyone else has sucessfully installed Linux on that hardware?

[enzo2005]

Tank you the discribe of laptop I will buy is
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional; Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2MB L2 cache, 2.0GHz, 667MHz FSB); 2GB (1/1) DDR2 533 SDRAM; 120GB SATA hard drive, 5400RPM; modular Super-Multi (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) drive; 5-in-1 card reader; 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) TFT display; ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1600 graphics, 256MB DDR; 802.11a/b/g WLAN, Bluetooth™, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem

[AlexK]

My understanding is that Core Duo is just a Dual Core Centrino so it should work theoreticially. Other than that all specs look fine.

As for which distro to use, i'd say try all of them and report back so that other people can get an idea of which distro seems to work "better" on the new platform.

[Roxoff]

Tank you the discribe of laptop I will buy is
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional; Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2MB L2 cache, 2.0GHz, 667MHz FSB); 2GB (1/1) DDR2 533 SDRAM; 120GB SATA hard drive, 5400RPM; modular Super-Multi (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) drive; 5-in-1 card reader; 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) TFT display; ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1600 graphics, 256MB DDR; 802.11a/b/g WLAN, Bluetooth™, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem

My only concern with that spec. is the ATI graphics chipset. Can you not get the same spec machine with an nVidia chipset? (The drivers work better for Linux). You might also find problems with the card reader (mine doesn't work on my laptop), but my USB one works perfectly, and it does more card types.

[avanwieren]

I have a similar acer the TM 4200. Recently installed Linux Suse 10 on it and I will say there have been some bugs. Unfortunately the 4200 uses native Intel everything and most of the drivers don't exist. The ACPI and processor works though. Will post details seperate from this listing.

[isotrope]

I tried to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a Travelmate 8204. So far, there are numerous bugs. First of all, the ethernet card doesn't work. Then, when I install an updated kernel (2.6.9-22 and above), I always get a kernel panic. I am currently trying to figure these issues.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

suse 9.3 is the only distro to fully work on my travelmate 4651lmi. all other 2.6 kernels have acpi conflicts and conflicts with the setup of my disc drive. 2.4 kernels almost work but the DMA doesn't work on them :/

anyway, apart from those potential problems and the ATi chipset, everything should work just fine on your hardware. good luck if you plan on getting it

[isotrope]

Here is an interesting link:

Linux on an Acer Travelmate 8104WLMi

[isotrope]

I used the Tao Live kernel on the Travelmate 8204. I also recompiled the kernel to create a SMP one. Both kernel RPMS and SRPMS are available here: http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/pr...live/i386/dist

Here are the grub.conf entries for these kernels:

title Tao Linux (2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1smp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1smp ro root=LABEL=/ acpi=off noacpi irqpoll
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1smp.img
title Tao Linux (2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1 ro root=LABEL=/ acpi=off noacpi irqpoll
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-22.0.2.SquashFS1.img

Here are the results:
- The hard disk is recognized as SATA
- The wired ethernet card is recognized
- ACPI doesn't work so it's disabled in grub.conf (acpi=off noacpi irqpoll)
- Wireless card doesn't work, some hacking is needed ...