[rrs@learner ~] hwinfo || dmesg || lspci -v > "Compaq Presario 2203AL Notebook"

Thought of putting down the details of my Compaq Notebook running Debian GNU/Linux (Testing + Unstable) so that others with a similar notebook could take benefit from my effort spent configuring it.

The notebook comprises of Intel Centrino technology which includes a 1.5Ghz Intel Pentium Mobile Processor, 768mb of 266Mhz DDR SDRAM, 30Gb Seagate Hard Disk, Philips DVD/CDRW Combo Drive etc. The full details of hwinfo, dmesg, lspci -v are also available.

I use custom compiled kernels from the Debian kernel sources so that I could explicitly use the exact processor support for my processor. I've additionally patched the kernel sources with the bootsplash patch to have a decent and clean boot process view. Installation of boot-icons package adds another level of clean style onto it altogether. You can also use my kernel .config file.

Following are the list of devices that I've been able to make function properly:

• Touchpad -- The touchpad uses the Synaptics driver. The driver is available in the xfree86-driver-synaptics package.
  
• Multimedia Keys -- Configuring the addon multimedia keys was quite cumbersome. First the kernel couldn't assign keycodes to the scancodes generated by key presses. I fixed it assigning the keycodes to the scancodes manually. You can find my keycode fixing init script, keycodes here. Once done, I used the hotkeys package to link them to specific programs. The default hotkeys package didn't have support for this particular model, so I created the corresponding keyboard file. You can use it to your requirements. Remember to copy the file to your "/usr/share/hotkeys/" folder. Next, you can add this small script to your "~/.kde/Autostart" folder so that it executes hotkeys automatically at every session start.
  
• Intel Pro Wireless 2100 NIC -- This device requires addon modules to be installed to the kernel for functionality. Intel has initiated a project for it at Sourceforge. Luckily it is already available in Debian as a package, ipw2100-source. You'll have to RTFM module-assistant to create a binary module package for your specific kernel. You'll also have to download the firmware for it available at the same site. The README document provided is self explanatory.
  
• CPU Scaling -- The Intel Pentium Mobile Processor has "Dynamic Speed Scaling" feature because of which it consumes less power and generates lesser heat. I use cpudynd, available as a package, to control the speed scaling feature of the processor.
• Laptop-mode-tools -- You can also use the laptop-mode-tools to generate more efficiency from your notebook.
• Dual Head X Display -- The notebook includes onboard Intel 855GM Dual Head VGA. Currently running XFree86 version 4.3. You can check the configuration file.
  

Following are the list of devices currently not working:

• Modem -- The notebook comes with an Intel ICH soft modem which I haven't been able to make work yet. The kernel initializes it resulting with an error code of -13. The detailed info can be seen in the dmesg output.
• Suspend/Hibernate -- The notebook is ACPI compliant and supports the following ACPI states: (S0, S3, S4, S5) but still neither "Suspend to RAM" nor "Suspend to Disk" works. AFAIK this is because the ACPI code into the kernel (2.6.10 as of writing) isn't stable enough. The system is able to get into suspension but isn't able to wake-up back.
• Intel Pro Wireless 2100 NIC -- Confused to see it here too... :-)    Well! The device has a button associated with it to switch it ON/OFF at runtime which doesn't work. It initiates some scancodes not assigned to any keycode. I've not been able to figure out as to what command should, the keycode if set, be assigned to make the button function as desired.

Following are the list of devices currently not tried:

• PCMCIA Device -- The PCMCIA device gets detected but I've not been able to check if it works as designed.
  

As for the rest, my notebook runs a Dictionary daemon (dictd) with multiple dictionary databases as I'm fond of literature too. It runs KDE as it's Desktop Environment. Here is a screenshot of my notebook's desktop. It also runs an eye-candy utility, root-tail, which gives the desktop a geekish touch. The root-tail config file is put under "~/.kde/Autostart/" folder to autostart at each session. I've created two fifo devices, /dev/xconsole and /dev/xconsole1 to use with root-tail and the xconsole utility respectively to keep track of all the system logs. You'll have to modify the /etc/init.d/sysklogd scripts' create_xconsole() function for the additional fifo device, xconsole1. Once done, redirect your desired level of verbosity modifying the syslog.conf file.
It also runs the automount daemon to automatically mount and unmount the DVD, CDRW, CDROM, USB Stick devices.

Added 03/31/2005
       As of today, the "Suspend-to-disk" and "Suspend-to-RAM" features work. A small amount of tweaking is required. Presently I'm using vanilla kernel 2.6.11 with bootsplash patch applied. I'm using swsusp ver. 1 shipped integrated with the vanilla kernel. No "Software Suspend 2" used. Boot your kernel with the "acpi_sleep=s3_bios" option and things should work fine. Please make sure that while suspending there is no USB device connected to your notebook because the suspend mechanism puts the USB subsystem down while suspending. Also make sure that you have plenty of swap space, something like "2 x Size of RAM".

And yes, when I said the suspend features work, they work absolutely fine. Even X is suspended without any problems.