Acer has launched a Linux preinstalled laptop for the Indian Market,
branded TravelMate 240
at a low price of Rs 49,999/- (US$ 1070/-) + handling charges +
taxes. It landed in our office
for Rs 53,600/- (US$1140/-).
Hardware :
Intel Celeron Processor with 128 KB L2 cache with 128 MB DDR RAM
3.5 inch internal floppy drive, 20 GB IDE hard disk, 5.25 inch internal
CD-ROM (24x)
14.1 inch TFT LCT at 1024x768 eXtended Graphics Array resolution with 3D
capabilities. Simultaneous LCD and CRT display support
16 bit AC97 stereo audio with built-in wavetable synthesizer, dual
speakers
84/85-key Windows keyboard, touchpad pointing device
2 PCMCIA slots, One 56 Kbps Modem internal, One Ethernet 10/100BaseT
internal
One parallel port and one VGA port, Four USB 2.0 ports
3.27 Kg with battery; 332 x 294 x 39.4 mm
Software
All the above devices work out of the box. Suse Linux 8.2 comes
pre-installed.
A set of 3 installation CDs and one driver CDs accompany the Laptop.
However the User Guide is written for a Windows XP version. Acer does
not
provide any special utilities for the Linux version as it does for the
Windows version.
And the 128 MB RAM specification is really lame. Anyone who starts up
the
computer into GUI mode (which is the default) will curse the slow speed
and we right away decided to order an additional 128 MB RAM to have a
comfortable working life.
The sound, network card, floppy drive, CD ROM drive have been tested.
It
is not able to run remote X applications. Will have to fix it.
Date : 14/10/2003
Suse version came with the laptop does not have all the server
applications. Instead of
bothering to download all the applications from the web, decided to
repartition the
hard drive and install Red Hat Linux 9.0 in one partition. We are using
RH 9.0 in all
other machines.
Formatted the hard disk and installed RH first followed by Suse. Set up
the computer to boot
from the boot loader configured by Red Hat. Sound is not working in Red
Hat. X display
was not properly configured. Did not care to back up the configuration
file from the original
installation. Acer customer support promised to email me a copy of
config file, did not do it
Played around with the configuration file and got it working both in
Red Hat and Suse.
The battery monitor is not working at all. Have to figure it out.