F1 takes you into Easy-Setup.

BIOS Update. The BIOS can be checked out in the Easy-Setup at boot. Mine came with BIOS INET22WW (4/28/99) and Slave IHHT05WW. Looking on the IBM support site... downloaded latest, which is INET36WW and slave IHHT08WW. Followed instructions to run the sdsin.exe in DOS which creates a system update disk on a floppy. Reboot with that disk in the floppy

Set system clock to GMT. Under Configure, set Quick Boot to Disable, so that that the BIOS will initialize the plug-n-play devices.

At first prompt (boot:) bf24 apm=on mem=130496K to get the 2.4 kernel

keyboard qwerty/uk

Partition hard disk /dev/hda

Use ALT-F2 to get shell and use fdisk /dev/hda (instead of cdisk, just quit this when offered).

Install Kernel. (choose CDROM as default source)

Choose mwavem, agpart, and apm from modules.

Choose (scroll down) Configure pcmicia, select as i82365 compatible, leaving all other options blank.

Hostname: rameau

Kernel boot parameters: apm=on mem=130496K

Install base system.

Make system bootable

Install lilo on the MBR, with /dev/hda5 as default, and include /dev/hda1 for MS-Windows.

Make a boot floppy.

Remove the floppy nad CDROM.... and reboot the system.

You can run /usr/sbin/base-config at later time if you want to go through this again.

System clock is GMT. Area: Europe: London.

Don't enable md5 passwords.

Enable shadow passwords.

No to adduser account. No to PPP configure.

Apt should use /dev/cdrom. Put CD1 into drive and hit enter. Repeat for each of the seven CDROMS in set, and the update CDROM to r1.

Now use tasksel to get only X, desktop, games, and Tex/Latex. Otherwise loads of unneccasry stuff and all need configuring

Then packages get installed at this point.

Display manager is: gdm.

Use Free-type fonts for mozilla.

sound-wrapper for mozilla: auto

neomagic video card.

XKB rule is Xfree86: keyboard model is pc101: layout is gb. Look at keyboard variant later (don't know basically!), possible choices in /etx/X11/xkb/symbols.

Mouse: /dev/psaux. Type: PS/2.

LCD: yes

Display: configure:advanced. H-sync 31-65, V-refresh 58-78.

Default-depth: 16

Locales: manually edit /etc/locale.gen and run locale-gen to redo this alter. Select en_GB ISO-8859-15 (94), fr_FR@euro iso-8859-15 (183), es_ES@EURO iso-8859-15 (133). Choose en_GB as the default locale.

Reading the mwavem documentation in /usr/share/doc/mwavem/README.Debian it tells you to setup the following.

mkdir /dev/modems
mknod --mode 660 /dev/modems/mwave c 10 219
chown root.root /dev/modems/mwave

Run wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf and it can now detect the modem.

The pon/poff scripts are used to negotiate ppp. Run pppconfig to set em up.

This all puts the info into /etc/chatscripts/plusnet and the options for pppd into /etc/ppp/peers/plusnet.

pon plusnet now connects successfully. But problem with resolving names?

Modem lights applet use for dialling. Properties chose pon plusnet and poff plusnet for commands. Under advanced change lock file to /var/lock/LCK..ttyS1 and device is ppp0.

Finally this won't run until you've added your username to the neccessary groups: dip

You need the kernel source deb. I'm using kernel-source-2.4.18-5 () To build the debian way kernel-package is also needed.

Move to cd /usr/src and unpack the kernel-source. Then link this kernel version to linux ln -s kernel-source-2.4.20 linux

Copy over the debian config as a starter: cp /boot/config-..-bf4 /usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.18/.config

Or some other previous attempt. Could start with thood's .config for example, or take look for advice.

Now make xconfig (under X!) or make menuconfig to do it in a console.

Saved to config-midmas-1 and then save to .config

Now: make-kpkg clean
make-kpkg --revision midmas.1.0 kernel_image

Install the kernel using:
cd ..
dpkg -i kernel_image*.deb

Say yes to running lilo and reboot to give the kernel a spin.

The packages for any modules also need building to accompany your kernel.

The essentials for the TP600 are thinkpad-source, pcmcia-cs-source.

Same procedure as for the kernel source.
(1 )Install source tarball using dselect.
(2) In /usr/src unpack them using tar -xvzf.
(3) In the kernel source directory (/usr/src/linux):
make-kpkg modules_image
cd ..
dpkg -i name-modules-kernel-revision
(3) Install the package using dpkg -i thinkpad*_modules*.deb alsa_modules*.deb

Select option (2) for Internet site (dial-up connection).

You can edit /etc/email-addresses to set email addreses for outgoing mail.

The process has two components: (1) fetchmail has the singular job of getting mail sent to me by the outside world, and cached by my ISP; (2)exim has the task of delivering mail to local addresses, and of sending mail on to my ISP's mail relay for delivery elsewhere.

The debian reference manual talked me through this first-time.

The Mail Transfer Agent, exim, takes its configuration /etc/exim/exim.conf. This will be generated by running eximconfig.

Edit one line to read local_domains = localhost so all mail will be sent elsewhere for delivery.

Fetchmail is configured by creating the file /etc/fetchmailrc. Need to chown 600 /etc/fetchmailrc. Once this exists then fetchmail should run as a daemon (executing every time pon is called). Should look like this:

Nothing else needed as /etc/inetd.conf is responsible for starting exim as a daemon. In /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/ you can see exim and fetchmail scripts that wake them after dialing out.

The TP600E has a Crystal Sound CS4237B sound card. This is reported by some probes (eg. lspci) as a CS4610 - it isn't! So, don't use modules supporting CS46xx cards.

Kernels 2.4x have an OSS driver for cs4232 which is reported to be compatible with the CS4237B card. The card should be enabled (if you have msdos installed then check using ps2.exe). The BIOS settings should already have been set to disable quick boot, and the kernel compiled to have sound support and BIOS pnp enabled (but ISA pnp disabled).

The ALSA system is replacing OSS though, and if you are using an unstable 2.5x kernel the ALSA modules have been integrated I understand. For the time being I'm staying with a stable 2.4x kernel and so need to compile the modules from source to go with my custom built kernel. If you are running a stock debian kernel there is the possibility of just installing a deb package to match but I tried this once and failed utterly to get anything working.

Select the alsa packages from debian using:
apt-get install alsa-source alsa-base alsa-utils
Woody(r0) comes with alsa version 0.9.0b12 (avoid much earlier versions which you must NOT choose).

Config will ask some questions. Answer YES to stop before suspend. Choose cs4236 for the driver, and the ISA_PNP is NO, debugging is NO. These choices are written to /etc/alsa/alsa-source.config. Check and if they are not (there's a known bug) then run dpkg-reconfigure alsa-source.

Now to make a modules package to go with the custom kernel:
tar -xvzf /usr/src/alsa-driver.tar.gz
cd /usr/src/linux
make-kpkg modules_image
Note this remakes all modules you've already installed (eg. pcmcia-cs, thinkpad).

In other distributions this is where you edit /etc/modules.conf so the needed alsa drivers are loaded into the kernel. In debian modules.conf is updated automagically (by update-modules) when you install a package (dpkg -i) using config scripts specific to each package. The config script for alsa needs to be in /etc/alsa/modutils/0.9.

Copy the debian example script:
cp /usr/share/doc/alsa-base/examples/modules-0.9.conf /etc/alsa/modutils/0.9
Then edit to include lines specific for the cs4236 driver. After some frustation at the package failing to install, I found the debian example had erroneously written underscores instead of hyphens for some parameter names! Now mine looks like:

You need to know specific values for port addresses, irq, and dma1 and dma2 (these maybe different on another TP600E depending on how they were assigned). You could use tpctl or ps2.exe in DOS to assign values to the card. I just made sure it was enabled in ps2.

Now finally, install the modules package:
dpkg -i /usr/src/alsa-modules-2.4.18_0.9+0beta12+3+p0*.deb Which will also have updated /etc/modules.conf and if all worked the drivers should be loaded. Check using lsmod and you should see lots of snd related modules including one with cs4236. Most likely failure at this point is giving incorrect values for the driver's parameters. GO back and check irq, dma, port etc.

You need to have access to the sound functions, so add yourself to the audio group:
adduser user_name audio

By default the volume is muted. Use alsamixer at the command line to unmute and turn up volume levels to at least 75% on channels MASTER, PCM.

Now to play a sound. Easiest test, use a command line tool aplay. to play an example sound to be found in /usr/share/sounds. (Press Fn+PgUp a few times to make sure volume is audible.)

Success for me needed a lot of reference to the following: www.alsa-project.org

Not available as a deb package (don't think?) because of its license. Download from forms.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html

Put into /usr/local/src. Then chown u+x rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2.bin and install with ./rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2.bin

I chose to create a symlink from /usr/local/bin/realplay. ln -s /usr/local/share/RealPlayer8/realplay /usr/local/bin/realplay

For the plugin put a symbolic link in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugin to rpnp.so

Get the tar ball for install_flash_player_6_linux from www.macromedia.com/downloads and unpack in /usr/local/src

Then from that directory use ./flashplayer-installer to run the installer. The files should have been placed un /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins

dselect laptop-net package

answer yes to manage with debconf choose dhcp and module is called tulip_cb for my Linksys card use ifconfig to check status of connection, and ip is assigned

After first boot it prompts for network profile. 192.168.0.4 local IP 192.168.0.254 gateway

http://www-hft.ee.TU-Berlin.DE/~strauman/tp4utils/

To kill the beeping ps2 ? beep tells you how ps2 beep off volume system leave alarm and warn on