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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
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<article>
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<title>Linux Installation on an Acer LapTop HOWTO
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<author>Harish Thampi S, <tt/harish.thampi@wipro.com/
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<date>1.0, 2001-01-08
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<abstract>
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This document describes how to install Linux on a Acer LapTop and
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Various issues related to this. The reader is expected to have some
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knowledge about Linux Installation.
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</abstract>
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<toc>
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<!-- Begin the document -->
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<sect>Introduction
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<sect1>Preface
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<p>
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This is version 1.0 of this document. We faced a lot of problems while
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installing Linux on a Acer LapTop. We thought this information might be
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useful to the Linux community.
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<p>
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This information is intended for Linux on the Intel platform. Much of
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this information may be applicable to Linux on other processors, but We
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have no first-hand experience or information about this.
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<p>
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This document may be outdated or some other document on this topic may
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be available. Please check the
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the <url url="http://www.LinuxDoc.org/" name="Linux Documentation Project"> homepage
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to see if any other documents are available on this.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Copyright
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<p>
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<em>Copyright is a source of much and continuous debate on the
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LDP mailing list. For more in depth information please consult
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the Manifesto at the </em>
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<url url="http://www.LinuxDoc.org/" name="LinuxDoc"> site.
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<em>
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The purpose of having a license is to allow appropriate distribution.
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You can use any license that meets the Manifesto.
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What follows is a boilerplate licence.
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</em>
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Copyright (c) 2001 by Harish Thampi S.
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<P>
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Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in
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any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be forwarded
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to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute
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it provided that you:
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<itemize>
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<item>
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Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as
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sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting
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on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is
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available.
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<item>
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License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL.
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Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
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<item>
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Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.
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</itemize>
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<P>
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If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation,
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it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.
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<sect1>Disclaimer
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<p>
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Use the information in this document at your own risk. I disavow any
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potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
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concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
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at your own risk.
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<p>
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All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
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otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
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affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
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<p>
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Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
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<p>
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You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
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major installation and backups at regular intervals.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Feedback
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<p>
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We welcome any feedback, good or bad, on the content of this document.
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We have done our best to ensure that the instructions and information
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herein are accurate and reliable. Please let us know if you find any
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errors or omissions.
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<p>
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Send comments, corrections and questions to the author at
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<htmlurl url="mailto:harish.thampi@wipro.com" name="harish.thampi@wipro.com">.
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</sect1>
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</sect>
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<sect>The Procedure
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<p>
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<sect1>Introduction
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<p>
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This document for installing Linux on a LapTop (Acer TravelMate 345T)
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It comprises of the general difficulties you can run into while trying
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an install on an Acer TravelMate 345T. I have a hand on experience only
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on Acer TravelMate 345T. This may be applicable to other Models also.
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<p>
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This document assumes some basic familiarity with concepts of Linux
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system administration. For example, you should know about directories
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and filesystems.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Preparing the Disk
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<p>
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The document specifically tells about the installation of Linux on a
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Laptop along with Windows 98.
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<p>
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First you should partition the disk according to your choice. You may
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face problems when you want a dual boot machine. That is you have Windows
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on <tt>/dev/hda1</tt> and Linux '/' on <tt>/dev/hda2</tt>
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<p>
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I faced some strange problem here. Initially I had a 5.3 GB disk on which
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Windows 98 was installed and drive c: constituted the entire 5.3GB.
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<p>
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I wanted to repartition the disk to put Linux on to it. So I booted with
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a RedHat CD and partitioned the disk as follows.
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<tscreen><verb>
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/dev/hda1 3 GB For Windows 98
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/dev/hda2 200 MB For Linux /
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/dev/hda3 128 MB For Swap
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/dev/hda4 2 GB Extended
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/dev/hda5 1GB /usr
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/dev/hda6 1GB /home1
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</verb></tscreen>
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<p>
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After installation of Linux, I found that Windows 98 was still running
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fine on <tt>/dev/hda1</tt>. Even more interesting fact is that Windows is able
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to see that entire 5.3 GB of the disk. I doubted that this could lead
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to corruption of data and had no other way except formatting and start
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again. Any feedback on this issue is welcome. Any links or references
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are also welcome.
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<p>
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<bf/Note:/ When you list the partitions with a dos fdisk, the extended partition
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made with Linux fdisk is shown as an EXT DOS partition. Later I
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changed the type of Extended partition to Extended Linux. Still
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Windows was able to see the entire 5.3 GB of the disk.
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<p>
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I have put <tt>/dev/hda2</tt> as the '/' partition and put <tt>/dev/hda5</tt> as '/usr'.
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This approach will help in separating the files that change frequently
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from those that doesn't. This is also useful for backup purposes.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Installation
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<p>
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Installation of RedHat Linux on a Laptop is pretty easy. This is almost
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like installing Linux on a PC. The only problem we faced was that it was
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not possible to install Linux from the RedHat CD in any mode other than
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'text mode'. Trying to install Linux on any other mode other than 'text'
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will cause the installation to hang.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Booting the Machine
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<p>
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The Acer LapTop had some PCMICA devices. While booting the LapTop, the
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machine would hang looking for more pcmcia devices. If you face this
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problem, you need to reboot the machine with the boot floppy and edit the
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file <tt>/etc/sysconfig/pcmcia</tt> and set <tt>PCIC_OPTS="do_scan=0"</tt>. The next time you
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reboot the machine, it should boot up with the newly installed Linux.
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Configuring X
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<p>
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This is problem for which I was not able to find an answer. After booting
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up the machine, I tried to configure X using xf86config.
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<p>
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The Acer LapTop had an 800x600 LCD panel. I had selected S-VGA and 800x600
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resolution. When I tried starting X, I found that the mode is being
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taken as 320x200. The boot message says that it is the built-in mode. Any
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Pointers to this are welcome. The output of SuperProbe was:
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<tscreen><verb>
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First video: Super-VGA
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Chipset: Trident (chipset unknown) (PCI Probed)
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Signature data: 95251023 (please report)
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Memory: 2048 Kbytes
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RAMDAC: Sierra SC1148{2,3,4} 15-bit or SC1148{5,7,9} 15/16-bit HiColor
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(with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6-bit mode))
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</verb></tscreen>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>Linmodem Source
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<p>
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The Laptop had a softmodem (Linmodem). The driver for this modem is not
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given in the RedHat distribution. Lucent is providing the driver for
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this modem in 'object' form. The source for this driver is not available.
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It will be good if the Linux community can provide the source for the
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Linmodem. The difficulty with the Lucent Linmodem driver is that, the driver
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is written for Linux 2.2.12 Kernel. This is one of the reason why the source
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code for Linmodem would be considered a great contribution. I have listed
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some links that could proove to be useful in this venture.
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</sect1>
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</sect>
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<sect>Conclusion
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<p>
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This document has covered the problems faced during the installation of
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Linux on a Laptop. The document may not be complete any feedback or
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contribution towards this will be appreciated. The main area on which the
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Linux community can work is in solving out problems in configuring X
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and getting the source code for the Linmodem driver.
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<p>
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Please mail your contributions for this document to
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<htmlurl url="mailto:harish.thampi@wipro.com" name="harish.thampi@wipro.com">
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so that I can come up with the next version of this document.
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<sect1>Useful Links
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<p>
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<itemize>
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<item><url url="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-08/lw-08-linmodem.html" name="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-08/lw-08-linmodem.html"></item>
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<item><url url="http://www.linmodems.org/" name="http://www.linmodems.org/"></item>
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<item><url url="http://www.close.u-net.com/" name="http://www.close.u-net.com/"></item>
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<item><url url="http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/" name="http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/"></item>
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</itemize>
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</sect1>
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</sect>
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</article>
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