This summer (2000) I decided to buy an Acer TravelMate 507T laptop computer. Just my luck, it came with Windows 98 preinstalled. Since I found myself in an unacceptable situation, I decided to install GNU/Linux. This page describes some of the issues which might be helpful to you if you own this same model and want to install Linux.
This page currently assumes that you have experience in installing Linux on a system, and provides the data you need for this specific type of laptop.
The Acer TravelMate 505 series consists of the models: 506DX, 507T, 507DX, 508T. If you own any of these models, this page should be applicable to your situation. I have only tested this on the 507T, so if you encounter differences with your model, please let me know.
Video
Video board: NeoMagic
Video RAM: 2 MB
Device driver: neomagic
Screen
Max resolution: 800x600
Horiz. Sync.: 15-90
Vert. Refresh: 30-85
I have my XF86Config file available for download.
The TravelMate 505 series are equipped with the Intel 82440 MX chipset which includes its own sound board. In recent kernels, the i810 module works perfectly. You may need to recompile the kernel or compile the Sound (CONFIG_SOUND) and Intel ICH (CONFIG_SOUND_ICH) modules. If you got the modules, you can load them into the kernel with these commands:
modprobe soundcore modprobe sound modprobe i810_audio
Like all modern laptops, the TravelMate comes equipped with a PCMCIA card interface. The Linux Kernel PCMCIA Card Services work well with this interface.
The TravelMate comes equipped with a so-called winmodem which needs proprietary drivers to work. At the time of writing, no such drivers are available for Linux for this modem type. As a result, I haven't been able to get my modem running under Linux.
For more information on laptop specific issues when installing Linux, see the excellent Linux on Laptops page by Ken Harker.