So, yesterday was new laptop day at work, for some of us.  Here's what I got:

• Make/Model: Lenovo T60 (Model 2008-CTU)
• Processor: Intel Core Duo (Centrino Duo) T2400 @ 1.83GHz, 2048 KiB L2 Cache
• Graphics: ATI X1400 w/128MB Video RAM
• Memory: 1024MB
• Storage: Hitachi 60GB 5400RPM SATA Disk Drive
• Optical Drive: CDRW/DVD Drive (HL-DT-STCD-RW/DVD DRI)
• Audio: Intel HD Audio Chipset
• Wireless Networking: Intel PRO/Wireless 8945ABG
• Wired Networking: Intel 82573L Gigabit Ethernet
• Peripheral Networking: Bluetooth

So, I got the OK to run Linux on it.  Sweet!  Or so I thought..  I installed Gentoo on this bad boy, and got as far as configuring Xorg, when I started encountering some real problems.

The first big problem I hit was a timer/clock issue.  Networking was just dog slow, and the system was dropping packets to hosts on the local LAN, along with some reall weird latency.  According to the kernel printk timestamps, only 30 seconds had gone by, when the system had been up for over 4 minutes.  Also, not a good sign when keyboard repeat rate slows down and speeds up when you're just holding down a key.

The fix for this was to disable ACPI, for now.  Unfortunately, doing so prevented the SATA contoller to be detected.  Disabling AHCI in the BIOS fixed this.  However, disabling ACPI prevents the Intel audio module from loading, and hoses the wired networking.

So, I'm giving up for tonight.  I didn't even get to trying out the wireless chip or ATI Linux drivers for the X1400 that were apparently just released on the 12th.

I'd post lspci or dmesg output, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, when I have more energy to built a 2.6.16 kernel and hope for the best.

*sigh*

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