I received a somewhat old, but very nice Medion MIM 2040 laptop from J--- who I sometimes work with. Thanks man. These are some notes about getting Gentoo Linux running on it. Ubuntu came installed, and worked fine, but I had the urge to make it run faster, thus, Gentoo.

Defects

The computer came with a nonfunctioning keyboard. The suspicion is that it was used on a pillow, so the fan was blocked, and overheated the keyboard. Perhaps the plastic melted. The computer gets hot because the airflow isn't very good. It's important to rest it on a plank of wood or some other hard surface. (Update - the keyboard started working. Not sure why.)

It's a MiNote 8089

This computer appears to be a MiNote 8089, or a Mitac 8089. Batteries and power adapters are available.

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:01.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
01:02.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6105 [Rhine-III] (rev 8b)
01:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)

Wireless

The Intel 2200BG isn't supported in the Gentoo driver, so you need to install the sources and build a new kernel. You also need to "emerge net-wireless/ipw2200-firmware" to install a firmware compatible with the driver. After this, the system runs fine.

Install wpa_supplicant to do WPA encryption.

Keyboard

Seems to be a Mitac 8089 under the label. Mitac keyboards are available, but not cheap.

Video

Uses the "i810" driver for Intel chipsets. Set this in your xorg.conf file.

Hard Drive

Is accessible under a removable panel.

Sound

Compile the kernel with the "intel8x0" drivers. There's one for the sound card, and another to make the sound card act like a modem. In the kernel's menu-based config ("make menuconfig"), it's under Sound -> ALSA -> PCI Devices, and it's called "Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller" and "Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD MC97 Modem". Enable them as modules.

"emerge alsa-tools alsa-utils alsa-oss libogg lame"

Run "alsaconfig" to set up the sound. After a reboot, it should work, but the sound is quiet. You need to use headphones. I'm still having problems getting KDE to use sound, but /dev/sound/audio will play .au files.

I'm not sure if lame, toolame, or twolame is best to use.

Modem/Fax

See the sound section.

Ethernet

Default gentoo driver set picks up the Rhine III chipset.

PCMCIA

Not set up yet.

Battery

I ordered one on Ebay for around $60. It arrived from China around 4 weeks later, and it functions fine. The computer only runs around 3-4 hours with the battery, but this is probably due to Linux not being good about powering down things.

Other

To have a firewall running, enable the network netfilter in the kernel, then:

emerge netfilter iptables