XFree86 (mouse, keyboard, screen, graphics card, external monitor)

The graphics card is a "ATI Radeon Mobility 7500" and was not recognized by XFree86 4.1, so I had to install XFree86 4.2.

Using the (currently still unofficial) standard debian package xserver-xfree86 (version 4.2.1-0pre1, deb-line:

deb http://people.debian.org/~branden sid/i386/
deb-src http://people.debian.org/~branden sid/source/

) together with the hardware detection packages discover, mdetect and read-edid from the official sid archive, you can leave all the detection work to xfree (graphics card autodetect, monitor autodetect, mouse autodetect). The only settings I had to enter were the horizontal and vertical refresh rates (31.7-37.5 and 50-100) and of course select the desired screen resolution (where no 1400x1050 was offered, so I needed to edit XF86Config-4 manually afterwards). Here is my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4:

### BEGIN DEBCONF SECTION

Section "Files"
	FontPath	"unix/:7100"			# local font server
	# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
	FontPath	"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"GLcore"
	Load	"bitmap"
	Load	"dbe"
	Load	"ddc"
	Load	"dri"
	Load	"extmod"
	Load	"freetype"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"int10"
	Load	"record"
	Load	"speedo"
	Load	"type1"
	Load	"vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"keyboard"
	Option		"CoreKeyboard"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xfree86"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Touchpad"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"		"PS/2"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"USBMouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"		"ImPS/2"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M7 [LW]"
	Driver		"ati"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Standardbildschirm"
	HorizSync	31.9-37.5
	VertRefresh	50-100
	Option		"DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"LCDScreen"
	Device		"ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility M7 [LW]"
	Monitor		"Standardbildschirm"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		1
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		4
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		8
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		15
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		16
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		24
		Modes		"1400x1050" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"LCDScreen"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Touchpad"
	InputDevice	"USBMouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode	0666
EndSection
### END DEBCONF SECTION

+

Note the two InputDevice sections for the USB mouse and the touchpad, which can be used at the same time.

o

The additional CD control keys at the front of the notebook, and the information and mail buttons next to the power button have keycodes (according to xev they are 162, 164, 144, 153, 174 and 176 for the CDRom buttons, 178 for the info and 236 for the mail button), but no keysym assigned, so they cannot be used out of the box (and they are not so important to me to dig into it).

+

Using a video beamer with the notebook works fine. Just plug in the VGA plug at the back of the notebook (the signal seems to be there all the time).