Some useful things to do after installing Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 "Etch" on an IBM Thinkpad X31.
Activate CPU frequency scaling to conserve power and get rid of fan noise:
$ echo speedstep_centrino >> /etc/modules
$ echo cpufreq_conservative >> /etc/modules
$ echo ibm_acpi >> /etc/modules
$ apt-get install sysfsutils
$ echo "devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor = conservative" \
>> /etc/sysfs.conf
Get access to more capable multimedia packages by adding a Debian Multimedia mirror to the file /etc/apt/sources.list. Then:
$ apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring
Install tpb for on-screen display of sound volume and TFT brightness.
All desktop users has to be added to the nvram group.
$ apt-get install tpb
$ adduser username nvram