Hi,

I've been using Red Hat and Fedora for years, but I recently got back an old
laptop, and Fedora just won't run on it. I now have Debian running (2.2.20
kernel), with TCP/IP running too!

It's an old 486, but it has special meaning to me, so I would like to get it
running as a print server (mostly), but I would also like to get X running
on it and the sound as well.

The video is a challenge because the chip is the WD 90C24, which has not
been ported to the latest XFree68 or X.org packages. I am a competent C
developer, so I would not mind digging in and getting my hands dirty with a
port of that code, but I am in a fog as to how much I have to learn before
I'm useful.

Also, audio has never worked on this machine, even though it has a supported
chip, so that would be fun as well.

My goal is not only to get the machine running, but to get into Linux device
driver development too.

I would sincerely appreciate the guidance of a knowledgeable Debian user now
and then to say things like "Subscribe to the XFree86 devel list" (which I
just did) or "you can cross-compile on a faster machine like this" or
"update packages like this" or "get chip specs from here."

So if you're an advanced Debian user and wouldn't mind sharing a few moments
now and then, I could really use some help. Someone local would be
especially useful, so I wrote to this list.

If it matters, the laptop is a ThinkPad 750P with 36MB of RAM and a 12GB
disk. 640x480 gray display that converts into a tablet. It would be
*AWESOME* to get pen input working too. I think it uses a pretty standard
serial tablet protocol.

Thanks,
Chris Schumann