Windows
I booted from the Recovery DVD and selected a full recovery, assigning 10 GB to drive C: (and the remaining 50 GB to D:). In less than 20 minutes the operating system and all applications were restored.
IMPORTANT!!! The "Security Update Disc" contains the Blaster worm patch (MS03-026). I installed it before plugging the network.

Mandrake 9.1 installation
As booting the default kernel (kernel-2.4.21-0.13BOOT) will hang just after checking the hard disk (problem also reported here), I had to press F1 at the boot screen and type "linux noapic" at the boot prompt. This disables APIC at boot, it works fine during installation but rebooting after installation leaving APIC disabled freezes the notebook.
In the packages selection, I use to deselect all package groups and check "Individual package selection". Then I check "With basic documentation (recommended!)" and "With X", toggle to "flat" packages view, leave "Show automatically selected packages" checked and check all the packages I want to use.

Additional steps
After packages installation, I follow these additional steps in the "Summary" screen:

• System
  • Keyboard: Italian
  • Country: Italy
  • Timezone: Europe/Rome (auto-selected)
  • Mouse:PS/2 Standard (auto-selected)
• Hardware
  • Printer: Due to a bug in DrakInst, printer configuration will hang while reading /etc/printcap. I use to start the configuration, as it installs required packages, without adding any printer.
  • Sound card: Works selecting i810_audio module
  • Graphical interface: Works selecting "Flat Panel 1400x1050", "XFree 4 -> vesa" X server (configuration detects "NVidia GEForce2 (generic)", but it doesn't work properly). I will compile NVidia driver after installing new kernel(s). I also use to boot in non-graphical mode and start X if needed.
• Network & Internet
  • Network: Configuration correctly detects the network card, using sis900 module.
• Security
  • Security level: Check "Use libsafe for servers"
• Boot
  • Bootloader: Configure LILO enabling ACPI (IMPORTANT: Do NOT leave "Force no APIC" checked, or rebooting will hang) and selecting Video mode "800x600 in 16 bits" for all kernels except failsafe
• Services
  • Services: Start acpi, lm_sensors, acpid, alsa, apmd at boot. I use to start all servers (sshd, httpd2, mysqld, cupsd, netfs, smbd, vsftpd) only when I need them.

First boot
I reboot and kernel 2.4.21-0.13mdk loads without big problems (see dmesg). Seems there are problems assigning address to USB Mouse (even if booting with mouse plugged in), but they solved when using updated 2.4.21-0.25mdk kernel, so I didn't investigate further.

Mandrake updates
As Mandrake 9.1 was released various months ago, updating packages result in upgrading several (100, more or less, for my installation). I fetched the entire "updates" directory from a Mandrake FTP mirror, moved all kernels to a subdirectory and burned a CD, so I can update any fresh installation simply using the CD. [I installed and updated Mandrake 9.1 on my brother's desktop (he has a 56k modem at home) in 50 minutes]

[bibe@localhost bibe]$ su -
Password: 
[root@localhost root]# mount /mnt/cdrom
[root@localhost root]# cd /mnt/cdrom/RPMS/
[root@localhost RPMS]# rpm -Fvh --test *.rpm
  (NOTE: kernels are in "kernels" directory)
  OK, go on...
[root@localhost RPMS]# rpm -Fvh *.rpm
  ###... 100 packages updated
[root@localhost RPMS]# cd kernels
[root@localhost kernels]# rpm -ivh --test kernel-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm \
> kernel-secure-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm \
> kernel-source-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm
  OK, go on...
[root@localhost kernels]# rpm -ivh kernel-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm \
> kernel-secure-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm \
> kernel-source-2.4.21.0.25mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm
  ###... 3 packages installed
[root@localhost kernels]# cd
[root@localhost root]# umount /mnt/cdrom
[root@localhost root]# eject
[root@localhost root]# vi /etc/lilo.conf
  (make changes)
[root@localhost root]# lilo
Added linux *
Added linux-secure
Added failsafe
Added winxp
Added 2.4.21-0.13
Added 2.4.21-0.13sec
[root@localhost root]# reboot

Boot with kernel-2.4.21-0.25mdk
Rebooting with the new kernel resolves USB mouse issues, but shows three boring "ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed." messages (and some other in dmesg) because memory stick (/dev/sda) is not present.
TODO: disable /dev/sda checking at boot
After booting with CD's updates, I configure urpmi to get all updates and new packages from a Mandrake mirror. See Easy urpmi page for urpmi configuration or here for the steps I followed. Finally, type

[root@localhost root]# urpmi --auto-select

XFree86
First of all, I made XFree86 work with "vesa" generic driver and USB Mouse (if connected) together with the touchpad. Here is a working XF86Config-4 configuration file.
After that, I downloaded the graphic driver (version 1.0-4496) from NVIDIA page. Compilation and installation were very simple, and the documentation provided is very detailed (I still have to take a look to optional XF86Config-4 parameters).
The only problem I still encounter using this XF86Config-4 configuration file is that changing to a text console or closing an X session started from a text login (as I use to do) results in a completely white display, that slowly turns black, but never displaying the shell again. The system doesn't stop working, and you can even restart X (that's what I did to check some different configuration parameters).

todo list
I hope to check every parameter (hard disk and USB speed, ACPI parameters, ...) soon and post here a detailed list. I still have to check if modem and firewire work properly.

I hope you will find some of these information useful. If you have any suggestion for helping me to get everything to work, please email me.

bibe at atworkonline dot it