Installing Linux on a Sony C1VE Laptop

I have a cute little Sony C1VE baby laptop, otherwise known by Sony as a Picturebook (and sold in some markets as a C1VN I think).

I've previously installed Gentoo on it but Gentoo is really too much of a burden for such an underpowered little beast so I wanted to switch to a compiled distribution. It's difficult to install Linux on it as the CD ROM drive uses the PCMCIA slot and, once the installer starts working, most distros get horribly confused.

I tried a straight Kubuntu 6.10 CD and failed but I then found this page which suggested using Ubuntu 6.06 and an "alternate install" CD.

I followed his instructions, using the OEM route, and it went fine. One thing to be aware of is that during the software installation phase (which is long, so you'll probably wander off to make yourself a cup of tea) it pauses at about 55% and demands to know what X dimensions you want. It's doesn't matter as the one you want (1024 x 480) isn't listed but do be aware.

One thing to be wary of: don't run Gnome until after you've set up your network card. It exhibits very odd behaviour if it can't see the Internet. Just edit /etc/network/interfaces and add

# The primary network interface - use DHCP to find our address
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

and then restart networking.