This document describes how to install Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (sarge) on an IBM Thinkpad T43p. Since I don't have time to write everything in one session, nor am I finished twiddling around with the setup of the notebook, this is work in progress.
Note: after a while I actually switched to Debian unstable (sid), since I've been using it for a long time on desktop machines. In case some software I use is not in sarge yet, I'll point that out. The installation procedure still applies to sarge, as does the kernel related information since it's pretty much independent from the distribution used.