The Compaq LTE Lite range includes 386 and 486 laptop machines. Many things are common between them. However there are several differences. For example, the 386 machines use a 16 bit plug in memory expansion card, while the 486 machines use a 32 bit memory card.
The Lite 4/25 range use a 25MHz 486SLC processor, a 640x480 active matrix TFT display and integrated track ball. There is space for an internal modem and there are external connections for DC power, keyboard/mouse, external monitor, printer, serial port and connection to the Compaq expansion base. The Lite 4/25 machines have no PCMCIA slots.
APM is supported by the Lite 4/25. When running Linux, you can suspend
the machine with apm -s, or you may use the Standby button.
Of course you need to be running a kernel compiled with APM support.
The LTE Lite 4/25 has a function key to activate a battery indicator that is independent of the operating system (works under DOS and Linux).
Make sure that the APM will be controlled by Linux and not the BIOS. Cold boot the machine and press F10 to enter the CMOS configuration. Set the Power Conservation Level to DRAIN.
The trackball is a serial device, not PS/2 as with most other Compaq laptops. You can use the BIOS setup menu to choose which serial device maps to which com port. In my machine there is the trackball, the internal modem and the external rear com port.
The expansion base extends the system buses and connections, including the ISA bus (2 ISA slots), the keyboard, mouse and monitor connections. This allows the fitting of ethernet card, SCSI adaptor, CDROM drive, or additional disk drive to the expansion base.
It seems that there are also external CDROM drive and storage devices (floppy disk or tape) that can be connected to the rear expansion port. These might be a good alternative to the expansion base, but I have not used these devices.
Please note: A number of people have reported problems getting IDE devices to work in the expansion base. This issue is also covered in the Installing Linux section of this document.