Toshiba and Linux

[horusfalcon]

This'll be short, folks, I promise.

This post may have some bearing on the matter at hand here:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,95190.0.html

That Is All,
D

[Mac]

Try running a Live CD of PCLOS and see how it works. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I have been running PCLOS on my Toshiba A305d since 2008.  Had a probs initially with Wi-Fi but now works "out of  the box" since PCLOS 2009.  Otherwise, pretty much all good. 

CPU Cooling / Power Scaling issues seem to be a constant problem though with Toshiba and Linux for some reason.  Still looking for a solution for that. I have had to maintain this as a dual-boot PCLOS/Windohs only because of this issue. I use PCLOS for about 98 % of my computer work, but if I do any intense multimedia work, I usually do it on Windohs, which seems to manage the CPU better. Linux, however, manages RAM, disk usage, etc much better.

Good luck!

 

I have a A305D and it works just fine except for the above mentioned heat issue... I've had it overheat a few times =( but I have a nice cooling unit that it sits on which keeps it nice and cool.

[phorneker]

My laptop works perfectly with PCLinuxOS 2011.6.  It is a Satellite L305-S5944 with 4GB of RAM, a Intel Mobile 4 chipset, which the 3D acceleration works perfectly, and PCLinuxOS is kept updated.

[ebvt]

I heard from zapjb earlier today and his Toshiba L775D still does not work satisfactorily. I was going to buy one, but he sounded discouraging!

FWIW
ebvt

[luikki]

I heard from zapjb earlier today and his Toshiba L775D still does not work satisfactorily. I was going to buy one, but he sounded discouraging!

what kind of problems does zapjb have?

[canajun]

I have a A305D and it works just fine except for the above mentioned heat issue... I've had it overheat a few times =( but I have a nice cooling unit that it sits on which keeps it nice and cool.

I recently switched from the stock bfs kernel to 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs (i686) and can now use "cpufreq" to manage the cpu (didn't work for me using the previous kernel) and, for the most part, this machine runs cool and quiet now and I can now use the "suspend" and "hibernate" functions, which I previously could not. All peripherals seem to be working well (cam, mic, headset, USB mouse and speakers, etc)

Downside: no 3D support, or at least, it is not recognized as being 3D capable. I can only get a few desktops affects to work, using XRender. OpenGL fails and KWin goes berserk.

Strangely, I have found that my wi-fi connection drops often and then re-connects, even though connection strength is 100%. I have not had any wi-fi probs since PCLOS 2007/08 versions (laptop was new in July 2008).

Also, on boot-up, there is a message regarding an "address space collision / host bridge" and a couple other things, which seem to stem from a known (upstream) kernel bug.

Excerpts from dmsg:

"Malformed early option 'acpi'
Notice: NX (Execute Disable) protection cannot be enabled: non-PAE kernel!
DMI 2.4 present.
DMI: TOSHIBA Satellite A305D/, BIOS 1.90    06/02/2009"

"ACPI: No dock devices found.
HEST: Table not found.
PCI: Using host bridge windows from ACPI; if necessary, use "pci=nocrs" and report a bug
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (domain 0000 [bus 00-ff])"

"pci_root PNP0A08:00: host bridge window expanded to [mem 0xf8000000-0xffffffff]; [mem 0xfff00000-0xffffffff] ignored
pci_root PNP0A08:00: address space collision: host bridge window [mem 0x000cc000-0x000cffff] conflicts with Video ROM [mem 0x000c0000-0x000cd7ff]"

"pci 0000:00:13.5: EHCI: BIOS handoff failed (BIOS bug?) 01010001
PCI: CLS mismatch (64 != 32), using 64 bytes
pci 0000:01:05.0: Boot video device
Trying to unpack rootfs image as initramfs...
Freeing initrd memory: 5512k freed
Simple Boot Flag at 0x44 set to 0x1
apm: BIOS not found.
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
type=2000 audit(1312483744.976:1): initialized
highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages"

"Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 100x37
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
ERST: Table is not found!"

"usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)"

I have recently checked out a number of other distros and had pretty much the same errors and when I googled some of these, I found many reports from various distros, so these are indeed upstream kernel bugs.

I also found that, when trying out distros that offered a i586 kernel that I no longer had these errors or fewer errors. However, I much prefer PCLOS overall for a variety of reasons, and which I have been using since 2005 on my main PC, backup PC, and on this Laptop since 2008.

If it is not too much trouble, I hope that the PCLOS devs might be able to add an i586 back into the mix, as it seems that, the last time this machine ran bug free was with PCLOS 2009.  Beginning in 2010 it was one thing after another, many crashes and re-installs and much tweaking. Also had some probs on the main PC too since 2009.  I am not bitching, just asking, and hope you will give it some consideration.

Also, I noticed that Debian repos offer some toolkits that are specific to Toshiba (firmware I think). Any chance that such might be able to be incorporated in PCLOS ?

Thanks guys and gals for all your hard work.

 


Specs:
Laptop: TOSHIBA Satellite A305d / ATA Hitachi HTS54252 / ATI Radeon
AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60: 2000.00MHz
Processors:   AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60
BIOS-Date:   06/02/2009 Vendor: Insyde Corp. Version: 1.90
VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series]
O/S: PCLinuxOS 2011.6  Kernel: Linux 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs (i686)
Memory: 2982MB

[luikki]

I recently switched from the stock bfs kernel to 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs (i686)

wouldn't an amd kernel be more suitable?

[cyrwyn]

I've not had any problems with my L555D-7930 (dual core AMD 64). I've also used both .bfs and .a64 kernels and they work fine. If you are fully updated you should be using at least a 2.6.38.xx kernel because of software updates.

[T6]

I recently switched from the stock bfs kernel to 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs (i686)

wouldn't an amd kernel be more suitable?

with that amount of ram?  yes, absolutely

[canajun]

If you all are referring to my above comments, I have tried 'amd' kernels in the past without success. I can't recall now exactly what happened but i believe things were worse. My system is otherwise fully up-to-date. I'll give the 'amd' another try though in the near future. Thanks 

[T6]

i have used and kept 2 or 3 kernels, my atom and my semprom both works nice with it, faster than bfs but none can use pae, your can but you don't have 4 gbs of ram

[ebvt]

luikki,
you were asking about zapjb's problems:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,95190.0.html

ebvt

[luikki]

ebvt,

it looks like zapjb has his problem solved:

I'm an idiot. Today I booted to PCLOS KDE 2011.6 LiveCD in full Safe mode. The other day must have booted into only video Safe Mode. Everything is OK so far. Anyways all my basics for a LiveCD work. Video, WiFi & Keyboard/touchpad. Sorry for my hissy fit. Great forum, thanks again for holding my hand once again. Marking this solved.

[ebvt]

luikki,

zapjb generated two posts: one, from which you quote, in GENERAL. Then he switched with another post to LAPTOP HARDWARE. Note that in your quote he says  "Anyways all my basics for a LiveCD work .......". That's why I sent him a PM  and he mentioned that installation was still a problem, based on his second post. I want to install and not just live with the LiveCD and had a chance to buy this machine in a sale. After all this, I didn't.

ebvt

[luikki]

ebvt.

usually, if a live cd works fine, there is no reason for issues with an installed system.
so, it would be nice to know what problem i still affecting zapjb...