Installing Linux on Toshiba Satellite 2410-S403
About this translation: this page has been translated from French by me. Original version available here. Please contact me in case of bad translation.
This page describes the installation of a Linux Mandrake Power Pack 9.1 on a Toshiba Satellite 2410-S403 laptop. And I'm happy to tell you it works quite well. It may also work with other Linux distros or laptops of the Toshiba 2410 serie, but I have only tested the software and hardware previously mentionned. Feel free to contact me for any suggestion, help or remark.
The Toshiba Satellite 2410-S403 specifications
Here is an overview of the laptop's specifications:
| Manufacturer |
Toshiba |
| Dimensions (l x h x p) in mm |
327 x 45 x 286 |
| CPU |
Intel Pentium 4-M cache memory 512 Kb |
|
CPU Freq / Bus Freq |
2,2 GHz / 400 MHz |
| RAM |
512 Mo DDR PC 2100 |
| CD-ROM drive, DVD-ROM drive/ CD-R, CD-RW burner |
DVD-ROM 8x, DVD-R/-RW (1x 1x 4x) and CD-RW (16x 10x 24x)
|
| Hard Disc |
40 Go |
| Screen |
15" / 38,1 cm TFT |
| Graphic Card |
nVidia GeForce4 420 Go - AGP 4x,
32 Mo DDR video memory, TV-out |
| TV-out |
Composite |
| Modem / Fax 56K |
Yes |
| Network card |
Ethernet 10/100 Mbps |
| Infrared port (IrDA) |
Yes |
| IEEE 1394 port |
Yes |
| PCMCIA |
2 PC Card type II or 1 type III |
| Cards |
SD Card |
Linux Mandrake Power Pack 9.1 overview
It is a pesonnal distro coming with 7 CD-ROM, managed by the french society MandrakeSoft SA. Let's have a glimpse of the available RPMs: Linux Kernel 2.4.21, Glibc 2.3.1, KDE 3.1, Gnome 2.2, XFree86 4.3, OpenOffice.org 1.0.2. The distro also includes a 60 days support by e-mail and 30 days by phone.
What's working, what's not...
Colour code :
- Fully supported spec at installation.
- Partly supported spec, or requires special work-around.
- Unsupported spec, or unstable
Whtat's working, and what's not:
- Floppy, CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, TrackPad, sound card,
Ethernet, USB.
- nVidia, TV-OUT/External VGA monitor, APM, Modem
, Video DVD reading, IrDA and LIRC
- DVD burning, SD-CARD, sleep state, additionnal keys
Not tested yet : PCMCIA, IEEE 1394.
Last update: 2003 December, 24th
nVidia video card
The default drivers installed with the Mandrake pack are the commercial nVidia drivers, in RPM format. Unfortunately, after the first startup of the X server, the display is blocked in 640 by 480, and one tenth of the screen remains black and unused. What's more, APM freezes the X server whenever the laptop is set in sleep mode. That's quite annoying, isn't it ? A solution consists in using the free nv driver, but it doesn't provide any hardware 3D acceleration. What is the use of having a GeForce 4 420, if we can't use its features ?
So, we'll have to use the commercial nVidia drivers. You can download the latest drivers on nVidia's web site. I'm using the version 1.0-4496. The version provided by Mandrake is older. If you wan't to obtain exactly the effects described here (nice and bad :-), and if the drivers 1.0-4496 aren't the latest anymore, you'll have to download that version from the archives of the nVidia Web site.
Before doing any operation, backup the XF86Config-4 text file, present in the /etc/X11/ directory. That way, you'll be able to restore your previous configuration in case of problems. Uninstall as well any nVidia driver that would be installed on your system already (a quick glance at RpmDrake should inform you). Concerning the driver installation itself, please see the common procedure.
Configuring the Toshiba Satellite 2410-S403 is quite simple. It consists in editing the XF86Config-4 text file, present in the /etc/X11/ directory. Of course, that operation requires the root rights.
- In the Module section:
- Remove the lines:
Load "dri" and
Load "GLcore" if they exist. Placing a # at the beginnig of that lines will do as well.
- Add the line:
Load "glx" in order to load the nVidia GLX module.
- In the Device section::
- In the line beginning with Driver, replace "nv" by "nvidia" if it is not done yet. You can also add the Bus ID:
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "AGP:01:00:0"
- If you wan't to disable the nVidia Logo when X starts, add the following line:
Option "NoLogo"
- Disable the detection of the screen by the nVidia driver, in order not to remain blocked in 640 by 480:
Option "NoDDC" "1"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"
- Finally, it seems that adding the following option improves the image quality (for exemple, the screen is not flashing anymore when I click on the logout button of KDE):
Option "DigitalVibrance" "0"
- In the Screen section;:
- Add the line:
Option "NoDDC" "1"
That's it! You can download my own version of the XF86Config-4 file, which enables the TrackPad and an USB mouse, if any is connected. With that version, I have hardware acceleration in 1024 by 7698 and AGP 4x (yes, UT2003 seems to run very smoothly), the support of APM (the laptop goes to sleep mode and resumes normally), and TV-OUT or VGA output is automatically enabled in TwinView mode if an external monitor or a TV-set is connected.
However, I have noted a strange bug: when a second monitor or a TV-set is connected, everything is fine under X, but the virtual consoles (reached by Ctrl + Alt + F1->12) are unusable. The characters seem to have been magnified through a magnifying-glass :-). Feel free to contact me if you have any idea...
Last update: 2003 December, 24th
The Modem 56K
The matter is, Toshiba provides a softmodem. That's to say, a software has to do the job of a normal hardmodem, which can cope with itself, but which is also more expensive. Fortunately, the horrible Winmodem can become a nice Linmodem after doing some operations. First, download the SmartLink driver. I use the version 2.7.10, which seems stable. The driver is provided as a slmdm-2.7.10.tar.gz archive. Uncompress it, a slmdm-2.7.10 folder is created. Be sure that the kernel sources are installed on your system. If not, install the kernel-source package, with RpmDrake for instance.
Then, type in a console:
cd slmdm-2.7.10, [Enter], which enters the newly created folder.
make, [Enter] in order to compile the driver. If there is no error message, you can proceed to the installation:
su, [Enter], root-password, [Entrée], in order to obtain the root rights.
make install-amr, [Enter] installs the driver, and make it be loaded each time you want to use the modem.
Finally, tell the driver in which country you are. To do so, edit with root rights the modules.conf file, located in /etc/, and add the following line:
options slmdm country=MY_COUNTRY.
For instance:
options slmdm country=FRANCE.
That's it, now you can use any PPP connexion program to dial your Internet provider. I'm using kPPP. To verify if the modules are loaded, you can enter dmesg in a console. You should have the following lines:
slmdm: version 2.7.10 Feb 4 2003 15:18:20 (Smart Link Ltd.).
slmdm: country set is 0x3d (FRANCE).
Smart Link AMRMO modem.
amrmo: probe 8086:2486 Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem : ICH card...
This driver is not compatible with the installed modem codec. Please contact your modem provider for support.
There seems to be a problem with the codecs, but it's working, and that's what matters.
Last update: 2003 August, 20th
Energy Management
Be Careful! APM doesn't work with the commercial nVidia drivers older than the 1.0-4496 version excluded. Please update your drivers if you want to use APM and the hardware 3D acceleration. See section nVidia.
To exploit APM, I use the version 2.0.1 of the Toshiba(tm) Linux Utilities. Dowload the tar.gz. archive and uncompress it. In a console, enter the newly created folder:
cd toshutils-2.0.1
Then configure, compile, and install everything by typing:
./configure
make depend
make all
make install
If you're using Gnome or KDE, add a WindowMaker applet bar. For instance, under KDE, right click on the panel, then Panel Menu -> Add -> Extension -> WindowMaker Applets.
Here is a screenshot of the wmtuxtime applet docked in the KDE Panel:
Finally, create a shortcut leading to the newly compiled wmtuxtime application, in the hidden folder ~./kde/Autostart/. That way, the applet will be loaded whenever KDE is started. Configure wmtuxtime as you wish. Some error messages will be displayed to warn you that some settings are not supported. I use Wmtuxtime to display the battery level, decrease automatically the brightness of the screen when the laptop is battery-supplied, turn off the screen if the laptop is unused for a defined period, finally put the laptop in sleep mode manually.
However, the automatic sleep mode doesn't work, and it's impossible to turn off the HDD or the laptop after a defined period. It's strange that the global sleep mode works whereas it is impossible to turn off the components individually! What's more, I have spotted a funny bug: after resuming from sleep, there is a difference of 2 hours between the clock and the true time, which is exactly the difference between the french summer time and the GMT time. If anybody has an idea...
Last update: 2003 August, 20th
Video DVD reading
Because of a preposterous matter of license, it is almost impossible to read video DVDs legally under Linux. Thus, Mandrake comes with all the multimedia software needed to read DVDs but it doesn't include the library required to read encrypted DVDs, that's to say most of them. The law, depending on the country where you live, may be changing. Get information before using the miraculous solution: libdvdcss. Of course, I don't provide any address, but you'll find easily a RPM on the Internet. Anyway, I can send it to you by e-mail.
Last update: December 25th, 2003
Infra-rouge : IrDA et LIRC.
La carte SMC IRCC fonctionne au prix d'une petite installation. La routine d'initialisation smcinit doit être téléchargée puis compilée, et enfin copiée dans /usr/local/sbin.
Compilation : assurez-vous d'avoir installé auparavant le paquetage pci-utils contenant pci.h. Ensuite, placez-vous dans le dossier où se trouve le fichier source tosh5100-smcinit.c fraîchement téléchargé, puis ouvrez une console. Tapez alors gcc tosh5100-smcinit et validez. Le binaire du même nom est enfin créé. Pour les fainéants qui possèdent la Mandrake 9.1, vous pouvez télécharger le binaire tosh5100-smcinit, ce qui vous évitera la compilation.
Copiez à présent le binaire dans /usr/local/bin (ou équivalent, ça n'a pas beaucoup d'importance). Pour cela, vous devrez certainement être connecté en superutilisateur.
Pour automatiser le chargement des modules à chaque utilisation de l'infra-rouge, rajoutez ces quelques lignes au fichier modules.conf situé dans le dossier /etc :
pre-install lirc_sir /usr/local/sbin/tosh5100-smcinit
alias char-major-61 lirc_sir
options lirc_sir irq=3
alias irda0 smc-ircc
pre-install smc-ircc /usr/local/sbin/tosh5100-smcinit
Voilà, IrDA est prêt à fonctionner. LIRC permet quant à lui d'émettre et de recevoir des signaux infra-rouges. Je m'en sers en particulier pour piloter XMMS et Mplayer (Xine possède également un greffon LIRC, non fourni avec la Mandrake 9.1) grâce à la télécommande de ma chaîne Hi-Fi. Pour profiter de LIRC, il vous suffit de récupérer la dernière version, puis de la configurer pour LIRC SIR, sur port 0x03f8, IRQ 3 (le classique ./configure vous demande toutes ces informations), et enfin de la compiler avec make et make install. Il vous faudra ensuite sélectionner votre télécommande dans la liste (assez fournie). Si elle ne s'y trouve pas, il vous suffira de créer un fichier de configuration personnel, en lançant irrecord dans une console. Dans tous les cas, renommez le fichier en lircd.conf, et copiez-le dans /etc. Afin d'activer LIRC à chaque démarrage de l'ordinateur, vous pouvez utiliser le script fourni (mais pas installé par défaut) ou celui que j'ai créé spécialement pour ma Mandrake 9.1, à copier dans /etc/rc.d/init.d. Enfin, pour pouvoir démarrer vos programmes préférés par une simple pression sur un bouton de la télécommande, il est utile de démarrer irexec à chaque nouvelle session de KDE. Pour cela, créez le raccourci approprié dans /mon_dossier/.kde/Autostart.
Un petit coup d'oeil à dmesg tapé dans une console devrait vous informer du bon fonctionnement des modules :
lirc_sir: I/O port 0x03f8, IRQ 3.
enable_irq(3) unbalanced from e3fba9a3
lirc_sir: Installed.
Dernière mise à jour : 24 décembre 2003