TwinReverb

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Installing Slackware 12.1 on Toshiba Satellite A55-S306

Last updated: 05 November 2008

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.27.2 (Slackware 12.1).
Basic Installation of Slackware 12.1:

* Why use Slackware? I prefer Slackware for its customize-ability, stability, security, and speed. However, Mandriva Linux will install just fine, and I recommend Mandriva for those who are new to Linux. Still, Slackware works very good.
* Obtaining Slackware 12.1: get it here.
* Installing: This laptop comes, obviously, with Windows taking up all space on the hard drive. It is necessary to re-size the Windows partition to make room for Linux. Usually I just inserted Mandrake Linux CD #1 and used their resizing tool to do it. You can also go to GParted Live CD Be warned, however, that the factory Windows restore DVD is a Norton Ghost restore, basically a "paint your hard drive Windows" DVD. If you use it, it will destroy everything you have and make your hard drive like it came from the factory. Those who actually need Windows might consider making a (LEGAL!) copy of Windows XP Home from a friend, since they legally own a license for it, but might not enjoy losing all their data using Toshiba's restore DVD. I highly recommend that the user also learn how to make that Windows XP Home CD include service packs 1 and 2 "slip-streamed". Remember, by the way, that if yours comes with Windows XP Home, you own rights to the Home version of XP, and not to XP Pro. And yes, I obey the law: copyright is the law. Don't like it? Use Linux! :)
* Post-Install modifications/tweaks: see here and see below. Most of this is not specific to this laptop: it's customizations that I do to my Slackware Linux installation.

Setting up additional features for Slackware 12.1:

* Getting Suspend and Hibernate to operate correctly: I prefer not to use KDE's klaptop daemon. Just "echo disk > /sys/power/state" for Hibernate and "echo mem > /sys/power/state" for Suspend. As of writing this right now, I had done no configuration. Suspend to Memory (Suspend) didn't work because some device (I guess) is preventing that. However, Suspend to Disk (Hibernate) works great, and it seems like nothing is broken so far. Thanks to rworkman from FreeNode ##slackware, my acpi_handler.sh script below also includes logic to automatically call Suspend to Disk when your battery is low. NEW: use pm-utils from rlworkman.net. It works great for suspend and hibernate. On my machine, suspend results in losing your DHCP session for your wireless, but otherwise it works great.
* Touch-pad: Linux Kernel 2.6.12 first included several ALPS touch-pad fixes. I prefer to compile psmouse as a module so that you can specify "options psmouse proto=exps resetafter=1" in /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse, or inline in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules as "/sbin/modprobe psmouse proto=exps resetafter=1" (if you blacklist it from auto-loading). The first way to do it is my preferred method.
* LCD contrast configuration for fonts in X.org: mainly I specify my laptop's LCD viewing area as "DisplaySize 304 228", which is the viewable size in millimeters. While you can find it by measuring, it's possible to use algebra to find it if you don't have a ruler. First, viewable size is measured diagonally by manufacturers. Second, the sides of the screen form 90 degree angles (a rectangle), so you can use Pythagorus's theorum: C² = A² + B², where C is the diagonal screen size of our virtual triangle, and A and B are two sides. Since you know the ratio of A to B (1024:768 is 4:3), you can substitute A=4X B=3X and then solve out, resulting in 12" by 9", then convert to millimeters.
* General Video comments: As for the rest of the configuration, I prefer to use "xorgsetup" program to make me one. Mine is here. As for other things in my configuration, you'll notice the Option "DPMS" lines, which are to tell X that it can use the power saving features of this card. Then there's the DRI section, which allows everyone to use hardware acceleration. The Intel 855GM isn't a very good 3D Accelerated card, but this can at least improve some of DVD playback and 3D rendering. On mine, I get approximately 112 frames per second in glxgears (maximized), which isn't too shabby. I recommend passing the argument (see my configuration) to tell the driver how much the AGP aperture is (128MB).
* KERNEL CONFIG FOR INTEL 855GM: As of 05 November 2008, the default Slackware generic kernel config (see the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT file) works for moving to and from Virtual Terminals while in X (i.e. ctrl+alt+F5 and F7 respectively). The Gentoo WikiHow used to include information on this card, recommending that the graphical options be compiled into the kernel rather than being configured as modules. Also, notice that Slackware does not load the i915 nor DRM modules (Intel 915 series video and direct acceleration, respectively) so you may need to add these to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to load them. Assuming you use the options found in my xorg.conf, you should have direct rendering on this graphics card also.
* LILO recommendation (NEW): use "vga = 792" for 1024x768 or 788 for 800x600. Both of these are at 16k colors. This card only supports up to 24k color mode, and only in X: intelfb framebuffer only supports 16k or 32k colors. Obviously this means 16k color is what you should use. if you want a mode that works for boot up. Otherwise use "vga = normal" if you want it to look like the old-school DOS. If using "vga = normal" gives you a small portion of the screen to use, reboot into the BIOS configuration and tell it to stretch the video mode (so it looks more like old-school VGA while not in X). Some people like it with small text ("vga = 792"), some do not ("vga = normal"). I have yet to try "vga = normal" using frame buffer but I'll get back to it.
* Wireless: As of Slackware 12.1, the firmware for the Intel IPW2200 module (my wireless) is included with Slackware. Wireless works out of the box.
* ACPI: This computer needs ACPI support to work properly, in the sense of hardware devices. This means you should be installing Slackware from an ACPI kernel like the generic kernel. Most modern Linux distributions support ACPI by default, but it's worth noting.
* In terms of acpid "chatter", this laptop does have a LID switch that gets recognized, as well as what state the processor, fan, and battery are in and when they change states. New: check out a copy of my /etc/acpi/acpi_handler.sh . Mine sets the CPU Speedstep to "powersave" (or slowest speed) when the laptop is unplugged, and back to "ondemand" when plugged in. New: thanks to rworkman from FreeNode ##slackware, my acpi_handler.sh script below also includes logic to automatically call Suspend to Disk when your battery is low.
* CPU: works as advertised.
* Speed-step: This computer has Speed-step capabilities (i.e. CPU frequency scaling). Only kernels 2.6.x and following will have it. It works great! Be sure to include the "ondemand" scaling governor, and set /etc/rc.d/rc.local to automatically enter this mode ("echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor"), since it's the most logical guess at boot time. Note: as of recent (2.6.26.x kernel) the ACPI scheduler is the proper SpeedStep scheduler in the kernel, not the original speedstep-centrino. Read the kernel before you start using it. Anyways, speedstep has saved me quite a bit of battery power when I've went roaming. However, another governor you might want to use while unplugged is "powersave" (setting it is the same as above, basically), which keeps the CPU at the slowest possible speed and saves the most battery. I have a preliminary rc.cpufreq script that can run this at boot time just like any other Slackware init script. As of Slackware
* Battery: works great. I achieve the advertised battery time of 4 hours, so long as I'm being power-conscious. Remember, things like listening to music at high volume levels, burning CDs, etc, will drain the battery faster. Of course, over time batteries lose their advertised life as they wear out. Take care of it and it will reward you.
* Sound: works great. In the past, you had to make sure to blacklist the snd-intel8x0m module ("echo snd-intel8x0m >> /etc/hotplug/blacklist") because it causes problems (it's the modem sound module). As of Slackware 11.0, Pat does it for you, but it is worth knowing. The default Slackware generic kernel module works fine with my sound card and also with my USB Altec Lansing XT1 speakers.
* LCD back-light: works fine. It automatically shuts itself off / turns itself on based on LCD display lid position, so you don't have to set up Linux to do it. However, remember that going to hibernate mode is not automatic, i.e. the hardware does not do it for you. In Windows, the default configuration was to go to hibernate mode when you closed the lid. You can still do this if you want. Just know that this isn't a bug, it's an automatic windows feature.

Only issue:

* Modem doesn't work, but I never bothered to get it working. Not supported directly in the Linux kernel yet, due to being a "winmodem". However, would probably work fine using an emulator. I physically uninstalled my modem from my laptop.

Configuration Files:

* /etc/X11/xorg.conf
* Kernel configuration for this machine

Output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
01:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)

TwinReverb

I installed Mandriva 2009 Free Edition (Gnome). This was very easy. I won't bother going over the installation process because it was very easy.

Post-install, I only had to tweak a few things.

What worked fine:
On this laptop, everything not specifically listed below worked fine in
my experience. You can see any specifics in my Slackware 12.1 review.

Mouse:
This laptop has an ALPS Touchpad. The mouse is incorrectly detected on an ISA bus (this machine has no ISA bus). The mouse driver had weird tap zones for switching virtual desktop. I could not find where to disable this. The mouse driver also didn't recognize double-tap-and-drag that I am used to. What I did was recompile the kernel with a known good kernel config (http://www.puresimplicity.net/~twinreverb/config) from Slackware, making psmouse a module, and putting the following in /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse

This solved the problem.

PC Speaker:
See various bug reports and ALSA/Linux documentation. If you have an onboard sound card (which this laptop does), you should blacklist the PC Speaker module (pcspkr) in my opinion. No need to use it as an ALSA output device. However, this module did not cause me problems on Mandriva. I only bring it up because of past experiences with this specific kernel module.

Lag and Bloat:
While Mandriva is designed to work on everyone's computer for every possible use, all these features can load down a machine. For me, most of the streamlining needed was recompiling the kernel. Believe it or not, this was actually extremely easy: much easier than past Mandriva releases I had experienced.

First, you go get the source code. See this link for a good explanation of what kernels are available via Mandriva's package repositories. I grabbed the vanilla source code using this command:

Then I simply changed directory to /usr/src/kernel-linus-2.6.27.2-1mdv
and started the normal compile process I'm used to with Slackware, using the same exact kernel config I used on Slackware. Once built, I copied the bzImage over, added a kernel config line to /etc/lilo.conf and re-ran LILO.

LILO Gotchas
For some reason, on this Mandriva release, hard drives are all referenced as /dev/sdaX (i.e. /dev/sda, /dev/sda2, etc) rather than /dev/hdaX. This at first alarmed me, thinking Mandriva had accidentally mis-detected and/or mis-configured my onboard hard drives. But I didn't notice any difference in how the new kernel ran. However, you must make sure that you change all references to /dev/sdaX to /dev/hdaX entries if you run a vanilla kernel config. I had LILO refuse to boot twice due to this. I don't know if the other kernels will, in hind sight, run properly using /dev/hdaX rather than sdaX and UUID=@#$ type boot/root entries in /etc/lilo.conf, but my new kernel runs so well I don't know if I'll bother trying them to see if they work or not this way.

Suspend and Hibernate:
On Mandriva, even with my custom (non-bloat) kernel config, suspend and hibernate modes work correctly. This is different than on Slackware, but since Slackware's philosophy is "you configure it" rather than "we configure it for you", I can't hold that against Slackware. I mention it only to point out that it works on this laptop, for those who need suspend and hibernate to work.

Onboard Modem:
There is no linux distribution I've yet tried where my onboard 56k modem works. This is because it is a winmodem (i.e. software modem). I would recommend not to bother trying to install it. In fact, if you really care about the small amount of memory this PCI device uses, simply power off the laptop, flip it over, remove the cover, and remove the modem card. In this day and age, if you use only Linux, especially if you have wireless and ethernet available for use, you might as well remove it, just for the heck of it.

Mandriva Linux is a very sharp and well-put-together distribution this time around, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I have used Mandrake/Mandriva off and on since around the release of RH9 and Slackware 9. If you want a decent distribution that requires minimal work, and has lots of available software, this is what you want.