hey there LQ i need advice on what distro to use on my toshiba a210 -ms008c ive tried fedora 8 ubuntu (several releases all work with my wifi but none have sound) and ive tried slackware 12 but it wont install im thinking of using gentoo but your guy's advice might show me a better way any ideas ? also ive been using linux off and on for about 2 years now and im by no means a noob

I managed to get Gentoo working on a Toshiba A210, sound and everything, after about a week.

The trick for sound is a 2.6.25 kernel, which is currently a pre-release.

But that kernel breaks the building of the fglrx module needed for accelerated graphics, so it needs to be modified to work on that new kernel, search google for "fglrx 2.6.25" to find details.

The initial installation of Gentoo was tricky since the ethernet did not work from the livecd, so I used a Debian install in place of the livecd, then swapped the root directory around from the livecd at the time where the boot into the new system would normally happen.

I had to use 32bit mode instead of 64bit mode to have wireless working with ndiswrapper, since only the windows 98 driver seems to work.

I started writing up my notes from the installation of Gentoo, but haven't finished yet, and unfortunately didn't take very good notes either.
http://sarah-a-happy.livejournal.com/tag/linux+setup

Hi Iceman...

I have bought a Satellite Pro A200, just two weeks ago, and I've installed Slackware 12. In this moment I have a few problems, but nothing dangerous or concerning (I guess !!!):

i. Built in camera, still not working

ii. ACPI funtions are not properly adjusting CPU throttling, and sometimes are affecting laptop video performance (slow movements of windows), but not really so bad.

All the rest is working great. I can recommend you the following tutorial... really great, and easy to follow:

The Perfect Desktop - Slackware 12, by Brian Z.

This guy did a really excellent job. You must just take his way, and in a few hours you are ready with slackware 12.

I hope this could give you another option for your laptop.

caduqued.

Hello again,

I was able to fix CPU delays, building a "custom" kernel..., in which I enabled almost all acpi functions.

I fix the video problem, reinstalling the ati driver (each time that I compile kernel, video performance slow down, so I reinstall after each kernel built).

In this moment the only to do still remaining is the camera.

So Slackware is totally operating in my Satellite Pro A200, and running with an astonishing performance.

If still is good, my advice is for this distro.

Regards,

caduqued

Hi all,

This post is just to let you know that I was able to adjust all functions in my laptop Toshiba Satellite Pro A200, with Slackware 12. In this moment, I have operating all functions, including: Camera, wireless, video ATI, All ACPI functions (with minor problems to hibernate, I'm not sure).

So, a last advice... use Slackware 12, but update your kernel to 2.6.24.4, this solved all my problems, and in this moment I have a really nice laptop with the powerful Slackware.

Regards,

caduqued

Mandriva 2008.1 will work. They've fixed the horrible problems with the HDA audio. It's a really brilliant distro. I would recommend the Free DVD download if you have the bandwidth.

I have this same laptop and the ONLY distro that worked out of the box was Ubuntu 8.04, which I installed while it was still in beta (it is now RC and will be officially released Friday.) Everything worked correctly immediately except the wireless which is an internal USB Realtek 8187B chipset and there is no native linux kernel driver yet (the 8187 driver will not work.) However, I got it working nicely with ndiswrapper.

Mandriva worked as well, but I had difficulty with sound. For some reason, all of the newer kernels recognize the sound card (ATI SB600) and use the snd-hda=intel module for it, but it only pick up sound for the internal 56K modem. I never was able to fix that. But Ubuntu 8.04 worked on the first try.

Bob

Bob, which version of Mandriva did you try? I have installed 2008.1 on four or five machines with HDA audio and they all just work whereas with 2008.0 you had to mess around with config files.

Is it not to do with ALSA rather than the kernel, btw?

Hi DiBosco,

Admittedly, I only used the live CD, and I do believe it was 2008.0 (got it from a magazine cover.) I came close to installing it because, until I tried Ubuntu 8.04, it was the closest to working with all the hardware in this laptop. I bought this laptop about a month ago and tried at least 12 live cd's trying to get sound to work. Most of them failed miserably, even the current hot ones (PCLinuxOS, Mepis, etc.). Fedora 9 Beta worked at well as Mandriva, but crashed a lot.

I really like the look of Mandriva and might consider a dual boot with Ubuntu because I have put a 160GB drive in this laptop and I am only using about 6GB. I also have a copy of Mandriva Power Pack, but I don't believe it is a live CD. If there is a live CD of 2008.1, I will download it and try it.

I have used Mandriva in the past and I have always liked it, but it always felt like they were trying to SELL me something. I know Canonical has taken a turn toward commercialism, but it doesn't seem to be built into the distro like Mandriva. I am not criticizing Manadriva, I really like it, but I don't use Windows because I don't like seeing $ signs around every corner.

Bob

hey there guys osrry its been so long scince ive posted in this thread but ive been really busy getting my site running LOL but yea im downloading mandriva now it seems likes its probably the best distro to use with this laptop and thanks for all the adivce on it

Hi Bob,

Sorry only just saw your post. I have used Mandriva since 2000 when, it was called Mandrake and seen in grow and improve dramatically. It's interesting what you say about the money aspect; I guess that some people choose to pay for Power Pack is one of the reasons why it's such a good looking, easy to install and use distribution.

I take your point about their being dollar signs, but I don't mind as it is quite possible to just get the Free DVD (or CDs) and you never need to actually pay for anything. Canonical are fortunate that Mark Shuttleworth ploughs so much of his own money in to it - and that's a brilliant thing for the Linux community IMHO - something for which I'm very grateful. (I just think Mandriva is better!)

I am not surprised the sound didn't work live CDs up until recently, my impression is that it's taken the Linux community a while to suss it out. I guess Intel have given us little or no support as usual. (Although I thought Intel were one of the better companies for Linux.)

Good luck - I do hope you try and it works for you.