Debian on Toshiba Satellite A70 sound, mouse, and video problems
 

Hi,

I know I already posted this elsewhere, but thought that this forum might be more helpful since I run Debian.
I recently purchase a Toshiba Satellite A70 laptop, and am trying to run Debian Linux on it. However, I ran into a number of problems, I tried google but to no avail. Specifiically, I have:
no sound
my touchpad mouse does not work (I have a wireless mouse for now that works
perfectly, but I would enjoy being able to use the touchpad)
my resolution is only 1024x768. Since I have a widescreen capable of running
1280x800, I would like to be able to run at that resolution.

The only error I get is for my sound, when I startx I get an error saying /dev/dsp no such file or directory sound will be outputted to dev/null I believe. I have no idea what files I should include to help you guys solve my problem, much less who makes my soundcard, as Toshiba is less than helpful. --EDIT-- I got this from CNET, but it appears that Toshiba no longer carries my laptop anymore, even though I bought it from them about 2 months ago :(
CNET says this about my sound card: Audio codec - Realtek ALC250

The mouse and resolution problems aren't quite as severe, as I know I just need to edit my xf86 file correctly to get them to work, but I would appreciate it if anyone has a copy of theirs that I could look off of. Here is a short copy of mine:
--EDIT-- WOW... I'm such a n00b... On a hunch, to change my resolution all I did was manually edit the file so that in my Display section, instead of 1280x1024 I put 1280x800... I thought It would take more work than that. Amazing how simple that was!


XF86Config-4

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Mobile Radeon 9000"
Driver "ati"
VideoRam 65536
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LPL:0000"
HorizSync 28-60
VertRefresh 40-60
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Mobile Radeon 9000"
Monitor "LPL:0000"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

For the sound problem, try installing alsa (apt-get install alsa-base), then run "alsaconf" script to configure your sound card.

The touchpad should work as a standard PS/2 mouse I think. Here is the device section for the mouse on my Dell laptop running Sarge. The touchpad and "eraser" pointer both work:

Hey, thanks...


I've tried several things, including running alsaconf. It seems to find my sound card / driver (attixp, by the way, and I beleive it is using the Realtek ALC250 AC '97 chipset... not sure what that means), and says everything is fine, try running a mixer. Still, when I try to do that I get a /dev/dsp is missing.

--EDIT-- By going to KDE Control Center and changing the sound device under the "Hardware" Tab from "Auto-Detect" to "Advanced Linux Sound Architecture" (ALSA) I now get a different Sound error. The Error now reads "device: default can't be opened for playback (no such file or directory). The Auto-Detect still produces the old "/dev/dsp can't be opened for playback". I did an ls -l of my /dev directory, and there is no /dev/dsp. I followed some advice on another forum:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...002/11/4/36425

that recommends using # mknod /dev/dsp c 14 3
This creates /dev/dcp, but as far as i can tell I cannot access this device, maybe due to file permissions. it creates a crw-r--r-- 1 root root 14, 3 2005-10-13 16:08 /dev/dsp. This file is promptly destroyed at each reboot.

Also, I tried using your mouse config, I get an error from xserver that it can't find /dev/psaux. I believe this will work if i knew where my touchpad was located (/dev/mouse, /dev/input, etc), but I don't know where to find that info.

Here is my new (edited) XFree86-4 config:
# Working Wireless Mouse
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Wireless Logitech Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

# Non-working Toshiba Touchpad
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Laptop Touchpad"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Wireless Logitech Mouse"
# InputDevice "Laptop Touchpad"
EndSection




Here is the results from lsmod, sorry if my last post was lacking in information:

$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
mousedev 9996 1
tsdev 7168 0
usbhid 28864 0
ipv6 229892 8
ds 17796 2
irtty_sir 8320 0
sir_dev 18092 1 irtty_sir
irda 167360 2 irtty_sir,sir_dev
crc_ccitt 2432 1 irda
parport_pc 33348 0
parport 37320 1 parport_pc
evdev 9088 0
pcspkr 3816 0
rtc 12088 0
yenta_socket 19200 0
pcmcia_core 63028 2 ds,yenta_socket
8139cp 19072 0
ehci_hcd 27908 0
ohci_hcd 19460 0
usbcore 104164 5 usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
af_packet 20872 2
pciehp 83948 0
shpchp 87148 0
pci_hotplug 30640 2 pciehp,shpchp
ati_agp 8332 1
agpgart 31784 1 ati_agp
eth1394 19976 0
8139too 23936 0
mii 4864 2 8139cp,8139too
ohci1394 32004 0
nls_iso8859_1 4352 1
nls_cp437 6016 1
vfat 13184 1
fat 41792 1 vfat
capability 4872 0
commoncap 7168 1 capability
sr_mod 15780 0
sbp2 22408 0
scsi_mod 115148 2 sr_mod,sbp2
ieee1394 100408 3 eth1394,ohci1394,sbp2
psmouse 17800 0
ide_cd 38176 0
cdrom 35740 2 sr_mod,ide_cd
reiserfs 209872 2
ide_generic 1664 0
ide_disk 16768 5
atiixp 8472 1
ide_core 125028 4 ide_cd,ide_generic,ide_disk,atiixp
unix 26036 242
fbcon 27524 77
font 8576 1 fbcon
vesafb 6688 1
cfbcopyarea 3840 1 vesafb
cfbimgblt 3200 1 vesafb
cfbfillrect 3712 1 vesafb