mandrake 9.2 on Toshiba centrino
 

Hi everyone. Hope you all will be doing good as far as your linux machines are concerned :) . I have some problems with my centrino laptop from toshiba. I have surfed through the internet but I have hardly come accross issues related to linux on centrino laptops from toshiba. As far as I know even Intel has launched the wifi driver for linux but it works only for kernels 2.6 and above. The kernel version I am using is 2.4.22. I am seeking ome help in regards to solving the problem of wireless connectivity, modem connectivity and one strange problem of graphics. I installed the kernel source and then compiled the graphic's driver's own kernel module, so the graphic display is working fine but when I go to any of the consoles by pressing ctrl+alt+F1-F6, I find a console where the fonts are of the size which cover half of the screen and also there is a dashed texture in the background. Basically, it's all a mess and I can't see anything clearly. I have been dealing with such problems since many months and have relied on articles and tutorials so far but I have never found a solution partucularly for my laptop. So guys, if you have something to offer in this regard, please help me out.

The model number of my Toshiba centrino laptop is M35-S320.
The confiuration is as follows:

Intel pentium M processor 1.50 GHz
60 GB HDD and 768 RAM (it had 512 installed and i added 256)
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 with 32 MB DDR video memory
15.4' diagonal WXGA display
Integrated Intel Pro/wireless 2200 802.11g network connection
i.LInk(IEEE 1394) port and SD slot

Waiting for a reply as soon as possible. Thanks.

First off, you're using a fairly old version of your distro and so shouldn't expect it to support newer hardware. That's why kernels get updated, so they can support newer hardware.

I'd suggest using a newer distro as this alone will solve a lot of your problems right out of the box.

As for your video problem, it sounds like incorrect framebuffer settings to me. Don't know what bootloader you're using, but in the bootloader's config file "/etc/lilo.conf" or "/boot/grub/menu.lst" you should have some statement regarding "vga=xxx" or "video=xxx". It sounds as if this is either missing or incorrect.

Easiest way to fix your problems, as I already mentioned but bears repeating, is to install a newer distro that will support your hardware in the first place.