New Laptop Purchase, Got it Very Wrong..
 

Hello Everyone,

This is not so much a request for help (though I would certainly appreciate it if someone knows a solution), but more of a rant......

I have been using Linux for a number of years now so I though when I went out to buy a new laptop, I was pretty well armed with enough knowledge to buy one that would be completely Linux friendly. So, armed with my knowledge of Linux hardware compatibility and £400, I went off to find the perfect Linux laptop. After a reasonable search, I chose one that had all the power I needed, and though it had an ATI graphics system (I have always preferred nVidia), I chose the Toshiba Equium, AMD64 X2 1.9Ghz, 1600Mhz FSB` 2GB mem. Great, I thought, all the power I'll need for my video work, and plenty peppy enough to handle compiz-fusion or anything else I could throw at it. My plan was to run through a few live distros and choose the one that looked most suited, but I was almost certain to wipe Vista, and install either PCLinuxOS (my newest favorite) or Ubuntu.

Well, I fired up my new laptop today and faced the ugly truth: I may not be able to use this laptop AT ALL with Linux if I want wireless and sound. To my sad surprise, this laptop has built in wireless in the form of the Realtek 8197b chipset and sound from the ATI SB600 Azalia chipset. After trying live cd's from PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix, Fedora and a few others, NONE will recognize either the wireless or the sound. While I can find both in the hardware browsers, neither could be configured or even found.

So, next stop was google and the forums, particularly LQ, OH NO!! Hundreds of posts from people who could not get these two bandits to work! While I did find one or two who claimed to get wireless working with ndiswrapper (using Win98 drivers, for God's sake!), NO ONE that I could find has gotten the sound chipset to work at all (bar one who claimed to get sound using some obscure module.)

I have not yet wiped windows for obvious reasons. I am bound to this laptop as my main mobile computer, so if any one has any suggestions that I can try, I will try a dual boot first and I would very much appreciate your input.

So, if anyone has the Toshiba Equium Amd64 T57 completely working with Linux, I would love to hear from you....and what Distro would you recommend.

Thanks for any replies.

Bob

Ndiswrapper
 

Can You get drivers for the Chipset? If you can get Windows drivers you may be able to run it with
ndiswrapper I cant help with sound

I hope this helps

The Penguin stands tall

Dunno, a brief Google tells this soundcard works fine with ALSA HDA-Intel driver. Wireless card can be replaced, they are not expensive, some hacking may be required if there is a whitelist in the BIOS.
Buying a computer with Vista and then wiping it sounds just wrong. Why pay the monster if you are not going to use it? One can buy a lappy without OS. I will never pay MS tax for any hardware myself.

Bob, I had the same issues with this Gateway MT3705...exactly the same issues, and I believe it has similar hardware components. I dealt with Vista for a year, trying live distro after live distro. I had a glimmer of hope when the latest Fedora (version 8) bought the sound up perfectly. But no go on NDISWRAPPER! Even PCLinuxOS 2007 didn't work. BUT...and you should try this...download PCLinuxOS Mini Me 2008. It has a newer version of ALSA, making the sound work perfectly. Then I used NDISWrapper, and the WiFi came right up. This is the only distro so far to handle both the sound and the WiFi. I imagine upcoming versions of other distros will work too, but give Mini Me 2008 a try. It is a quick download, and I am loving it!

Thank you for your response. I do appreciate you taking the time to search this for me, but I already found that this chipset was supported by that module, but no live distro has ever made it work, though a number have correctly ID'd the chipset, still no sound, even though the correct module is being loaded. Not a hardware issue, works fine in Vista.

r2kl: Thank you very much for that tip on Minime 2008. It is very encourage to find someone who has found a solution. I know the Win98 drivers for this chipset is supposed to work with ndiswrapper, so I was just trying to find a distro that I had the best chance of getting everything to work. I have PCLinuxOS on my desktop and like it alot, unfortunately the live cd found nothing on this laptop. I will give your tip a try today.

Many thanks,

Bob

Well, a sound is not required for installation. After Linux is installed you can make it work regardless what distro is used.

Generic ALSA tips.
In-kernel drivers should be preferred over stand-alone drivers. If sound is not working get the latest kernel source and build sound support as modules. Having them as modules helps to configure card and allows using additional parameters for fine tuning.
Now, if your hardware is really new, then the last resort is to use the live build from ALSA Project.

Thank you Emerson, I had studied the live build already, but it was a little over my head. However, I did finally try the beta version of Ubuntu 8.04 and, lo and behold, SOUND and Network! I simply swapped out the Vista hard drive with a new one and installed.

Thanks again for your reply

Bob

Great news, Bob. I did the same thing. Picked up a 120GB hard drive for about $50 (20 pounds UK?) and saved the Vista install on the one I took out in case I ever need it.

Hi rlk2k

Yes it seemed like the only option since no other distro would play sound for me (I LIKE SOUND!)

I have Gutsy on my desktop (along with four other distros), and Hardy on the laptop seems like the way to go anyway. I am finding a lot of bugs, but of course it is still in beta (supposed to be released in stable on the 24th of April.)

Still dealing with the internel wireless, though. I am using a cheap Belkin USB stick in the meantime til I figure it out. Did the drivers work you?

Bob

Bob, the native Linux drivers didn't work, but the WinXP drivers and NDISWrapper DO! I have heard that the drivers for Win98 or Windows Vista do not, but I cannot verify this. If you want me to send you the drivers I have, let me know and I'll email the .inf file to you.

Thanks, rlk2k, but as it turns out, I have fixed it using the Win98 .inf file. Had to add one additional line to the file to accommodate the usb location of 0ba:8797, but as soon as I did this, rebooted, viola! Wireless works!

Hey Emerson
 

Got a question for you.

----One can buy a lappy without OS-----

Please point me in a direction. It's been something I have been looking for.

Don't know where in the world you are but I bought my laptop with no os from Novatech in the UK.

http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14

I got mine from Zepto - a 6625WD. Very nice piece of kit and no Microsoft tax. :) Mandriva 2008 runs nicely on it.

Bought 2 laptops in Bangkok, one Lenovo and one NEC, both new, with manufacturer's warranty and no OS installed as standard. Normal choice at an IT mall in SE Asia is no OS or warez Windows, or sometimes freedos or Linpus. It's actually possible to buy a new machine with genuine OEM Windows but the choice is yours entirely. It's an odd situation where rampant use of unlicensed proprietary software by everyone from home user to business and government means the consumer gets to choose not to buy Windows with a new PC, though mostly they don't appreciate it and the vast majority choose the no-cost or 200 Baht ($5 US) warez Windows packed with other warez (photoshop, Nod AV etc) offered by the shops, but it's a good situation for anyone who doesn't want to make Bill any richer by buying hardware for Linux.