Linux Fedora Core 4 Installation notes on Toshiba Portege R100

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1. Toshiba Portege R 100 Hardware Specification

	Toshiba R100 Hardware Specification
	The hardware specification stated here is based on my personal Toshiba Portege R100 , your's specification may vary

The most common variation probably is:

Toshiba Portege R100 hardware specification scanned from lspci:

Toshiba Portege R100 Devices Status

:

	Toshiba Portege R100 Hardware Device status under Fedora Core 4
Modem	:	Working 100% - Need additional driver : slmodemd Download driver : slmodemd
Sound	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed
Wireless	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed
Network card	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed
ACPI		Mostly Working - Need additional script : ACPI script, Fnfxd, Laptop_utils Download script : acpi , fnfxd , laptop_utils Software Links : Gnome-power-manager, laptop_mode, ltpconf, fnfxd
Video	:	Working 100% - Need recompile xorg Working 100% - use trident driver (slow) Download script : xorg.conf Download Driver : vesa_drv.o -> xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2.
USB	:	Working 100% - for USB CDROM & USB Bluetooth, no idea for other devices
PCMCIA	:	Seems to work - No card to try
Glidepoint Alps PS/2	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed Download Driver : synaptics_drv.o -> xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2.-> optional
Temperature sensor	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed
CPU Speedstep	:	Working 100% - No additional driver needed
SD-Card Reader	:	No driver found

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2. Fedora Core 4 Installation

Fedora Core 4 supports different method of installation method. This site will only cover the installation method and tips for installing Fedora Core 4 in a Toshiba Protege R100 laptop. Other kind of Installation such as installing Fedora Core 4 to be a server (mail server, DHCP server , WWW server, ftp server and other kind of server), Virtual client and etc, is not covered in this site, you can check out this personal Fedora Core 4 Installation notes , another personal Fedora Core 4 Installation notes and this general Fedora Core installation notes

2.1. Installation Method

The Major problem for installing Fedora Core 4 in Toshiba Portege R100 Laptop is about the installation media, This lightweight laptop doesn't have CD-ROM and Floppy devices attached internally.

Therefore, you can choose these following installation media to use for installing the Fedora Core 4 :

Network Install

Basically it will involve bootstrap and fast internet connection or local server with bootstrap available. Not recommended since USB CDROM install is far easier and reliable. Please consult http://www.freed.net/opensource/R100.html , http://www.istitutocolli.org/pr100/ , http://r100.gratiswiki.dk/cgi-bin/gratiswiki.pl?The_Easy_Way_To_A_Debian_Install or http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pb/TR100/.

USB Floppy

You can combine the usb floppy to boot then downloading the package using network (not recommended for slow connection). this is somehow not the easiest install process and USB CDROM install method is far much easier.

Boot using SD-Card

You can use SD-card to boot into linux and then choose to install via network, saved harddisk folder, USB-CDROM (not practical since you can directly boot from USB-CDROM).

This method is somehow not practical, and its seems best to use for rescuing damaged linux installation rather than fresh installing

USB CDROM

The recommended install method, you will need to :

then goes on to the installation process.

	Toshiba Recovery CD
	The Toshiba recovery CD cannot be used using USB CDROM devices. It must be used within the Toshiba PCMCIA CD ROM With special CABLE !. Thus please proceed this linux installation with care!. If you wish to reinstall Microsoft Windows XP then you will need to use the special 16 Bit cable or purchase another Microsoft Windows XP copies and reinstall it using USB-CDROM.

2.2. Disk Partition

You will need to Resize your partition if you still need to keep Microsoft Windows XP, basically you will need to use disk partition software such as Partition Magic. You will need to free the space needed for the Fedora Core installation. You will need at least 10 Gigabyte for Linux.

If you keep the existing Microsoft Windows XP and install new Fedora Core system, you will have to configure the Grub (Default FC 4 Boot loader) or Lilo to make you able to boot either system during boot. If you don't need to use any of the Microsoft Windows XP partition, then you can proceed to load the Fedora Core CD image into your USB CDROM and start the installation process.

Its generally a good idea to make a seperate /home partition when you partitioned the linux partion, its can be a logical volume manager partition or normal partition, This will save your personal files if by any chances you need to reinstall the Fedora Core 4 system.

	White Screen of death during install
	Due to bug in the Xorg (libvgahw.a), you will get "White Screen" and hang the system if during installation boot you choose the graphical installation method. You must use the text installation method by using linux text command during the boot.

2.3. Package Selection

You can check http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc4.html for more detailed information regarding installation method and packages.

	Important development and cvs package
	Warning => you MUST install the development packages and cvs, because you will need to recompile the xorg from source (CVS) to eliminate the screen color error bug.

Some of the packages recommended :

Its better to install minimal system, then install the later on needed packages later using yum. this will allows you to get the most recent updates on certain packages.

2.4. First Boot Hack

Since there is bug in xorg (libvgahw.a), you will have to edit grub upon boot and replace rhgb quiet with 3 to enter runlevel 3 (text only) during the first boot. Otherwise you will get "white screen" and hang.

When prompted in the text console, log in as root and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf using your preferred text editor (eg. joe, nano or vi) edit the following line :

Editing the xorg.conf

Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard" Driver "trident" -------> Change this to "vesa" VendorName "Videocard vendor" BoardName "Trident CyberBlade (generic)" ----------------> Change this to "vesa" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Videocard0" Monitor "Monitor0" SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 16 --------------> Change this to 24 Modes "800x600" "640x480" --------------> add "1024x768" in front of the "800x600" EndSubSection EndSection

Then try the new configuration first, by issuing startx command. If its successful, the you can restart the laptop. You will still have the bugged vesa driver which will makes the screen color garbled. You will need to switch virtual console by pressing ctrl+alt+f1 then ctrl+alt+f7 which will revert to the right color resolution.

	Fixing White Screen of Death
	Fedora Core 4 comes with faulty libvgahw.a, it's generally a good idea to replace it with good libvgahw.a, you can download the good libvgahw.a and unpack it to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules

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3. Hardware Configuration

This section is provided for configuring Toshiba Portege R100 hardware under Fedora Core 4. Some of the hardware configuration is generic enough for other linux distribution and other Toshiba models.

Some of the hardware that are generic enough :

3.1. Modem Configuration

You will need to use the smartlink modem driver. You can choose to download the driver, compile it as module then install it or you can download the slmodemd here and tweak the configuration as following :

Configuring Modem Devices

1. Download the file 2. use tar -zxvf slmodemd.tar.gz to unzip the file 3. move the slmodemd to /sbin/ 4. try the modem by issuing : /sbin/slmodemd –-alsa -c yourcountry /dev/ttySL0 & 6. if its successful then you should take note where did you modem device goes to eg. /dev/SL???. 7. if you wish to use kppp you should link your modem to /dev/modem - this is not needed for gnome-ppp or system-config-network.

Modules needed for modem is :
snd_intel8x0m - ALSA modem modules

3.2. Sound Configuration

	Configuring Sound Devices
	The module for sound are: snd_intel8x0 – ALSA Sound modules snd_ac97_codec snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore snd_page_alloc

3.3. Wireless devices Configuration

The Intel Wireless 2100, is a part of Intel Centrino Chipset. The kernel module for Intel 2100 / 2200 is provided by Fedora Core 4 kernel. But you will need to download the firmware to make the module works. If you have different wireless chipset (which is unlikely for Toshiba Portege R100), you might want to try using ndiswrapper.

Kernel Module used for Intel Wireless 2100 :

After you have installed the firmware for 2100/2200 then you will need to load the modules and use system-config-network to add your wireless network.

3.4. Network Interface Card Configuration

The network interface card, Intel etherexpress, is automatically configured and detected under Fedora Core 4. You will need to run the network configuration to set every parameter right.

Kernel Module used for Intel NIC :

3.5. ACPI Configuration

FC 4 will automatically load Video, toshiba_acpi, button, battery, ac modules. but to enable them all you will need to do some configuration and tweaking.

Hibernation

Check if you have /usr/sbin/hibernate, install the hibernate package if you don't have the program. if you do have it, then you will need to edit the /etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf.

	Configuring Hibernation
	/etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf you will need to enable by removing the # (comment) of the following : UseSysFsPowerState mem PowerdownMethod shutdown Distribution fedora XStatus gnome

Then test your configuration by issuing /usr/sbin/hibernate

Battery Meter and AC Outlet Meter

This doesn't really need any configuration, you can view the status by using gnome battery applets or gnome-power-manager.

Download the gnome power manager rpm now at : http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnome-power-manager/packages.html and there is available for fedora core packages specific.

FN-button

ACPI intergration

To make the button and lid (closing/opening) functional as before you will need to edit this script or make one if there are not available.

	ACPI Intergration Script
	1. Script to Hibernate when the lid is closed : Create the script in /etc/acpi/events/lm_lid event=button[ /]lid action=/usr/sbin/hibernate 2. Script to Shutdown when the button pressed : create the script in /etc/acpi/events/lm_button event= button/power.* action=/sbin/shutdown -r now

or you can install the laptop_mode from http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/ to have all the acpi script and the tools to power down your harddisk (laptop_mode).

Modules used for acpi :
video
toshiba_acpi
button
battery
ac

Laptop Config "ltpconfig"

A good GUI program for controlling brightness, ACPI and ALPS Glide (Synaptics), this program is totally optional. You can download them at : http://sourceforge.net/projects/ltpconf

Acpi Script for Auto CPU Frequency Change

If you want Toshiba Portege R100 to change the cpu frequency automatically when it connected / disconnected from AC outlet, please download acpi script then unpack the script to /usr/local/bin, you will also need to change the /etc/acpi/action/lm_ac_adapter.sh . You will need to add the following line : /usr/local/bin/acpi

3.6. Video Card Configuration

Until 15 October 2005, there is no solution to resolve the bug in xorg (version 6.8.2-54) other than download the source file from cvs and compile it, download the xorg source rpm for Fedora Core repository and compile it or use the precompiled fixed vesa_drv.o.

After installation, you will get good vesa driver without the color mismatch bug. or if you can live with the bug, you can try these suggestion :

1. Using trident driver = SLOW. But everything else works fine under 24 bits.
Using Xorg-X11-6.8.2-54 these trident driver will work with no acceleration / slow
- Trident Blade 3D
- Trident Cyberblade XP
- Trident Cyberblade Xpm
- Trident Cyberblade (generic)
By using 16 bit (thousand of colors) will make it a little bit faster.
Update : Adding option "shadowFB" "on" will help trident driver performance
2. Using bugged Vesa driver = Using this device will get your most needed acceleration capabilities. But upon boot, screensaver and sleep under 24 bits will screw up the picture. You MUST switch virtual console using ctrl+alt+f1 then ctrl+alt+f7 to get the normal picture back.

3. Using fb driver = with 6.8.2-54, vga=792 option will not work anymore, messed up the resolution.

Jonas Lund have repaired the vesa.c in 2004 but seems that the fix didn't go through the xorg fork that FC4 uses. Jonas Lund fixes :

Jonas Lund vesa.c Fixes

84. Don't call VBESetGetDACPaletteFormat() in the vesa driver for modes with depth > 8. this fixes a problem with a Toshiba R100 laptop (Jonas Lund). Jonas Lund states : inside programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers/vesa/vesa.c there is a line that says: if (pScrn->bitsPerPixel >= 8 && pVesa->vbeInfo->Capabilities[0] & 0x01) VBESetGetDACPaletteFormat(pVesa->pVbe, 8); (changing to pScrn->bitsPerPixel == 8 fixes the problem on this chip, but maybe acheck for the memory model would be more proper?) from : http://lists.freedesktop.org/pipermail/xorg/2004-April/000432.html

Compiling from fedora rpm source

This is another method to recompile the vesa.c to eleminate the color bug. You can use my xorg.conf file.

Jonas Lund vesa.c Fixes

1. Download the fedora core 4 xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2.src.rpm 2. Install it using rpm -ivh xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2.src.rpm 3. Find the xorg-x11-6.8.2.tar.gz (usually in the /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES), unpack it somewhere. 4. Edit the vesa.c from the xorg-x11-6.8.2.tar.gz by changing : if (pScrn->bitsPerPixel >= 8 && pVesa->vbeInfo->Capabilities[0] & 0x01) into if (pScrn->bitsPerPixel == 8 && pVesa->vbeInfo->Capabilities[0] & 0x01) 5. Repack it back to xorg-x11-6.8.2.tar.gz and put it back to /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES 6. Build the source by issuing rpmbuild -bb /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/xorg-x11.spec Note : There are many options to rpmbuild -> -bb is building binary only, you can choose other options. Note : If you wish to change the build code eg. xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.3 then you need to edit the xorg-x11.spec 7. After building process is done, you should have rpm files in /usr/src/redhat/RPM , you will need to install it either by upgrading (if you change the version number), freshen the rpm (if you didn't change the version number) or simply removing the old rpm and installing the newly build rpm.

By using this method, you will have normal fedora core rpm database intact. But remember to backup your vesa_drv.o incase you update the xorg using yum/apt.

Using Precompiled Vesa_drv.o

You can download the fixed vesa_drv.o (vesa driver) compiled by me, but I cannot guarantee anything or will it work on your machine. This is supposed to work under xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2. Use this under your own risk. To install, unpack the file into /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/

3.7. USB Configuration

FC 4 will load the usb modules automatically and it will recognizes the usb devices plugged in automatically.

modules used :
uhci_hcd
ehci_hcd

USB-bluetooth dongle

I bought generic Bluetooth dongle for connecting my nokia phones to the laptop. I am using kdebluetooth-1.0.0-3.beta.1.fc4.kde.i386.rpm. When you choose the workgroup install then you will need some libraries for the software such as kdelibs-3.4.2-1.2.fc4.kde.i386.rpm as the dependencies.
I can access the nokia for sending files, receiving files and as modem to connect to internet. please read this enlightening pages for setting Bluetooth.
Modules used :
bluetooth
rfcomm
l2cap
hci_usb

USB CDROM

It works without any tweaking or configuration needed if running in graphical mode. if you need the usb cdrom in the text mode then you will need to issue mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /directory-you-wish-to-mount-into

Modules used:
usb-storage

3.8. PCMCIA Configuration

FC 4 seems to load the modules for PCMCIA automatically but since I don’t have pcmcia card to try then I don't really know the results.

Modules used:
pcmcia_core
yenta_socket
rsrc_nonstatic

3.9. SD card reader Configuration

It will not work, since Toshiba doesn't release information regarding the devices, so there will be no driver for this.

3.10. ALPS touchpad Configuration

Works out of the box. You don't need to configure them. There is a good nice GUI software for setting the parameter of the ALPS, you can try http://gsynaptics.sourceforge.jp/ or ltpconf here.

To have the configuration program works, you will need to get the synaptics driver for xorg, at http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/ and compile the source, you will need the xorg-x11-devel package (if you recompile the xorg using fc4 source rpm, then you should have this in your computer). After successful compilation and installation, you will need to put Option "SHMConfig" "true" in you xorg.conf file under your synaptics driver. You can download my xorg.conf file here.

You can also download the binary driver for synaptics for xorg-x11-6.8.2-37.FC4.49.2.build by me, but I cannot guarantee anything or will it work on your system. Use it at your own risk.

3.11. Temperature Sensor Configuration

Basically you just run sensors-detect if you installed the laptop-mode. This utilities will detect the right module that match your laptop sensor chipset. I don’t have any idea if other variant of Toshiba R100 uses the same chipset as mine but anyway these are my chipsets modules :

modprobe adm1021
modprobe eeprom
modprobe lm90
modprobe i2c_sensor
modprobe l2cap
modprobe rfcomm
modprobe i2c_i801
modprobe i2c_core

This will get the sensor to work, for nice gui, use gnome sensor applet.

3.12. CPU Speedstep Configuration

You will need to go into your BIOS setup and turn on if the CPU frequency scaling option if necessary. Then you will need to load these modules:

modprobe speedstep-centrino
modprobe freq-table
modprobe cpufreq-ondemand
modprobe cpufreq-conservative
modprobe cpufreq-powersave

Assuming you installed the cpufreq-utils packages then the cpufreq should be working properly. You can also use nice GUI to control this feature using the Gnome cpufreq applet.

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4. Tuning Fedora Core 4

Fedora Core 4 is a very good and stable linux distribution, but like other linux distribution there are always several things that need to be tuned and tweak.

For Fedora Core 4, you will need to tune mostly in its multimedia program. Since Fedora Core 4 multimedia program doesn't include capabilities to play MP3, AVI, WMA and other useful multimedia format.

4.1. Program updater & Repository

If yum that you wish to use, then you can use gnome-yum or yumex for nice graphical interface. Please be caution not to use development and updates testing level of rpm since it will make your system less stable. It will be also very hard to revert back to updates releases level of rpm due to dependencies problem.

You can add more reps for more rpm choice such as from :

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