planckscale's Journal: LinuxOnLaptop Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501

General Hardware Specifications of [Laptop]:

Toshiba Satelite 5105-S501

Hardware Components

Intel 82845 I/O Controller

USB 1.1 - no USB 2.0

40GB Toshiba MK4019GAX Hard Drive

Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go 32MB

Matshita UJDA730 DVD/CDRW

Toshiba PCI-0804 Smart Media Host Controller

Texas Instruments IEEE 1394 Bus controller

SMC IrCC - Fast Infared Port

Toshiba Software Modem AMR

LCD Monitor max resolution: 1400x1050

Intel Pro/100 VE Network Connection

PCMCIA Toshiba ToPIC100 Cardbus Controller

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 Mobile CPU 1.7GHz

Yamaha AC-XG Audio Device

Harmon/kardon speakers Dolby Digital

3 USB 1.1 ports

1 IEEE 1394 (small) Firewire port

1 Serial Video Out port

1 External Volume control wheel

2 Smart media card slots

1 external IR switch

Bluetooth??

Status Under Knoppix Linux 3.6 v8-16-04 w/ Kernel 2.6.7

Works Great! - very quick - detected my USB MS Intellimouse and USB keyboard. Mounts my firewire external HD okay also.

Notes

I didn't partition my HD for a full Knoppix/Debian-linux hard drive installation (this is my work laptop) so I tested simply with the latest version of Knoppix. Knoppix is a full-featured linux debian distro that boots directly from the CD-ROM. You can download the .iso cd image from http://knoppix.net/ (KNOPPIX_V3.6-2004-08-16-EN.iso). I find the Mirrors in Germany (de) are the quickest for downloading the ~700MB file.

This laptop requires you to hit the arrow keys during post to select the CD-Rom for boot (second icon from the left). Upon booting to Knoppix CD, hit F2 (may have to toggle Fn key, or use Ctrl+F2, or Alt+F2) to get to knoppix cheat codes. Enter at prompt "knoppix26 screen=1400x1050"

The LCD Screen and Resolution at 1400x1050 looks beautiful!

Sound, USB, Firewire, CD-RW/DVD, Ethernet are working correctly -modem unable to query with modem setup at /dev/modem (Intel ICH Modem)

Processor (CPU)

processor : 0

vendor_id : GenuineIntel

cpu family : 15

model : 2

model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Mobile CPU 1.70GHz

stepping : 4

cpu MHz : 1694.695

cache size : 512 KB

physical id : 0

siblings : 1

fdiv_bug : no

hlt_bug : no

f00f_bug : no

coma_bug : no

fpu : yes

fpu_exception : yes

cpuid level : 2

wp : yes

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm

bogomips : 3350.52

Video

Knoppix Detects and installs nVidia GeForce4 440 Go 32MB

Works - XINE plays .mov files, mpeg files fine

Memory

512MB, SDRAM, 2x256MB DIMMs

40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive

Works- Knoppix will mount this volume to the desktop as hda1

No Floppy Drive

Integrated Network Card

Works

Internal 56k Modem

Doesn't Work

16x cd-rw max write speed

Works- didn't test DVD because bootable OS cd in drive

D-LINK AirPlus DWL-G630 802.11G Wireless PCMCIA Card:

Doesn't Work - haven't had time to do a HD install and test the DriverLoader drivers.

In Process

L-ion DC 10.8V 4000mAh Toshiba Battery

Works

Yamaha AC-XG Audio Device

No special procedure required if using Kernel 2.6.7 - no cracks or pops; external volume wheel functions correctly.

Setting up additional features for Knoppix

from penguin menu choose utilities -> install software (while running from CD)

Suspend-to-Disk

Not tested

Unresolved issues Software Modem drivers, Wireless PCMCIA card, Smart Media (will it read sm cards?), Remote controll (most likely will only work with Toshiba's implimentation of Windows Media Player under Windows XP.

KDE battery meter appears to function correctly.

Contact Information

e-mail address: jasoncoltrinatgmaildotcom

Yahoo! ID: tiwerd

http://www.linux-laptop.net/ - Linux on Laptops