First of all there is a patch released to fix the "/"-key problem, which really works!!! Download it here!

The following was originally a page is by Olaf Flebbe and is used with permission!
It will be worked out next days!

Using the Toshiba Satellite 3000-400 with Linux

(Version 26.8.2001)

Installing SuSE 7.2

The stand suse72 installation procedure fails while detecting the graphics hardware. I was forced to use a yast1 installation without X11 and configuring X11 by hand later on.

X11:

Graphics Controller

The Graphics controller is a nVidia 2 Go. I had no luck in using the nVidia 1.0 1251 drivers. They all produce flickering screens on the LCD.

However, if you boot with an external monitor attached,  the LCD display is disabled and the driver works (!)

The usual workaround (VESA Framebuffer) works out of the box. But you cannot switch to the external monitor with it. If you boot with an external monitor attached, the LCD is disabled.
 
Append  vga=792   to your Linux section in /etc/lilo.conf, for instance:

image = /vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda2
  label = neu
  vga=792
  append="hdc=ide-scsi"

From XF86Config:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce2 Go"
        Driver "vesa"
        BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce2 Go"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device "NVIDIA GeForce2 Go"
        Monitor "ToshLCD"
        DefaultDepth 16
        Subsection "Display"
              Depth 16
              Modes "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
 
EndSection
 

Mouse:

The internal mouse has four button, but it can only be used as a three button mouse:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Mouse0"
        # Modified by mouseconfig
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/mouse"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "no"
        Option          "Buttons"               "3"
EndSection

I use a targus USB wheel mouse as an external mouse, here is how to use it including wheel support.

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Mouse1"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/usbmouse"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "no"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

I needed to compile a 2.4.7 kernel to get a rather stable USB mouse support. The SuSE 7.2  standard kernel locks the machine almost immediatly when using an external USB mouse

One can support two mices with one only optionally attached with:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        # Internal mouse stick is the primary device
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

        # optional a second mouse
        InputDevice    "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
 
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

USB Support seems not rock solid. Sometimes the server forgets about the USB mouse, have to investigate.

Network

A standard 8139 Driver works without any problem.

Sound

I had no luck with sound until now. I.e. it does not work at all.
 

Power Management

This machine does not support APM, it only implements ACPI. This is rather painful, because the Linux support for ACPI is very poor until now. You cannot suspend, you cannot control the remaining charge of your battery. I only got the power supply information control to work.

I have to add some recent experiences...

...

Firewire

Not checked until now (Have to buy an adapter first) The toshiba as a small firewire 4 pin layout, while my desktop has the bigger 6 pin plug layout.

PCMCIA

Not tried until now.

Internal Modem

Not tried until now.

Infrared

Not tried until now.

DVD/CDR/W

The internal CD Recorder seems to be a standard IDE one. Support with ide-scsi. Load the ide-scsi module and see for the /etc/lilo.conf example above for enabling it. (append="hdc=idescsi")

Keyboard

This one is funny, I have problems with some keys on the german keyboard the character / (it is shift seven) seems not to work correctly!! I cannot reproduce it in windows) Does anyone see this problem, too? Please email me your experiencies.
The special keys (Internet Explorer ;-) do not work in a standard linux kernel. One would have to patch the kernel.

Other components:

All other components work straight forward, as far as I tried it. The memory card reader seems to be an USB device, but I have no hardware to check.

Olaf Flebbe
o.flebbe@science-computing.de