[KLUG Members] Re: Just say NO to the new Toshiba laptop.

[Bruce Smith]

> I've got SmartCard, Firewire and everything else, but no serial!!! 
> Geez!
> 
> > NO parallel port,
> 
> Ouch!  Did the 3005 series have this too (I thought so)?  My 2805
> has them at least.
> 
> > NO PS/2 ports,
> 
> Ouch!  My 2805 has one.
> 
> > NO floppy drive,
> 
> Can't you swap the DVD out for it?

No, but you can use a USB floppy if you really need it.
(but Linux sees that as a USB-SCSI device so "flpformat" doesn't work)

> > NO APM, and best of all:  THERE IS NO USER INTERFACE TO THE BIOS.
> 
> There are Toshiba utilities to deal with this, at least on the
> 2805/3005.  But I still left my original ME partition (XP Home Ed
> now on newer sales) "just in case".

There is a XP utility that lets you change some very basic items, like
power-on password, boot order (CD, HDD, LAN,..) but that's about it.

You you power it on, it BOOTS RIGHT NOW.  The GRUB or XP screen appears
IMMEDIATELY.  There is NO memory check, no probing for IDE devices, no
video card banners, NO NOTHING, except the OS boot screen.  Which would
be kinda nice (if Linux ran on it) since it boots so fast.

> > After a lot of fighting trying to make Linux work on this thing, I got
> > Linux to assign IRQ's to some devices, but even then, it was flaky.  I
> > would get random crashes upon bootup, and X would _randomly_ screw up
> > the screen to something unreadable requiring a reboot, other times X
> > would work fine.  And even the keyboard wouldn't work right in X.
> 
> Did you read the nVidia driver docs on the "module.conf" settings
> required for Toshiba Sattellites???  Or are you not using the nVidia
> closed-source drivers???  If not, I highly recommend you do!

I tried the both nVidia.com drivers, and the XF86 "vesa" driver, and
both gave the same problems.

> I guess the 5005 is different thanx to the legacy free crap?

I got the impression from the newsgroups that the 5005 is the _first_ 
of the Toshiba "legacy free" laptops.  Probably first of many.   :-(

> > Needless to say, this laptop was returned and something else ordered.
> 
> Eck.  Well, what was the restocking fee?

No, luckily we talked them into a trade since they also sell some Linux
stuff (and recently bought out a company with "Linux" in it's name).

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
--------------------------------------------