Installing Debian Sarge on Toshiba A45-S151

Last updated: 3/18/2005

General Hardware Specifications of Toshiba A45-S151:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Pentium 4 Processor, 2.8 GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
15.0 TFT active-matrix Display	Works	Select LCD Display in Installer
ATI 16MB Video ( ATI Radeon M )	Works	Download ATI Linux driver
1024MB, PC2100, 2DIMMs	Works	No special procedure required during installation
60 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
CD-ROM Writer/Reader	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Network Card	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Not Tested
24X Max Variable DVD/CD-ROM R/W	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal Wireless 802.11g MadWifi card	Doesn't Work	Given up
8400 mAHr Lithium-Ion Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Analog Devices AD1981B Sound Card	Not Tested

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.4.26

Basic Installation of Debian Sarge:

Why to use Debian Sarge: It's REALLY free software
Obtaining Debian Sarge: www.debian.org, use jigdo.
Installing: I didn't have any problems, followed the manual to make a separate partition and installed it there. Use Grub to boot, default settings.
Post-Install modifications/tweaks: I've kept up to date with the testing distribution (currently Sarge). My last update was completely smooth. I don't use too much regularly: KDE, Mozilla, mutt. Fantastic screen savers.

Setting up additional features for Debian Sarge

Getting Suspend-to-Disk to operate: doesn't work AFAIK
Touchpad works fine
My Microsoft rollerball works great, and my camera downloads pictures fine.

Unresolved issues

Wireless card can see stations but doesn't transmit bits to the system
Fan is always on under Linux
Have to turn off power after shutdown
No hibernation, sleep, or standby AFAIK

Configuration Files

None that I recall

More Specific Information. Specific stuff such as:

$ df -hl

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7             287M  216M   57M  80% /
tmpfs                 443M  8.0K  443M   1% /dev/shm
/dev/hda11             12G  3.8G  7.1G  35% /home
/dev/hda10            265M  100M  152M  40% /tmp
/dev/hda8             2.3G  1.8G  397M  82% /usr
/dev/hda9             449M  324M  101M  77% /var
/dev/hda5             989M  675M  315M  69% /mnt/exchange

$ lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Memory I/O Control Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Configuration Process Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 83)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
0000:01:05.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
0000:01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC95 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)

It's a nice machine ...

Contact Information

Chris Tillman, toff.tuc (at) cox.net

Links:

Any utilities or other resources you found useful
Link to the laptop manufacturer: Toshiba Support