This document describes experiences with
running Linux on
a
Toshiba
Portege
4000
Model PP400E-0008L-EN - see also
cs.helsinki.fi
and
it.uc3m.es/ptb.
This page was started a few hours after I got the first machine,
and developed as I learnt more.
As soon as it was working sufficiently, it was taken back by its user,
so I no longer have access to the machine
(unless it happens to be on the internet, which is rare).
The 4000 has a 750MHz Mobile PIII with 32K of L1 and 256KB of L2 cache.
It comes with base memory of 128M, and can upgraded to
``1,024GB''
(I assume this means 1GB).
It can have a 10, 20 or 30 GBi (9.35, 18.62 or 27.96GB)
IBM
Travelstar 30GN
(4200RPM, 12mS seek, ATA-5).
It has a `slim selectbay' which can take a
CD, DVD, CD-R/RW, CD-RW/DVD, HDD, or battery.
It has a 12.1" TFT LCD display, managing 1024x768.
It has the usual Toshiba AccuPoint II, but as well as the normal 2 buttons,
it also has two small `scroll' buttons.
There is an SVGA monitor port at the back, next to the modem and ethernet.
It has two typeII Cardbus slots, which can take a single typeIII PCMCIA card,
and an SD slot.
It has built in Winmodem, and in some countries, WiFi and bluetooth.
It has two USB ports, IR port, audio in and out, and a docking station socket.
There is an optional USB floppy, but I didn't have one.
The system came with W98 on a single partition using the whole of the disk,
although it used less than 1GB.
I used PQMagic to reduce it to 4110.4MB.
As I didn't have a floppy, and someone had just burned a RH 7.2 CD, I used that.
I did a custom install, partitioned the disk as required, and asked just for
Laptop and Network.
If using the trident driver set `ChipSet "cyberbladeXPm"' and `VideoRam 16384' in XF86Config, and set `vga=791'
when booting.
Set `Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"' and `Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"' to get the extra buttons to scroll.
The keyboard bounces horribly,
but using `xkbset bo 1' from
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen/software/
seems to help.
`apm -s' saves to RAM (not to disc) `just works'.
The battery lasts about 4 to 5.5 hours
(see
small,
medium,
large
battery graphs).
Setting it to resume mode and pressing the off button or using `apm -s' caused it to hibernate to RAM.
Set `PCMCIARESTART="yes"' to ensure PCMCIA cards restart correctly.
The machine has a permenantly connected UTP NIC and a (SW) ejectable PCMCIA
internal WiFi interface.
The order the Linux detects these does not seem (very) deterministic.
In is prudent to eject the WiFi card when not using it, so as to ensure that
the UTP NIC is eth0, using
`cardctl eject'.
Use the wvlan_cs (or orinoco_cs) driver.
There is an `on' / `off' switch at the `front', RHS,
near the `Portege' sticker to the right of the mouse buttons.
CHECK THAT THE WiFi IS TURNED ON!
It has a single internal slot `Texas Instruments PCI410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)' to drive the internal WiFi card,
and a Toshiba `ToPIC95 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 32)'
IBM
20GB
Travelstar 30GN
4200RPM, 12mS seek, ATA-5.
Without DMA it manages 1.8MB/s; with UDMA2 it manages 17MB/s,
UDMA3 it manages 18MB/s.
`Acer Laboratories Inc. [ALi] M5237 USB (rev 03)'
The ALSA snd-card-ali5451 driver works, giving
Card config: ALI 5451 at 0xed00, irq 11
Audio devices: 0: ALI 5451 (DUPLEX)
Piete Brooks
2002-05-22