Toshiba P25-S520, Knoppix 3.7
Contents deleted due to duplicate post. See my post below.
Re: Toshiba P25-S520, Knoppix 3.7
**Preliminary Report**
Quick summary: v3.7 boots OK, no cheatcodes applied. No KDE toolbar in 1440x768 mode; 1024x768 OK. I'd call the installation a basic success. it was absolutely amazing to watch Knoppix detect everything and bring my laptop up as a functional Linux machine with no intervention required!
Laptop info:
P4, 3 GHz
1 GB RAM
Toshiba 80 GB, 5400 rpm HDD, formatted as one NTFS partition
nVidia GEForce Go 5200, 64 MB video RAM, 1440x990 17" screen
Realtek AC-97 sound chip
Alps touchpad
Pioneer K12D DVD/CD R/W
Atheros 802.11g wireless
I just received my Knoppix 3.7 CD yesterday, so I have only about two hours experience with the package. I fooled around with Linux in the kernel 0.95 days and haven't worked with Linux since, so I'd rate myself a Linux newbie, just about as new as can be.
Knoppix booted up to a 1024x768 KDE desktop, or into a 1440x900 desktop by including "screen=1440x900" command in the boot command. In 1440x900 mode, KDE didn't display a toolbar.
I need to follow up on this problem as I learn more about Linux in general, and Knoppix specifically.
1024x768 is fine, though, for preliminary testing.
Knoppix recognized my USB, Ethernet, and Firewire systems.. I didn't see any mention of wireless networking or (of course) the internal modem. It automatically found and activated the PCMCIA system and, of course, the CD-ROM drive. Sound output seems to work OK.
The biggest surprise was the Alps touchpad working right out of the box. I didn't expect that, at all. (It works as a normal 2-button mouse. The right-edge vertical scroll function doesn't work. No surprise there - it only recently became functional in XP with the latest - buggy - Alps XP driver. It will take the Linux world a while to catch up.)
I was able to successfully install Knoppix in the ramdisk, but haven't yet tested Knoppix' handling of the CD or DVD capabilities of this machine. Since there's not much RAM left for the system and no HDD write access, I suspect that I won't be able to do much with the drive unless I install Knoppix on the HDD. Likewise, I haven't actually connected anything to the USB, Firewire, Ethernet, or PCMCIA ports to see if they actually work.
I'll be happy to follow this up as I gain experience, if anyone is interested.
Thanks for these forums, and particularly, thanks to everyone involved in Knoppix' development. It's an amazing package!
Best Regards,
Tom
Seattle
Further info:
-- I can burn CD-R's just fine by loading Knoppix into the ramdisk with the toram switch at boot.
-- Starting Knoppix with the screen=1440x900 switch brings my machine up in the 1400x1050 mode, pushing the toolbar off the bottom of the KDE desktop screen.
-- I can't get Knoppix to recognize my USB flash drive.
Feb 16, 2005:
-- Installed Knoppix to the hard drive. It was very easy and goof-proof. For those struggling with CD/USB drive or poor man's HDD installations, go for the full HDD configuration. Your life will be much simpler.
-- The display is now working in 1440x900 using the new nVidia Linux driver "nvidia," found at http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html .
-- I've learned that the SmartLink driver, slmodem-2.9.10 ( http://www.smlink.com ), is supposed to drive this machine's winmodem.
Feb 17, 2005:
-- Verified that the CDROM works. No setup changes required.
-- The USB thumb drive is now recognized by hotplug after the HDD installation, and automounts as /mnt/sda1. However, I get no KDE desktop icon. Not a big problem...
Feb 19, 2005
-- Good news and bad news: The good news is that the modem is working. The bad news is that it's not working in Knoppix, but works just fine in Kanotix.
The only way I could get the modem to work was with the two Debian packages sl-modem-source-2.9.9a-i386.deb and sl-modem-daemon-2.9.9a-i386.deb under Kanotix. The .deb packages installed just fine under Knoppix, but KPPP didn't see the modem.
I'm sure I could sort out the problem if I knew a good deal more about Linux, but solving this problem is way over my head right now. I'm just happy that Kanotix got me on the air.
Well, that's it for this post. The machine is now, in my opinion, a functional XP/Linux machine. I'm happy, and I'll now go out and learn Linux.
Many thanks to the posters here on Knoppix forums, and those who have shared their experience on the net.. This machine would have been dead in the water without your advice!