Knoppix on a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149

[jan4]

I’ve played with Knoppix 3.4 (both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels) around for a while on a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149. There’s some info written up by others that I found helpful regarding running Linux on this model, eg,
http://jwl.freakwitch.net/Linux_Toshiba_M35X-S149.html

My Toshiba M35X-S149 specs:
- Intel Celeron M 1500MHz CPU comes with 256MB PC2700 RAM, upgradeable to 2GB (this machine shares RAM with the video card); I’ve added an additional 1 GB Kingston SO-DIMM module to it from the onset (KVR333SO/1GR; 2.5V 333MHz)
- 60GB HDD
- Toshiba SD-R2512 DVD-ROM/CDRW combo drive
- 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 TFT display
- Realtek RTL-8139 ethernet
- Atheros AR5212 802.11b/g wireless LAN
- Intel 82852/855GM video
- Intel 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 audio
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- 1 IEEE1394 firewire port

I’ve used the O’Reilly book live CD distro to boot into Knoppix with F12. Wow!!

Everything seemed to work at first glance. With the 1.2 GB mem detected without problems on my machine, the toram cheat code really makes it worthwhile- can’t believe how fast it is while XP maintains a crawl in comparison (even after some performance optimization from the XP Annoyances book). However, what I noticed from the beginning is that the screen seemed fuzzy. In XP, which I have to keep on my machine for a while, disabling anti-aliasing to smooth font edges results in a nice and crisp appearance. I’ve digged around how to fix this, e.g., found http://www.d.umn.edu/~salu0005/linux_installation.html
Tried the depth=16 cheat code, and after some reluctance modelines too, but no luck so far. Anything on how to get this to work would be helpful.

ACPI fan/thermal which I was concerned about most after reading around, seems to work with the 2.4.6 kernel, and when booting with knoppix26 into 2.6.6. I understand that the other mobility-related features don’t work so well, which is not so critical for me since I was looking to turn my machine quickly into a Linux dektop only. But for others it might be.

Ok, so what else doesn’t work?

1) Printing. Quite an inconvenience. Not the fault of Knoppix for sure, but rather the limited Linux support for my setup (paperweight). But I can still print by using a Windows machine as a print server...
2) USB support! I got one of those 1 GB USB flash memory sticks (the new Memorex M-Flyer which was supposed to work with Linux 2.4.x) and was hoping I can do a lot of useful things with it, e.g, booting from the stick etc. Well. I didn’t see any icons for USB on the KDE desktop. Haven’t got it to work after serious digging (also not on an old Memorex 128MB travel drive which I believed was Linux 2.4.x compatible). Still “/dev/sdaX is not a valid block device”. Of course, it works like a charm with XP. And it’s fast.
And yes, I also modified /etc/fstab ... I will get the latest distribution, but still am interested if anyone got this working on a Toshiba M35X-S149. BTW, I saw with utilities>tools>usbview there is USB 1.0 detected, so there is no 1.1 or 2.0 support?! And, external USB floppy drive is not detected either. I’m wondering whether anyone has experience with how firewire works, eg., with one of those Maxtor external HD.
3) Sound. Not so critical for me since I like quiet machines. Haven’t heard any sound though so far (except the dreaded fan :-) that keeps turning on all the time but definitely not Knoppix’s fault).
4) CD eject/unmount from KDE doesn’t work with the 2.6. kernel but does with 2.4. ; on a different note, I noticed X11 error in 2.4. ‘cannot initialize the apgart module’ but not in 2.6.

Bottomline: I’m very impressed by Knoppix despite a few glitches I encountered (except USB!). There are just too many distros around (and too many laptop models). Very useful, if you need to keep Win/XP for whatever reason (be it hard/software support etc) and hate to mess with dual boot... Best of both worlds? Maybe. Better than OS X? You decide, but perhaps not for the esthetic eye.

[bongski55]

I have a tecra and having been introduced to linux via knoppix(starting with 3.1) I was toying with the idea of using knoppix/linux on it. I was discouraged by the fact that for a new model like mine the support for linux was virtually non existent!
Knoppix as live cd booted fine. I even used qtparted to create a new fat32 partition. Then when I wanted to use the modem(unfortunately dialup is the only choice I have) I learned that there is no driver available for linux. I even tried kanotix because it has the lucent driver available but it did not work.
so for the time being it is goodbye to knoppix and linux for me. It is just too cumbersome to DIY since there is no Toshiba support for it.

[jan4]

I’ve just posted my delightful experience of making Knoppix talk to an iPod mini ( see http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20701 )
To connect via firewire (USB didn’t work for me), you’ll need a “iPod dock connector to firewire” ($19)- which connects the pod to a 6-pin male. Unfortunately, the Toshiba M35X-S149 has a 4-pin IEEE1394 firewire port (also called i.Link). So, you’ll also need a 1394 Firewire 6-pin female to 4-pin male adapter ($6) from your local electronics store.
The 4-pin isn’t powered, however; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire .
So you’ll still need to recharge the pod elsewhere (e.g., via USB under Win), which is the drawback. But otherwise, I was able to e.g, burn a CD image (that I had written to the pod) with K3b without problems in Knoppix 3.4 (booted into 2.4.6 kernel with toram cheat code). You’ll need to launch K3b as root (type k3b in a root shell) though to access the pod’s directory and burn the image. I set the write speed to 4x and enabled verify after the burn, which finished successfully with the fanfare sound (so there is some sound!). The 2.4. kernel uses SCSI emulation to burn CDs, haven’t tried the 2.6. kernel (that can access IDE directly) yet. More to follow. Now that I can burn a CD from Knoppix, I’ll get the latest distro, try burn my settings to CD etc. I’ll report on this later, and hopefully, on booting directly from the pod.