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Ubuntu Linux 5.04 on a Toshiba Satellite R-15 Tablet PC

Summary of installation and features

Author: M Butcher
Date: 2005-06-25 00:48:39 -0500

This is a cursory overview of what is working and what is not working after an Out of the Box (read: no attempt at manual configuration) install of Ubuntu Linux 5.04 on a Toshiba Satellite R-15 (Technical Details).

Update 2006-01-20: I just got the tablet/stylus working! Hooray! In a nutshell, the tablet device shows up as /dev/wacom0. Simply installing a few tools and configuring X.org was all I had to do. it took me less than 10 minutes to get it working. I posted (updated, rather) instructions at the UbuntuForums.

Update 2006-01-06: I recently updated the system to Ubuntu 5.10. Rebooting now works fine. I have also updated the testing info below. New values are in italics.

Summary of Install: This machine is now configured for dual boot between Ubuntu and Windows XP Tablet Edition (which is Pro plus handwriting recognition and tablet applications).

Installation method: I did a basic Ubuntu installation (if you've used it, you'll know that there aren't many options). I did some partitioning work (cutting NTFS partition to 30G, adding FAT32 partition, cutting suggested swap from 1G to 512M). I used the 802.11g (Built-in Centrino) for networking during installation. Otherwise, I just let it install.

Sound: Works fine.
802.11b/g: Works fine .
Ethernet: Works fine.
USB 2.0: Works fine (ehci, uhci).
Touchpad: Works fine.
Video: Works fine.
Framebuffer Video: Works fine (vesafb, vesa16fb).
CD-RW/DVD-ROM: Works fine.
Wacom Tablet: Works with a bit of configuring.
Tablet Buttons: Need Configuring.
PCMCIA: Untested.
SanDisk: Needs Configuring.
Suspend (ACPI): Works fine.
Hibernate (ACPI): Works fine.
Firewire: Untested (ohci_1394 was modprobe'd, though).

Still haven't looked at the accelerometer. Nor have I tested to see if swiveling the screen generates any noticible events. Going into suspend worked from the LiveCD, but I haven't tested it from the install.

I fully expect that I will be able to get the Wacom tablet working. Tablet buttons I know can be configured... I just have to decide what to do with them.

One noticible quirk: Rebooting from linux hangs the system, and sends the fan into high gear. I have to power down (halt) instead of rebooting. I hear rumors that unplugging the power before reboot works, but I haven't tried that yet. I suspect that (since other Toshiba Satellites, such as the R20, are similarly effected) there will soon be a kernel patch to fix the bug. UPDATE: Working as of Kernel 2.6.12-10.

Usefull sections of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (Ubuntu 5.10):

Section "InputDevice"

 Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"

 Driver "synaptics"

 Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"

 Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

 Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"

 Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"

EndSection


Section "Device"

 Identifier "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"

 Driver "i810"

 BusID "PCI:0:2:0"

EndSection


Section "Monitor"

 Identifier "Generic Monitor"

 Option "DPMS"

 HorizSync 28-49

 VertRefresh 43-72

EndSection


Section "Screen"

 Identifier "Default Screen"

 Device "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"

 Monitor "Generic Monitor"

 DefaultDepth 24

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 1

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 4

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 8

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 15

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 16

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

 SubSection "Display"

 Depth 24

 Modes "1024x768"

 EndSubSection

EndSection

Addendum: Tablet Configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Here are the updates I did to xorg.conf in order to get the Wacom tablet/stylus working:

# Begin edits for tablet support:

Section "InputDevice"

 Identifier "stylus"

 Driver "wacom"

 Option "Type" "stylus"

 Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"

 Option "Device" "/dev/wacom0"

 Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"

EndSection


Section "InputDevice"

 Identifier "eraser"

 Driver "wacom"

 Option "Type" "eraser"

 Option "Device" "/dev/wacom0"

 Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"

EndSection


Section "InputDevice"

 Identifier "cursor"

 Driver "wacom"

 Option "Type" "cursor"

 Option "Device" "/dev/wacom0"

 Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"

EndSection

# End edits for tablet support

And I also modified the ServerLayout at the bottom:

# Added InputDevice entries for cursor, stylus, eraser.

Section "ServerLayout"

 Identifier "Default Layout"

 Screen "Default Screen"

 InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"

 InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

 InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"

 InputDevice "cursor"

 InputDevice "stylus"

 InputDevice "eraser"

EndSection

List of modules loaded by Ubuntu 5.10:

mbutcher@bezer:/$ cat /proc/modules | awk '{ print $1 }'
rfcomm
l2cap
bluetooth
ipv6
speedstep_centrino
cpufreq_userspace
cpufreq_stats
freq_table
cpufreq_powersave
cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative
pcmcia
i915
drm
video
toshiba_acpi
tc1100_wmi
sony_acpi
pcc_acpi
hotkey
dev_acpi
i2c_acpi_ec
i2c_core
button
battery
container
ac
af_packet
rtc
pcspkr
ohci1394
yenta_socket
rsrc_nonstatic
pcmcia_core
ipw2200
firmware_class
ieee80211
ieee80211_crypt
snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss
snd_pcm
snd_timer
snd
soundcore
snd_page_alloc
tpm_atmel
tpm_nsc
tpm
pci_hotplug
intel_agp
agpgart
dm_mod
joydev
sr_mod
sbp2
scsi_mod
ieee1394
psmouse
parport_pc
lp
parport
evdev
mousedev
tsdev
usbhid
md
ext3
jbd
mbcache
thermal
processor
fan
e100
mii
ehci_hcd
uhci_hcd
usbcore
ide_cd
cdrom
ide_disk
ide_generic
piix
ide_core
unix
vesafb
capability
commoncap
vga16fb
vgastate
softcursor
cfbimgblt
cfbfillrect
cfbcopyarea
fbcon
tileblit
font
bitblit

LSPCI Output:

mbutcher@bezer:~$ 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/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 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.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
0000:01:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
0000:01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8031
0000:01:0b.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8032
0000:01:0b.4 0805: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8034

Other Notes

Battery Life: With wireless turned off, I have been able to work for almost six hours in Linux. (In Windows, though, I get much less -- sometimes as little as 2 hours).

Wireless: If I turn of the power for the wireless card while the laptop is in suspend and then bring the laptop out of suspend, I cannot later turn the wireless back on and ifup the interface. Similar things happen on occasion with HID devices (USB mouse), so I suspect it has to do with Hotplug or ACPI.

Suspend and Resume: To configure suspend (which does not come configured out of the box on Ubuntu), I had to edit /etc/default/acpi-support, changing 'ACPI_SLEEP' to 'true'. On rare occasions, X.org does not gracefully recover from suspends. I suspect that this has to do with a particular application or particular demands on the X server, as it only seems to happen when I have a whole bunch of applications open (Firefox, GiMP, OOo 2, Java apps, to name a few).

Update 2006-01-11: I've located the source of the suspend problem. When my USB mouse is plugged in at the time that I suspend, when I resume, X.org does not recover. There is a possibility that this could be Gnome-specific, though I doubt it. There is also the possibility that this could be specific to my particular model of mouse.

Sound: I am very happy with the quality of sound (though I'm no golden ear). However, I have not yet gotten Skype's sound to work (though that is a common complaint with Ubuntu).

Conclusion

Overall, I am quite happy with my Toshiba Satellite R15. It is a little on the large side, but that doesn't keep me from taking it everywhere. I use the system to write code, write papers, articles and books, and listen to music, and I'm happy with its performance in all of these areas.

For questions or comments, email "mmbutcher" at this domain (aleph-null.tv).

For information about running Linux on other laptops, I encourage you to visit Linux On Laptops or TuxMobil.

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Questions? Comments? Consulting Opportunities? Email matt at aleph-null.tv.