Linux on the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7407
Heads up!
The page is getting a little long from comments and a little convoluted from the three or four different versions of Ubuntu I’ve gone through (and you’d be surprised how much Javascript and stuff is involved. I was really bored). I’m trying to clean things up a bit, but would there be any demand for an archiving mailing list, perhaps even a PHPBB or a wiki? Is there already one floating around somewhere?
I’ve been toying with the idea of deleting comments, and moving credit for who threw down useful information into a “CREDITS” section as I incorporate them into the page. Thoughts? Comments? Leave ‘em here, or email ‘em to me. (There’s a “drunk dialing” menu on the right. I actually prefer realtime comm, because work sucks, so feel free to use that “Pager” button. :-))
On with it
This page is also available at http://www.datanorth.net/~cuervo/laptop/.
Summary
This page details my personal experiences with various versions of Ubuntu (7.04, 8.04, and now/soon 8.10) on the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7407.
<TLDR> 8.04 works, wait a bit for 8.10 to calm down. Get this stuff if you want your wireless card to work under Linux kernel versions pre-2.6.27. Kernel version 2.6.27 contains real support for the 8187B. You need to modprobe snd-hda-intel model=toshiba to get audio working. Under 8.10 “Intrepid”, only one CPU on my dual-core sytem is recognized. Installing xorg-driver-fglrx fixes periodic X display freezes. </TLDR>
I was originally planning to go with Debian, but breakage in the Debian package archives (fglrx-driver was depending on xorg-server >= some version I had installed, which was more current — bug in APT?) convinced me to try Ubuntu.
Everything seems to work. I have no hardware to test the MMC slot or the firewire interface, and I still haven’t tried the modem. MMC cards work fine; Sony’s memory sticks don’t, even with the “restricted” drivers, where they should be. *ahem*, Ubuntu people.
The 64-bit 7.10 LiveCD worked as well as the 32-bit on my laptop. I don’t know why I didn’t think to install it before — now I’ll have to back up all my mp3s. It still didn’t know about fglrx or the wireless card without me telling it, though, and the hotkeys and whatnot still didn’t work (same symptons as the new 32-bit kernel). Okay, I installed the linux-headers for 2.6.22 and downloaded the source tree for 2.6.20 (from kernel.org), then compiled the 2.6.20 ACPI drivers as modules against the 2.6.22 kernel and overwrote them. Media keys work again, Fn keys don’t. Hmm. Everything is back to normal with the upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic. Suspend/hibernate are still iffy. esd causes blocking in various apps (probably something to do with softbeep). I’ve posted some firsthand info about Ubuntu 8.10 in October 2008, and I’m currently (AS IN RIGHT NOW, PEOPLE!#%!#%!#&*) updating this page.
For some reason, the PC speaker (pcspkr.ko) doesn’t work (seemingly, after loading the snd-hda-intel module). I used the softbeep package to work around it, and put the following in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/89×11-softbeep:
STARTUP="/usr/bin/softbeep $STARTUP"
This makes things that go beep play a wav (configurable by editing /usr/bin/sb-beep). I like /usr/share/sounds/info.wav more than the default warning.wav.
UPDATE: The pcspkr kernel module worked with 7.10 for a bit.
UPDATE: Seemed to work with the live CD. I didn’t care enough to look into it.
This is my experience with Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty upgrading to 7.10 now upgraded to 7.10, so far so good. Fn keys don’t work with kernel 2.6.22-14-generic, but I backstepped to 2.6.20-16-generic, and they work again. Don’t know why this is, yet. Upgraded to 2.6.24-19-generic and Ubuntu 8.04/Hardy, and it works. Should have mentioned the only Fn keys I cared about were brightness up/down. Wonder if suspend wor–nope. Mem sleep, no. I’ll try hdd sleep after I finish updating. :P
This page will be edited, updated, overhauled, rewritten, and eventually digested by thousands of angry monkeys.
Wireless signal strength isn’t reported is reported as 30% by NetworkManager and 0 by iwconfig. I’ll work on it.
Why the hell am I the first person to get Linux running on this thing? It was the cheapest laptop at Fry’s.
The media keys seem to be iffy when you resume from suspend and/or hibernate. (Suspend and/or hibernate also seem iffy.)
After the upgrade, speakers sound blown. Nope, wasn’t modprobing with model=toshiba. Sounds fine.
Hardware
Audio
ATI SB600 Azalia. Supported by snd-hda-intel (”Intel HD audio”) module: add
options snd-hda-intel model=toshibato /etc/modprobe.d/sound. I used Realtek’s download page to grab their drivers, which seem to just be a wrapper around the latest ALSA tarball.
Display
ATI Radeon Xpress X1200. Supported by fglrx (proprietary) kernel and Xorg modules. Runs at full 1200×800.
I ran out to Fry’s and bought an S-Video cable, plugged it into my TV, and it worked great, with no extra configuration. Haven’t tried under 8.10.
For Ubuntu, you need to add the following two lines to /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
Then run apt-get update && apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx.
Not done yet. You need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf by hand (do you?), and change your display driver. Search for “vesa”, including quotes, and change it to “fglrx”.
Alternatively, aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf might work.
My /etc/X11/xorg.conf is here.
Mouse
Run-of-the-mill Synaptics touchpad. Seems to function better with the drivers under 7.10 than under 7.04 (didn’t always detect taps with my config). Works pretty well under 8.04. Works fine under 8.10 after the fglrx install.
Ethernet
Realtek RTL8101E. Supported by r1000 kernel module. Works great.
802.11 b/g
Realtek RTL8187B. Supported by r8187 kernel module, after patching it to recognize the card. The patched driver I use is available here: after unpacking, cd to the directory, run “./makedrv” and “./wlan0up”. Then configure wlan0 as usual.
2.6.24 and later kernels need to apply either the Adams patch or the Leung patch. I’m told that 2.6.27 has full, non-hacky support for this thing! Running 2.6.27, and the thing works like one would expect. Reports signal strength and everything.
Also, note this is a USB card, NOT a PCI card.
Following notes are from Ubuntu 8.04 under kernel 2.6.24:
NOTE: WEP works, but I’ve been seeing some people having problems with WPA. I’ll look into it when I get another wireless access point. :-(
NOTE: Setting the MAC address (with ifconfig wlan0 hw ether …) made the kernel very angry with me.
NOTE: Wireless signal strength isn’t reported is reported as 0 by iwconfig and 30% constant by NetworkManager. Dunno why, but I’ll work on it.
NOTE: The little wlan switch on the bottom-front-left of the laptop doesn’t seem to do anything but turn the light on and off. Hmm. (True under every kernel so far, up to and including 8.10)
Modem
Odd. Seems to work with slmodemd, after this patch (site was up earlier today, but seems to be down @ 19 Oct 2007 23:57 PDT). Haven’t tested thoroughly.
CD/DVD
CD reading and writing work out of the box. DVD playback works, after jumping through the hoops. Haven’t tested DVD burning, but looks like it’ll work fine. Works fine.
Firewire
Kernel says it’s there and it’s ready to go, but I have no firewire devices.
MMC
Works fine with SD cards; Sony’s memory sticks aren’t even detected. There is kernel support for them, but they aren’t included in any Ubuntu package I’ve found so far, and, well, I’m lazy and have no pressing need.
Update notes
From 7.04 to 7.10: Wow, that was a pain in the ass. Although the 7.10 update did seem to fix my girlfriend’s Compaq Presario V5000 (the bcm43xx card wasn’t happy until then).
From 7.10 to 8.04 (with no safety net): We cool. Fn keys work again, but suspend and hibernate seem hit or miss.
From 8.04 to 8.10: DEAR GOD
Miscellaneous
This page needs a cleanup, I know.
Copyright
I, the author, hereby release this article, “Linux on the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7407″, including all comments made by myself, into the public domain. User comments are the property of their respective posters.
I humbly and respectfully request that attribution and/or a link back to my site be given wherever this information is reposted. Having released the article into the public domain, this is obviously not a requirement.
You are encouraged to repost, mirror, copy verbatim, paraphrase, and otherwise retransmit whatever information you find useful here. I cannot speak for comment owners.
And, hey, if you’re one of those crazy rich types, you could click one of those donation buttons on the top right of the page. If not, and you’re looking at a Google ad that interests you below, you could click it. ;-)
[...] created this static page to detail what I know and don’t know about getting Linux working on my shiny new [...]
What version of Ubuntu are you using? I tried your steps in CentOS and everything worked except the sound. After playing around with some kernels I’ve found that multiple ones did not work with your modified wifi driver. I’ve decided to use ubuntu now since you have it successfully working.
I’m currently using 7.04 (Feisty).
I’m curious to know what worked for you and what didn’t on CentOS; I’m actually a bit surprised sound didn’t work with the driver pack from Realtek. You might want to try “rmmod snd-hda-intel && modprobe snd-hda-intel model=toshiba”.
For the wifi driver, were there errors during make or insmod?
Well - Wifi worked at first but after a reboot I seemed to be pointing to a different kernel. I was working with about 4 different kernels because of the sound issue and lost track of which one worked earlier. Any time the sound module was loaded under centos - it went in to kernel panic. Did you use the Desktop or Alternate CD? Any time the installer tries to go to graphical mode it turns my lcd off. I can switch to the other consoles - but no UI. So I installed it with the alternate CD and for some reason now - the ATI drivers won’t install. It basically starts up , successfully discovers my Xorg version and then removes the temporary directory - giving me no errors. I then tried to build Ubuntu packages directly from the installer - and all the packages it built contained 0 files from ATI. This is really strange - did you install any other pre-reqs under ubuntu before installing the ATI drivers?
Hmm. I used the desktop CD. It doesn’t use the fglrx driver, but it did work at 800×600.
You need to add the restricted repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list to get the xorg-driver-fglrx package:
Then
apt-get updateandapt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx.Hopefully, that fixes the issue with your LCD turning off during install.
Well - last week I got it all working in 7.0.4 on the alternate CD. I was wondering - did you do a 64 bit or 32 bit install? I still don’t have the sound card working but everything else works great now.
I used the 32-bit installer.
Hello, good work man
well I have two questions:
the first one I have a Toshiba Satellite a215-s7422 , and I have a problem with the sound, Please, Could you give me any specific instructions to fix it, because I have tried to install the realtek sound driver and I broke my operating System, je je je, (Ubuntu 7.10 final version).
And before install ubuntu, I installed Debian Etch 4.0 r0 but I think the laptop Increases the temperature, Do you know something about that
Thanks a lot
What broke when you loaded the sound module?
I don’t know anything about the system running hotter. I usually run at between 140 degrees and 160 degrees F.
You are indeed the man. However, I’ve followed all the instructions on getting the sound working (yours and others throughout the Web) and I am unable to get this thing to make a peep. I keep getting snd_hda_intel: disagrees about version of symbol snd_ctl_add etc… when trying to load the sound modules. Any suggestions?
Your humble supplicant,
Phil
rm the old snd-* modules (in /lib/modules/`uname -r`), and recompile the modules.
That should do the trick.
Figured it out:
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/pci/hda/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/seq/oss/snd-seq-oss.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/seq/oss/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/seq/snd-seq.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/seq/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/seq/snd-seq-midi-event.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/seq/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/seq/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/snd-page-alloc.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/oss/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/oss/snd-pcm-oss.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/oss/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/snd-rtctimer.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/snd-pcm.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/snd-timer.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/acore/snd-hwdep.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/sound/acore/
Hello:
I’m following your instructions to get my toshiba satellite A215-S7407 working with ubuntu.
Fist of all, ubuntu realized theres is an ATI graphics card and automatically sugested me to install the non-free driver xorg-driver-fglrx. It worked fine at full 1280×800 resolutions, even compiz fusion did.
I am trying to get the sound working. I downloaded the realteck driver:
- entered into realteck download page
- downloaded (and tried) both drivers: AC’97 Audio Codecs (Software), High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)
- for each driver I tried:
- uncompress driver
- run “sudo ./intall”
- solved two installation problems by googling and installing some packages (remember gettext and libncurse-dev).
- the final installation step is alsaconf running.
alsaconf shows the following cards:
hda-intel ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
legacy Probe legacy ISA (non-PnP) chips
I always select the first one.
I noticed alsasound produces this output, near the end of the process:
ALSA lib confmisc.c:769:(parse_card) cannot find card ”
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No existe el dispositivo
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No existe el dispositivo
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3510:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No existe el dispositivo
ALSA lib conf.c:3982:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No existe el dispositivo
ALSA lib pcm.c:2144:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:545: error al abrir audio: No existe el dispositivo
Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state.
/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1253: No soundcards found…
my /etc/modprobe.d/sound is (added the last line as you said):
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba
When i reboot the laptop, there is no sound. It now beeps when i make mistakes typing on the console. It did’n beep before this process. but still no real sound.
The volume control says it has not found any sound device for GStreamer.
$ lspci | grep Audio
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
this seems diferent from yours (ATI SB600 Azalia)??
What may be wrong with my configuration??
Thank you.
I’m using the snd-hda-intel drivers; Linux does seem to identify our cards as SBx00. I think I got the “6″ from when I was still running Vista, same way I found out about the RTL8187B.
As for the “cannot find card” error, I did a bit of poking around in the ALSA source. There’s a logic error in src/confmisc.c:
I’m still not sure what’s causing your error. I’ve noticed that running around doing all this by hand tends to cause conflicts with existing modules, so you might want to make sure the old modules aren’t getting loaded instead (see previous comments). If you still have problems, I’ll wipe the drivers from my system and start from scratch to see if I can duplicate your problem on my end.
Hello:
I made it sound!!. The process for me was:
- Install fresh Ubuntu 7.10 AMD64
- Then try put the sound to work *before* anything else.
- Install the linux-backports-modules-generic 2.6.22.14.21 as said in (near the end, posted by crazyforpurple):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3510955
- restart. After restart you must have the sound mixer working and the volume control working. In my case I still had no sound, but we are getting close to that. Now ubuntu recognizes the sound card.
- next, install the audio by following the instructions on the top of this page:
– download the realteck high definition audio codecs from the page: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/
– sudo aptitude install alsamixergui
– backup /lib/modules/`uname -r` by typing “sudo cp -r /lib/modules/`uname -r` /lib/modules/backup”
– sudo aptitude install libc6-dev g++ gcc (will ask for the Ubuntu cdrom).
– sudo aptitude install libncurses5-dev
– sudo aptitude install gettext ja-trans
– now we have all dependencies to compile the realtek audio codec, decompress the codec into any directory and type (inside that directory):
– sudo ./install
- reboot. It must sound now for you, I hope.
then install the video card and wireless as said in this page. Remember, install sound at first.
Thanks to all of you that helped me.
Camilo
I followed these instructions to get my sound card working (Toshiba Satellite A215-S7437). I could see the mixer and control, and had no errors, but still no sound. The sound works in Windows, however.
I followed the instructions in the following response to get my wireless working. It seemed to be broadcasting, but not receiving (WPA). I had it working for a while using the ndiswrapper method with the win98 inf file, but it was flaky and eventually Ubuntu would not load.
Any suggestions?
Harvey
For sound, check your mixer settings (spark up alsamixer). Make sure the PCM and Front channels are high enough (I’m at 100,100 and 50,50, respectively).
For wireless, try it out without encryption and/or with WEP instead of WPA. I haven’t tried WPA with the rtl8187b, and my access point went down, so I’ve got nothing to experiment with right now.
Yup! I did all what Camilo did, and things went fine. Interesting: I reversed the order and it went fine; I ran the “aptitude” commands and THEN followed Crazyforpurple’s instructions to load the Backports.
Thanks for all the help!! (I hate to think how late YOU all must have stayed up if this took me 4 hours to figure out.)
How did you get your wireless to work? It doesn’t even seem to realize that I have a wireless card on my bus…
1. Donwload the modified wireless driver from http://www.datanorth.net/~cuervo/rtl8187b/ as said in this page (in the original post).
2. ucompress the driver in a new directory called ~/wlan.
3. read the instructions that comes with this driver.
4. in the console, goto ~/wlan and execute ./makedrv
5. this compiles the driver, then to install into ubuntu:
6. sudo ./wlan0up
7. done this, you must see the wireless network. I have no network to test. But you must see the available networks on the ubuntu connection manager.
8. when you are done with the wireless, unconnect it by typing:
9. sudo ./wlan0down
Hope this help.
[...] [1] Instalación de Cuervo (en inglés) [2] Instalar los backports para el driver de sonido [3] Problemas con el uso de disco en laptops [4] Solución del problema con el uso de disco en laptops [...]
Hello, I put the instructions of the ubuntu installation on this laptop in spanish at:
http://hojalibre.com/2007/11/18/3/linux-ubuntu-en-toshiba-satellite-a215-s7407/
Thank you.
Hola, hay instrucciones de instalación de Ubuntu Linux en la laptop Toshiba Satellite A215-S7407 en español en:
http://hojalibre.com/2007/11/18/3/linux-ubuntu-en-toshiba-satellite-a215-s7407/
Gracias.
[OpenSuSE 10.3]
I’m also using a Fry’s Toshiba special (A215-S7427).
I contacted RealTek for a driver for the Wireless chip (8187B/8197) and had to update the definitions for this chip. Don’t like that they want to replace the ieee80211 libraries with their custom enhancments.
I put in the AMD vidio driver (fglrx) for the X1200 (RS690M) and it appears to be doing fine in 1200×800 (framebuffer) mode. Seeing a message about ‘GART Tabe is not in FRAME_BUFFER range’ though.
Still playing with the sound driver. I added the ‘model=toshiba’ and the other definitions and now get less garbage in the system logs during boot. The sound wheel has always been recognized. No sound yet, but it isn’t a priority with me like wireless or hi-res vidio.
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device ff0a
Flags bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
Memory at f86000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchale) [size=16k]
Capabilities: [50] Power Managment version 2
Chris, can you send me the e-mail address for the contact at realtek regarding the driver source please?
buildsmart at daleenterprise.com[...] my fear proved well-founded. We were about to scrap the plan, when the community over on an incredibly useful blog post centered around getting Ubuntu up on the A215-S7407 (which is basically the same computer) saved the day. I’ve now got wireless on the computer, [...]
This is perfect for getting my wireless going, but I lose all changes on reboot. Will you help me understand how to add this module so it loads on each boot?
Here’s what my /etc/network/interfaces looks like:
iface wlan0 inet dhcppre-up /root/rtl8187b-modified/wlan0up
post-down /root/rtl8187b-modified/wlan0down
wireless-essid wtfe
wireless-key1 s:passphrase
Will this guide work for a Toshiba A215-S7437? I’ve installed Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna, and I dont have wireless, sound and the resolution is wrong. Someone said above that sound needs to be fixed first, before wireless and video. Does it really matter?
I am very new to linux, and I really want to get this laptop working, so any help is greattly appreciated.
I want to know if this guide will work with Linux Mint 4.0 with the feisty repositories.
thanks in advance
I got sound running way after video and wireless. I don’t know if this info is good for the S7437, but I’ve read it’s basically the same system.
well, sounds like some other people are picking up these deals
i got the a215-s7427
tried using the 7.10 live cd from the web. n o sound, no wireless, etc,.. same issues as above.. as far as ubuntu, i love it and swithed a bit ago aftr it came with an old pc from the recycle center, ive been hooked. super fast performance even on older machines, makes vista look disgustingly bloated.
so, let it install itself to a new partition (after shrinking vistas) .. updated it etc..
soo… been trying for days on this thing,. i would be willing to blow this copy away in a heartbeat if someone was willing to maybe “zip” or ghost an image of their toshiba laptop with the azalea snd etc?? probably and a2xx-s7xxx series would be the same as this one. I just dont like vista, and i hate using it for movies, etc cause it hogs down this comp.. lame city bloated cow
any help out there??
much thanks!!
ubuntu rules
thank you so much for putting this together - got it all running on my newly purchased A215-S4707. and i’m fairly new to linux! my main stumbling block is with sleep/suspend - cannot get the machine to wake up after suspend. any hints?
Yeah, I’ve seen ACPI being stupid here, too. Everything worked fine with the 2.6.20-16-generic kernel, but went dooh with the upgrade to 2.6.22-14-generic. I haven’t really tried it since I recompiled the ACPI modules from 2.6.20 into my running kernel; you might just want to downgrade the kernel until it gets fixed.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A215-7437 and the screen resolution was fixed by installing the ATI proprietary driver and rebooting.
The wireless was fixed by installing the “rtl8187b-modified” driver that was patched to recognize the rtl8187b wireless lan card. It works with kernel “2.6.22-14 generic”, but not with hardy heron kernel 2.6.24. Don’t know why. I open a root terminal and use the following commands. The “rtl8187b-modified” driver file was parked in my home directory and unpacked there and then I used the following commands:
First type “cd rtl8187b-modified” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./makedrv” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./wlan0up” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./wlan0dhcp” and then hit “enter”.
Wait until it is finished. Then close the root terminal, and then open a web browser and try to get a website like “http://www.google.com” and see if it finds the web page and loads it. If it does you have wireless internet. Works like a charm for me.
As for the sound, I used synaptic to uninstall all the 1.0.14 alsa drivers and source code and tools and utilities. Then I downloaded the latest 1.0.15 alsa drivers directly from the alsa homepage at: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Download
and parked them in my home directory and then unpacked them and compiled them and installed them. The volume control said they were installed and working and even Totem said my music was playing but no sound. I fixed that by googling until I found something that fixed the problem.
It seems that alsa did not edit the config files right. I learned this from the following website:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-hda-intel
I followed the instructions from this website and installed the realtek drivers, then I rebooted and the sound worked.
I almost fell off the chair when the sound came out from the speakers after rebooting. I am currently listening to my mp3 music through my earphones as everyone is asleep and I don’t want to wake them up.
I am currently considering whether to remove Windoze Vista, the 32-bit version, from my hard-drive or not. I don’t need it anymore for the sound or wireless. I have already shrunk it down to 50 Gb and I gave the other 150? Gb to Ubuntu Gutsy, the 64-bit version, and I am deliriously happy.
I don’t know why the latest alsa drivers did not edit and otherwise modify the config files properly. But the sound works and I am happy…all just because I properly edited the “/etc/modules.conf” file.
If you can figure any more of this out, let me know. If you want a copy of my config files and any other files, let me know.
Yours truly, a Linux lover,
Jean Brown Harrell
Hi,
I followed these directions, but I received the following error when trying to run ./makedrv:
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.18-8.el5xen/build M=/root/Desktop/rtl8187b-modified/ieee80211 CC=gcc modules
make: *** /lib/modules/2.6.18-8.el5xen/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [modules] Error 2
similar message, but with rtlXXXX instead of ieeeetc…
I’m currently running a dual boot Vista/CentOS 5.1 Toshiba Satellite A215-s4697.
I am a noob, so please respond in short, less than five/six letter words please. much obliged if anyone can give me some help with this, it’s a pain to deal with this and I can’t do anything useful (i.e. my work) in vista.
Thanks,
Michael Rutkowski
PS: on the wireless driver, the “./makedrv” command was to compile and install the driver.
Whenever you want to cut on the wireless internet, you have to open a root terminal and I use the following commands when I want to connect to the internet after booting up my laptop as the wireless internet is not automatically turned on at boot time:
I first make sure that I am in my home directory /home/jean/ and at the “#” prompt, I then do the following:
First type “cd rtl8187b-modified” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./wlan0up” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./wlan0dhcp” and then hit “enter”.
That is all and the wireless lan works. I can turn it off by getting a root terminal and making sure that I am in my home directory and using the following commands:
First type “cd rtl8187b-modified” and then hit “enter”,
Then type “./wlan0down and then hit “enter”,
Then close the root terminal and the wireless is turned off.
I parked the rtl8187b-modified driver in my home directory and unpacked it and proceeded to use a root terminal to install it in my home directory and to turn it on .
Normally you should probably park it in the /usr/local/ or the /usr/src/ directory and proceed to install it. I don’t know.
However, this works for me. The only problem I now have is deciding whether to remove Windoze Vista, the 32-bit version of that trash, from my hard-drive or not.
Such a hard choice!!!
PS: Some minor details I forgot to mention:
Here is a copy of my EDITED /etc/modules.conf file:
# ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias snd-card-1 snd-cmipci
options snd-cmipci id=”first” mpu_port=0×330
# OSS/Free portion
#alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
#alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
# OSS/Free portion - card #2 (cmipci)
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
Here is a copy of my ORIGINAL /etc/modules.conf file:
# ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias snd-card-1 snd-cmipci
# OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
Also, here is a copy of my ORIGINAL /etc/modutils/alsa file which I have NOT yet edited. I will try editing it after I see how everything works:
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
# module options should go here
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Hope all this helps.
A Linux fanatic,
Jean Brown Harrell
I’ve been at your page daily since I picked up my A215. Thank you for keeping this page with all the info.
The reason I keep coming back daily is that I cannot get the sound working on my A215-7425. I tried using the realtek drivers from your link, and every time I install them, unbuntu 7.10 will not start X after reboot.
I get an error regarding GTK using setuid wrongly and libasound.so.2 not being found. I’ve been through this install about 4 times now, and don’t know what to try next.
Maybe someone else has had this problem?
Happy Holidays!
No sweat! Glad I could be useful to the Linux community. :-)
For libasound.so.2 being missing, you probably want to try “
apt-get install libasound2“. That should take care of one problem (though I wonder why it wasn’t installed automatically).For the other problem, GTK failing at setuid(), I’ve never seen the error before. Can you paste it? (Didn’t know there was an improper way to use setuid.)
Also, does X not start at all, or does it try to switch from text mode to video mode a few times and then fail, or do you actually get as far as a login prompt and fail out after the window manager tries to start?
I’ve tried the apt-get install libasound2, but the response is : libasound2 is already the newest version. The error specifically says it cannot be loaded from /usr/bin/gnome-session/ but as a newb I can’t seem to copy the files needed.
As for the error Re: GTK, I’ve been trying to get the specific text, but it’s in a window(at logon) and I can’t copy/paste or see the /etc/gdm/Xsession.error(I think) file when I boot with the Live CD.
I can get the login screen for ubuntu, but when I log in, it says the last session was 10 secs or less and the only way I can get in is to a failsafe command prompt, which is in the X session.
Ook, I missed this one. Sorry, been a busy… er. Year. :P
The bigger problem right now is GTK; if the last session was 10 seconds or less, you might want to check your system clock to make sure it’s accurate.
If libasound2 is already the newest version, try adding “–reinstall” (that’s two minus-signs) to the command-line.
I know it’s been a while since your comment, but hopefully someone else finds this useful.
You can go to the following website: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/toshiba-a215-s7422.-fedora-core-8.-no-sound.-help.-605259/
and follow my detailed instructions and/or go to the following website: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-hda-intel where I got the instructions from and followed them to the letter and I can’t remember if I did a few things of my own but the sound now works.
It seems that the alsa drivers and alsaconf do not edit the config files properly. It seems that adding the following line “options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba” to my file “/etc/modprobe.d/sound” AFTER I installed the realtek audio drivers and used alsaconf to configure the sound card, and then rebooting after editing the file “/etc/modprobe.d/sound” and adding the line “options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba”, seems to have made all the difference.
I can tell you that my sound card works and I have sound and I am happy.
Yours truly,
Jean Brown Harrell
I’m running Ubuntu 7.10 on a Gateway ML6720. Running kernel 2.6.22-14-generic. When I compile the wireless driver I get a boatload of warnings and errors but the modules eventually come out. When I run the wlan0up script I get
insmod: error inserting ‘ieee80211_crypt-rtl.ko’: -1 Invalid module format
insmod: error inserting ‘ieee80211_crypt_wep-rtl.ko’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
insmod: error inserting ‘ieee80211_crypt_tkip-rtl.ko’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
insmod: error inserting ‘ieee80211_crypt_ccmp-rtl.ko’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
insmod: error inserting ‘ieee80211-rtl.ko’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
insmod: error inserting ‘r8187.ko’: -1 Unknown symbol in module
My output from lsusb is
Bus 006 Device 003: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Matt
Matt,
I was having this same issue. Try logging in as root with ’su -’ instead of just ’su’. This will help in retaining root’s path. Also check root’s path in the file /root/.bash_profile. It should be something to the effect of: PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$HOME/bin
Steve
Matt,
Scratch that. I didn’t read your error thoroughly, sorry. My issue was it was telling me that insmod command did not exist.
Steve
you need to add /sbin to your path at boot up i had this problem as well.
Does anybody know the solution for “Unknown symbol in module” ??
Sounds like you need to recompile the modules.
I wanted to give a thanks to everyone on the thread for their input and help. With the information here I was able to get my Toshiba A215-S7433 up and running with Fedora 8.
I do however have one question if anyone can help. The wireless driver works about 80% of the time. Meaning I initiate the command ./wlan0up, it pauses for a minute or so, and then gives me the prompt for the WEP password which it give, then says the network applet wants access to the keyring, and prompts for a password. If I hit deny it connects. Sometimes the applet locks to the point I have to manually restart the service and in some cases reboot.
Additionally, does anyone know how to get this setup and running at boot up in Fedora 8?
Thanks
Steve
Solution to Network Manager applet asking for password.
go to: /home/{user}/.gnome2/keyrings/ and delete the files in this directory. This will remove the keyrings allowing you to set it to whatever or sync it to your login password.
Solution to getting wlan0up to start with system start up. I was a total r-tard about this one. I placed the applicable files & folders in directory that root/system has assess to. Edited the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file with ‘wlan0up’
So now it works all well and good, for the most part. I would like to not have Network Manager applet crash out / lock my system when I switch between networks. Does any one know of a better connection manager? Does this driver have support for WPA or how would implement this? I have WEP working for now, which is better than nothing.
Steve
I have been having a few issues with my a215 toshiba laptop. everything has been loaded sucessfully. I have the sound card, wifi, card reader working. The problem I seem to be having is that my terminal locks up or goes very slowly, then after that happens the gui interface seems to hang, it normally comes back after a few minutes, other times it doesn’t.
If anyone else has any ideas I would love to hear them. it really sux trying to get something done when everything is going so slowly.
cheers,
eric
*- What desktop environment are you using?
*- What video driver are you using?
*- Does the hard drive activity seem to be going on all the time?
Try running “killall esd” after you log in. The same happens to me after successive upgrades from 7.10 to 8.04.1, killing esd fixed it.
(Hint: You might have to switch to a virtual console, via Ctrl-Alt-F1, F2, F3, etc., log in, and execute the command from there. I typically log in on a VC and run “killall esd ; exec chvt 7″ to bring myself back to the X session.)
Here Today - Gone tomorrow!
Wireless worked for a while on my A215 (Kubuntu 7.10), then I upgraded the kernel to 2.6.24-4. Now none of the drivers will compile…even with the new headers and build-essential packages.
Has anyone with a newer kernel had luck compiling the RTL8187B drivers? My plan was to get a fresh source package and add the device identifier to the table in r8187_core.c before compiling. No joy yet…
There is a new driver for this kernel in this page. Download the new drivers.
I’ve got an A215-S7437. I tried to get Fedora 8 up and running with the wireless driver. Like others, the RTL8187B driver makes the entire system unstable. Usually after a minute or so, there is some kind of kernel error reported, wireless doesn’t work, parts of the window manager lock up, and the shutdown process doesn’t even complete–I have to hard boot.
My theory is that it is unstable because of the 2.6.23 kernel that ships with Fedora 8. It looks like 2.6.22 kernel works fine with the driver for Ubuntu, 2.6.23 is unstable with Fedora 8, and 2.6.24 is completely broken. This driver code is not being updated to match changes in the kernel. I wish Realtek would invest a little more time in Linux support for their products.
I have a Toshiba A215-S7425. The realtek 8187b wireless works great in Vista but I had no success with Fedora 8, until tonight. I noticed that the MAC address being reported was one greater than what it should be! I dug into the code and in r8187_core.c in function rtl8180_init at line 2800 found a +1 on the end that looks suspicious. I removed the +1, rebuilt, and now the wireless works!!! :D
The line now looks like this:
dev->dev_addr[5]=((eprom_read(dev,MAC_ADR+2) & 0xff00)>>8);I don’t know if this is peculiar to the S7425 or not, but it certainly solved my problems.
I found that as well, just before I murdered Vista and dropped in Ubuntu. Thanks for the patch!
running Gutsy Gibbon on a215-4817 dual-core Turion.
2GB DDR2, 160GB SATA, 802.11b/g, USB 2.0, FireWire (IEEE1394), Biometric print-reader
I moved to XP-64 after being sorely disappointed by default install of Vista Home Premium. Was challenging locating all the drivers, but Toshiba’s repository covered most of the bases.
Ultimately, i sought freedom from MS desktop oligopoly, and installed Ubuntu on a separate partition. GRUB now boots Ubuntu by default.
Device inventory:
Atheros AR5006EG on ndiswrapper works great; had to set the MAC address in the specific driver instance in /etc/ndiswrapper//.conf file. look for “NetworkAddress,” and leave out the colons (’:')
the mythical Radeon Mobility X1200 (can’t find much about it on AMD/ATI website) works like a charm under fglrx/glx; compiz still blows my mind after years of a solitary, bland, static desktop. Watch that cube spin!
Azalia audio worked out of the box
Never used the modem
Haven’t tried the FireWire, but my digital camcorder will be the testbed
Realtek Ethernet worked out of the box
MMC support works for SD cards
The display driver broke suspend/hibernate, and that’s a pain.
There’s no native support for the Toshiba Fx keys
CodeWeaver’s CrossOver allows me to run Microsoft Office 2003, mostly for the sake of Outlook.
All in all, Ubuntu makes this so-called “bargain laptop” play like a champ. It puts the grinning Mac-chimps to shame when they see my desktop, not to mention the cost advantage on the laptop itself and software.
I am definitely interested in trading notes on helping make the Fx keys work, and restoring hibernate/suspend (i’ve read that a kernel rebuild will fix it).
2.6.24-19-generic and the Fn keys work. I’ll be biting the bullet and upgrading kernels within the next couple of days, and I’ll update the article to let everyone know how that goes.
to be clear, that is 64-bit Linux. Most of the 32-bit apps work great, e.g. Mozilla and Evolution. 32-bit Opera browser plays well with 32-bit plugins (Flash, Shockwave, et al.) with the help of Automatix. I have NO disappointments with this machine. Plus, bad to worse, there’s the XP-64 as a fall-back. Shared data must be put on fat32 partition, b/c i don’t think 2.6.22 reads NTFS-64.
still that_dude
Hi
Anybody was successful with this WiFi on 2.6.24 kernel ?
I’m running Debian Lenny amd64 with 2.6.24 kernel from sid and It doesn’t work for me :(
and BTW why didn’t RTL8187B got into kernel ? I mean RTL8187 is already there since 2.6.23. If getting the RTL8187B to work needs just some small USB ID then why wasn’t it done already?
You need to apply either the Adams patch or the Leung patch.
The reason, I’m told by the developers who’ve been directly maintaining it, is that the chips are slightly different and actually require further modifications than just my patch. E.g., register values and addresses have changed.
Again, I’ve been told that 2.6.27 has real, non-hacky support for the wireless card. I’m not going to recommend an upgrade until I’ve tried it for myself, but it’s worth looking into.
The newly modified cuervo driver seems to work well with the 2.6.24 kernel. Same setup as the old one.
There may be a way to get the kernel’s driver to work by adding the ‘8197 device id to the list in “/lib/modules/2.6.24-12-generic/modules.alias” but I haven’t tried it yet.
Hello friends,
is there a chance to make the rtl 8187B working with WPA?
hmm, I think that the signal strenght is reported somewhat correcly, because I tried to use 8187b on booth Linux and windows, and it seems that if I run ping -t my.router.ip under windows, I can move around whole house and get replies to ping, while when doing the same under Linux (without -t, of course), I only receive responses when I am close to router. It seems that this card has some sort of “magic” instruction that would make radio use greater transmission power.
I confirm the rtl8187b-modified-jadams-2-1-2008.tar.gz driver for the wireless works OK on Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 kernel 2.6.24-17-generic. Toshiba Satellite A215-S7407.
Thanks again for maintain this page. I made a new post in Spanish for this driver in my post and linked here also in my blog.
Hi, help me, im no speak english, but need driver for pci encore ENLWI-G2 whit chip RTL 8185, thanks
First of all, I wanna say thanks for publishing this (and thanks to all the people who have contributed to it). I bought a Toshiba laptop about a year ago that came with Vista pre-installed (I was under the impression when I bought it that it came with XP, which would have been much more tolerable).
I didn’t feel like going back and getting it exchanged, so I used vista for a few weeks. What a waste of time. The specs on this laptop aren’t that bad (it’s a Satellite Pro, A215-S747), other than it having an onboard graphics card (kinda sucks for gaming) - but with vista, it may as well have been a super nintendo.
Being fed up, I tried this article (but stuck with debian, I did get direct rendering working but I don’t remember how). It wasn’t very stable at all. So I switched to ubuntu (again following this article). Same thing. X would freeze (randomly), keyboard would lockup, mouse, entire system, etc. It felt like windows, minus the blue screen.
So I tried Slackware (12.1), and wow. Almost everything worked, right out of the box. The only two things I had to configure were 3D acceleration/direct rendering and sound. Those two can be addressed using the steps listed above. I’m using the modified RTL8187 driver and I downloaded the ALSA sources/compiled/installed them.
FN keys work, cpu throttling works, haven’t messed with hibernate (have no reason to, but I’d guess that it works). For the most part, it seems, almost everything works. So just in case anyone would want to try a different distro, Slackware may also be an option for you. Although not as user-friendly as Ubuntu might be, you may find it’s worth it in the long run.
I contemplated writing a how-to describing step by step (kinda how you did), specifically for slackware, but I’m not sure it’s even necessary. If you have a good enough (or even moderate) background with linux - you’ll likely be able to do it on your own pretty easily.
Anyway, thanks again. This was a good starting point.
Thanks for the feedback. Btw, installing the fglrx drivers fixed the freezes. :-)
I follow your posts for a long time and should tell that your articles always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.
Thanks, so much, for this (continuing) article! I’ve run across it several times, while Google’ing “toshiba a215″…
I’ve owned a A215-4807 for 25 months, and couldn’t be happier with it - except maybe for it’s size. It’s luggable, but doesn’t really fit well on airline snack trays and conference tables. Whatever! I don’t fit good in airplane seats and stackable conference room chairs either! :)
Anyway, I triple boot this thing with Vista/W7/Mint.
I won’t go into great detail. Ubuntu 8.10 was okay - openSuSE 11 was better (I was running both KDE/Gnome) - but Linux Mint 6 x64 is fly!!!
Linux Mint 6 is supposedly Ubuntu 8.10, so I guess we’re first cousins. I don’t know why Mint works better than Ubuntu on my Toshy A215, but it does.
I’m running Ubuntu 8.10 x64 on two other machines, so please don’t take my comments as FUD. Just saying…
If anyone is looking for an alternative to Ubuntu on their A215, you might wanna give Mint a whirl!
Latez!
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