Linux on Toshiba Satellite 1750 and 1755 Laptops

Last Updated: December 22, 2002

Introduction

This document describes installing and configuring various Linux distributions on the Toshiba Satellite 175x series laptop (i.e. the 1750 and 1755). The organization is based around hardware components. If a particular distribution supports a particular component "out-of-the-box", there will be a rating like this:

Red Hat 7.1

OK

If a component is supported by Linux, but needs some tweaking or configuration to get it working with a particular distribution, the rating will look like this:

Red Hat 7.1

Help

The "Help" box will be a link to additional instructions on how to make the component work for that distribution.

If a component doesn't work at all, the rating will be like this:

All Linux

Broken

Generally, the only time a component won't work at all is if a driver for it doesn't exist anywhere, in which case it will be "Broken" for all distributions.

If a component hasn't been tested for a particular distribution, the rating is unknown, and looks like this:

Red Hat 7.1

???

I haven't done much testing with different distributions or kernels yet, but I will include more information here as I go along. I'm also interested in collecting advice or problems encountered by other users. Please see the contact information below if you would like to contribute to this resource.

Contacting Me

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about running Linux on this laptop, or if you have comments or suggestions about the information I've provided on this site.

• I have setup a Yahoo! Group to provide a support mailing list. The group name is toshiba1750linux.
  You do not need to be a member to post messages to the group or to read the message archives. Just send e-mail to [email protected]. You only need to join the group if you want to receive the messages directly to help answer questions. The list is moderated so that you won't get a bunch of junk mail and off-topic posts.
• You can chat with me on Yahoo! Messenger if I'm online.
• You can also send me e-mail directly at [email protected], but the group mailing list is preferable for support questions.

Hardware Overview

Toshiba Satellite 1750

This machine has a Celeron 700, 64MB RAM (mine is upgraded to the maximum 192MB), 10GB hard disk, DVD-ROM drive, and a 13.3" TFT screen. I've only had this laptop for about two months, but so far I've been very happy with it. It's well equipped, a good performer, affordable, and very Linux compatible.

I believe it is physically equivalent to the following Toshiba laptops:

• Satellite 1755 - This is just the retail version of the 1750 (i.e. what you would get if you bought it at CompUSA instead of direct from Toshiba), so it should be identical in every respect to the 1750.
• Satellite 1730 - I think this only differs from the 1750 in some non-critical (as far as installing Linux goes) ways. It has a CD drive instead of a DVD drive. It also has a 13" DSTN screen instead of a 13.3" TFT, and I think the resolution might be limited to 800x600 instead of 1024x768.
• Satellite 1735 - Should be the retail version of the 1730, and identical to it.
• If anybody knows of any other models that are compatible with these, please let me know.

Audio

The audio chipset is the Cirrus Logic Crystal CS4281 PCI Audio. There is a working driver (cs4281) for this in recent 2.4.x kernels and in the ALSA project. The built-in speakers leave a lot to be desired, but I generally listen with headphones anyhow.

Red Hat 7.1	Help
Red Hat 8.0	OK
Mandrake 8.0	OK

Display

The video chipset is the ATI Rage Mobility-C with 4MB of SGRAM. It seems to be well-supported by Linux. I'm running my system at 1024x768x24bit.

Red Hat 7.1	OK
Red Hat 8.0	OK
Mandrake 8.0	OK

DVD Data

This DVD drive works fine with all the DVD-ROMs, CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-R/Ws that I've tried. Informal testing of CD-Audio ripping (using cdparanoia with the default settings) gave me the rather modest speed of about 1.4x.

Red Hat 7.1	OK
Red Hat 8.0	OK
Mandrake 8.0	OK

DVD Video

I haven't tried any video DVDs yet. If I ever get around to watching a movie, I'll update this information. The main issue here will probably be whether or not the CPU is fast enough to do the decoding. Theoretically, it should be, since the machine comes with a Windows software-based DVD player, but I never tried that, so I don't know how well it performs either.

Red Hat 7.1	???
Red Hat 8.0	Help
Mandrake 8.0	???

Power/APM

With constant use, mostly involving web browsing, e-mailing, and typing in a text editor, I get around 2 hours of battery life. Toshiba sells a "long-life" battery if you need more power, but I don't have any idea what kind of time that will give you. If anybody has it, I'd love to know.
I don't know of any Linux tools that will allow you to control what happens when you press the power button or close the lid (such as going to sleep or hibernating) like you can do under Windows. I just use "apm --suspend" when I want to put it to sleep, and that works fine. Pressing the power button wakes it back up.

Red Hat 7.1	OK
Red Hat 8.0	OK
Mandrake 8.0	OK

Modem

It's a winmodem, but fortunately, it's a Lucent LT WinModem, which is supported by Linux. I have only tried building drivers for Red Hat 8.0, but I think the instructions should work fine on other systems. Please also see www.linmodems.org for additional information about Winmodems on Linux.

Red Hat 7.1	See RH8 Help
Red Hat 8.0	Help
Mandrake 8.0	See RH8 Help

USB

The only thing I've tried is a USB mouse, and it was recognized just fine. I suspect any USB device supported by Linux will work with this laptop. It will mostly depend on what version of the kernel you're running.

Red Hat 7.1	OK
Red Hat 8.0	OK
Mandrake 8.0	OK

Other Resources

These are some some other sites with information about Toshiba laptops. They aren't specific to this laptop, but they may be useful.

• Toshiba Linux Forum - Hosted by Toshiba in Europe, but not officially supported. [note: These forums seem to have disappeared. I'm not aware of any other Toshiba Linux pages.]