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Installing Debian Lenny on Toshiba Satellite U200

Last updated: 25/06/2009

General Hardware Specifications of Satellite U200:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel Centrino Duo T2300, 1.6 GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
12.1 LCD Display (resolution 1280x800)	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
Intel 945GM	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
VGA out	Not tested	I don't know.
2 GB, DDR2-667	Works	No special procedure required during installation
120 GB SATA Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Intel 3945ABG WiFi Network Card	Works (with some correctives)	Install firmware-iwlwifi from non-free repository
Intel PRO/100 Ethernet Conroller	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Doesn't Work	In progress
Matshita UJ-842S DVD-RAM Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
SoundMAX Sound Card	Works	No special procedure required if using Kernel 2.6.x
Bluetooth	Works (with some correctives)	Install Kernel 2.6.30, or patch toshset
Card Reader (MS, SD, xD) Texas Instrument	Works (with some correctives)	With Kernel 2.6.28 or greater
FireWire PCIxx12 Texas Instrument	Works	No special procedure required during installation
3 x USB 2.0 Ports	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Fingerprint reader	Works (with some correctives)	Install ThinkFinger or Fpintd
FN hotkeys	Some Works (with some correctives)	If toshset works, the fn keys work all except for fn+f9 (disable trackpad), fn+f1 (lock screen) and fn+f2 (change power settings)
ALPS Trackpad	Works	Doesn't work the disable function

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.30

Basic Installation of Debian Lenny:

Why to use Debian? Stability
To obtaining Debian Lenny visit the official site, in particular http://www.debian.org/distrib/
Install with the first DVD, that contain the basic system and GNOME
The modifications after the basic install: upgrade Kernel to 2.6.30, load firmware-iwlwifi, updates from synaptic and some other small fixes

Setting up additional features for Debian Lenny

To fix the large fonts:
In gdm, add this line in Xorg, under the section 'Monitor': Option "DDC" "no"
In GNOME, open appearance and in fonts section open 'details' and set dpi to 96.
It's important upgrade the kernel to 2.6.30 to automatically work bluetooth
After the kernel 2.6.30 install the firmware-iwlwifi and the wireless is ok
To use the mic is necessay to go in 'capture' sound interface and volume up this
For fingerprint you must install thinkfinger or Fprintd
To fix the freeze of 3 seconds in bios startup I have found two possible fixes: Able the diagnose method in BIOS options, or install 'startupmanager' from apt and disable 'Show bootloader menu' and set timeout in seconds to 1

Unresolved issues

Some fn hotkeys don't work, to resolve is necessary to install toshset and patch the kernel
56K Modem doesn't work, and I have no idea to fix
Battery life is quite less then in Windows

More Specific Information. Specific stuff such as:

df -hl
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 108G 39G 64G 38% /
tmpfs 1010M 0 1010M 0% /lib/init/rw
udev 10M 100K 10M 1% /dev
tmpfs 1010M 0 1010M 0% /dev/shm
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection (rev 02)
03:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
03:0b.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
03:0b.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
03:0b.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0930:0508 Toshiba Corp. Integrated Bluetooth HCI
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0483:2016 SGS Thomson Microelectronics Fingerprint Reader
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Contact Information

To contact me visit my personal web page

This laptop is a good choise to use Linux and in particulare Debian-based distros.