Who has a toshiba t135-s1309 laptop?

[AlexZaim]

By the way, it says

NOTE : the rtl-wifi drivers are in recent kernels. rtl8180 is in mainline kernel since 2.6.23 and 2.6.25 is in mainline kernel since 2.6.25, so under these kernels you don't need to compile the driver if you only wants to make your wifi working.

so you may want to try

uname -r

to see your version.

...I've just checked realtek's official site and it says

Linux driver (driver has built-in the kernel)

uhm, i'm stuck. You may want to open a nother topic in the forum concerning this special issue.

Wait,don't go. I found a way better tutorial on how to get the driver installed (even with the latest kernel).I recommend, see http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?p=197789

[Speshio]

Alex & Sissy
Thanks for your input.

Just quickly for the moment: My suggestion is that we keep issues with this laptop confined to this thread, at least for the time being. Alex's original title will bring all searchers here, where we've already plowed some valuable turf, and more to come I believe.

@Sissy
When the Toshiba splash screen appears right after power-up, mash on the F2 key to enter the Setup Utility.

See penultimate line for System BIOS Version

Also: Please make note of your Boot options listed in that section of the Setup Utility before exiting.

@Alex
More to follow on wireless, please stay tuned.

[Speshio]

Before using Realtek's native Linux wireless drivers, ndiswrapper must be uninstalled completely.

There are some issues about completely purging ndiswrapper. I hope to have time to pursue this today and try the native Linux drivers supplied by Realtek.

As it stands, I'm using Win2K drivers with ndiswrapper. I see Sissy is using the Win XP drivers with her T135.

I have BIOS v1.70.

[chellrose]

I'm running BIOS v. 1.90. Boot setup listings (when I have my external CD/DVD drive connected) are:

HDD/SSD: TOSHIBA MK3263GSX
CD/DVD: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GP08NU20
FDD:
LAN: Atheros Boot Agent

Of course, the CD/DVD option isn't there if it's not connected. The GP08NU20 is the model number of my CD drive; it's an LG Portable Super Multi Drive, in case that helps.

I'm also still trying to get wireless working with the native Linux driver. The instructions in the link posted by Alex seemed to work for me until rebooting; I suspect that something wasn't updated and it thought it was still using ndiswrapper (despite my having deleted the drivers, or so I thought). However, I didn't realize that ndiswrapper had to be uninstalled. I'll try that and see what happens...

[AlexZaim]

And you say that you can't move the CD/DVD entry upper in order to change the boot sequence? Or what seems not to work when booting from a CD?

Yes, you have to remove ndiswraper.

[Speshio]

Sissy, thanks for that information, which is very interesting.

1. Hmmm. I find it curious that your BIOS v1.90 lets you boot from CD/DVD, because that was the original issue here. Based on the BIOS revision history on the Toshiba site, it looks like the ability to boot from an external CD was removed (or hidden) at the v1.60 upgrade.

Interim conclusion: Depending on your BIOS version and external CD/DVD, your Toshiba T135 may or may not support booting from that device.

I still don't have external device to test on v1.70 other than usb stick, which works.

2. The critical point about removing ndiswrapper seems to be that it must be completely purged from the system.

So, as I understand it, if any file relating to ndiswrapper remains on your system, the native Linux drivers may not work.

Instructions for removing ndiswrapper from sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...ninstall_HowTo

3. I'm unable to get a stable connection while on the Toshiba and Karmic, although I did once earlier, so this project is inching forward. It's a very big nuisance not being able to paste code directly.

[chellrose]

Thanks for the information regarding ndiswrapper. I, naively, did modprobe -r ndiswrapper, deleted the drivers, and purged it using adept. I still can't connect to wireless though. I'll try the instructions in the sourceforge link & see what happens...

Apart from the WEP issue, ndiswrapper + XP drivers worked on my machine. I'd like to get the Linux driver working, though.

@Alex: I can move it up in the boot sequence. Everything seems to work fine.

I don't have an external device other than my CD drive to test booting, and that worked out of the box.

Curious indeed...

Update: After removing all of the ndiswrapper files and rebooting, I was able to connect to wireless... for a while. All web pages loaded much more slowly than usual (not quite dialup speed, but close!). After ~10 min. it disconnected, and I couldn't convince it to reconnect, despite KNetworkManager's claim that the signal was still excellent.
So, the linux driver isn't working for me quite yet. I'll post more updates as things work (or don't).

[Speshio]

Exec. Summary: I was able to get online again using ndiswrapper.

After looking at the rather dense text at sourceforge's ndiswrapper removal instructions, and groaning, it suddenly dawned on me that I was still running Karmic from the live USB stick. Better to start over, eh, where I know what I'm doing, than fool around removing ndiswrapper, where I don't.

And, come to think of it, better to give this incarnation of Karmic with ndiswrappeer and the win2k drivers a full chance before dumping it. I suddenly recalled the ancient and revered zen technique of rebooting a couple times to let the system sort itself out after installing a new os.

At any rate, in the aftermath of several restarts, including an inadvertant trip or two into Win7, I was able to get a stable connection with Karmic at a public hotspot, and stayed online for a couple hours without any problems.

There are two threads on the wireless issue under the Toshiba T135-s1309 search results, and also several threads on the Realtek RTL8191SE which is the onboard card.

I read most of these threads before following some of the advice given to get the wireless working. I suggest trying the win2k drivers with ndiswrapper if the win xp drivers continue to misbehave.

[Speshio]

I'm wrapping up initial testing of my Toshiba t135-s1309. So far, very good.

I decided to purchase the matching Toshiba SuperMulti Drive to facilitate s/w installation, to create a system restore disc, and to increase booting options.

With the drive plugged in, power-up leads directly to a boot option menu, and I was able to boot from a live CD.

With my current v1.70 BIOS, I'm able to boot from either usb stick or usb cd/dvd drive, so this is the ideal arrangement.

[chellrose]

Still no joy with wireless. I'm going to try to re-do ndiswrapper when I can get to a wired connection -- hopefully this week.

I fixed the sound issue. The solution can be found here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1389855
but here is a summary.

GNOME: System > Preferences > Sound, click the Output tab, and turn up the slider at the top.

KDE (3.5): Right-click on the volume icon in the tray, choose the mixer option (I think it's called KMixer), and turn up the volume slider there. On login, the speakers usually just crackle, but the rest of the time, sound seems to work OK.

The only other major issue that I've run into is getting the laptop screen brightness changed. The Fn F6/F7 keys don't work. I found a solution here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1321403):

all you do is edit /etc/default/grub You add 'nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor' to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line.

And then, of course, run update-grub. I can now change screen brightness via Fn keys (or brightness-applet) in GNOME, but KDE seems to be ignoring this change. Has anyone else had this problem, or discovered a fix?