Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7132

[Das Goat]

Mostly solved.....just a few unresolved issues.

Read until the end, it is only three pages, but it works now, and the laptop is great for the money!



Don't buy this laptop if you want to run Linux. I am no noob, as I have been running Ubuntu since 7.04. This is the second time over the years that I have found a laptop that simply refuses to take Linux. Here is a list of versions I tried:

Ubuntu: 10.04.4, 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04 beta 2

Mint 12

Fedora 16

Debian 6.0.4

Most lock up after the welcome screen.Higher Ubuntu versions and Fedora, the screen goes blank during boot and nothing happens.

I had some luck when I went into the bios and disabled the pointing device (sticker says it is a multi-touch pad). That let me load 10.04.4 and Debian. But Debian was crippled (or maybe it just comes that way )

10.04.4 would install, but no wireless drives would load. I tried getting the 10.10 alternate CD and doing an upgrade, but the upgrade hangs at "Removing update-grub hooks from /etc/kernel-img.conf in favor of /etc/kernel/hooks
Then, if you reboot, the installation is broken.

One other guy on the Toshiba site reported similar experiences. He seemed to think that the problem is in the video driver. That could be, or maybe it is the quad core, or the funky touch pad. Who can say.

One final bizarre thing is this: I have an external drive loaded with CentOS that I use for teaching class. It works fine. Too bad it is too difficult to use CentOS on my laptop for daily tasks. (server vs desktop applications)

Oh well, back to the store with this thing. Save yourself a lot of grief and don't buy this laptop.

[2F4U]

My first guess for the black screen problem would be the graphics card and I would try to boot with the nomodeset grub kernel parameter.

[Das Goat]

I just went and tried that new Sangung laptop at Best Buy, NP305E7A-A02US. I saw it yesterday, but noticed that it looked like it had the same stickers as the Toshiba. This time, I took my trusty Ubuntu installed on a flash drive to see what would happen. It was a very similar experiance, everything seemd OK, then the video freaked out. I am trying to figure out eaxctly what the video card from AMD Radeon is. Maybe that way someone will have an answer. It is a shame, because both of these laptops are Quad-Core 17.3" under $500.

[Das Goat]

Just as I though, they both use AMD Radeon HD 6520G Graphics cards. Anyone have any tricks for getting this thing to work?

[Toz]

Did you try the suggestion from post #2?

EDIT: Here is a related post with detailed instructions: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11842752

[techsupport]

I recommend buying something with Intel CPU w/Intel Graphics Adaptor like this bad boy here:

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/...Processor-B960

Try to keep with specs like these:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM6086594301P

Avoid ATI Graphics at all costs if you want it to work without any problems down the road. Nvidia Graphics are better than ATI, of course, but Intel Graphics adapters have never caused me one minute of grief with Ubuntu Linux.

Don't buy this laptop if you want to run Linux. I am no noob, as I have been running Ubuntu since 7.04. This is the second time over the years that I have found a laptop that simply refuses to take Linux. Here is a list of versions I tried:

Ubuntu: 10.04.4, 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04 beta 2

Mint 12

Fedora 16

Debian 6.0.4

Most lock up after the welcome screen.Higher Ubuntu versions and Fedora, the screen goes blank during boot and nothing happens.

I had some luck when I went into the bios and disabled the pointing device (sticker says it is a multi-touch pad). That let me load 10.04.4 and Debian. But Debian was crippled (or maybe it just comes that way )

10.04.4 would install, but no wireless drives would load. I tried getting the 10.10 alternate CD and doing an upgrade, but the upgrade hangs at "Removing update-grub hooks from /etc/kernel-img.conf in favor of /etc/kernel/hooks
Then, if you reboot, the installation is broken.

One other guy on the Toshiba site reported similar experiences. He seemed to think that the problem is in the video driver. That could be, or maybe it is the quad core, or the funky touch pad. Who can say.

One final bizarre thing is this: I have an external drive loaded with CentOS that I use for teaching class. It works fine. Too bad it is too difficult to use CentOS on my laptop for daily tasks. (server vs desktop applications)

Oh well, back to the store with this thing. Save yourself a lot of grief and don't buy this laptop.

[Das Goat]

Did you try the suggestion from post #2?

EDIT: Here is a related post with detailed instructions: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11842752

You know, I found a related post with similar instructions, so I came home last night and tried it again.

This time it installed like normal. I didn't have to do anying at all. Video is not a problem.

But now I have a new issue. The touch pad doesn't work. I plugged in a mouse and it works, so that is clearly a driver issue. But the keyboard doesn't work either. I can't find a usb keyboard in my garage, so I am taking it to work. The onscreen keyboard works, so I can log in, but I can't seem to find it when I am on the desktop.

[Toz]

You know, I found a related post with similar instructions, so I came home last night and tried it again.

This time it installed like normal. I didn't have to do anying at all. Video is not a problem.

Glad to hear.

But now I have a new issue. The touch pad doesn't work. I plugged in a mouse and it works, so that is clearly a driver issue. But the keyboard doesn't work either. I can't find a usb keyboard in my garage, so I am taking it to work. The onscreen keyboard works, so I can log in, but I can't seem to find it when I am on the desktop.

According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...te_L775D_S7340 (similar type system), the solution appears to be to add:

i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset

...to your grub kernel command line (note: its not menu.lst as noted in that article - thats for a different system).

You should be able to add it to the kernel command line while booting as per: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...nu_During_Boot, and then make it permanent via editing the /etc/default/grub file:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

...adding the parameters, then running:

sudo update-grub

[Das Goat]

Glad to hear.


According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...te_L775D_S7340 (similar type system), the solution appears to be to add:

i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset

...to your grub kernel command line (note: its not menu.lst as noted in that article - thats for a different system).

You should be able to add it to the kernel command line while booting as per: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...nu_During_Boot, and then make it permanent via editing the /etc/default/grub file:

gksudo /etc/default/grub

...adding the parameters, then running:

sudo update-grub

Wow, this just gets stranger and stranger. I figured out how to get the onscreen keyboard to stick, then I saw your replay, so I thought I would try it. I told Ubuntu to shut down, so I could catch it when it booted up, but it reset instead. No biggie, right? Force of habit made me try the keyboard and shazam! it was working now, but I hadden't done anything yet. Weired. told it to shut down and it rest instead again. I caught grub and did what you suggested, it booted up and the keyboard still works.

gksudo /etc/default/grub

this didn't do anything, literally I just got the promt back with out anything happening, so I used this instead .....

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

after putting in the code you suggested, I got an error about a missing callback when exiting gedit

sudo update-grub

returned an error i8042.nomux=1: not found

Sorry, now that I can type on it, I should have sent this from that computer. I am going to update the video driver they way you suggested, remove the line in the grub file, and reboot.

[Toz]

My apologies - forgot the gedit command.

After double-checking the parameters at http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...parameters.txt, the parameters should be:

i8042.nomux i8042.reset

Thats two knocks against me. Sorry again.