10.3 On Toshiba A200

My new Toshiba A200 (PSAF1A) works beautifully after a week of hard work getting opensuse 10.3 to work. It has Atheros AR5BXB63 AR5006EG wifi and an 82801G intel-hda ICH7 ALC268 sound card. I wanted to put down a few solutions I found for the benefit of others:
1. Atheros wifi sprung to life after I installed this Madwifi patched driver provided by Atheros and described well down this support ticket, removed the Madwifi rpms (and, I am not sure this made any difference, reinstalled HAL via Yast/Software Management). No special settings were required ecespt of course for my WPA essid and password.
2. Sound sprung to life like Pallas Athena bursting forth from the forehead of Zeus after using Yast to configure the sound card 82801G (ICH7) and enter the word toshiba as the model (note: 3stack, auto and basic didn't work). The word toshiba appears to be an undocumented feature. No other setting changes were required.
3. Spell check didn't work in OpenOffice until I installed MySpell for my language (English -Australian) via Yast / software Management
4. Screen 3d wasn't initially enabled until I ticked the box in Yast / Graphics Card and now there is no problem running 3d
5. The system was very unstable and kept freezing while the Wifi and Sound drivers were not working. The Caps Lock led was blinking and the only solution was to reboot. This doesn't happen now that everything is installed ok.
6. At one point the freezes led me to try an option in Grub, which was a big mistake and prevented me from logging-on. Suse's rescue system on the DVD doesn't work (as is commented upon in other places). After many failed attempts I found the way through was to use the DVD to start a New Installation, go through the introductory screens until the screen with another choice for New Installation/Update/Other Options where I chose Other Options > Boot. This starts the file system. After logging on as root, Yast2 can be run to edit the BootLoader settings. I also took the opportunity to click the box that copied Grub to the MBR (master boot record). This is because I could not fix Grub using SuperGrub as described in SDB:Howto repair boot manager Grub on opensuse 10.3. I also edited Yast > System > /etc/Sysconfig Editor > System > Bootloader > LOADER_LOCATION to boot.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

The word toshiba appears to be an undocumented feature. No other setting changes were required.[/b]

Actually, this feature is documented in the alsa-1.0.15 release note:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php..._v1.0.15_detail
I've seen no official documentation stating it works for alsa-1.0.14.

After many failed attempts I found the way through was to use the DVD to start a New Installation, go through the introductory screens until the screen with another choice for New Installation/Update/Other Options where I chose Other Options > Boot. This starts the file system. After logging on as root, Yast2 can be run to edit the BootLoader settings. I also took the opportunity to click the box that copied Grub to the MBR (master boot record).[/b]

I think this is PC dependant (or perhaps dependent on what one has done to their grub, or perhaps to their kernel version), or perhaps more recent updates to yast's grub writing routines have been fixed. I tried this on my system 6-weeks ago when I had over written the MBR, and this definitely did not work for me, for the case where winXP had over-written the MBR.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Actually, this feature is documented in the alsa-1.0.15 release note:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php..._v1.0.15_detail
I've seen no official documentation stating it works for alsa-1.0.14.[/b]

Thanks oldcpu, I looked up the reference - it is certainly in an obscure place - your recommendations are always warmly welcome!

I was comparing your experiences to this:
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Laptops/Toshiba

It appears you have 3D working, ... while there are comments on the openSUSE compatibility page for the Toshiba A200 that XGL doesn't work ... I'm not a 3D user, and this puzzles me a bit.

Do you have any recommended updates to that entry?

I was comparing your experiences to this:
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Laptops/Toshiba

It appears you have 3D working, ... while there are comments on the openSUSE compatibility page for the Toshiba A200 that XGL doesn't work ... I'm not a 3D user, and this puzzles me a bit.

Do you have any recommended updates to that entry?
[/b]

Sorry oldcpu, 3D doesn't appear to be a problem but I would not change the entry until there is more experience.

However, my freezing / caps lock blinking problem has returned with a vengence although Beagle was not running.

I appear to have overcome the freezing problem (for now) by substituting xgm for kdm in Yast2 > System > etc/sysconfig editor > Desktop > Display Manager > DISPLAYMANAGER

my freezing / caps lock blinking problem has returned with a vengence although Beagle was not running.

I appear to have overcome the freezing problem (for now) by substituting xgm for kdm in Yast2 > System > etc/sysconfig editor > Desktop > Display Manager > DISPLAYMANAGER[/b]

xgm? uucckk ... if I recall its appearance is not as nice as kdm. I have no experience there, so 'fraid I can't help.

Re: your sound, and the "model=toshiba", I note the alsa documentation has finally been updated, and that setting is documented here:
http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-kernel/raw...nfiguration.txt

I've been working on a troubleshooting sound guide for openSUSE users here:
http://en.opensuse.org/AudioTroubleshooting

xgm? uucckk ... if I recall its appearance is not as nice as kdm. I have no experience there, so 'fraid I can't help.

Re: your sound, and the "model=toshiba", I note the alsa documentation has finally been updated, and that setting is documented here:
http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-kernel/raw...nfiguration.txt

I've been working on a troubleshooting sound guide for openSUSE users here:
http://en.opensuse.org/AudioTroubleshooting
[/b]

Thanks oldcpu for documenting the the "toshiba" value for alc268 sound in your configuration guide. I hope it brings fast relief to those with Toshiba machines.

As to xgm, there is little difference in a KDE desktop on either xgm or kdm. However, the fonts are different in applications such as OpenOffice, which is a nuisance. The key issue I find with xgm is that usb flash drives do not automount. If I try to mount the usb as a user, I receive the error message: hal-storage-mount-removable no <-- (action, result) Although its not much use, I can mount the usb as root with mount /dev/sdb /proc/bus/usb

As I mentioned, I am using xgm because of freezes while on kdm. Strangely, this only seems to occur when on wired network, not on wifi! I have had a freeze with xgm but it is very rare occurrence.

From my research, it seems that the reason the capslock blinks is that both of the processors in the dual cpu have panicked and are in maximum processing. The command to blink LEDs is the last gasp of the kernel. When this occurrs the problem is thought to be a low level issue in the kernel. The fact that the cpus are running in some endless loop s is confirmed by the huge amount of heat being pumped out of the machine by the fan (for example, if I am away from the machine when the freeze occurs while no applications are running, when I return the heat is being pumped out).

So the freezing/crash capslock blinking is vectored by the kernel, kdm & wired network factors. Do you have any thoughts what this might mean?

Do you have any thoughts what this might mean?[/b]

No idea. I've never encountered this.

No idea. I've never encountered this.
[/b]

I have been tentative about this issue of freezing because I thought that it might be a Toshiba laptop issue. However, this is not the case because I have discovered that over the same period we have been discussing this, many people have been experiencing the same freezing on other laptops and desktops, see here and here.

It is not due to:
1. cpu temperature, because I have been monitoring my cpus with kima and the temperature rarely rises above 53 degrees C
2. a runaway process, because I have also started using the "runaway process catcher"
3. Opera, because it occurs with other browsers like Konqueror and Firefox, and even if no applications are running
4. Beagle, because I have removed all beagle rpms
5. acpi settings because I have tried many things, it even occurs with Failsafe mode

The issue seems to be related to using kdm and hardwired IP. It occurs with kdm & wifi but only rarely. It does not occur if xgm is used instead of kdm.

It does not occur if xgm is used instead of kdm.
[/b]

Well, I have found that it does occur with xgm. However, in a different way but thankfully much less frequently. There are two modes of spontaneous failure. The first is quite spectacular: simultaneously the speakers make a loud crack sound and everything goes black and dead. The second way is just a "quiet freeze" with no sounds, no capslock blinking, just a gentle freeze requiring holding down the power-on button in order to reboot. Anyway, at least the computer is generally usable with xgm.