• 1 Changes
• 2 Acknowledgements
• 3 Introduction
  • 3.1 Similar systems
• 4 Windows 95/98 Dual-Install
• 5 Preparing the disk for Linux and NT
• 6 Installing Red Hat 6.0
• 7 The Internal Modem
• 8 Multimedia
• 9 PCMCIA (PC Card) Compatibility
• 10 Miscellaneous Tips
  • 10.1 Getting into the BIOS
  • 10.2 Booting from CD-ROM
  • 10.3 Missing pixels, black lines, shifted screen?
• 11 Conclusions
• 12 References and Resources

• 07/01/00 Psion Dacom Gold Card works
• 27/01/00 Added more notes from Jon Wikne about getting the Lucent winmodem working.
• 25/01/00 Added notes about Winmodem driver, thanks to Brian Almeida.
• 21/01/00 Added Tom May's modelines for Tosh 4100.
• 07/01/99 Added Honza's known good cards.
• 25/10/99 Changed link to Jonathan's Toshiba utilities.
• 08/10/99 Added note on blank lines, shifted screen, page mirror, John Savage's note about PCMCIA lockups on boot after installing maestro driver.
• 04/10/99 Notes on Win98 installs; PCMCIA; mixer settings; added references.
• 01/10/99 Started the new version of this page from scratch. The old page is here.

Thanks to Trident, whose press release told me that the (unsupported) video chipset was pin-compatible with one that was, enabling me to add support for it in the XF86_SVGA server. Thanks to them for providing chipset info so the server can be extended. This information has been incorporated into XFree86 3.3.5. Particularly, I'd like to thank Scott Hovey and Iming Pau at Trident, Pavel Machek, Dirk Hohndel and Alan Hourihane (SuSE/XFree86) for their support.

Thanks to Alan Cox and Zach Brown (Building #3, RedHat) for developing the Maestro sound driver used by the laptop.

I also need to thank Bernd Reichert for the NT OS + Linux mini-HOWTO, David Hinds for the Linux PCMCIA HOWTO, Kenneth Harker for the Linux on Laptops pages, and everyone who has contacted me since I released this page - I'd thank everyone in turn, but then we'd never get to the real content! You know who you are - thanks!

Thanks should also go to Toshiba who have given in, and supplied information about their IrDA hardware to the Linux IrDA team. IMHO, it's about time that hardware manufacturers acknowledge the importance of Linux.

This page is now mirrored at:

• , Thanks to Thijs van der Vossen.

The 4030 CDT works well under Linux. The video chipset is supported as standard under XFree86 3.3.5, available as an update to RedHat 6.0. The sound hardware is available as an add-on, and is available from Zach Brown's pages (@ RedHat).

The laptop has a built-in modem - it's a WinModem, but I'm told drivers are available. I chose a Xircom RealPort REM56G-100 PCMCIA network/modem card - this is supported by RedHat 6.0

3.1 Similar systems

I chose a Win95/FAT16 installation, since my disk repair tools (and the Linux systems I'd been using to that point) didn't understand FAT32. Win NT still doesn't, and since we'd need that too, I had to use FAT16. Red Hat Linux 6.0 supports FAT32. Note that if you choose Win98, the Toshiba setup program will use all 4GB for a single partition, and you'll have to use FIPS to resize it.

Note: If you apply the "rescue" CD, then it'll wipe out everything - including Linux.

After install, I found the disk laid out thusly:

/dev/hda: 255 heads 63 sectors 526 cylinders
/dev/hda1  *  1     1    261   2096451   6  DOS 16-bit >= 32M
/dev/hda2     262   262  525   2120580   5  Extended
/dev/hda5     262   262  522   2096451   6  DOS 16-bit >= 32M
/dev/hda6     523   523  525     24066   4  DOS 16-bit < 32M

/dev/hda2 a 1.5GB NTFS partition for NT
/dev/hda3 a ~500MB Ext2 partition for Linux
/dev/hda4 a 32MB swap partition for Linux

To prepare the disk, I used DOS' fdisk to delete both logical DOS drives under the extended partition (drives D: and E:), then to delete the extended partition itself.

DOS is so challenged that I could not create a second primary partition using DOS' fdisk, so I rebooted with a Linux boot disk, and did it using Linux fdisk.

In Linux' fdisk, I created the partitions shown above, then started the Red Hat install. (I did it this way, since I *know* old fdisk, not the new Red Hat disk druid thing!)

/dev/hda: 255 heads 63 sectors 526 cylinders
/dev/hda1  *  1     1    261   2096451   6  DOS 16-bit >= 32M
/dev/hda2     262   262  453   1542240   6  DOS 16-bit >= 32M (gets NTFS'd)
/dev/hda3     454   454  522    554242+  83 Linux native
/dev/hda4     523   523  525     24097+  82 Linux swap

Rebooted... DOS 95 came up, drive D: couldn't be accessed, but that's OK. (NT reformatted that later anyway). Windows booted, which was the main thing.

Some points to note:

• Do NOT install gpm, or, if you do, don't choose to run it at startup. If you do need it, install it and fix it after the installation.
• You need XFree86 3.3.5 - if you use an earlier version, see the old Red Hat 5 page. We have a custom server and config file that will work for you, but not as well as 3.3.5 will.
• I'm told that the autoconfigure options in XFree86 3.3.5 still do not work properly, so you may need my XF86Config file. The file available at this link is more up-to-date than the one on the old Red Hat 5 page, and has the following features:
  • Optional XInput section (currently commented out) that allows external mice to be plugged in after X starts
  • Uses accellerated mode.
  • Optional modelines and monitor frequencies from Jon Wikne; these don't work on all 4030CDT's.
  • Uses gb (United Kingdom) keymap. Search for the line: XkbLayout "gb" and change the keymap to whatevr you need, us, no, etc.

                 WARNING    WARNING     WARNING    WARNING

USE OF THIS SOFTWARE CAN DO PERMANENT DAMAGE TO YOUR MONITOR AND/OR
VIDEO CARD.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL 
MATT GUMBLEY (OR HIS EMPLOYER) OR THE XFree86 PROJECT INC. BE LIABLE FOR 
ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, 
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE 
OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

• Toshiba 4100: Modeline "1024x768" 65 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 770 776 806

I'm told by Brian Almeida that Lucent have releaced a binary-only driver for the Winmodem in 40xx laptops that works great with minicom, ppp, etc. It's available here.

Jon Wikne posted the following to the mailing list:

I am using it with RedHat 6.1. Be sure to get the most recent version
of the Lucent program (ltmodem.o), though.

> Also, if anyone has any tips on getting it started, I'd appreciate
> hearing them.

I hacked a small script to insert / remove the ltmodem.o during
startup / shutdown. It is installed in /etc/rc.d/init.d/lucent,
and linked as follows:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K18lucent -> ../init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K18lucent -> ../init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d/K18lucent -> ../init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S83lucent -> ../init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S83lucent -> ../init.d/lucent
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S83lucent -> ../init.d/lucent

Here is the script itself:

#!/bin/bash
#
#       /etc/rc.d/init.d/lucent
#
# Loads / unloads driver module for Lucent modem chip
# 20-01-2000 -- Jon Wikne

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

test -f /lib/modules/current/misc/ltmodem.o || exit 0

#
#       See how we were called.
#
case "$1" in
  start)
        # Check if modem is already running
        if [ -z "`/sbin/lsmod | grep ltmodem`" ] ; then
            echo -n 'Inserting Lucent modem module: '
            /sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/current/misc/ltmodem.o
            success
            echo
        fi
        ;;
  stop)
        if [ -n "`/sbin/lsmod | grep ltmodem`" ] ; then
            echo -n 'Removing Lucent modem module: '
            /sbin/rmmod ltmodem
            success
            echo
        fi
        ;;
  reload|restart)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: /etc/rc.d/init.d/lucent {start|stop|reload}"
        exit 1
esac

exit 0

One prereuisite of the script is that you have a link in the
/lib/modules directory pointing "current" to whereever that
is (i.e. which kernel you use).

Exactly how you use the modem depends somewhat on what is at the
other end (i.e. your ISP, employer or fixed-line computer), but
I use the following script (<*> to be replaced by own info):

#!/bin/sh
pppd /dev/ttyS14 115200 debug connect \
'chat -v ABORT BUSY ABORT "NO CARRIER" "" ATDT<phone number> CONNECT ""' \
noipdefault ipcp-accept-local ipcp-accept-remote \
user 

In /etc/ppp/ip-up.local you may have to set up your routing.
In /etc/ppp/ip-down.local you may have to reset your routing.

In /etc/ppp/options I have:

asyncmap 0
netmask <your mask here>
defaultroute
lock
crtscts
modem
-detach
lcp-max-configure 60

Hope this is of some use to someone.

Downloaded the maestro driver from http://people.redhat.com/~zab/maestro/ (or http://www.zabbo.net/maestro/), did make, and copied the resulting maestro.o into /lib/modules/2.2.5-15/misc

I ran sndconfig, but this didn't seem to work 100%, so I hand edited /etc/conf.modules to read:

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
pre-install pcmcia_core /etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia start
alias sound maestro
pre-install sound insmod sound

(/etc/sysconfig/soundcard still says CARDTYPE=WSS - this doesn't seem to get used anywhere, or does it? Haven't got midi working yet; not really too bothered)

MP3's play; CD's play. Some people still report problems. Check Zach Brown's page above for updates.

Note: You may notice that the maestro driver leaves the mixer settings quite low - so if you insmod it and the sound doesn't make any, then turn the mixer up.

• Xircom RealPort REM56G-100. What Matt uses - seems to work fine with no real problems, although I haven't managed to get it to work @ 100Mbps yet.
• 3Com/Megahertz 3CXEM556 Ethernet/Modem combo card (note: this is *not* a Cardbus card) [with kernel 2.2.12, PCMCIA 3.1.8, the BIOS PCIC mode setting is set to "Automatic"]
• Adaptec APA-1480 SlimSCSI
• noname smartmedia (Olympus digital camera memory) adapter reporting itself as "ATA/IDE Fixed Disk", purchased at www.d-store.com
• Psion Dacom Gold Card

• Intel Etherexpress Pro 10/100 Mobile. Bruce Maxwell says it's supposedly supported under the latest PCMCIA package.
• Trust 10meg (generic NE2000). Steve Hardy says it works in '98, but isn't recognised in a 4030CDT with RH5.2.
• Paulo Meriggi has problems with a PCMCIA Wavelan.

Jon Wikne says:

I have done some systematic tests with kernels 2.2.10 and 2.2.12
together with different pcmcia versions and the Xircom REM56G-100BTX
Ethernet / modem card. Whether there are problems or not is definitely
pcmcia version dependant (not that this excludes other possible
dependancies).

Here are the results:

pcmcia-3.0.9    -> OK
pcmcia-3.0.10   -> OK
pcmcia-3.0.11   -> OK
pcmcia-3.0.12   -> OK, but does not compile on kernel 2.2.12
pcmcia-3.0.13   -> *NOT* OK
pcmcia-3.0.14   -> *NOT* OK
pcmcia-3.1.0    -> OK

I made the pcmcia driver developer Dave Hinds aware of the problems with
the Xircom card on 3.0.13 and 3.0.14. Whether it was this report that
lead to the 3.1.0 being OK again, or that was a coincidence, I don't
know.... 

Also, the possible impact of pcmcia revisions on cards _other_ than
the Xircom REM56G-100BTX I know nothing about. For all I know, those
that I label "OK" above might be buggy, and vice versa, in the
context of other cards.

PCMCIA SCSI is broken out of the box. Using an Adaptec 1460 PCMCIA card, You need a later kernel - 2.2.12-7 has been confirmed to work.

Note that when installed, you'll have to more some startup files around, so that PCMCIA is started before the network.

Note: If you install the maestro sound module on RH 6.1, you may find that first time after installing the maestro.o module (insmod etc), you reboot and the PC hangs at the pcmcia module loading (In the case of a 3com ethernet card). If you force quit and reboot, wait for the hda to be fixed and then load inetractively, saying no to the pcmcia module it loads fine only ethernet-less - if you then reboot normally and let it boot all by itself it works fine, sound and pcmcia.

(Thanks to John Savage)

As a general rule when purchasing equipment that will be used with Linux, don't go for state-of-the-art, as the drivers are probably not ready.

Pros:

• Screen clarity
• Excellent keyboard
• Eraserhead mouse (not a trackpoint!)
• CD-ROM, and bootable too!
• Windows 95 dual-install leaves a D: partition free, making installation quite straightforward.
• Cyber9525DVD video chipset is now officially supported by XFree86.

• Internal modem is a WinModem. See http://www.winmodems.org/ for information on why these are Bad, bad, BAD. It can be made to work, I'm told, using the binary-only driver from "http://linmodems.org/linux568.zip">here. If you choose not to use this, you may have to disable it in the BIOS, and use the RealPort modem.
• Sound chipset is a little new, and although a driver is available, it isn't working 100% yet.

• Use fips to resize the single 4GB FAT32 partition, if you chose the Win98 installation.
• Get Red Hat 6.0, and don't enable gpm. RH 6.1 is out Real Soon Now. Get later kernels if you need PCMCIA SCSI. (Bug in aha152x_cs driver in earlier kernels) Watch those PCMCIA software versions though (See Jon Wikne's test results above).
• Get a real network/modem card. The RealPort is nice. Other cards known to work are: 3Com/Megahertz 3CXEM556 Ethernet/Modem combo card (note: this is *not* a Cardbus card);
• Get Jonathan Buzzard's fan control program.
• Get the Maestro drivers from Zach Brown.

• Kenneth Harker's Linux on Laptops page - Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Linux On Laptops.
• Jonathan Buzzard's Toshiba Utilities, essential for fan control.
• Linux Winmodem Support
• Zach Brown's Maestro Driver, for the sound support. Also at http://www.zabbo.net/maestro/).
• Windows driver for ext2 filesystems
• Red Hat 6.0 Install Guide