Installing FC5 on the Toshiba Tecra M5

My brand-new Toshiba Tecra M5 finally arrived (very late in the day on March 31). Installing Fedora Core 5 (FC5) on April Fools Day (the 1st) seemed like asking for trouble, but I started installing FC5 on April 2nd. Here are the latest progress & issues...

Comments, suggestions, corrections, and warnings are welcomed. Send them to dancorkill@comcast.net.

M5 Hardware Specifications

Hardware Components
Status under FC5
Notes
Intel Core Duo T2400 processor, 1.83GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB Worked immediately  
14.1 XGA TFT Display Worked immediately  
nVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M Video 128MB DDR Working initially only 800x600 generic; install nVIDIA accelerated driver 8756 (see below)
512MB, PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM Worked immediately expanded to 1024MB with a 2nd 512MB SDRAM (dual-channel support requires identical capacity and FSB speed)
Toshiba MK1032GS 100GB Toshiba S-ATA Hard Drive Worked immediately  
SigmaTel STAC9200 Sound Controller Not yet working  
Integrated Intel 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX/1000 Base-T Ethernet Worked immediately  
Internal Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (Wi-FI) Working requires ipw3945 driver, firmware, and daemon installation
Matshita UJ-841S SuperMulti DVD Drive Worked immediately  
Floppy Drive Not tested optional hardware with the M5
i.LINK IEEE-1394 Port Not tested  
TV-Out (S-video) Not tested  
Integrated V.92 Modem Not tested  
ExpressCard Not tested  
SD Card Not tested  
4700mAh Lithium-Ion Battery Works immediately charge reporting appears reasonable

Basic Installation Begins

Before doing anything, I created (and verified) the Toshiba recovery DVD set, deleted the recovery partition, rebooted, checked the NTFS partition for errors (another reboot), and defragmented the XP partition. I wouldn't think of moving forward without this “insurance.”

Shrinking the NTFS XP Partition

Next, I shrunk the XP partition using ntfsresize. Specifically, I booted the M5 with a KNOPPIX Linux Live CD (burned from the KNOPPIX_V3.8.2-2005-05-05-EN.iso image). I used the KNOPPIX failsave boot option to reduce the chance of any issues. Once KNOPPIX booted, I started QTParted (from the Knoppix Menu: System: QTPparted). Then I selected /UNIONFS/dev/sda in the device display (left hand side) and then right-clicked on the single NTFS partition (in the partition display on the right hand side) and selected &Resize. I asked for 26GB of “Free Space After” to be chopped off the end of the NTFS partition but, depending on your needs, you might want to reserve more disk space for Linux. Next click OK and perform the resizing by selecting File: &Commit in the QTParted menu bar. Repartitioning will take a few minutes, so be patient.

Being cautious, I rebooted the M5 into XP (removing the CD when asked) and checked the XP partition for errors (another reboot). Being paranoid, I defragmented the XP partition once again, and made certain that I could still suspend and hibernate in XP.

Installing FC5

I put FC5 disc 1 (from the 5 disk CD installation set) in the drive, rebooted, and began a graphical FC5 install. Except where noted, I accepted the default values when given a choice.

I requested that Linux partitions be automatically configured using the free space (that was created using QTParted above), but requested review of the partitions. Then I manually created a /usr/local partition and a /home partition (extracting the space from the automatically-specified / partition).

I switched the default boot OS to XP (my Tecra M3 remains my primary Fedora laptop, for now), but kept the other default grub settings.

I kept "Office and Productivity" selected and added "Software Development" and specified "Customize later" for further customization.

Installation went without incident, and both XP and FC5 booted smoothly using grub.

Working Hardware Without Effort

Intel 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX/1000 Base-T Ethernet

It just worked!

SuperMulti DVD Drive

CD reading is working fine; still need to test other operations.

USB

Tested with a Microsoft wireless laptop mouse, which worked fine including the scroll wheel. Also worked fine with a 256MB Lexar JumpDrive.

Hardware Requiring Post-Install Effort

nVIDIA Video

Initial installation resulted in only 800x600 generic video. Install the latest nVIDIA driver (8756) as follows:
  • download nVIDIA NVIDIA-Linux-x86.1.0-8756-pkg1.run file from http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html
  • change to runlevel 3: 
         # init 3
  • disable SELinux: 
         # setenforce 0
  • run the *.run script: 
         # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86.1.0-8756-pkg1.run
  • ask to have the driver recompiled
  • create the following symbolic links: 
         # cd /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
     # ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so .
     # ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so .
  • change to runlevel 5 or reboot: 
         # reboot

Builtin PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

Details on building the ipw3945 driver and installing firmware and daemon coming soon!

Not yet working

Sound

Properly detected, but no sound yet...

Power Management

A quick test of suspend (using the Gnome menu) failed to complete suspension; I haven't looked further yet (or at hibernate to disk).

Untested

Parallel Port

PCMCIA slot

Fast Infrared (4Mbps) port

TV-out (S-video)

i.LINK IEEE-1394

ExpressCard

SD card

Integrated V.92 modem

Links

Back to my home page.

Last updated: April 8, 2006