Xubuntu 8.04 on Toshiba 1805-S203 laptop

06OC08, J.R. Buchanan

I have an older (I got it in late 2001) Toshiba laptop. Specifically, it's an 1805-S203, which I have seen generically referred to as an 1800.

It has a 16G drive, a 1024x768 display, and had been upgraded to 256M of RAM some years back. Xubuntu seemed the perfect OS for a modest machine like this. 8.04 was the latest version. Version 8.10 of Ubuntu is due out in a few weeks as I write this, odds are this method will work with Xubuntu 8.10 when it comes out as well, but no guarantees.

Simply inserting an Xubuntu 8.04 live disk and booting yielded a blank screen and invited a power cycle. Trying to choose install from the menu resulted in the same thing.

I found a lot of information on the web, but the best was at:

http://michaelminn.com/linux/toshiba1800/

Michael Minn had faced the same problems installing Ubuntu 7.10 on his Toshiba a while before I tried mine. He found a solution, and mentioned that he had heard that it was a bit simpler in Ubuntu 8.04 than it was in 7.10. Per my attempt, the simpler method also works in Xubuntu.

Here is what I did for my install.

First, download the alternate install CD iso for Xubuntu 8.04.

Burn the CD using your favorite program. I used cdrecord on my primary Linux machine.

Then power on the laptop, pressing the f2 key to select boot device. I selected "CDROM".

Insert the CD and boot.

Install Xubuntu per the on screen instructions. Do not let it detect the keyboard layout, tell it "USA".

It most likely will not be able to detect your network card(s), as they are not native to the machine. Just select "Do not configure the network at this time".

When it is time to start partitioning the disk, you are pretty much on your own, as everyone will have at least slightly different objectives. If you are only going to have Xubuntu on the machine, you can use guided partitioning. I chose manual, and deleted the existing Centos partitions and left the XP partition intact. I had previously given about half the drive to each OS. I used a 512M partition for Linux swap, and used the rest for the OS itself.

At a couple points in the install process you will have time to go paint a building, and then watch the paint dry. This machine is not too speedy by modern standards.

When it installs, you can try to boot Xubuntu, but you'll likely get a blank screen and ctrl-alt-f1 won't get you to a virtual console.

Boot Xubuntu, selecting "recovery mode" from the boot menu, and ask to be dropped to a root prompt at the next menu that appears.

At this point you should have Xubuntu running, but logged in as root (not the administrative user) and text only.

Now you have to modify the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to work with the Toshiba laptop to get normal graphical mode.

Here is the file you want, with many thanks again to Michael Minn:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# Custom file by Michael Minn

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protoxol"	"ImPS/2"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1"
    Driver        "trident"
    BusID        "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option	"NoDDC"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "ToshLCD"
    Option        "DPMS"
    HorizSync      30-71
    VertRefresh    50-100
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier    "Default Screen"
    Monitor       "ToshLCD"
    Device        "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1"
    DefaultDepth    16
    SubSection "Display"
       	Depth        16
        Modes        "1024x768"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth        24
       	Modes        "1024x768" 
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
       	Depth        16
        Modes        "800x600"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
       	Depth        24
        Modes        "800x600" 
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
EndSection
# End of file

You basically have two options at this point.

The first option is to edit the the severely broken xorg.conf file that Xubuntu installed with vi (manly) or use ed (masochistic). Details on using vi are out of the scope of this article, but you can find them on many web sites. Details on using ed are harder to find, and this is a good thing. If you really want to learn to use ed, the man page will tell you how, but don't say I didn't warn you.

The second, and easier, option is to cut and paste the lines above into a more pleasant text editor (I prefer emacs) on another machine It can be a Windows machine, although I used my primary Linux desktop machine. Name the file xorg.conf Then copy the resulting file onto a flash drive, and insert it into the laptop. Mount the flash drive. "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt" did it for me. Then copy the xorg.conf file from the flash drive (/mnt/xorg.conf) to the /etc/X11 directory.

At this point I rebooted, and got a normal Xubuntu graphical login, which worked perfectly. I tried booting XP, and it still worked as well as it ever could.

Now on to getting the wireless card to work. That will vary wildly depending on which of the many, many, pcmcia wireless (or wired) cards you have, so it is *very* out of scope for this article.