Problems Installing on Toshiba 2100CDT

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Problems Installing on Toshiba 2100CDT
started by: 6tr6tr

Posted by 6tr6tr on Oct. 09 2006,13:30

I'm having a problem with my install od DSL on my toshiba. For some reason, it can't see my ethernet card. I used to have Win 2k on there and it saw the card fine, but with DSL it can't find it.

Then, when I removed the card and put it back in, DSL freezes!

Any idea what might be going on?

Posted by jmlowe on Oct. 09 2006,19:34

'ethernet card' is...
PCMCIA card? What kind?

Posted by 6tr6tr on Oct. 12 2006,14:32

Quote (jmlowe @ Oct. 09 2006,15:34)

'ethernet card' is...
PCMCIA card? What kind?

Yep. A Hawking PCMCIA card.

Posted by newOldUser on Oct. 12 2006,16:20

How are you running DSL (liveCD, frugal, install to HD....)?

What boot parms, if any, do you use (noapci, frugal, home=xxx, etc...)?

Once DSL has started if you open a terminal and type: dmesg > bootMessages.txt
That should put your boot messages in a file called bootMessages.txt You can then look through them to see if there are any error messages about your pcmcia card. Post what you find and someone may be able to help.

Posted by 6tr6tr on Oct. 13 2006,13:15

Quote (newOldUser @ Oct. 12 2006,12:20)

Thanks for the reply.

1. I fully installed it on the HD.

2. No extra boot parms, this was my first time trying DSL so I just went with the default

3. I'll try that and repost here. The problem is, I had no way to get on the internet to post these issues so I had to uninstall the OS and reinstall a diff. one. So getting that info's going to be a pain.

Oh, well. i would like it to work.

One other thing: I've tried a number of Linux OS' including DSL, Xandros, Knoppix and every one of them was noticeably slower than Win2K on this computer. Any idea why?

Posted by rwinchester on Oct. 27 2006,21:53

I had a similar problem with a Satellite 2100CDS - any Linux distro based on Kernel 2.4 or 2.6 would freeze whenever a PCMCIA card was detected (2.2-based distros were unaffected).

In the end, I found a fix by trial and error. I thought it might be a memory assignment issue, so I played around with the I/O port settings on the setup screen. By default, the internal modem is assigned to COM2. Changing it to COM3 seems to solve the problem (as does disabling the modem entirely).

I'm not sure if your problem is related to mine, but it might be worth trying the same fix.

Posted by 6tr6tr on Nov. 02 2006,06:29

Quote (rwinchester @ Oct. 27 2006,17:53)

Thanks for the idea! I'm pretty new to linux, can you tell me where to look to find that setting?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 02 2006,13:52

I think he might be referring to the bios/cmos setup screen. (usually press del or F2 on startup)

Posted by rwinchester on Nov. 04 2006,20:59

Sorry for being vague, looking back at my post it's not all that clear.

Yes, I was referring to the BIOS/CMOS setup screen. On a 2100cds, you get to it by holding the escape key on startup, as soon as you see the "In Touch With Tomorrow - Toshiba" screen), then pressing F1 when prompted. To get to the I/O port settings, you go to the second page (by pressing Pg Dn). I'm not sure if it's the same on a 2100cdt.

I don't have a full understanding of these port settings, but I believe they relate to how memory is allocated to various devices (I think, with the default settings, there must have been a conflict, with one block of memory being asked to perform two roles at once. Maybe someone with more knowledge on the subject can confirm or correct that).