[Klug-general] Hardware problem with Toshiba laptop

[George Prowse]

MacGyveR wrote:
> On Wednesday 15 Jul 2009, George Prowse wrote:
>> Mike Evans wrote:
>>> I've had my Toshiba A30 for some years now.  I keep it partitioned with
>>> two root partitions and a /home.  This allows me to run my current
>>> working Linux installation, plus have somewhere to install another one
>>> either for play or as part of my upgrade process.
>>>
>>> I successfully ran Fedora Core 2, 4 and 6 on it, and have had Ubuntu
>>> 7.10 (Gutsy) on it since about the time that was released.
>>>
>>> When I came to install Fedora 8 I ran into trouble as it just seemed to
>>> stop randomly and I gave up.  I tried again with F10 and it had the same
>>> problem.  By chance I discovered that if I press keys on the keyboard it
>>> kicks it off again.  I concluded that it is something to do with it
>>> being stuck waiting on an interrupt of some sort.  If I keep pressing
>>> the Alt key I could get through the boot and installation process.
>>> However the resulting installed system has the same problem.  I
>>> concluded that the issue is therefore in the kernel.  Fedora has been
>>> known to have other kernel patches with odd effects so I just stuck with
>>> Ubuntu 7.10.  It might be out of date but it works.
>>>
>>> So I've had Ubuntu 9.04 cut to a CD since it was released and I thought
>>> I would try that today - and maybe get with the modern world.  Guess
>>> what?  Ubuntu now has the same problem Fedora has.  The boot from the CD
>>> 'sticks' waiting on something, and if I press the Alt key (and probably
>>> any other key) it continues.
>>>
>>> I wonder if there is a BIOS setting that could be affecting this?  Does
>>> it ring any bells with anyone?  I'll probably have it with me at the
>>> meeting on the 25th if anyone has suggestions.
>>>
>>> All I know for sure is that I have a not-so-old machine, which used to
>>> work with older versions of Linux, but doesn't work with newer ones.
>>> That's a pattern that used to be familiar with another popular operating
>>> system.  Ahem.
>>>
>>> Mike
>> Download and ompile your own vanilla kernel from kernel.org. You'll
>> narrow the problem down to eith the kernel itself or the patchset the
>> distros are using
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Kent mailing list
>> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
> 
> be careful here, the distro may be expecting certian kernel features to be 
> enabled, so just make sure you tick similar boxes in make menuconfig
> 
> you could get the current kernel config, maybe via:
> 
> zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config
> 
> then do a:
> 
> make oldconfig
> 
How on earth is that going to teach him anything? Thanks to Suse, fedora 
and Ubunu no-one knows how to do anything anymore. I sat there chrooting 
from a Gentoo minimal cd for hours until i got it right. Oh if only they 
  put the names of the drivers with the chipset names, net cards are the 
worst for that "sky? wtf is that? It's not in the manual!"