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General Hardware Specifications of Toshiba U205-S5057 :

$uname -a
Linux tanglangla 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 06:17:24 UTC 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

• Why to use Ubuntu 7.04
I love it! more information at the Ubuntu homepage Ubuntu Home
• Obtaining Ubuntu
Download the latest Ubuntu 7.04 from Ubuntu
• Installing
Ubuntu installation is a breeze on the Toshiba U205-S5057 laptop, download the iso image from Ubuntu burn it on a CD/DVD and boot from the CD/DVD.

• Booting from the CD ROM on TOSHIBA U205-S5057
While the Laptop powers up, wait for the TOSHIBA splash screen (Notice boot device icons displayed below the TOSHIBA red logo) Press the arrow keys to navigate to the CD ROM icon notice a small block of rectangle moving below the icons (which indicates selection) Press the Enter Key when the selection is CD icon.
• Wait for Ubuntu to boot up, this will take few minutes
• Double click on the icon "Install Ubuntu" on the Desktop
• Select your Language, and other preferences, follow the screens untill you reach the partition Hard disc menu
• One has 2 options, either use the entire Hard Disk for Linux or manually partition the HDD
This is how my partition table looks like, and I have manually partitioned the HDD to install a MS OS, Linux Ubuntu and another for installing and testing Beta Linux Distributions.

•   $ sudo fdisk -l
    Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
  255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  
     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sda1   *           1        3648    29302528+   b  W95 FAT32
  /dev/sda2            3649        6688    24418800   83  Linux
  /dev/sda3            6689       19457   102566992+   5  Extended
  /dev/sda5            6689        6932     1959898+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
  /dev/sda6            6933        9365    19543041   83  Linux
  /dev/sda7            9366       19457    81063958+  83  Linux 

• After the partition is complete, Ubuntu will install on the laptop without asking any more questions.
• Post-Install modifications/tweaks
Almost everything installs out of the box, One thing that don't work out of the box is
• Fingerprint Reader
The Fingerprint reader works with ThinkFinger

• Fingerprint reader
Most of the information is available here on HOWTO get the Fingerprint reader work
Below are some quick steps to get the fingerprint reader work!
First insert the 'uinput' module by

  $ sudo modprobe uinput 

To make sure on each reboot this module is loaded, add this line to the /etc/modules file my /etc/modules file looks like this

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

fuse
lp
rtc
sbp2
uinput

  

• Download the thinkfinger tarball from thinkfinger

•   $ tar xvfz thinkfinger-0.3.tar.gz
    $ cd thinkfinger-0.3
    thinkfinger-0.3 $ ./configure --with-securedir=/lib/security --with-birdir=/etc/pam_thinkfinger
    thinkfinger-0.3 $ make
    thinkfinger-0.3 $ sudo make install
    

  Now check if the installation went well, /lib/security is the dir, where pam assumes its modules on Debian/Ubuntu. If everything went ok assert that you find pam_thinkfinger.so in /lib/security.
  

  $ ls /lib/security

• Testing if the driver worked

  $ sudo tf-tool --acquire
  ThinkFinger 0.3 (http://thinkfinger.sourceforge.net/)
  Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Timo Hoenig 

  Initializing... done.
  Please swipe your finger (successful swipes 3/3, failed swipes: 0)... done.
  Storing data (/tmp/test.bir)... done.
  
  $ sudo tf-tool --verify
  ThinkFinger 0.3 (http://thinkfinger.sourceforge.net/)
  Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Timo Hoenig 

  Initializing... done.
  Please swipe your finger (successful swipes 1/1, failed swipes: 0)... done.
  Result: Fingerprint does match.
  

• Configuring PAM to work with ThinkFinger
Edit the

/etc/pam.d/common-auth

  $ vi /etc/pam.d/common-auth
  

Add this line before any pam_unix directive.


  auth     sufficient     pam_thinkfinger.so
  

If your PAM uses the pam_unix and not the pam_unix2 module, you need to pass a specific argument in the /etc/pam.d/common-auth directive to make it consider the password entered at the pam_thinkfinger prompt.
Now the /etc/pam.d/common-auth should look like this

  auth    sufficient      pam_thinkfinger.so
  auth    required        pam_unix.so nullok_secure try_first_pass  
  

Since make install did not create the /etc/pam_thinkfinger directory create them manually

  $sudo mkdir /etc/pam_thinkfinger
  

• Add Users to thinkfinger

  $ sudo tf-tool --add-user username
  substitute username with the actual username.
  

Open a new Terminal and try some command where you need sudo rights like sudo apt-get update, you should be promted now with

  Password or swipe finger: 
  

Done! now you can just swipe your finger to log in :) just make sure everything is working before you logg off
PS: Content for the Thinkfinger installation was modified for Ubuntu 7.04 for Toshiba U205-S5057 from here and here

• There is one strange problem with this laptop that I could not figure out yet, but there is a work around for it
• Problem description
GRUB (boot loader) does not show up while cold booting. (i.e while power on the grub menu does not show up, instead it directly boots on to the default selection on Grub)
• Workaround
This is little silly, I dont know how it works, but it works :) for more discussion on this issue refer to the ubuntu forums discussion http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=405515
• Boot the Laptop, While on the TOSHIBA splash screen press Esc F1 to enter the BIOS setup
• Press the right Arrow until you reach the Diagnostic mode selection
• Press 'Space' to change the Disable to Enable
• Reboot, do a cold boot and you will see some memory test etc.. then the Grub menu shows up
• Reboot again go the Bios setting by hitting Esc and F1, restore to the original setting
• That's all now the Grub menu always shows up on any reboot, cold or hot :-)

• Refer to the ThinkFinger configuration above
• Everything else works out of the box.

jsr@tanglangla:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU         T5500  @ 1.66GHz
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 1000.000
cache size      : 2048 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips        : 3330.00
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection (rev 02)
03:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
03:0b.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
03:0b.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
03:0b.3 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller

• You can shout at me at -> jsr at gnu dot org dot in
  

• Linux on Toshiba Laptops!

Laptop in general - build, hardware etc.

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