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Toshiba Portege R100
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Toshiba Portege R100 laptop. The R100 is a small and light laptop with long battery life thanks to the ULV processor used. Its internal components are quite limited however.
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
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Specifications
| Name | Toshiba Portege R100 |
| Processor | Intel Pentium-M ULV 1GHz |
| Screen | 12.1” XGA |
| RAM | 256MB |
| HDD | 40GB |
| Optical Drive | None |
| Graphics | Trident XP4m32 |
| Network | 10/100 Ethernet, Intel 2100 802.11b Wireless (up to 11 Mbps) |
| Other | 2 x USB2.0 |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Partial | No XV available |
| Sound | Yes | Use the snd-intel8x0 module |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | Use the ipw2100 module |
| 56K Modem | Yes | Use slmodem |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Never work (no driver) | |
| PCMCIA | Yes | use yenta-socket |
| Touchpad | Yes | use synaptic |
| fn-button | Yes | use fnfxd |
Notes
Since the R100 does not include an optical drive you will need an alternative installation method. An external USB optical drive works fine and a network installation should be possible as well.
The Trident XP4m32 graphics chip in the Portege R100 is now better supported under Linux. Currently you may use either the 'vesa' or 'trident' driver.
Summary
Update: Newer drivers make this a good possibility and not too difficult. Minor problems have fixes. http://kubuntu-portege.blogspot.com/
Discussion
My USB-CDROM does not support boot from itself, i use a port converter connect the harddisk of r100 to a PC and installed UBUNTU.
All work fine but the Cardreader.
I have installed Ubuntu 8.04 in my R100 via CD reader external USB unit, now it works faster than using Windows Xp which is also sharing its 40 GB disk drive.
A good thing for that system should be nice to update its disk drive to higher capacity, and go to its maximum RAM update to 1,256 MB.
Hello and Merry Xmas Ramon!
Thanks for your posting.
You've given me alot of hope.
By way of what you write I feel that you have accomplished a complete and successful installation of ubuntu on your r100. Whereby it would seem you have overcome the following issues.
I am trying to install ubuntu 9.10 on my toshiba r100
and have 2 main problems.
1) I can't get the interface to occupy the full screen. There seems to be a black border around it of approx 1.5 centimetres on both top, bottom and both sides. So far I understand this has to do with the “screen resolution”. Ubuntu only seems to go as high as 600 x 800 when toshiba r100 is 1024 x 768. What can I do to fill the screen?
2) Whenever I have installed ubuntu 9.10 I don't seem to get any internet whatsoever.
Obviously I want to use wireless and so far, from reading other forums, it seems that ubuntu does not imediately recognise the wireless card. Is there something I can do on the OS? Or do I need a new wireless card?
Looking forward to your reply>
And Merry Xmas!!!
Rob
Hey Rob, I have just installed ubuntu on my R100, and I'm having the same problem as your #1. There's a black border all around the screen. Have you been able to fix your problem yet? If so, could you please let me know? I'm trying to figure it out, but I'm brand new to linux and everything I'm finding on the internet seems slightly above my head.
Thanks!
-Peter
Installation from an external optical drive did not work out for me, even when using the original Toshiba drive hooked up via PC-Card. Installation from USB drive (stick, no optical drive) with UNetbooting was easy if taking some time. I partitioned the hard disk before while still in Windows to accommodate a parallel Linux/Windows installation. UNetbooting creates a bootable USB stick and adds some files for live installation. This then allows basically automated network installation of almost any Linux distribution. By the way, Ubunutu did not correctly recognize the screen resolution while OpenSuse did right away.
Hi Christof, My toshiba c100 does not have the boot from usb option. just wondering how you got yours to work, is there a bios update that will do allow this option. My choices are from cd via pcmcia card,hard drive and floppy do not have one. The live cd will not boot from pcmcia dvd reader because of drivers for the pcmcia.
cheers kev
sorry i meant my toshiba r100
kubuntu 8.04 now works fines on this machine
http://kubuntu-portege.blogspot.com/