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Toshiba Portege R700-R705 / Satellite R630
Introduction
This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Toshiba Portege R700-R705 laptop and is also valid for the Toshiba Satellite R630 (sold in Europe).
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Toshiba Portege R700-R705. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Toshiba Portege R700-R705 page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Toshiba Portege R700-R705 specifications page.
| Name | Toshiba Portege R700-R705 |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ i3-350M Processor Intel® Core™ i5-460M processor Intel® Core™ i5-520M processor Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor |
| Screen | 13.3” WXGA Widescreen matte (R705 also in gloss) |
| RAM | Up to 8GB |
| HDD | up to 500GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet Intel Centrino 802.11a/b/g/n or Broadcom BCM4313 (from lspci) Bluetooth Ericson UMTS/3G Modem (only R700) |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Works | |
| Screen | mostly | Brightness locks after suspend to RAM (fixable with “toshset -bl on”). the same happens with a attached external display. |
| HDD | mostly | accelerometer is not supported |
| Optical Drive | Works | |
| Graphics | Works | Needs a recent version of Xorg, as found in Ubuntu 10.04 for example |
| Sound | Works | Headphone socket doesn't work in Ubuntu 10.04, Microphone socket not tested; both work in 10.10 |
| Ethernet | Works | |
| Wireless | Works | for the wireless on/off softswitch to work with the Broadcom BCM4313 you have to download the newest driver and compile the module yourself … all other things work out of the box |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 3G/UMTS-Modem | Not Tested | only R700 |
| USB | Works | |
| Card Reader | Works | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested | only R700 |
| Webcam | Works | |
| Fingerprint Reader | Not Tested | only R700 |
| Keyboard | mostly | many Fn-Keys or special do not work eg. “disable touchpad” |
| Touchpad | mostly | multitouch doesn't work out of the box |
| Docking port | not tested | only R700 |
Notes
Tested with Ubuntu 10.10.
Ubuntu 10.10 (kernel 2.6.35) freezes while running on battery for bios versions below 1.8. This doesn't happen in Ubuntu 10.04 (kernel 2.6.32). If your BIOS is below version 1.8 and you don't want to perform an update, you have to stick with the 2.6.32 kernel (can be installed in Ubuntu 10.10 out of the Lucid repositorys).
For the 2.6.35 kernel the module toshiba_acpi has to be patched manually for the program toshset to work.
The energy prediction for the battery is very poor. On low energy, the predicted time can be off by 30min to one hour.
Discussion
Are the speakers in the R700 really this bad, or is it a sound card issue with Linux? I've never installed Windows to see if it sounds any better. …no bass at all… lots of treble and can sound a bit shrill. I guess I could go pick up a pair of headphones and test it out that way.
For the record on the R700 the 3G card works out of the box with Ubuntu 10.10
Is anyone else experiencing that these laptops get disturbingly hot when under heavy load?
For example, when I'm compiling a kernel, the core temperature peaks around 95 degrees Celsius.
Toshiba Portege R700-15Q / Kubuntu 10.10:
The laptop had a Broadcom BC4313 wifi chip: this wasn't initially detected, bcmwl-kernel-source had to be installed, after which the “hardware drivers”/“additional drivers” dialog gave me the option to install the required drivers, the wifi now works fine.
Apart from that everything seems to work fine, although individual components such as bluetooth, headphones haven't been tested.
10.04 I experienced the jack issue, fixed with backport module.
10.10 everything seems fine out of the box
only porblem for both versions : i cant get the damn multi touch pad working.
Toshiba R705 with ubuntu 10.04.01 LTS. Had to download the file /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6050-4.ucode and copy it to the folder /lib/modules. Then I needed to delete the existing wifi spots and reboot. Our hardware is an Intel WiFi 6250 and the 6000 driver installed with 10.04 does not work with it.
Well, I have more problems with my R700-136
My broadcom wifi isn't detected with ubuntu so I tried with with Linux Mint and it works… But when I install the linux-backports-modules-alsa-lucid-generic to get the sound work correctly,then my driver wifi is disabled and i can't get it to work.
Hello,
with Ubuntu 10.10 headphone jack work from the first time.
Err 10.04. :)
You can install linux-backports-modules-alsa-lucid-generic on Ubuntu to make the headphone jack work. Install it and restart. Thanks to the folks on ubuntuforums.org for this little gem. :)
And I should mention that I did this on an R700 with Ubuntu 10.4. Worked like a charm.