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Toshiba Satellite Pro A300
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 laptop.
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.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Toshiba Satellite Pro A300. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 specifications page.
| Name | Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo |
| Screen | 15.4” WXGA Widescreen |
| RAM | 1GB to 4GB |
| HDD | 160GB to 200GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 |
| Network | Ethernet, Intel 3945AGN 802.11abg or Intel 4965AGN 802.11abgn, Bluetooth |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Works out of box | |
| Screen | Works 1280×800 at 60hz out of box | |
| HDD | Works out of box | |
| Optical Drive | Works out of box | |
| Graphics | Works out of box | |
| Sound | Works - work required to enable Skype sound | |
| Ethernet | Works out of box | |
| Wireless | Works very badly out of box* | |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Works out of box | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | Works out of box | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested | |
| Camera | Works with compiled uvc driver* |
Notes
Using Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and Fedora 10
*I tested wifi on ubuntu 9.10 updated Dec 19 2009. It drops connections and has lousy reception compared to windows drivers. Speed is slow and latency is high. It works but in reality it is totally useless.
Vista SP1 can cause problems with dual boot if you install Linux second
Summary
Like a bought one - rating 9.5 out of 10
Discussion
Kubuntu 10.10
I have some sound problems and to connect a microphone.
Kubuntu 11.04 doesn't runs.
Do you FN keys + Brightness / + Volume work??? Thanks to comment
I'm running OpenSuSE 11.1 with no drama. I haven't tried the web-cam, and the sound driver isn't working - probably because I picked the wrong one? Sound and media isn't important to me so I'm a novice there. The fingerprint scanner works, but only Gnome seems to use it, not KDE which is my choice.
I have 4 GB core, 300G disk, and the main software I use is a few database engines, Samba, a personal web server, various development languages and tools, and 64 bit “VirtualBox” hosting 32 bit WinXP. The lack of VT-x or AMD-V virtualization on the CPU means VirtualBox can't host a 64 bit guest, but that's also not important to me.
The registration of USB devices generally works well, but everything gets mounted under /media which annoys me; you have to edit the files in /etc/udev to get control of that; I haven't found a GUI to manage that.
Wireless can be a bit of a pain. The main issue is getting it configured to fit into a corporate Windows domain. I don't think NetManager is that mature yet.
I have lots of these Toshiba laptops at work.
The sound problem is solved by running “alsamixer” from the terminal and adjusting the sound levels on all the tabs. Hopefully that helps.
Today however i am trying to install 8.04 onto a Pro version of A300… and im stuck with a non working xorg :( Screen displays vertical and horizontal lines.. which react on keypresses but thats all.
Jan
same here. I have installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my Satellite Pro A300 and sound is a bit dodgy - although all the rest works perfect. Any solution?
I installed ubuntu studio intrepid and it works good, but there is one problem. This computer has excellent speakers (harman/kardon speakers), but it is very quite. The volume and sound capacity is horrible. One time i couldn't get the sound loud enough for a group of friends to watch a movie in my bedroom.
If there is a way to fix the audio problem and get these speakers working properly, i'd love to know how. giraffe@riseup.net