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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Page Contents Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop. This is an AMD based laptop with components which are not very common place with laptops.

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Specifications

Name	Toshiba Satellite A215-S????
Processor	AMD Turion64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz
Screen	15.4" WXGA
RAM	2GB
HDD	250GB
Optical Drive	DVD+-RW
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon X1200
Network	10/100 Ethernet, Atheros AR5007EG 802.11g or Realtek RTL8187 Wireless
Other	4 x USB2.0, 1 x Firewire, VGA, S-Video, ExpressCard 34/54, 5-in-1 memory card reader

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
HDD	Yes	CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=m
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes	See notes below
Sound	Yes	CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=m (stable as of 2.6.24+)
Ethernet	Yes	CONFIG_R8169=m
Wireless	Partial	See notes below
56K Modem	Not Tested
USB	yes
Firewire	Not Tested
SD Card Reader	Yes
PCMCIA	Not Tested
ExpressCard Slot	Not Tested

Notes

The ATI Mobility Radeon X1200 found in the Satellite A215 are both supported by Radeon and RadeonHD. See below for a guide. Change driver to "radeonhd" in xorg.conf for RadeonHD setup.

This Atheros wireless controller needs the ndiswrapper driver to function. You can read the below guide for installation instructions for this. The Windows driver for the card is available here.

The RTL8187B device is a USB device and shows the ID as 0x8197 instead of 0x8189. This is fixed mentioned in the 2nd comment. Patched driver/fix for >=2.6.24 can be found here.

Related Resources

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring an ATI graphics chip
Configuring the ndiswrapper driver for wireless controllers without native Linux drivers
Increasing battery life

Summary

The Toshiba Satellite A215 is not the easiest laptop to get working with Linux. The major issue is the need to use the ndiswrapper driver or compiling your own native patched driver to get functional wireless.

If you are looking to purchase this laptop you can visit Toshiba's Satellite page.

Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.