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.
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.
If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.
| 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 |
| 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 | |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| PCMCIA | Not Tested | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested |
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 module 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.
The Toshiba Satellite A215 is not the easiest laptop to get working with Linux. The major issue is the need to use the ndiswrapper module or compiling your own native patched driver to get functional wireless.