Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ubuntu on Toshiba Satellite L305

I've noticed a sudden increase in traffic to my little blog, most of which is coming from Google searches pertaining to the topic of installing Ubuntu on the Toshiba L305 (somehow it seems that my post about installing DEBIAN on the laptop found its way to the top of Google's search.) But, Google searchers, you happen to be in luck, for after my failure to install (an adequate version of) Debian on my L305, I decided to go back to Ubuntu on my laptop.

If you are installing Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) the system will hang in a few spots but eventually show a bright red screen saying that it can't detect any network devices. This as it turns out is the exact problem I had trying to install Debian. The reason this happens is that the network devices in the L305 were unsupported at the time of Hardy's release. This will cause the installer to pretty much refuse doing the rest of the install in my experience.

The good news is that these drivers will be fully supported in the upcoming release 8.10, Intrepid Ibex. The even better news is that as of this writing, Intrepid is a mere four days away from launch. (Intrepid will be released on October 30th.) If you absolutely cannot live with Windows Vista for four more days, and are willing to try Intrepid before it is fully finished, you can download the latest release candidate off of the Ubuntu website. I have been using the release candidate for the past week and a half and have had no major problems, but do be prepared for a less-than-perfect install (I have had my fair share of minor problems). If you are still a little new to the Linux world, I'd suggest waiting out the four days and downloading the finished product. If you are wanting to download Hardy for the fact that it is the Long-Term Support (LTS) release, then I don't really know what to tell you.

The other good news is that having used Ubuntu 8.10 for the last week and a half, I can tell you that it is yet another good release by the Ubuntu team.

3 comments:

Smug said...

Here is a link to a site that explains how to get your wifi working http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/browse/product+toshiba-satellite-l305-s5865?id=6540 as of this writing I am unaware of a better fix. Also my wireless card seems to *overheat* if I use it too long in ubuntu and I have to do a complete shutdown and pull the battery give it a 10 count and its back up. HAVE NO CLUE WHY....... but hey!

Unknown said...

Wireless working easily on the Toshiba Satellite L305-S5921, without using ndiswrapper:
http://www.fickleverbosity.com/2009/02/23/ubuntu-linux-on-toshiba-satellite-l305-s5921/

Anonymous said...

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