Satellite P870 issues
 

heya--

Long time no post, please be nice. :-)

I've recently had a stolen laptop replaced with a Toshiba Satellite
P870[0]. I currently have debian wheezy 64bit installed, but am having
issues getting some hardware to work. The kernel I'm currently running
is 3.4.0-10.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 from liquorix.net.


My major issue is the video devices. They are apparently a switchable
"type", so you have the choice to use either the intel or nvidia GPUs.
The liquorix kernel made the intel driver work. I had full resolution
1920x1080 and the HDMI worked(no sound). Then I installed
xul-ext-firegestures which then caused the i915 kernel module to give me
"exec format error".


After some googling I found the bumblebee[1] project. This apparently
allows you to switch video cards. Without researching to much I
installed this package from their debian repo. Now the i915 kernel
module is loaded, but lspci does not show it as the driver being used
for the video card.


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core
processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device fb12
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 43
Memory at da000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at 5000 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features

root@vengeance:~# lsmod | grep i915
i915 462952 0
intel_agp 11729 1 i915
intel_gtt 16373 3 i915,intel_agp
drm_kms_helper 39025 2 i915,nouveau
drm 247551 4 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 5749 2 i915,nouveau
i2c_core 25541 7
drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,nouv eau,videodev

video 12217 2 i915,nouveau
button 5121 2 i915,nouveau

What I'd like to do is run the nvidia card as my primary video, if I
don't have the choice to switch between the two.


The next issue with this laptop is the ethernet card.

07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8161 Gigabit
Eth (rev 10)

Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device ff1e
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 7
Memory at da600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
I/O ports at 3000 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [c0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/16 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [d8] MSI-X: Enable- Count=16 Masked-
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [180] Device Serial Number ff-22-6b-b8-00-26-6c-ff

To try and get this to work I downloaded the comapt[2] wireless source
for the 3.4 kernel. I then ran the select-driver script for the alx
drivers. The make ran fine. However during the make install I received.


Note: iwlagn detected, we're going to disable it. If you would like to
enable it later you can run:

sudo iwl-load iwlagn

Running iwl-enable iwlwifi...
modprobe: invalid option -- 'l'
Module iwl4965 not detected -- this is fine
modprobe: invalid option -- 'l'
Module iwlagn not detected -- this is fine

Note: atl1c detected, we're going to disable it. If you would like to
enable it later you can run:

sudo alx-load atl1c

Running alx-enable alx...
modprobe: invalid option -- 'l'
Module atl1c not detected -- this is fine
modprobe: invalid option -- 'l'
depmod will prefer updates/ over kernel/ -- OK!

I haven't done anything else for this issue, so any tips would be
greatly appreciated.


Full lspci -v output[3] and lsmod[4] output have been placed on pastebin.

On my wish list to get working also is:

- backlit keyboard (I've tried acpi=off[5])
- keyboard special keys
- tv tuner

Bonus points for tips to get drivers for the ones in lspci that don't
have a kernel driver loaded.


I've tried to supply as much information as I can, if anything is
missing please let me know!


--julian

0 - http://bit.ly/RFWoLB
1 - http://bumblebee-project.org/
2 - http://bit.ly/OnkXCb
3 - http://pastebin.com/a0dPFeLB
4 - http://pastebin.com/zbWrDVx3
5 - http://bit.ly/NXrFz9


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Satellite P870 issues
 

Julian De Marchi <julian@jdcomputers.com.au> writes:

> My major issue is the video devices. They are apparently a switchable
> "type", so you have the choice to use either the intel or nvidia
> GPUs.

You might be out of luck depending on what hardware is in your
laptop. Google for "muxless"; if your laptop is muxless, switching to
the NVIDIA card won't get you any further than to a blank display. IIRC,
there's some file under /sys that has something to do with vgaswitcheroo
which would allow you to switch between the cards if you have compiled
support for it into the kernel. That will take you to a blank screen/no
video output, so make sure you use a script that switches back
automatically when you try it.


--
Debian testing amd64


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Satellite P870 issues
 

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 06:48:33PM +0200, lee wrote:
> Julian De Marchi <julian@jdcomputers.com.au> writes:
>
> > My major issue is the video devices. They are apparently a switchable
> > "type", so you have the choice to use either the intel or nvidia
> > GPUs.
>
> You might be out of luck depending on what hardware is in your
> laptop. Google for "muxless"; if your laptop is muxless, switching to
> the NVIDIA card won't get you any further than to a blank display. IIRC,
> there's some file under /sys that has something to do with vgaswitcheroo
> which would allow you to switch between the cards if you have compiled
> support for it into the kernel. That will take you to a blank screen/no
> video output, so make sure you use a script that switches back
> automatically when you try it.

Are you sure lee? Wouldn't some sort of module blacklisting/whitelisting
work?

Disclaimer: This is just off the top of my head, but is where I'd start
looking. Although I'd probably do a google search with various
combinations of search terms just to see if I could get a slight smell
of a clue of what to start looking at.


Looks good though:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/series/Satellite-P870-series/1122238/

--
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people
who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the
oppressing." --- Malcolm X


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Satellite P870 issues
 

Chris Bannister <cbannister@slingshot.co.nz> writes:

> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 06:48:33PM +0200, lee wrote:
>> Julian De Marchi <julian@jdcomputers.com.au> writes:
>>
>> > My major issue is the video devices. They are apparently a switchable
>> > "type", so you have the choice to use either the intel or nvidia
>> > GPUs.
>>
>> You might be out of luck depending on what hardware is in your
>> laptop. Google for "muxless"; if your laptop is muxless, switching to
>> the NVIDIA card won't get you any further than to a blank display. IIRC,
>> there's some file under /sys that has something to do with vgaswitcheroo
>> which would allow you to switch between the cards if you have compiled
>> support for it into the kernel. That will take you to a blank screen/no
>> video output, so make sure you use a script that switches back
>> automatically when you try it.
>
> Are you sure lee? Wouldn't some sort of module blacklisting/whitelisting
> work?

Yes --- the problem was something like that with muxless systems, the
available software just doesn't support switching cards yet. There
might be support for that in the X server some time, perhaps there
already is.

You don't really need to switch cards when on the console, I guess :)
You can, and you don't get any output on the screen.

Everything works fine with the intel card unless you want to play games.
Its performance for that is pathetic at best, though even that works.


Other than that, it's only a pointer for the OP so he has an idea of
what he needs to look for and what he can try. If he's lucky, I'm wrong
and with the hardware he has, he can even switch /and/ have output on
screen.


--
Debian testing amd64


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Satellite P870 issues
 

Am Mittwoch, 12. September 2012 schrieb lee:
> You don't really need to switch cards when on the console, I guess :)
> You can, and you don't get any output on the screen.
>
> Everything works fine with the intel card unless you want to play
> games. Its performance for that is pathetic at best, though even that
> works.

Phatetic at best? It depends on the game IMHO.

Thats Ivybridge according to:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core
processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

Even Sandybridge is enough to play Supertuxkart, Freedroid RPG and others
at Full HD.

Heck, even Planeshift is quite smooth, except for the magic spell graphic
effects.

Ivybridge should about be twice as fast in many situations from what I
read.

So granted its likely not anynear that fast as the NVidia with its
proprietary driver, but its also not pathetic in my view, but quite good
for integrated graphics.

--
Martin 'Helios' Steigerwald - http://www.Lichtvoll.de
GPG: 03B0 0D6C 0040 0710 4AFA B82F 991B EAAC A599 84C7


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