The video chip used in the Toshiba 6100 is the NVIDIA GeForce 4 420 Go.

 

Depending on the exact model of 6100 you have, the video RAM may be 16M or 32M - check this from the specifications before going any further.

 

 

During RH Linux 9.0 installation, the chip is probed as NVIDIA GeForce 4 and the "nv" driver is selected.

The LCD monitor cannot be automatically probed, so use "Generic Laptop 1024x768", and accept the 24-bit colour depth suggested by the installer.

 

 

This invokes a generic NVidia driver with 1024x768 resolution: quite acceptable for most purposes. A basic XF86Config file is created in /etc/X11/. This sample file may be useful if you want to return to default settings later.

 

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Installing the proprietary NVIDIA drivers:

For a really sparkling display, you will need to get the videocard manufacturer's Linux drivers.

 

Check this page for the latest drivers, but see the note below, first...

 

At the time of writing, there are all kinds of problems with kernel/driver/glibc compatibilities. For example:

Red Hat 9.0 shipped with a broken glibc, and you will not be able to run OpenOffice or xmms with the NVidia driver until you have updated your system using (e.g.) up2date or Ximian Red Carpet

If you run up2date as of today (07/07/03) the kernel will be updated to version 2.4.20-18.9. The NVidia installer "NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run" only seems to work with kernel 2.4.20-8 and below.

I am indebted to Alexandre (Sasha) Kozlov for his solution. Perform a full update using up2date or Ximian Red Carpet. Go to this site, and download the package compatible with your hardware/distribution. For example, if your kernel version is 2.4.20-18.9 (do uname -r to check) the correct file will be:

 

nvidia-graphics-kmdl-2.4.20-18.9-1.0_4363-11.i686.rpm

 

Install the package, and if there are no errors so far, change your default run level to "3" in /etc/inittab, make a backup of your XF86 Config (/etc/X11/XF86Config) and modify it as follows:

 

"Module" section:

 

Remove the line> Load "dri"

Remove the line> Load "GLcore"

Ensure you have the line> Load "glx"

"Monitor" section:

 

For a basic setup, all you need is:

 

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Monitor0"

VendorName "Monitor Vendor"

ModelName "Toshiba 6100 LCD Display"

HorizSync 31.5 - 150

VertRefresh 50.0 - 100

Modeline "1024x768" 97.40 1024 1072 1192 1416 768 768 771 809

Option "ddc" "off"

EndSection

 

"Device" section:

 

It's very important that the Driver line is changed from "nv" or "vesa" to "nvidia". Also, remember to check the amount of video RAM you have, and decide whether you want BackingStore on or off. (Must be off if you are using Win4Lin).

 

 

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "Videocard0"

Driver "nvidia"

VendorName "NVIDIA"

BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 4 420 Go"

VideoRam 32768

Option "BackingStore" "Off"

EndSection

 

"Screen" section:

 

You can add more modes as required, but note that each must have a valid modeline in the "Monitor" section. The "Virtual" line disables the display panning that would otherwise occur by default, and forces the driver to display everything within the confines of the screen dimensions.

 

 

Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen0"

Device "Videocard0"

Monitor "Monitor0"

DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"

Modes "1024x768"

EndSubSection

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1024x768"

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubSection

EndSection

 

 

 

Once the modified file has been saved, exit the root account, login as a normal user and you can try starting the X-server:

 

$ startx

With a bit of luck, you will have a functioning display. If not, check the /var/log/XFree86.9.log file for pointers to what went wrong. Useful key commands at this stage are:

 

<Ctrl> <Alt> <BkSp> to kill the X-server and revert to text mode

 

<Ctrl> <Alt> <Fn> <;> to switch screen modes (if you have more than one)

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you make a mistake and get a bright white screen, kill the X-server immediately to avoid irreparable damage to the LCD display. All of the above instructions are given without any warranty. They may not work in your case, and worse, they may cause damage to your PC. Use them at your own risk!

 

Assuming the drivers have installed correctly, you can change your default runlevel back to 5 in /etc/initttab.

 

If it didn't work for some reason, all I can suggest is that you consult the Linux and NVidia Graphics forum.

 

 

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Example:

Here is a sample XF86Config file to play with:

24-bit NVIDIA example

 

Copy this to your /etc/X11/XF86Config file, as appropriate, having made a backup first. Note that only the 1024x768 modeline is working properly at the moment - I will try to get the other screen resolutions later...

 

 

 

Note: If you have problems with a black line at the right hand side of the screen, try adding the following line to /etc/modules.conf :

 

options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=2

 

 

 

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External Monitor/TV settings

This is really difficult. The Toshiba 6100 hotkey display switch (Fn F5) is not properly supported under Linux, and the NVidia driver implementation supports it even less... Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any solution that allows monitor switching under Red Hat 9.0 with the NVidia 4363 driver! Please let me know if you can help...

 

If you do not mind using the standard Vesa driver at 16-bit colour depth, you can use an external monitor or TV by using the following procedure:

 

Ensure that you have Jonathan Buzzard's Toshiba Linux Utilities, which you can obtain here. The stable version of the utilities requires Toshiba Laptop support either compiled into the kernel or as a loadable module (RH9.0 default). Download the utilities tarball, copy to /usr/local/ and do tar -xvzf. Change directory to /usr/local/toshutils-2.x.x and follow the README for installation instructions. Note that "make install" creates the required special device files if they do not already exist.

The display switch in Jonathan's utilities only works on Libretto notebooks, so you are going to need another little utility named "Toshset" from Charles Schwieters. Copy to /usr/local/ and "untar" as you did in step 1.

cd to /usr/local/toshset-1.xx and follow the README for installation instructions. If you have Toshiba Laptop support compiled into the kernel (not as a module, which is RH9.0 default), you must change the Toshset Makefile so that the line "DEFS = -DUSE_KERNEL_INTERFACE" is uncommented. Failure to do this will cause Toshset to crash with a segmentation fault...Also, you may need to create 3 directories to prevent compilation errors. These are:

/usr/local/man

/usr/local/man/man1 and

/usr/local/man/man8

 

VESA 16-bit dual display

The trick here is to ensure that your monitor settings can apply equally to the internal and external monitors. I have used a very old monitor (Philips 105S) in this sample XF86Config running at 1024x768 pixels. Copy this to your existing XF86Config, having made a backup first, and re-start your computer with the external monitor plugged in.

 

Note: you can change TV regional options (PAL/NTSC) via the computer's setup menu by pressing <Ctrl> <Esc> immediately after switching on.

Login and use toshset -video both to enable LCD and external monitors simultaneously. This works in text mode or from an X-terminal. Other toshset options are int, ext, tv. You can try these, but "tv" will probably only work at 800x600.