Toshiba

Toshiba Satellites Not Reporting Battery Status

Some of the newer Toshiba Satellite laptops (L645-xxx, L655-xxx) do not properly report their battery state (or even the presence of a battery). This can be rectified with the following instructions (condensed from a posting at http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10385).

• Open a terminal window and enter the following command:

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/*

If the battery is truly not reporting (and you don't just have an app panel problem) the output should read:

present: no
present: no
present: no

• Install the iasl package.

sudo apt-get install iasl

• Obtain the DSDT (Differentiated System Description Table).

sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > DSDT.dat

• Disassemble the DSDT.

sudo iasl -d DSDT.dat

• Open the DSDT for editing.

sudo nano DSDT.dsl

Press Ctrl + W to search the entire file for the line

OperationRegion (EMEM, SystemMemory, 0xFF808001, 0xFF)

Once you have located the line, modify it to read

OperationRegion (EMEM, EmbeddedControl, 0×00, 0xFF)

Press Ctrl + O then Ctrl +X to save and close the file.

• Generate an updated DSDT.

sudo iasl -tc DSDT.dsl

• Copy the updated file to the boot directory.

sudo cp DSDT.aml /boot

• Create a script for GRUB to load the custom ACPI table. (Replace leafpad with gedit or your preferred text editor if leafpad is not present on your system.)

sudo leafpad 01_acpi 

Copy the following text into the text editor window that appears.

#! /bin/sh -e

#Load custom ACPI table
GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI="/boot/DSDT.aml"

# DON'T MODIFY ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE!

prefix=/usr
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib

. ${libdir}/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib

# Load custom ACPI table
if [ x${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI} != x ] && [ -f ${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI} ] \
       && is_path_readable_by_grub ${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI}; then
   echo "Found custom ACPI table: ${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI}" >&2
   prepare_grub_to_access_device `${grub_probe} --target=device ${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI}` | sed -e "s/^/  /"
   cat << EOF
acpi (\$root)`make_system_path_relative_to_its_root ${GRUB_CUSTOM_ACPI}`
EOF
fi

Save the file and close the text editor (Ctrl + S then Ctrl + Q).

• Make the script executable and place it in the correct directory to be added to GRUB.

chmod +x 01_acpi
sudo cp 01_acpi /etc/grub.d

• Update GRUB with the custom table.

sudo update-grub2

• Reboot the system; the battery should now be indicated!

Obtaining fullscreen resolution on laptops with Trident CyberBlade XPAi1

Copy and paste the following into /etc/X11/xorg.conf (create xorg.conf yourself if it doesn't exist already):

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1"
  Driver "trident"
  BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "Generic Monitor"
  Option "DPMS"
  HorizSync 28-51
  VertRefresh 43-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Generic Monitor"
	Device		"Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1"
	SubSection "Display"
		   Depth 8
		   Modes "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		   Depth 16
		   Modes "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		   Depth 24
		   Modes "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		   Depth 32
		   Modes "1024x768"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Other links

Toshiba laptop teardown/guides

Toshiba BIOS password clearing tool

Toshiba BIOS password clearing methods