On 10/06/13 06:58, Robert Holtzman wrote:
On Sat, Oct 05, 2013 at 12:05:14PM +1300, Rolf Turner wrote:

      .......snip.......

P. S.  Based on my experience, ***don't*** buy a Toshiba!
Want to expand on that? My stepdaughter has a satellite that I'm
thinking of taking over and installing one of the linux distros.




Well, I just had endless frustration in respect of the WiFi interface which was vital to me.
After a bit of struggle I found an email address that purported to be for Linux support
for Toshiba machines.  I got all excited and sent email to that address, and after a couple
of days got a reply saying no, we don't support Linux.  Which I thought was pretty crappy.

Anyhow, apparently Toshiba keep things so secret that it's essentially impossible for the
free software community to build drivers which will work with Toshiba's WiFi interface.
I had more endless frustration, but eventually found out that there exist USB WiFi devices
that will dodge around the problem.  (Some such devices will work with Linux systems and
some won't.)  I first tried an ASUS device which purported to have Linux support, but turned
out to be essentially useless.  Then I was lent an Engenius EUB 9801 device which *did*
work.  (This particular item has been discontinued by Engenius, but has been replaced
by something else.  Can't remember the designation, and have no idea if this "replacement"
actually works with Linux.)  Then I bought a device from thinkpenguin.com, and they
guaranteed by email that it would work, and indeed it did.

I had also bought a Logitech cordless mouse along with my Toshiba --- and *that* wouldn't
work initially (under Linux).  It would work if I booted <expletive deleted> Windoze, but.
However with my latest re-install of Fedora (17) the Logitech mouse works fine.  Don't know
if the problem was really down to Toshiba or if it was just down to Logitech, but whatever
it was, Fedora seems to have solved the problem.

    cheers,

    Rolf Turner