Toshset on the Toshiba Portege A100 ...

2007. My Toshiba doesn't work any more. I joined the cool kids and got a ThinkPad. Information may be out of date!

There are two modules for Toshiba laptop support in recent linux kernels.

  1. If you load toshiba, and run toshset ... 
     $ sudo toshset -q
 machine id: 0xfcff    BIOS version: 1.40    SCI version: 7.148
 toshset version: 1.71                  Toshiba Model: Portege M100/M300 Tecra M2/A2/A3
 HCI/SCI access mode: kernel           
 toshset: this computer is not supported
    On older versions of toshet, we used to get a string of 
     Unknown Error (254), Unknown Error(243)
  2. If you unload toshiba, load toshiba_acpi (unpatched), and run toshset: 
     $ sudo toshset
 required kernel toshiba support not enabled.

  3. If you patch toshiba_acpi with the appropriate patch from from here, recompile, update the module configuration, and then load toshiba_acpi ... 

    $ sudo toshset -v -q  

 machine id: 0xfcff    BIOS version: 1.40    SCI version: 7.148
 toshset version: 1.71                  Toshiba Model: Portege M100/M300 Tecra M2/A2/A3
 HCI/SCI access mode: kernel            battery save mode: full power         
[a whole lot more information]

$ sudo toshset -inten 0
 lcd intensity: 0/7
    Success!

    Yes, I know that page says "Note that the driver is already included in modern 2.6 and 2.4 kernels. The patches here are mostly for historical reference, although there may be some experimental patches posted on occasion.". You want this to work, you need the patch.

Notes:
Patching:
download a patch. put it in drivers/acpi/toshiba_acpi in your kernel source. run 
 patch -p0 < [patch-file]
Updating module configuration:
look through /etc/mod* and replace "toshiba" with "toshiba_acpi" everywhere. Then run update-modules.