OS 5.1-64 Bit: Toshiba L775d-S7226: Keyboard now recognized

Hi Guys,

First let me express my appreciation for the great work you've done. I've been using and exploring Linux for about 5 years, ever since Microsoft decided to stop trying to upgrade XP, and I got tired of waiting for XP to boot on a then 10 year old Thinkpad (no longer functional). Fortunately, I discovered Puppy Linux at that time and have used it on the several computers my wife and I have, with the exception noted below. On my main desktop, a ZTSystems Quad Core, and my Thinkpad T42, I maintain an XP partition, primarily so that I can run Dragon Naturally Speaking. So when I read on the Wine website that DNS 10 Standard had received a Gold Rating from an Ubuntu user I plunked down $25 and bought a copy of DNS 10 via Amazon. I'm not a great Ubuntu fan: it "ships" without the wireless driver support I need for a couple of my 'puters. But Mint has worked in the past, and I figured your Zorin and Pinguy might work as well.
I was not disappointed. I downloaded OS 5.1-core 64-bit for my Quod-Core Desktop, and OS 5.1-core 32-Bit for my Thinkpad T42. Both worked well on their intended computers, and both enabled the installation of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard on those machines after I followed the instructions (use Winetricks to first install fontfix and gdiplus --internet explorer isn't necessary, your internet access thru Linux apps will suffice) and subject to the following limitation: only dictate into Dragonpad, then copy and paste into Abiword; Libre/OpenOffice results in grey text on a black background. I especially liked that Zorin shipped with Winetricks and PlayonLinux already installed. With those qualifications, Dragon runs at least as well in Zorin as it does under XP. For those interested, apparently you can not currently run Dragon 11 under wine.
(PlayonLinux proved useful: Some XP software received a "permissions error" I couldn't figure out how to solve under wine, but installed without a hitch under PlayonLinux).
Although Zorin worked fine on my ZT Desktop, I've opted for Pinguy on that machine: no actual fault of Zorin. As I intend to continue helping Puppy devs I need some way to access the "frugal" installs of various Puppy derivatives. Puppy uses Grub4Dos, which has no problem automatically creating a listing for Puppies, XP, and Pinguy, but for some reason not Zorin. I think Zorin uses Grub2 which doesn't automatically list "frugal" installs. I know there's a way to edit the menu Zorin generates, but opting for Pinguy was just easier.
Finally, the real reason for this post. My wife recently purchased a Quad-Core Toshiba Satellite L775-S7226. Nice machine, but had I known then what I know now I would have recommended against it because after much prompting my wife had finally become accustomed to operating under Linux. It seems the Toshibas generally don't "play nice" with Linux. I've tried several distros and derivatives on her computer. Some provided sound, but no wifi. Others the opposite. Zorin 0S 5.1 -32Bit was the only distro fully functional "OOTB".
But as I mentioned, the Toshiba is a Quad-Core, so naturally I tried the 64-bit Live DVD. It booted fine to "desktop" providing a reassuring short musical bit which told me sound was working, and informed me that wifi access was available. Clicking the wifi icon on the taskbar brought up (down?) a menu showing that my home network was among them. But in trying to key-in the password I discovered that the keyboard hadn't been recognized. Trying other apps which required input via the keyboard revealed that the problem wasn't limited to the wifi config app. Odd, because this problem didn't show up in Zorin OS 5.1 32-bit.

Unfortunately, I don't know what keyboard firmware Toshiba used in her machine. And while I could run diagnostic apps under Puppy Linux --I don't need sound for that-- I'm not sure what I would be looking for.

But hopefully, someone here can figure out what keyboard drivers were used in the 32-bit which aren't present (or working) in the 64-bit.

Lastly, I hope that this post is not taken as just someone "gripping." You've developed a really brilliant distro with great potential, especially for what appears to be its intended target: those interested in being weaned off Microsoft OSes, and, as far as I know, the only distro immediately useable on Toshiba computers. But with the newer Toshibas providing more than a single core, I figured you'd want to know about the problem I ran into.

mikesLr

Edit: 3/21/12 -- After re-reading the prompt replies below, and my above post, it occurred to me that I had NOT booted from a LiveDVD. Rather, I had first installed the ISO to a USB Key, changing its name to the Ubuntu it had been based on in order to create persistent storage space. So I downloaded OS 5.2-64 bit again, burned it to a DVD and booted the Toshiba. Zorin had no difficulty finding the keyboard. Now to convince the wife to install Zorin. Perhaps I'll have to wait until Window7 goes nuts again. I just had to re-install it after 7 months of use. [Left about 40 gbs of hard-drive unused so Zorin won't have to resize the Windows7 partition].

Hi,

sorry to hear you are having problems.

Did you try the keyboard in live mode??, if so, did it work??. Did you try a different language and what language are you using??.

Did you fully update your system once you installed??.

You can install the 32 bit version and install the PAE kernel, this will solve the problem of the RAM shortage in 32 bit systems under Linux!!.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingPAE

Regards Wolfman

Hi Wolfman and swarfendor437,

Thanks for the ideas.
Correction of errata. I referred to OS 5.01. I meant OS 5.02.

Wolfman, if by live mode you mean booting from the LiveDVD, then yes. I always test via a LiveDVD, figuring if that doesn't work I've saved the time involved with installing a not fully functioning OS. In this case, I used the same DVD which was successful on my ZT Desktop. If you mean something else, please explain. I was using the English language, and did not try any others.
As OS 5.02 32-Bit worked on the Toshiba, I used Unetbootin to install it to an 8 Gb USB Flash Drive. If I remember correctly, I may have renamed the ISO Ubuntu 11.04 (or something) in order to get Unetbootin to perform a "persistent" installation with 4 Gb of storage. So I should be able to install the install the PAE kernel.

I read somewhere recently a comparison among no-PAE, PAE and 64-Bit. With many programs there's only about a 10% +/- advantage. But for resource intensive apps such as graphics editors 64-Bits provide a great advantage. My significant other likes to take photos with her digital camera. Many photos. So 64-Bit remains a goal. I, on the other hand, am thinking of taking my analog Minolta out of moth balls. Fewer photos, more setup time, but somehow more fun.

swarfendor437, As you might guess from the above, I too like to tinker. I'll try plugging in keyboards when my wife isn't around. She was an only child > never learned to share well. It's one thing to present her with a successful fait accompli (sp?). Presenting her with a disaster is another story. From experience, she gets very nervous when I play with "her" things.

mike

Hi Mike,

did you remove the English language pack and install your own language, you can do this in the Control Center > Language Support > Add/Remove Languages.

I don't know about your problem with the keyboard so I cannot help you there further, try what swarfendor437 suggested and see if that helps, you can also try another distro and see if that has the same problem.

Look in the Control Center and see if there are any other settings for the keyboard you may have overlooked!!.

I stick with 32 bit systems due to problems with some software, you can install the PAE kernel simply by pasting the following command into a terminal:

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-pae linux-headers-generic-pae

Then your password and a restart when finished.

You only need the PAE kernel if your PC has more than 4GB RAM and you are using a 32 bit OS, if you have a 64 bit OS, you won't need it. If you have less than 4GB RAM, you don't need it either!!.

Regards Wolfman