Arch Linux

Carl Karl

Member

Registered: 2013-06-12

Posts: 231

Toshiba Portégé Z30

Out of the Box works: WLAN, suspend and resume, keyboard backlight, other standards.

Issues and workarounds:

(Edit: No more Issue with Linux 3.17, so leaving it only here for LTS) Issue: Display backlight control doesn't work with the normal control keys.
The keys control /sys/class/backlight/toshiba/brightness instead of /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness. I wasn't able to change that, although testing the kernel parameters acpi_backlight=vendor and acpi_osi='!Windows 2012'

Workarounds:
1. add

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-backlight.conf
____________________________________________
Section "Device"
    Identifier             "Device0"
    Driver                 "intel"
    Option "Backlight"     "intel_backlight"
EndSection

and install xbacklight. Control over e.g. xbacklight -inc 40 and xbacklight -dec 40

OR
2. add

/usr/local/bin/darker
________________________
#!/bin/bash
CURR=$(</sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness)
MIN=3
MAX=$(</sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness)
NEW=$((CURR-20))
if [[ $NEW -lt $MIN ]]
  then
    NEW=$MIN
fi
echo $NEW > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness 
notify-send "Backlight $((NEW*100/MAX)) %" 

/usr/local/bin/brighter
________________________
#!/bin/bash
CURR=$(</sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness)
MAX=$(</sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness)
NEW=$((CURR+20))
if [[ $NEW -gt $MAX ]]
  then
    NEW=$MAX
fi
echo $NEW > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness 
notify-send "Backlight $((NEW*100/MAX)) %"

control via sudo brighter or sudo darker. Add both commands via visudo to sudoers to assign a keyboard shortcut.

Issue: Fan runs too early and too loud.
The BIOS fancontrol makes the fan run each time 50°C are reached (the CPU could get 100°C!) and spins until temperature is <40°C again. The only way to deal with it so far, is avoiding these temperatures in the first place.

Edit:
Installing intel-ucode microcode and starting it properly in your bootloader (see wiki) helps really to keep temperature below 47°C and the fan off. :-)

More or less works:
Installing Powerdown and cpupower and thermald (which has to be enabled). Reduce max Frequency to 1.5GHz via cpupower, permanent with systemd:

/usr/lib/systemd/system/cpuslow.service
___________________________________
[Unit]
Description=SlowCpuOnStart

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "cpupower frequency-set -u 1.5GHz"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and

/usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/slowcpu     (chmod a+x for that!)
_______________________________
#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
    post)
       cpupower frequency-set -u 1.5GHz  > /dev/null
    ;;
esac

I'm not completly happy with that, if anyone knows better ways to keep the fan silent: Your welcome to add them.
Edit:
Together with intel-ucode, I'm happy with that. I'll test whether slowing down the CPU is now necessary at all.

Issue: Touchpad recognized as standard PS2 mouse
So only basic functions are available. I read rumours that will be solved in Linux 3.17. Edit: IS solved with Linux 3.17
Sort of basic patch for now: Enable at least middle-button emulation with gpointing-device-settings.

So far for the things I found out.
Additions welcome.

Last edited by Carl Karl (2014-10-23 19:44:44)

Carl Karl

Member

Registered: 2013-06-12

Posts: 231

Re: Toshiba Portégé Z30

Good News, everyone! (any one?)

With linux 3.17, the Touchpad is recognized (as Alps) and Backlight keys work in the default way.

Edit:
The Update to 3.17 also pointed me to the microcode package intel-ucode which installed and properly in the bootloader (see wiki) really helps keeping the temperature at 46°C and below and the fan off. :-)

Last edited by Carl Karl (2014-10-23 19:40:42)

koroki

Member

Registered: 2013-08-03

Posts: 59

Re: Toshiba Portégé Z30

The backlight keys are working? It works if in the bios you start them but in the system is not possible to change it.

archuser001

Member

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 1

Re: Toshiba Portégé Z30

How did the fan issue evolve? Did it stop spinning at low temps with the newest kernel/build and BIOS or the issue is still persisting? thanks.

Carl Karl

Member

Registered: 2013-06-12

Posts: 231

Re: Toshiba Portégé Z30

Nothing new here. Fan still starts at 50°C and stops at below 40°C. But with the steps mentioned above, I don't reach the 50°C too often. Typical when installing updates.