# Installing 8.1 on a Toshiba T235D



## aux (Aug 24, 2010)

I'm trying to install FreeBSD 8.1 on my new netbook, but I cannot get to sysinstall. It boots (verbose with acpi and ahci disabled both in BIOS and in the boot options) and hangs at:

start_init: trying /stand/sysinstall

Not sure what I should try next. I have tried disabling esata, disabling the camera, and putting the HDD in compatibility mode. I can't really think of too much more that I could try to get this to work.

Here's the netbook:

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/T230/T235D-S1345RD

Suggestions? Need more info?


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## davidgurvich (Aug 24, 2010)

How are you booting up?  The problem could be with the iso image.  I've had issues with systems that don't have builtin optical drives where the system files aren't found and the only method was PXE install.  I haven't used the usb image so don't know how well that works.


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## aux (Aug 25, 2010)

Booting via USB drive. I do not have an external optical. How can I check that the ISO has been correctly copied to the drive?

Also, I've never tried a PXE install, ever.


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## vermaden (Aug 25, 2010)

aux said:
			
		

> Booting via USB drive. I do not have an external optical. How can I check that the ISO has been correctly copied to the drive?
> 
> Also, I've never tried a PXE install, ever.



If You use USB pendrive, then you need *memstick.img not *.ISO image, try this one:
http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/8.1/FreeBSD-8.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img


... then put it on Your pendrive with *dd(1)*:
`# dd < FreeBSD-8.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img > /dev/${PENDRIVE} bs=8m`

where PENDRIVE dan be da0 / da1 / da2 ...


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## aux (Aug 26, 2010)

Yeah, just tried it again with the img file. No go.

I do believe that I once tried unetbootin with the iso once. It also failed.

As I suspected, this is more of a hardware issue than an issue of the installation media (unless 9.0-current has better hardware support that is at least moderately stable).

Any other suggestions? If I try 9.0 current, what snapshot should I use?


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## vermaden (Aug 26, 2010)

aux said:
			
		

> Any other suggestions? If I try 9.0 current, what snapshot should I use?



Try this shapshot: http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/201008/FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-201008-amd64-disc1.iso

Also try to upgrade your BIOS to the newest version.


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## davidgurvich (Aug 27, 2010)

There seem to be some posts where certain external ports cause conflicts.  Can you try disabling all non-essential ports and see what happens?


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## aux (Aug 31, 2010)

Tried 9.0, tried disabling as many nonessential stuff as possible, ate a roast beef sandwich, and then immediately cried. My machine hates all that is FOSS.

In fact, I tired a friends "multiple boot" USB drive (has DBAN, Knoppix, Debian, 0phcrack, et cetera). It failed while working perfectly fine on an EEE.

:/

Also, I highly doubt that updating the BIOS (if there even is an update for it) will help.


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## vermaden (Aug 31, 2010)

aux said:
			
		

> Tried 9.0, tried disabling as many nonessential stuff as possible, ate a roast beef sandwich, and then immediately cried. My machine hates all that is FOSS.
> 
> In fact, I tired a friends "multiple boot" USB drive (has DBAN, Knoppix, Debian, 0phcrack, et cetera). It failed while working perfectly fine on an EEE.
> 
> ...



If I were You I would sell that 'laptop' and bought something good, like Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Latitude.


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## aux (Sep 7, 2010)

vermaden said:
			
		

> If I were You I would sell that 'laptop' and bought something good, like Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Latitude.



Perhaps giving up isn't the best option and trying the multitude of other options that can be easily attempted is. Hell, I'm willing to try just about anything to get it working. That includes extracting the ROM and fudging around with it or even putting a FOSS one on there (even desoldering the ROM encase I brick it).

I have overcome great challenges in the past (such as dealing with a BCM4306 back when there were no free drivers, I had never heard of NDIS-Wrapper, I had no concept of a package manager, it was my first time using a Unix-like system, I was working on a laptop that had ACPI issues until a bit later when I updated my machine, and there was no one there to hold my hand). I have time and patience.

Besides, an adventure is defined by it's hardships. 

Anyways, I can post some of the output after trying to boot 9.0-Current if you would like. Also, are there any boot parameters I should set? What modules do you think I should load/unload?


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## wblock@ (Sep 7, 2010)

aux said:
			
		

> Perhaps giving up isn't the best option and trying the multitude of other options that can be easily attempted is. Hell, I'm willing to try just about anything to get it working. That includes extracting the ROM and fudging around with it or even putting a FOSS one on there (even desoldering the ROM encase I brick it).



It's great that you're willing to pursue this.  Modifying the BIOS is probably not necessary, but you are likely to find more technical assistance on the FreeBSD mailing lists.  Not sure which to suggest; maybe start with -questions or -current.

It would be nice if you could set up a web page with as much low-level information collected about the system as possible.  lspci/pciconf output if you can get it, dmesg, chipset information, that kind of thing.

Here's a start I just found: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3862/toshiba-t235d-amd-2010-ultrathin


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## aux (Oct 23, 2010)

Here's a bit of info that I was able to get from running Knoppix.

Oh, and I've tried FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-201010-amd64-memstick to no avail. I'm getting the same errors as of a couple months ago.


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## aux (Oct 23, 2010)

Apparently, 9.0-CURRENT-201010 fixed a lot of issues with ACPI support.

Everything seems to work fine (except that a few files were missing during install (possibly corrupted?) and a minor issue with fdisk).

Thank you all for your help.

I'll keep you posted on anything else I encounter that might affect people who might want to buy this or any other netbook.


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