How to: Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on a Toshiba l40-10O

Installing the system

Nothing special to report in regard to the basic Hardy Heron installation, apart from the fact that it's even easier than before. For exemple, it's really a child's play compared to Windows XP installation.
The system will ask for your language, your location, an user name and a password. Nothing more, everything is fully automated. Good news, Ubuntu install itself very quickly: Allow between 15 and 20 minutes on the Toshiba l40-10O.
Do not forget to plug an Ethernet cable (even if you want to install the wifi) during the installation process: This way, Ubuntu will configure a functional Ethernet connection. In my opinion, this step is important for further operations, and particularly for installing the wifi, since we will have to download packages in order to make it work properly.

After installation

Once the system is launched, you'll see that the trackpad, unrecognized by Ubuntu previous versions, is now fully functional. Cool, isn't it?
I will not talk that much about on the numerous improvements made by Hardy Heron, (this is not the purpose of this tutorial) but you will see by yourself that they are numerous and particularly welcome:)

Sound configuration

The same problem already happenned with Gutsy, the sound is not operational once the system is installed.
This problem is very simple to solve. We just have to edit the alsa-base file. Open the terminal and type:

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Type G to place cursor at the end of the file, then append, at the end of the file:

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

Reboot the computer, and the sound will be perfectly functional.

Wireless network configuration

As usual and due to the of lack of interest for GNU/Linux distributions by manufacturers , the wifi is not functional on the Toshiba l40-10O once Ubuntu is installed.

Fortunately, I uploaded the windows driver we'll use.
We will put in the directory /home.
Open the terminal and type:

cd

Use wget to download the driver:

wget http://jeanbaptiste.jung.free.fr/driver-wifi-toshibaL40-10O.tar.gz

Untar archive:

tar xvf driver-wifi-toshibaL40-10O.tar.gz

Now, we must install ndiswrapper, which will gave us the opportunity to use a windows driver on Ubuntu. Type:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

We must stop network activity to install the driver:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
sudo rmmod ath_pci

Now, we have to edit the modprobe.d/blacklist file:

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Place the cursor to the end of the file, then type

blacklist ath_pci

We're ready to install the driver with ndiswrapper:

cd ~/driver
sudo ndiswrapper -i net5211.inf

The following command will tell us if everything went good:

sudo ndiswrapper -l

If you didn't made any mistake, Ndiswrapper should now display a message like this one:

net5211 : driver installed
device (168C:001C) present (alternate driver: ath_pci)

If you haven't any errors, we can now create the module:

sudo ndiswrapper -m
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Important step, we must load ndiswrapper each time the computer will boot. To do so, edit the etc/modules file:

vi /etc/modules

Place the cursor at the end of the file, and append:

ndiswrapper

To finish, just restart the network

sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

Et voilà. After rebooting your computer, you'll find a "Wireless connexion" in Administration » Network