I have recently started using a Toshiba P870 laptop and decided to install Linux Mint 13 Maya (Cinnamon Edition) on it, due to its ease of use and overall security soundness.

Being as the Toshiba P870 is a relatively new laptop, with some components’ drivers not having been included in the installation files of Mint, it has been a little tricky. I’m sharing this, for those who want to install mint on the P870 or similar laptops.  This should save you a couple hours of searching.  It will get you the drivers you need and get you up and running.

We’re going to discuss howto:

• Download, Burn and Run the Linux Mint Installer
• Install the missing network drivers, both WIFI and Ethernet, so you can connect to the internet
• Fix the internal sound problem that causes the internal speakers not to produce any sound
• Update: Installing the SD Card driver – since this article was originally written, I also figured out that the SD card driver needs to be installed as well.

Obtaining/Installing Linux Mint 13

The Linux Mint Download page has all of the various versions to choose from. Locate the version you prefer and burn it to a DVD or load it to a USB drive (haven’t tried this yet; but supposedly the BIOS on the Toshiba P870 supports booting from USB devices). For the P870 you will need the 64-bit version of Linux Mint.

1. Once you’ve burned the DVD, pop it into the drive and reboot.
2. When the system comes back up from reboot, hit [FN]+[F12] as the BIOS screen comes up.
3. From the BIOS hange the boot order, so the machine will boot from the optical drive first.  Follow the menus on the screen then save and exit.
4. Once you’re booted in via the DVD, you will see a live version of Linux Mint for initial testing/configuration purposes. You’ll probably notice that the network does not work, neither ethernet or wireless will work. Don’t fret, your network will be working soon, if you follow the instructions in this guide.
5. Follow the instructions in Section 1) Getting the Ethernet Network Adapter Working with the Live CD version.  This will bring the network up, which will then allow you to complete your install.
6. Once the networking is working, you should be able to run the install. Simply click the installation icon on the desktop.  This should be fairly straightforward.  Follow the instructions when prompted and everything should go smoothly.
7. Once your system is installed, remove the DVD and boot into the newly installed system from the hard-drive.
8. Once booted into your newly installed Linux Mint system, you’ll probably notice that the networking driver needs to be installed again.  The one you installed previously is not copied over by the installer.
9. Follow the instructions in Section 1) Getting the Ethernet Network Adapter Working with the Live CD version again. This should be the last time this driver install is necessary.
10. Follow the instructions in Section 2) Getting the Internal Speakers Working to get the sound working.
11. Follow the instructions in Section 3) Getting the WiFi Adapter Working, so your wireless adapter will begin to operate.

Section 1) Getting the Ethernet Network Adapter Working

Back to Steps
When you have your install disk ready and want to go ahead with the install, you will likely run into a show stopper; not being able to connect to the internet via the wired (or wireless) network adapters. In my experience, the best thing to do, is get the wired network access working first.

To do this, you will need a USB stick, to transfer over the necessary files. You either need to download these files on a separate computer, or boot the computer you are installing Linux Mint on into an OS with working networking.  I have saved a version of compat-wireless that has the necessary driver.

download compat-wireless here

Run the following commands to extract and build compat-wireless.

bunzip compat-wireless-2012-03-12-p.tar.bz2
tar xvf compat-wireless-2012-03-12-p.tar.bz2
cd compat-wireless-2012-03-12-p
./scripts/driver-select alx
make
sudo make install

The driver should now be installed. Run this command to start using the driver.

sudo modprobe alx

Now your driver should be installed and in use. Run ifconfig to make sure the new network device appears. It will probably show up as eth0. If all goes according to plan, it should be ready to use after this.

see also: AR8161 ethernet using compat-wireless

Section 2) Getting the Internal Speakers Working

Back to Steps
Fortunately, the issue with the internal speakers is a relatively easy one to fix, by simply updating the software packages on the machine with the package manager. Copy and paste the following command into the terminal, to run the updates.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Once this is done and the system restarted, you will need to rebuild the driver you used to get the ethernet working, since the updates will have blown those away. Not a big deal though, just an extra 5 minutes.

see also: Linux Mint Forums • View topic – No sound from internal speakers. [SOLVED]

Section 3) Getting the WiFi Adapter Working

Back to Steps
The driver for the Realtek RTL8273AE-BT on this laptop, is available unofficially via the 92 series driver version 0006.0514.2012. This is the driver currently being provided by Realtek support, according to the source.

Start by installing these packages via apt-get, so you can perform the build.

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic linux-headers-`uname -r`

Download and extract the driver from the download site.

wget -O- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57056576/DRIVERS/REALTEK/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_8723ae_linux_mac80211_0006.0514.2012.tar.gz | tar -xz

Make and install the driver.

cd rtl_92ce_92se_92de_8723ae_linux_mac80211_0006.0514.2012
make
sudo make install

Load the driver with modprobe, so you can begin using it.

sudo modprobe rtl8723e

Once this is done, you should be able to use the Linux Mint GUIs to configure your wireless access point.  There is an icon in the settings panel, on the bottom right of the screen.
see also: [SOLVED] Ubuntu 12.04 On Toshiba Laptop With Wireless Connection Issues To Belkin N Wireless