This is a tutorial on how to install and configure Arch Linux on a Toshiba Satellite P500 Laptop.
ACPI
You have to tweak acpi a little, otherwise the laptop will randomly freeze. First add the following modules to your rc.conf: ac, battery, button, fan, thermal. Second edit /etc/acpi/handler.sh and under battery create another case for BAT1) which is the same as BAT0).
Here is an example of my /etc/acpi/handler.sh:
#!/bin/sh
# Default acpi script that takes an entry for all actions
# NOTE: This is a 2.6-centric script. If you use 2.4.x, you'll have to
# modify it to not use /sys
minspeed=`cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq`
maxspeed=`cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq`
setspeed="/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setspeed"
set $*
case "$1" in
button/power)
#echo "PowerButton pressed!">/dev/tty5
case "$2" in
PWRF) logger "PowerButton pressed: $2" ;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
button/sleep)
case "$2" in
SLPB) echo -n mem >/sys/power/state ;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
ac_adapter)
case "$2" in
AC)
case "$4" in
00000000)
echo -n $minspeed >$setspeed
#/etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode start
;;
00000001)
echo -n $maxspeed >$setspeed
#/etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode stop
;;
esac
;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
battery)
case "$2" in
BAT0)
case "$4" in
00000000) #echo "offline" >/dev/tty5
;;
00000001) #echo "online" >/dev/tty5
;;
esac
;;
BAT1)
case "$4" in
00000000) #echo "offline" >/dev/tty5
;;
00000001) #echo "online" >/dev/tty5
;;
esac
;;
CPU0)
;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
button/lid)
#echo "LID switched!">/dev/tty5
;;
*)
logger "ACPI group/action undefined: $1 / $2"
;;
esac
You may also want to add pm-suspend under button/lid) to make your laptop suspend when closed. I particularly do not ever close my laptop, because I use it as a desktop computer.
Laptop Mode Tools
I installed laptop-mode-toolsAUR, but it did not seem to improve anything so I disabled it. The battery life of this laptop is less than an hour and there is not much you can do. I use the laptop as a replacement for a desktop computer, so it's always plugged in.
Multimedia Buttons
The volume buttons work out of the box. I am, however, slightly annoyed with them, because they are a little too close to the keyboard and can be accidentally pressed when typing. They can be disabled from the GNOME menu System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts
External Microphone
The external microphone works well with OSS, but in order to work with ALSA, you have to add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
... options snd-hda-intel model=dell-vostro