man toshset (Commandes) - manipulate bios and hardware settings of Toshiba laptops

NAME

toshset - manipulate bios and hardware settings of Toshiba laptops

SYNOPSIS

toshset [TOGGLEOPTIONS | QUERYOPTIONS | FEATUREOPTIONS]...

DESCRIPTION

Toshset ia a command-line tool to allow access to much of the Toshiba hardware interface developed by Jonathan Buzzard. It can do things like set the hard drive spin-down time, turn off the display and set the fan speed.

This package is based on a version of Jonathan Buzzard's toshutils package which does not require a special kernel module. Hence, no recompilation is required if a kernel upgrade is performed. Also, it is highly likely that this tool will work under different flavors of *NIX. As a result of this design consideration, and because of my own desire that not every user be able to change my laptop's hardware settings, the user must be root or use a sudo-like tool. Turning on the binary's suid bit will not have the desired effect.

All credit for the difficult task of reverse-engineering the Toshiba hardware interface goes to Jonathan Buzzard. A link for Jonathan's tools is http://www.buzzard.org.uk/toshiba/

All options are listed by running toshset with no arguments.

If an argument option is specified as the ``-'' character, stdin is read for that option. This is particularly convenient when setting the owner string.

The method used for access to the laptop hardware is given by the the HCI/SCI access mode query field. This should be kernel or direct. The kernel method requires kernel support and it is the only access method supported for ACPI kernels.

Toggle Options:

-l
toggle long query in which the assocated command-line option is printed with each queried feature.
-fast
run in fast mode: a startup check is skipped, and values are not queried after the are set. On machines for which ioctl is slow, this can speed toshset up by up to a factor of 2/5.
-v
toggle verbose mode in which normally silent messages are printed.

Query Options:

-q [glob]
query features specified by glob (all features if glob omitted). The glob string is sandwiched between asterisks, so specifying -q bat will query all features whose names contain the ``bat'' substring. If no glob is given, then all features are queried.

Feature Options:

Valid settings for features can be listed by omitting the argument. The current list of feature options is

-b <off|on>
enable/disable system beep
-lcd <setting>
set lcd brightness.
-inten <setting>
set lcd brightness. Not all models support both -lcd and -inten.
-pow <setting>
set power-up mode
-vol <0-4>
set beep volume. Note that this controls the modem volume for my PCMCIA modem.
-hdd <num>
number of minutes until disk spindown
-dstretch <off|on>
enable/disable display stretch
-d <num>
number of minutes until display auto-off
-c <method>
set cooling method
-bs <setting>
set battery-save mode
-bl <off|on>
control lcd backlight
-bluetooth <off|on>
power-up + attach internal bluetooth device, or shutdown.
-fan <setting>
control fan
-video <int|ext|both|tv|mode5|mode6|mode7>
set display device for video: internal lcd, external monitor, or tv-out
-cpu <slow|fast>
set CPU speed
-cpucache <off|on>
enable/disable CPU cache
-sleep <off|on>
enable/disable CPU sleep mode
-balarm <off|on>
enable/disable battery alarm
-palarm <off|on>
enable/disable lid-closed alarm
-walarm <dis|HH:MM[/everyday|DD/MM[/YYYY]]>
set time/date to wake
-ppower <off|on>
enable/disable annoying feature of powering-off computer when lid is closed.
-parallel <mode>
set parallel port mode
-autooff <num>
number of minutes of idle time until system auto-off
-ostring <owner string>
set owner string. This string is displayed at boot or resume time, if a user or supervisor password is set.
-upasswd
set or clear the user password. Toshset must be run on the console for this to work. The password should be entered when the prompt is displayed. If the password is currently set, entering it will clear the password.
-spasswd
set the supervisor password. See the docs for -upasswd.
-usblegacy
USB legacy mode: enable/disable using an USB mouse as it would be a PS/2 one, without the need to install a USB driver.
-usbfdd
USB FDD emulation mode: is almost the same of the previous one for a floppy. It enables the use of an USB floppy as it would be attached to an internal FD controller (for booting etc.)
-lan
Enables/disables internal LAN controller.
-soundlogo
enable/disable startup sound logo.
-startlogo
startup logo mode (picture or animation>.

Features may also be set by specifying the (zero-offset) index of the option. e.g. toshset -cpu 0 sets the cpu speed to slow.

BUGS

Many features are locked and can not be changed when the battery save mode is not ``user.'' Since I only have one laptop, I can't test this utility on other hardware. User feedback in this regard is helpful. Some features do not work on my laptop and they may work on your's, and visa-versa.

Toshset requires an experimental version of the toshiba_acpi kernel module with an ACPI-enabled kernel.

AUTHOR

Written by <Charles@Schwieters.org>

News, updates and documentation: visit http://schwieters.org/toshset.html

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2002-5 Charles D. Schwieters

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.