Toshiba Satellite L300

This document applies to the entire L300 series, in particular the L300-OG1 and L300-12K.

Hardware	PCI/USB ID	Working?
Touchpad		Yes
Keyboard		Yes
GPU	8086:2a02	Yes
Webcam	04f2:b070	Yes
Ethernet	10ec:8136	Yes
SD-card reader		Yes
Audio	8086:284b	Yes
Wireless	168c:002a	Yes
PCMCIA		Untested
Modem		Untested

If your laptop is eligible to a BIOS update and has a version lower than v2.20 you probably have fan control problems and the Fn key and PC speaker might not work. See below for a method to upgrade your BIOS.

Accessibility

The appearance of the BIOS is pretty simple (blue or dark grey on a light grey background), so it might work well with OCR software. It is fully keyboard driven.

The BIOS is accessed with the F2 key, while F12 opens the boot device selection menu.

Firmware

This device uses a BIOS, it will not be supported by fwupd and does not provide Secure Boot.

BIOS Upgrade

Most of the L300 and L305 series laptops come with the InsydeH2O BIOS version 1.50. This BIOS might results in a dead Fn key and an improperly controlled fan depending on the exact laptop model (i.e the L300-OG1 needs the BIOS update from 1.50 to 2.20, but on the L300-12K everything is working on version 1.50). Get the fan working properly especially if you wish to use suspend and/or hibernate. The dead Fn key problem however is not a show stopper. The upgraded BIOS will also mean the PC speaker will start working. Ensure you get the correct file for your specific model: for example, the latest BIOS version (v2.20 since 2010) for the L300-OG1 is available from Dynabook Canada. Other models can be found starting at Dynabook global website, selecting the region it was sold in, going to the support section for discontinued products and entering either the serial number or choosing from the family/series/model drop-down menus.

This file is a Windows-only executable - it does not contain anything usable under DOS. Nor can this BIOS be flashed using the Linux flashrom application. There are only two ways to flash the ROM with that file:

1. Run the file as an executable under a Microsoft Windows environment or,
2. Use the undocumented "brick" repair method (below) proposed by Toshiba.

As the first method is straightforward it will not be discussed here. Below is the alternate method outlined for Linux-only users:

1. the file is a 7z compressed file. Use the command to extract. You have to install first.
2. the only important file is the .fd file. Rename that file to
3. copy the file onto the root directory of a USB flash drive
4. remove any inserted CD, the power cord, the battery, and the hard drive from your laptop
5. insert the USB flash drive into a USB port on your laptop
6. simultaneously hold down the Fn and keys
7. plug in the power cord to the laptop while still holding Fn+F
8. press Power On button of laptop while still holding Fn+F
9. USB flash drive light should start to flash. You may now release the Fn+F keys after a few seconds
10. leave laptop for about 1 minute. The ROM is being flashed. Your laptop will eventually turn itself off and it may reboot.
11. you may turn off laptop now if it has rebooted successfully. If it just turned itself off then continue...
12. unplug power cord, remove USB flash drive, replace laptop hard drive and laptop battery. Re-plug power cord.
13. reboot laptop and enter the BIOS setup using F2. You should see that it has successfully upgraded your BIOS.

Function keys

Key	Visible?^1	Marked?^2	Effect
	Yes	Yes
	Yes	Yes
Fn+F2	Yes	Yes
	Yes	Yes	^3
	Yes	Yes	^3
Fn+F5	Yes	Yes
	Yes	Yes
Fn+F8	Yes	Yes
		Yes	See Touchpad Synaptics#Software toggle
	See ^4	Yes	^4
	See ^4	Yes	^4
	Yes	Yes
		Yes	Marking looks like XF86ZoomOut, untested outside of twm.
		Yes	Marking looks like , untested outside of twm.

1. The key is visible to and similar tools
2. The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function
3. systemd-logind handles this by default
4. Before sending , toggles between secondary functions: either the numeric pad ( to , /, , , ) or navigation keys (, Up, , , , , Down, , and ) while lighting up the corresponding LED on the keyboard.