That would be great news for us mini laptops lovers, because if Toshiba is really working on a small laptop, like the ASUS EEE PC or MSI Wind, it should be called Libretto, don’t you agree?

Unfortunately, I was not able to got Toshiba to tell me some really interesting news, but I found some interesting stuff via good old Google! On several blogs like the Australian PC Authority, the new 5,6″ Toshiba UMPC is shown. Toshiba’s Mark Whittard says that “We don’t think this [prototype] is commercially viable, it’s too small,” [....] “Having said that, we will have a ULPC soon.”

And that is quite interesting, a ULPC (ultra low-cost PC). Will this then be the new Libretto?

If any reader has more information about the new Toshiba mini-laptop, please let us know!

Philip explains how to install Windows 2000, Linux mandrake and OS/2 on a 60 GB harddisk. Throughout his how-to you’ll find several very usefull links, tips and other stuff abnout the 110 CT.

Thanks to Philip, all his usefull links and bookmarks about the Toshiba Libretto will be available soon on Librettoworld.com.

Visit this very interesting page froma fellow Dutchman on: http://home.hccnet.nl/pr.nienhuis/Lib110CT.html.

Please check it out at: http://forum.librettoworld.com/

Please register yourself after reading the rules and enjoy the forum.

I hope this forum will be a usefull place for all (soon to be) Libretto owners worldwide. With your help we can and will make this forum a succes.

Any remark, question or compliment is very much appreicated. Do not hesitate to contact me through the contact page.

First, I tried the Live CD and that seemed to go very well. After a relatively slow boot I saw the wondeful new KDE4 desktop. Unfortunately I was not able to connect my wireless with my home network. Also, the instaal from the Live CD wasn’t working. No errors, no messages, it just did not work.

Then, I started the installer from the Install DVD and had a bit more success installing the software. The Gnome dekstop did not work al all. The gdm would not start, although the installation was in the native 1280×786 screen resolution.

So, I tried to install the KDE desktop and later the XFCE desktop and that did work. Unfortunately, again, I wasn’t able to connect my onoard wireless device. MAybe I missed a few steps during the confuguration, but I’m not that die hard Lunix guy to have it fixed from the command line.

So, as I made a image of my Xubuntu 8 installation, I’ll go back to Xubunutu very soon (i hope).

First of all, the thing I loved most about that manual - is that all connectors have names and numbers!!! So, just read the manual carefully and you will find the connector you need by inspecting the computer. Note: because of that I will not talk about how to remove every single connector - that will just be repeating the manual. I will only mention those that were problematic or somehow special.
Another very important thing - this laptop is very small and has lots of small screws, which are not all the same. You must keep track of them so that it reassembles correctly. I did not, because I was too excited to gut my little friend, whom I love now down to his kidneys. But, again the manual comes to the rescue: they label every kind of screw, and the label embeds the length and color and flatness of the head. So, if you did not keep track of screws, but still have all of them - just read page 4-7 of the manual, and follow instructions for every step of disassembly.

By the way, this is one of the best manuals I’ve read, and I’ve read some manuals!

Step1.jpg
just took off the keyboard. Here all exposed wires need to be unplugged in order to remove the tray. Follow instructions in the manual, though I did not see the need - it is pretty straightforward.

Step2.jpg
Here I lifted the tray up, but cannot completely remove it, because the wireless antenna (the white cable on left) and bluetooth antenna (black cable on right in the back) are crimped on their respective boards. Manual tells you to go ahead and remove them, but I do not have the right tools for it, so I left them on. The bluetooth card can be easily unscrewed, and Step3.jpg shows how to conveniently position the top of the laptop, so as not to damage it.

This is step3.jpg

Step4.jpg is my attempt to show you the wireless card, but I’m out of focus. Sorry. You remove it next just as you usually remove the memory chips, by parting the little clips on the sides, it’s pretty trivial. Note that I also removed the little black cover for the vga port - you need that to remove the motherboard. Step 5 shows the result:

Step6:

Step6.jpg zooms you in, so you could see the modem in the lower right corner - it is hidden by a whole bunch of plastic covers and papers with the specs, like inside a cabbage. Manual tells you to unscrew and unplug it from the usb port card that it is attached to. I found it unnecessary. If you have small fingers and fine motion control, you can gently unplug the black cable from the modem - you will find it hiding underneath that obscene flap of plastic on the far right, bottom.If you must remove modem in order to unplug it - then you will need to unplug the usb port card from the motherboard beforehand, that is the connector immediately to the left of the modem.

Step7.jpg :

Just removed the usb port card, but it is still attached to the motherboard by its cable. Also notice that the orange zif cable toward the bottom, which communicates motherboard with the second board underneath, is unplugged from the motherboard. It retains shape, like a standard copper wire, so you will be able to just unbend it, and it will stay that way. Be careful not to break it off, of course. When unplugging this little cable, I broke off the little plastic hair attached to its housing. That’s because I was clueless and did not read the manual, where it clearly says on page 4-4 that three types of connectors are used in this computer: pressure plate, spring, and normal pin connector. Well, this one it a spring connector, so you need to lift the yellow-colored stopper to unplug it. Take care to not let the stopper fly away, and notice its orientation. I just carefully left it there. Same applies to the big orange pc cable on the right, which connects hard drive to motherboard. Here the stopper is tiny, very thin and black. You know, I just left it there, because I was too scared to break the connector.

step8:

Step8.jpg shows what happens once you unplug the usb cable connecting usb port card to the motherboard.

Remove a few screws, and you get Step9.jpg: motherboard is removed. In my case it is still attached to the hard drive using a pc cable, but it’s ok. It’s out of the way. Now, do not make my mistake and remove all screws in sight in order to remove motherboard. I did that and lost contact between cooling fan and cpu, so I had to go remove the old cooling paste, put on the new one, which was a major pain, given the sizes of everything that had to get cleaned. Now the new cooling paste needs a break-in time of 200 hours, and meanwhile the cpu is running kind of hot. Thankfully this is a pentium m, and they can withstand temperature up to 100C. Anyway, only remove the screws the manual tells you to (I told you wrong in my previous post: here manual is actually correct). The one thing I did modify compared to manual, is that I did not unplug the power cable from the motherboard. That connector is very tough, and I did not want to apply too much force. The power plug slides right out of its housing in the body of the laptop, so I just let it do so, and you can see it kind of dangling in the upper right of Step9.jpg:

Couple more screws allow you to remove the hard drive cover - Step10.jpg:

The blue ribbon is the rubber enclosure for the hard drive, so it would not jiggle it its housing. Hard drive in this case has a mini-ATA connector, which is basically your standard ide, but small. It has regular pins, so you just unplug it from the cable - and that’s it, see Step11_1.jpg:

, Step11_2.jpg:

Finally, Step12.jpg shows you the unfortunate difference in connector of old hard drive (left, mini-ata) and new (right, zif connector). Like I said before, I ordered the converters to go from zif to mini-ata, and will post once I have accomplished something there.

step12:

This is it, folks. I love this little guy, it is so terribly cute, and pretty well put-together. I wish the designers would make a regular door for the hard drive, since it is literally sitting on the bottom, right next to the enclosure of the laptop. I am also put out by the fact that mini-ata 120GB hard drives do not exist. I understand that people are expected to just run windows on this machine, but even for that 60GB is a bit squishy. With 2 operating systems on it, 60GB is down right unsatisfactory. Anyways, enough druling - I will try to resolve this problem and post.

–Luda

http://home.hccnet.nl/pr.nienhuis/OS2WarpC.html#INSTALLATION

Are you running an operating sytem other than Windows 95 or 98 on an old Libretto? Have you tried os/2 on a Libretto? Let us know in the comments and if you have a web page leave us the link.

Too many Libretto’s I fear are gathering dust or even worse have been disposed off, however with a bit of time it is amazing what the Libretto can still achieve. Qwerty keyboard, good size screen, upgradeable hard drive, multi-os and pcmcia providing the ability to increase functionality further. Sounds like a device that can cater to somebodies requirements to me.

Now you might be thinking CPU and available software. True the CPU can be a factor, but there still is software that is very usable on an old libretto and there are things you can do to overcome some barriers.

Comparison time. The Libretto isn’t a fit in your pocket social connectivity tool. So lets knock the head on those comparisons, there is no point. The Asus EEE is larger, higher spec, but there are many requirements that your older Libretto’s can provide that the Asus can also, but alas there is as many an old Libretto can’t. In fact lets stop the comparisons. No point!

So what does it come down to? It was obvious from the beginning really wasn’t it. There are some of us who refuse to give up on older technologies just because they are not slick and sexy enough in today’s computing landscape. If the product provides functionality that you are happy with and is the right device for a specific requirement fantastic, if your requirements change then so be it. Also there are many who want to see how far they can push their Libretto’s, the old school techs used to pushing their hardware. Why? It’s fun.

So the answer to the question? Yes

The problem is usually audio and all you need to do is re-encode your video file’s audio to use wav instead of say mp3. I know, I know wav files are huge! However by reducing the bit rate of your video, and in some cases the video screen size, you will probably actually only end up with a video file not that much larger than the original. The quality of the video file will be reduced, but the viewing experiencing is actually quite good and plays smoothly.

So what software do we recommend? Well there is always the ’super’ software. That allows you to select the container, codecs and settings, drag the file and et voila. The encoding might take a while on larger video files. So for instance mp4 (container), xvid (codec), 500 kbps (bit rate) etc.

Now this tip isn’t so you can watch illegal content on your libretto! It is so you can convert home movies or free content instead to watch on your old libretto.

link: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Are you interested in the Libretto, have some spare time and do you want to help other people with theire problems, please contact me via the contact form. You’ll get you own login and Librettoworld email adress I you’ll be able to post your articles in minutes.

Hope to hear from you very soon!