Check out http://www.linux-laptop.net/toshiba.html and go to the bottom.  Looks
like at least two people posted how they got linux working on that model.

> ? [...] To SuSe's credit; this has been the first version straight out of
> the box, that
> ? automatically detected all the hardware on my Toshiba laptop.  If you get
> a
> ? chance, it is worth a look.
> 
> Wouldn't be a Tecra 8100 by chance, would it? I want to fix my Toshiba
> laptop once corporate finishes downgrading it to Win2K later this month, but
> I know there are some Toshiba-specific issues that choke many distros.