Which Hardware does work with Linux and which does not. All setup was done on a Debian system linux running a 2.4 series Kernel. I recently switched to a 2.6 series Kernel all 2.6 configuration info will be put on it's own page: lifebook-2.6.
The onboard sound device is identified as followed in /proc/pci:
Bus 0, device 0, function 1:
Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 0).
IRQ 9.
I/O at 0x1000 [0x10ff].
I/O at 0x1400 [0x143f].
The 2.4 series kernel comes with “Intel ICH (i8xx) audio support” (i810_audio.o) but this driver does only support 44kHz files and I wasn't able to use it with sox's play or with mpg123. The better choice is the alsa driver. Enable the sound support in the kernelconfig and get the alsa-driver package from http://www.alsa-project.org - Unpack it and run
./configure ./snddevices make make install
Then add the following three modules to your /etc/modules
snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss
The alsa modules do set all mixer settings to zero so it makes sense to set them to a useful state on bootup. Just install setmixer:
apt-get install setmixer
Note the Laptop disables the internal speakers when a headphone is plugged in - I like that.
The Lifebook comes with an ATI Rage Mobility with 8 MB RAM:
Bus 0, device 20, function 0:
VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M (rev 100).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=66. Min Gnt=8.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfd000000 [0xfdffffff].
I/O at 0x2000 [0x20ff].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc005000 [0xfc005fff].
This chipset is supported in the actual XFree86 package by the ati server.
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Rage Mobility"
Driver "ati"
EndSection
I wasn't able to enable any accelerated framebuffer (atyfb or aty128fb) but I get no errormessages so maybe I did something wrong - Any help is appreciated. However the VESA framebuffer works fine. Only fbi (a tool to view images on the framebuffer device) freaked me out. On displaying a jpeg file it faded the screen to white and freezed everything - I had to do an hardreset.
The onboardchip identifies itself as:
Bus 0, device 18, function 0:
Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 16).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=32.Max Lat=64.
I/O at 0x8000 [0x80ff].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc004800 [0xfc0048ff].
It is suppored by the “RealTek RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter” kernel driver (8139too.o).
The driver supports the “Media Independent Interface” (MMI) mode. So it's able to detect plugging in an ethernet cable by using ifplugd.
#> apt-get install ifplugd
Edit /etc/default/ifplugd like this:
INTERFACES="eth0" HOTPLUG_INTERFACES="" ARGS="-q -d5 -w -I" SUSPEND_ACTION="stop"
It will execute ifup or ifdown when a cable is plugged in or out.
Lately the machine behaves strangely. It only initializes the network card when connected to AC or when the battery is 100% full. This is the same for Linux and Windows. There is no way to access the card then - even lspci is unable to find it. If anyone knows how to fix this please contact me or write it here!
Bus 0, device 7, function 2:
USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX USB Universal Host Controller (rev 0).
IRQ 15.
Master Capable. Latency=64.
I/O at 0x1460 [0x147f].
The USB controller works fine with the standard UHCI kernel driver (usb-uhci.o). Be sure to install the usb-manager:
#> apt-get install usbmgr
Bus 0, device 17, function 0:
FireWire (IEEE 1394): PCI device 104c:8026 (Texas Instruments) (rev 0).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=2.Max Lat=4.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc004000 [0xfc0047ff].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc000000 [0xfc003fff].
I don't own a firewire device so I could not test it, but the “OHCI-1394” kernel driver (ohci1394.o) loads without errors so I suppose it's working. However it prevents the machine from going to Suspend-to-RAM mode so leave it out if you don't need it.
/proc/pci says:
Bus 0, device 19, function 0:
CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=168. Min Gnt=128.Max Lat=4.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x10000000 [0x10000fff].
Bus 0, device 19, function 1:
CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (#2) (rev 2).
IRQ 9.
Master Capable. Latency=168. Min Gnt=128.Max Lat=4.
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x10001000 [0x10001fff].
The PCMCIA driver works fine with the stock Kernel Yenta compatible CardBus
driver. Just install the PCMCIA utils:
#> apt-get install pcmcia-cs
Bad news. /proc/pci says:
Bus 0, device 0, function 2:
Modem: PCI device 8086:7196 (Intel Corp.) (rev 0).
IRQ 9.
I/O at 0x1800 [0x18ff].
I/O at 0x1480 [0x14ff].
Windows installs it as “Lucent Softmodem AMR” which is not supported on linux (see http://www.linmodems.org ). I knew it when I bought the laptop but as I don't need the modem it didn't matter to me.
The scanmodem tool available at http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/ prints this information:
Providing detail for device at PCI_bus 0000:00:00.2
with vendor-ID:device-ID
----:----
Class 0703: 8086:7196 Modem: Intel Corp. 82440MX AC'97 Modem Controller (prog-if 00 [Generic])
SubSystem 10cf:10d1 Fujitsu Limited.: Unknown device 10d1
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 9
I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
I/O ports at 1c00 [size=128]
The soft modem Subsystem operates under a controller
8086:7196 82440 Banister with Subsystem chipset POSSIBLY from:
AgereSystems
Smartlink
My model comes with a 20 GB harddisk (FUJITSU MHN2200AT) here are some specs:
#> fdisk -l /dev/hda Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1156 9285538+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/hda2 * 1157 2372 9767520 83 Linux /dev/hda3 2373 2432 481950 82 Linux swap
I added the following kernel params to my /boot/grub/menu.lst (for lilo use the append command) but with no remarkable speedincreases:
ide0=autotune hda=autotune
My Lifebook comes with a DVD/CD-RW combo drive.
/proc/ide/hdb/model TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R2102
For burning CDs you must enable “generic SCSI support” and “SCSI emulation support” then pass the following command to the kernel on boot (via lilo or grub):
hdb=scsi
This makes the CD-Rom drive available as /dev/scd0 (adjust your
/etc/fstab to reflect this)
Output of 'cdrecord -scanbus':
Cdrecord 1.10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jörg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22
Using libscg version 'schily-0.5'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TOSHIBA ' 'DVD-ROM SD-R2102' '1G15' Removable CD-ROM
cdrdao needs the following options in /etc/cdrdao.conf:
write_device:0,0,0 write_driver:generic-mmc write_speed:8 read_device:0,0,0 read_driver:generic-mmc
It does work with the smc-ircc driver. Simply put the following line into /etc/modutils/irda :
alias irda0 smc-ircc
install the IRDA tools
#> apt-get install irda-tools
and edit /etc/irda.conf:
IRDADEV=smc-ircc DONGLE=none DISCOVERY=-s ENABLE=no
The buildin touchpad works fine as ps2 mouse.
gpm.conf
device=/dev/psaux responsiveness= repeat_type=raw type=ps2 append="" sample_rate=150
In XF86Config use this:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/gpmdata"
Option "Protocol" "GlidePointPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
The Lifebook comes with a Pentium III mobile processor. I didn't try any speedstep patches for the 2.4 Kernel instead I enabled autoswitching in the BIOS. This decreases the CPU speed on boot when running on battery power.
Advanced Powermanagement (APM) including Suspend-to-RAM works fine. Just enable APM support in the Kernel and install the APM daemon.
#> apt-get install apmd
Like the scrollbuttons the multimedia buttons above the keyboard do not create
any scancodes with showkey so they are not usable out of the box. I didn't
look for a solution because I don't really need them.
The lifebook is a small, lightweight, silent but powerful machine with hardware that ist mostly covered by the current linux drivers. It's a good replacement for my old Omnibook800. I love it!
You may want to have a look over at TuxMobil for more help on running Linux on laptops.