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Linux on Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E-Series

Howto run Linux on the Lifebooks E-5320 and E-6540 (and probably all compatible E-Series models). In this document I describe some interesting details for people who own or want to buy a Lifebook E-Series and intend to run Linux on it.
This is not a general introduction to Linux, please look at other places (e.g. search google) for this. I assume at least a basic knowledge of Linux!
If you have further hints or want to contribute to this page please mailto:tom@hopfner.de (plain ASCII preferred).
The standard disclaimers apply. I make no guarantees that everything on these pages is correct. It works for me, but I'm taking no responsibility if it doesn't work for you or even destroys your system.

Index

• Introduction
• Specification
• Distribution (RedHat 7.1)
• Partitioning
• Linux kernel (2.4.x)
• Graphics (ATI 3D Rage P/M Mobility AGP 2x, 4/8 MB)
• Audio (ESS ES1978 Maestro 2E)
• PC Card/PCMCIA (Ricoh RL5c476 II)
• Modem (Lucent LT winmodem)
• USB (Intel 82371AB PIIX4)
• IrDA (SMC IrCC v2.0)
• Power Management (SpeedStep, APM, ...)
• Specials (FSC IR-Mouse, Buttons, ...)
• IBM Microdrive (1GB and 340MB CF2)
• Further information and links

To take a little look ahead, almost everything works fine for me and I´m very pleased with this notebook. It is a good piece of hardware!
Anyway I am not sure, if I would buy it again, because of the poor support I got from Fujitsu-Siemens Computers (FSC). Their web-pages are a pure pain (overloaded with graphics and javascript) and I am not even sure which is the official web page. One of the various (outdated) pages I found from FSC or the pages from Fujitsu? (see here for more informations) But your milage may vary and you may be more lucky than me.

	E-5320	E-6540	E-6540 (custom)	Comment
Processor	Intel Mobile Pentium II 366MHz	Intel Mobile Pentium III 600MHz (500MHz when SpeedStep enabled)		Special Application (currently only for Windows) needed for SpeedStep
Chipset	Intel 440 BX			Fast and Good
Display	13.3" TFT	14.1" TFT		XGA 1024x768
Memory	64MB	128MB	256MB	max. 2 SO-DIMMs, PC100 CL2 (CL3 possible)
Harddisk	Fujitsu MH2064AT, 6GB	Toshiba MK1214GAP, 12GB	Toshiba MK3017GAP, 30GB and IBM DJSA-220, 20GB	2.5", 9.5mm Height(!), UDMA, models may vary
Graphics
Audio
Modem
CD-ROM
Misc

      Standard and upgrade.
     

I like a well tested and robust system and do not need some cool looking GUIs. Instead I prefer the command line, so I chose RedHat Linux (RHL) as operating system. I have very good experiences with it, especially when upgrading. No, I do not want to start another war on which is the best Linux. ;)
I started 1994 with Slackware and also use Debian Linux a lot at work. Nowadays any distribution should do it for you!
Installing RHL was very easy: Boot the notebook from CD (you might need to press F12 while booting, to get in the menu to choose the boot drive) and follow the instructions. As I left a MS Windows(tm) partition on my harddrive I prefered to use fdisk instead of disk druid to partition the drive. The installation type was laptop. Almost all of the hardware was auto-detected and some time later I had a working Linux notebook.

       Windows on the first (primary) partition (FAT32), the rest of the
       hard drive in an extended partition containing three logical
       volumes: two ext2 linux ones and another FAT32 for data exchange.

       No swap partition - instead using a swap file.

       30GB Toshiba MK-3017GAP (9.5mm height)

       why no journaling fs? (ReiserFS, ext3, xfs, ...)
     

      Howto upgrade RHL-Kernels from src-RPMs (make oldconfig).

      Important selections, example .config
     

      No 3D-Acceleration

      Using external monitor
     

      No mixer?

      ALSA

      OSS
     

Special configuration. Using: APA-1480, SMC, NE2000, ...

Links to LTmodem drivers and howto configure PPP. Only in E-5320.

      G1 with gphoto2

      Power from USB.
      

      Kernel prerequisites (Module serial.o)

      insmod and usage: S35, Palm
      

     APM vs. ACPI

     DeviceConfiguration (PCMCIA, Graphics, Sound, ...)

     SleepStates and BIOS

     SpeedStep
     

     IR-Mouse and BIOS

     Buttons do not work
     

I own two IBM Microdrives which i use primarily for my digital camera. These are the (old) DMDM-340 (340 MB) and the new DMSC-1010 (1GB). You can have a look at the specs here. I do have a version called Travel Kit and there is a PCMCIA Adapter included. To use the drive just insert it in the adapter and put it in one of the PCMCIA slots. Linux will detect it as IDE drive and make it accessible as /dev/hde. For Windows(tm) you need a special INF-File to access it, which can be downloaded from IBM. Both drives are not very fast and can´t be used in DMA mode. With hdparm -t /dev/hde I get the following results:

Model	Speed
DMDM-340	MB/s
DMSC-1010	MB/s

       http://www.8fujitsu.com
       http://www.fsc-pc.de
       http://www.pc-werksverkauf.de