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Installing GNU/Linux on a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D Notebook

This documents the installation of GNU/Linux on a Fujitsu-Siemens notebook Amilo D. The distributions were SuSE 7.3 (Kernel 2.4.10) and Debian Woody 3.0r0 (Kernel 2.4.18).
A previous effort with Slackware 8.0 (Kernel 2.2.19) is found here. Slackware 8.1 works similar to the other two kernel 2.4 distributions.
Please note that Fujitsu-Siemens does not officially support Linux on their laptops. The following report is solely based on the experience of the author on one model of Amilo D bought around X'mas 2001. You are solely responsible on how you make use of the information here. The author gives no warranty whatsoever!
Last updated: 2003-01-29 13:36:00 +0200

General Design

This is a cute looking notebook in metallic blue-gray. It makes the notebook look friendly and light but also gives a cheap impression. The coating is robust though, it allowed me to pull out the horrible "Designed for Windows 2000" sticker!

With 327 x 286 x 42 mm this is no midget. For that you get a broad robust keyboard with ample space to rest your palms.

front keys

There are some special keys for CD listening, e-mail notification etc. built right at the front, which I find unelegent. Apparantly some models of Amilo do not have them.

LCD panel The LCD panel, powered by a different (rechargeable) battery, indicating battery state, HD, PCMCIA activity, etc. is very useful.

Hardware

Model Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D CY20  
CPU Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) 1.0 GHz (996.325 MHz) Desktop CPU /proc/cpuinfo
BIOS Phoenix BIOS V1.7  
Chipset VIA PN133, VT8603(North Bridge), VT686B (South Bridge)  
Cache 256 KB second-level cache  
RAM 256 MB  
Display 14.1" TFT XGA, 1024x768, 60 Hz
Graphics S3 ProSavage Twister 4, upto 32 MB shared memory, Read Alberto Pianon. In VIA PN133 (VT8603) integrated
Harddisk IBM-DJSA-210, ATA DISK drive 10.0 GB 10056 MB w/384KiB Cache, CHS=1222/255/63
CD-ROM TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2502, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Combo DVD/CD-RW
PCMCIA O2Micro OZ6933  
Ethernet Accton Technology 1216.12161119 EN2242 Series Fast Ethernet Adapter MiniPCI (10/100 MBit/s)
Modem Lucent LT MiniPCI WinModem 56K, V.90
Audio Crysal CS 4299(AC97) Intergrated in the VIA chipset 'VIA 82C686A at 0x1400, irq 5'

BIOS Setup, booting

The BIOS parameters are rudimentary. There are not many things to set.
  1. There's no HDD translation method parameter. The usual selection between standard (Unix, no translation) and Extended (Windows, with translation) is missing. So no way of setting or checking the number of cylinders/heads/sectors.
  2. There is a parameter called Installed OS where you have the choise between Win98/Me/2K/XP or Only WinNT4.0
The machine booted from SuSE 7.3 DVD immediately.

Here are the Kernel messages dmesg.

Basic Installation

Suse 7.3

fdisk reported C/H/S of 1222/255/63. So there must be a translation behind the scene.

I've earlier reduced the size of the Windows partition using fips. This is how SuSE "autopartition tool" partitioned the remaining: 

Device    Boot Start   End   Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1          1   320  2570368+   c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2   *    321   324    32130   83  Linux
/dev/hda3        325   357   265072+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda4        358  1222  6948112+  83  Linux

The installation procedure went smoothly. Rather than the suggested "Default system with Office" I choose "Default system" in anticipation of StarOffice 6.

Rather than installing LILO on a floppy as suggested, I've chosen "LILO on MBR", accepted "Kernel boot parameters" enableapic vga=0x0314. "Linear option" and "Activate LILO partition" NOT activated.

The actual transfer of 1003 MB was over in about 5 minutes! During X installation "LCD Monitor of 1024x768@70Hz" was selected.
The color depth could be chosen between 8/16/24 bit. The 3D acceleration remains inactive.

Finish and reboot.

Intergrated Ethernet LAN

I've tried yast2 -> Network/Basic/Network card configuration. It recognized the Accton network card, but crashed trying to contact the DHCP server with the message "device eth0 is not running". A further look revealed that there's no eth0 module in /etc/modules.conf. Obviously the configurator doesn't know that it hat to use the tulip driver for this Accton chip set. (Thanks Timo Weggen tweggen_at_loewe-komp.de)

Edited /etc/modules.conf to include 

   alias eth0 tulip
   ..
   options tulip options=0

rebooted, lsmod, /etc/rc.d/dhcclient start and it worked!

Debian Woody 3.0r0

Got an official DVD (ISOLINUX 1.67/debian-cd 2002-05-14 Copyright Peter Anwin). To boot the kernel 2.4 
   boot: bf24
straightforward installation upto the point "Configuring the kernel driver modules". Activate 
   /kernel/drivers/net/tulip

Installation: Stage 2

Built-in modem

An # lspci -vx revealed that the modem is a cursed Winmodem. Luckily it is a Lucent chip supported by heby.de/ltmodem/.

Note: The # ./build_module script failed initially because the default SuSE installation does not copy the kernel headers. I installed the whole kernel source using yast2 and ran a # make dep, which cured the problem.

The installation went strict according to the docs included in ltmodem: 

This creates a device /dev/ttyLT0 and a link /dev/modem 
      pointing to that. 
      
Testing the modules 
   Using /lib/modules/2.2.19/misc/lt_modem.o
   Using /lib/modules/2.2.19/misc/lt_serial.o

Started minicom and it worked! 
      
Sound 
Started alsaconfig as root. It recognized the chip 
      as via686a, VIA Technologies, Inc. AC97 Audio Controller (rev. 
      50) and let it edit /etc/modules.conf. 
Play around with 
      alsamixer and enjoy the luxury by typing aplay 
      /usr/share/sound/alsa/test.wav! 
      
Summary 
This is a good workhorse for Linuxer's without fancy 
      budget. Although not really "Designed for Linux" one can get almost 
      everything going. Well, why I say "almost": 
      
    
        
  • WinModem 
    The built-in modem is a winmodem, fortunately it has 
        third party drivers. According my information, the only Fujitsu-WinModem 
        which has Linux drivers! 
        
  • 3D acceleration for X. 
    Not yet available. More from 
        Fujitsu-Siemens Augsburg DE. 
        
  • S3 Savage and StarOffice 
    The S3 Savage has a dreaded "freezing" 
        problem with StarOffice 5.2. Still I'm unable to run SO on this 
        notebook. 
    Correction: 25.5.2002: OpenOffice 1.0 gave the same 
        problem. Setting an environment variable 
        SAL_DO_NOT_USE_INVERT50=true solved it! source 
        .. 
        
  • APM 
    I haven't gone into power management at all. Some details 
        from the Czech Republic. 

      
Some reader comments 

      
      
Related sites 

      
      
Thanks to 

      
    
        
  • Thomas Bretthauer (Thomas.Bretthauer_at_fujitsu-siemens.com) from 
        Fujitsu-Siemens Augsburg (DE) 
        
  • Timo Weggen (tweggen_at_loewe-komp.de) runs RedHat on the Amilo D 
        
  • Filippo Panessa (kalem_at_linux.it) runs Debian on an Amilo D 
        
  • Alberto Pianon (alpianon_at_libero.it) on X servers 

      


      
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Last updated:  Wednesday 29 Jan 2003   
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