Information about running Linux on Fujitsu 735Dx

All information here is based only in my own experience. Although everything has worked fine with my 735Dx I won't guarantee anything to work with yours. Standard disclaimer applies.

I installed Linux into my 735Dx in 1997 and since it isn't broken, I haven't fixed it or this page so some information here might be just a little out-of-date. But hopefully helpful though.

About 735Dx

735Dx has a 16-bit stereo "SoundBlaster compatible" sound card ESS1618, two speakers and a microphone. Machine weights 3.5 kgs (7.6 lbs). A 20x CD-ROM drive is optional - I chose not to have it cause it would have cost me a 1000 FIM extra (about 200 USD) and I didn't need it. Memory is upgradable up to 80 MB - you can install one SDRAM DIMM module of sizes 16, 32 or 64 MB. It also has an internal 56k modem in some countries - mine is a Finnish version and without modem.

Preparing

For possible future needs I decided to leave the Windows also available - but not with a 1 GB partition so I needed FIPS to repartition the hard disk without losing data. This was easy. Windows was installed on a FAT16 partition and FIPS worked just fine. Note to at least 755x users: if Windows is installed on a FAT32 file system be sure to use a recent version of FIPS (>=1.5b). More info about this.

Next I had to choose which distribution to use. I chose Debian 1.3, mainly because it was cheap and I've had good experiences with it earlier. Even though this page is written based on Debian installation, it applies mainly for others also.

Action!

According to the Debian instructions I made the boot (rescue) disk. Here was the first real problem. Rescue disk only rebooted the machine after a few seconds. I tried to write the image into a couple of different floppies and with no success I gave up. Then I made my own boot floppy (in other words I compiled a kernel with the needed drivers and wrote it to a floppy using dd) which worked fine. I don't know whether I had have bad luck and corrupted floppies or found a bug in Debian but I did get over it. Perhaps I study this in more detail sometimes. Has someone else got this problem?

Next problem was to get NFS working. I have tried NFS before so this wasn't supposed to be any trouble at all. But after many hours of struggle I still didn't get it working at all so I came up with plan B: using FTP over PLIP. Now I had to install the base system using floppies to copy the needed files into notebooks hard disk. One could've installed them directly from the floppies but I probably had a good reason not doing so.

After installing the base system and rebooting the machine (using a boot disk because the boot image installed into hard disk was the same faulty one described earlier) I set up the PLIP link. (with ifconfig and route, see man pages for further info) dselect of the Debian worked with no problems and the packages were transfered using ftp into notebooks hard disk and installed properly with no problems either.

Misc configuration

In Finland we use ISO-latin1 charset so I had to configure this correctly to many applications but thanks to Finnish-HOWTO, this is quite straightforward process.

To use gpm in text console you'll first have to create a symlink in /dev:

# cd /dev
# rm mouse
# ln -s psaux mouse

    

-t ps2
    

Let's hear some music!

Modem configuration

Hello. I own a Fujitsu LifeBook 735Dx with a modem and I wanted to inform you of my success in setting it up to work on Linux. Your page says that the modem used in the 735Dx is a Winmodem. You are right, however, it uses a Lucent chipset and a kernel module is available for download at http://www.linmodems.org. It needs the PPP module for kernel 2.2.14, even though you may have a later version (I used 'insmod -f' to force it). It took some work, but I did manage to get it doing PPP at regular 56k speeds. Please pass this along to the visitors at your page.

PC-card (PCMCIA)

XFree3.3.1

I also wanted to have X-windows and so I installed XFree3.3.1 which was in the Debian CD. According to the documentation Cyber938x is a supported chip so this was supposed to be an easy task. In practice it wasn't. The X server complained about an unknown Trident chip ID and it took me a while to get the server running. Eventually I managed to do so in 800x600 mode using the driver for "Cyber938x" with no acceleration. With acceleration in use the screen becomes mostly black - cursor is white and it can be moved but no menus or windows get displayed.

I will continue to seek the optimal configuration but at least now I have a working server in 800x600 / 16bpp mode. I tried to ask Fujitsu technical support for details of the display (i.e. the refresh rates) but I didn't get an answer. If you have better luck, please let me know.

My current XF86Config has following lines: (video parts based on a configuration I found somewhere from the net, can't remember where and there was no author mentioned on it) I have been informed that this configuration works also in a 755Tx with a TFT display and in a 270Dx, but use at your own risk.

Section "Pointer"
    Protocol    "ps/2"
    Device      "/dev/mouse" # requires a symlink /dev/mouse -> /dev/psaux 
    Emulate3Buttons          # pressing left and right buttons simultaneously
                             # generates a middle button press
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "targa"
    VendorName  "targa"
    ModelName   "lcd"
    HorizSync   31.5 - 62.5
    VertRefresh 50-90
    # 800x600 @ 56 Hz, 35.15 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "800x600"     36     800  824  896 1024   600  601  603  625
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "trident"
    VendorName  "Unknown"
    Chipset     "cyber938x"
    BoardName   "Unknown"
    Option      "noaccel"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Driver      "svga"
    Device      "trident"
    Monitor     "targa"
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "800x600"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

XSuSE

XSuSE has released some alternate X-servers, one is for Trident chips. These servers are now included in the recent release of XFree - XFree 3.3.2. I haven't had time to try this but I did try the XSuSE-Trident and hadn't any more success with the acceleration. Again, without acceleration the server worked fine. The XSuSE-Trident server required the 'Chipset' line in the XF86Config to be "cyber9382" instead of "cyber938x".

See also

• Linux Laptop Home Page
• The various HOWTOs. These can be a great assistance if something doesn't work right. They are available from Sunsite at http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/ and from numerous mirror sites around the world.