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Linux on the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1
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  1. #1
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    Linux on the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1

    Hi.

    So, I just received my Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1 laptop/netbook.

    Of course the first step is that Windows has got to go!

    Apparently EmperorLinux sells these with Linux pre-installed, so I have hopes for a reasonable outcome.

    I thought I would start this thread in the hopes that maybe anyone else with one of these might find it and we can share install/configuration tips.

  2. #2
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    I thought about Moblin, but it still looks a little new right now, so being a regular Fedora user, I thought I would give that a go.

    I figured that being new hardware, I would be best to start off with the current latest and greatest, Fedora 10 beta 1, in the hopes of gaining the most support for whatever hardware is in the thing. So, I downloaded the i386 (no 64 bit support in the Atom Z520) DVD, plugged in my USB DVD Drive to the CF-U1, and tried to install.

    The first thing I noticed is that X failed to start on the Intel hardware and it dumped me to the text mode install. I later found you can partially work around that by passing a boot parameter like vga=0x315 or similar to force it into a vesa mode, as per: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releas...eNotes#Boot_up

    I didn't get any mouse movement with it set to "tablet" mode in the BIOS, so I changed it to the other mouse mode or whatever, and that kinda works, except the pointer is really off from where you click. This will require investigation (I wonder what driver Emperor uses?).

    Then Anaconda crashed on me. I just filed: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=465719

    I can't find a way to work around that crash, so Fedora 10 is on hold for now.

    After I first had problems with F10, I briefly tried the Fedora 8 LiveCD I had lying around, and that boot up and let me login. I didn't mess around with it much, thinking I would download and give F9 a try...
    where the installer started up graphically on it's own, but didn't recognize the 16GB flash drive for some reason and wouldn't let me proceed. So much for that. I should probably see if F8 finds it.

    So, yeah, I'm kinda at a roadblock right now.

  3. #3
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    The Anaconda crash is apparently caused by lacking a NIC. So, I purchased a Linksys USB200M USB/Ethernet adapter, as per http://www.linux-usb.org/usbnet/#t-enet This worked out of the box and allowed me to finish installing Fedora 10.

    I manually partitioned with ext3 and no LVM, and asked for an encrypted home partition, which then refused to boot due to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=451964 so I had to remove the encryption setup and manually reformat my home partition. This was complicated by the fact that GDM now disallows root logins, and my /home/ directory tree didn't exist, and I don't know how to get NetworkManager configured and working from the command line.

    Anyhow, I was then able boot into X and login.

    I was able to get the built in Intel 5100 WiFi working simply by grabbing the iwlwifi-5000-ucode package from http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/ and dropping it into /lib/firmware/.

    I tried upgrading to the latest kernel, but I can still only get vga=0x315 to work at 800x600. I'm hoping Intel driver improvements will make this fix itself?

    The biggest problem now is that the touch screen "mouse mode" really sucks and won't let me get near the edge of the screen! I switched it back into "tablet mode", which doesn't work at all. The hardware is shown as "Fujitsu Component USB Touch Panel", which I think can be driven by the evtouch driver from: http://www.conan.de/touchscreen/evtouch.html Sadly this doesn't appear to be packaged for Fedora (unlike Ubuntu). I tried dropping the binary .so into /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/ and rebooting, but that didn't fix anything. I think the directions for configuring the driver from the evtouch page are out of date due to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Featu...devInputDriver - more research needed.

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    So apparently the regular Intel video driver doesn't work with the CF-U1, and you need a separate "poulsbo" driver that the moblin guys created. This driver apparently hasn't been updated to the latest x.org yet though: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...sb/+bug/269611

    So, I created a moblin install CD today, but that failed too: http://bugzilla.moblin.org/show_bug.cgi?id=197

    I may have to try Fedora 10 using the Fedora 8 x.org with a manual build of the Moblin xf86-video-psb (aka xorg-video-psb) driver. Bleh.

  5. #5
    fche Guest

    try the "vesa" xorg driver

    It works for my GMA500-based UMPC.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fche
    It works for my GMA500-based UMPC.
    As I mentioned, if I use vga=0x315 the vesa driver will work at that 800x600 mode. The problem is that there isn't a mode for the CF-U1's native 1024x600. Will the vesa driver work at non-standard resolutions with a custom modeline?

  7. #7
    fche Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by hubick
    As I mentioned, if I use vga=0x315 the vesa driver will work at that 800x600 mode. The problem is that there isn't a mode for the CF-U1's native 1024x600. Will the vesa driver work at non-standard resolutions with a custom modeline?
    Maybe ... I have an analogous problem. In my case (Fujitsu U820, native 1280x800), the plain vesa driver (without a special vga= boot flag) guesses only 1024x600. Custom mode lines appear unable to educate the widget otherwise.

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    There is effort underway to get the moblin xf86-video-psb driver working on a recent kernel in Ubuntu, in order to boot on the new Dell Mini 12: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014534
    I'm hoping the proliferation of poulsbo devices will soon provide more help like this in getting the CF-U1 working

  9. #9
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    Have you tried compiling that latest (?) tarball: xf86-video-psb_0.2.10.tar.gz? With the referenced patch??

    I don't think you'll ever get the VESA driver to cough up more screen real estate.

    V

    EDIT: Well, I gave xf86-video-psb a quick try on F10, and it erred out, even with option '--disable-dri', BUT I didn't try to sort through/apply the 2.6.27 patch because it looked to be only for the psb-kmd. Depends on how badly you want/need the driver, I guess....
    Last edited by Hlingler; 11th January 2009 at 08:06 AM.

  10. #10
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    Where is the 2.10 from? I haven't had time yet - I just finished installing the release version of Fedora 10 (which includes the wifi firmware now). I think one will need to downgrade X to that from F8 (1.4), build and install the psb driver (I was gonna try and pull from git), and get that patch to apply, as I think the driver requires DRI.

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    That's 0.2.10, followed the link from the thread that you linked in Post #8: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014534 ==>> http://v1.moblin.org/build-results/p...ideo-psb/lpia/

    I do believe that you are correct: the F10 X11/Xorg is too new, BUT I am virtually certain that you cannot downgrade F10 to F8 X11/Xorg without major repercussions in other software. Or if possible, it will be mind-bogglingly difficult and confusing. It's not just 'yum remove xorg*' => switch to F8 repos => 'yum install xorg*', but you can try. The preferable way would be to find patches for X11R7.4/Xorg-1.5/F10 just like the patch for kernel 2.6.27.

    The typical X11/X.Org 2D video driver does not require the presence of the 3D driver/kmod to work - it usually just silently reverts to software rendering for 3D, while performing as expected for 2D. But perhaps the psb driver is different....

    V

    EDIT: I still had one F8 install, and tried to compile; it erred out at the same point with the same error:
    Code:
    mm_drm.c: In function 'bufMask':
    mm_drm.c:207: error: 'drmBO' has no member named 'mask'
    make[2]: *** [mm_drm.lo] Error 1
    make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/Shared/Linux_Source_Code-Binaries/xf86-video-psb/libmm'
    make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
    make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/Shared/Linux_Source_Code-Binaries/xf86-video-psb'
    make: *** [all] Error 2
    ~] $
    Last edited by Hlingler; 11th January 2009 at 08:59 AM.

  12. #12
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    Lightbulb panasonic toughbook...

    wow!

    you guys are really ambitious. keep up the good work!

    i know this is a fedora forum but you might try installing some other distros just to see if you can get any further. i have had good luck with gnewsense on stuff.

    also linux-on-laptops.com has some stuff that might be helpful.

    http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/panasonic.html

    nothing on the cf-u1 but there is allot on other toughbooks.

    i hope you are not offended. i have met some fedora users who are more fanatical then some of the m****s***t fans.

    my position is the right tool for the right job. and if it is easy and it works use it.

    my ubuntu mini 9 shipped friday. i also heard that it will run os x out of the box with the exception of the sleep function but there is a free patch for that.

    go figure!

    peace,

    -zander

  13. #13
    brteag00 Guest

    Ubuntu Hardy works on the Dell Mini 12

    Good day -

    I know it's somewhat heretical to post this in a Fedora forum, but I've got Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) running flawlessly on my Poulsbo-based Dell Mini 12. Perhaps my experiences will be useful to you all - see in particular http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...014534&page=10, post #94.

    The Ubuntu folks have spun an OEM edition of Hardy specifically for netbook and MID manufacturers, and they seem to have access to code from Intel that I can't find anywhere else on the web. The Moblin psb-kmod and xf86-video-psb repositories havn't been updated in 6 months. However, you can get a newer source tarball for the Xorg driver from the Ubuntu Mobile package archive at http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobi...org-video-psb/ - make sure you get both the original tarball and the patch file!

    I don't know if you will be able to compile this on F10 - and I don't know whether or not it will function without its DRM kernel module(s). That code is squirreled away in the Ubuntu Hardy lpia architecture's kernel (kernel.ubuntu.com) - but it's only 2.6.24. The folks in the aforementioned forum thread found a patch from the Mandriva project to forward-port it to 2.6.27, but have had mixed results.

    Good luck getting F10 to run on a Poulsbo-based system! My preferred distro is Fedora - after many, many years spent with RedHat-derived systems, Ubuntu feels weird - but having working hardware won out this time. Intel seems to be investing heavily in Poulsbo as a platform, so I'm hoping that the situation will improve over the next 6 months or so.

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    Thumbs up i agree...

    Quote Originally Posted by brteag00
    Good day -

    I know it's somewhat heretical to post this in a Fedora forum, but I've got Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) running flawlessly on my Poulsbo-based Dell Mini 12. Perhaps my experiences will be useful to you all - see in particular http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...014534&page=10, post #94.

    The Ubuntu folks have spun an OEM edition of Hardy specifically for netbook and MID manufacturers, and they seem to have access to code from Intel that I can't find anywhere else on the web. The Moblin psb-kmod and xf86-video-psb repositories havn't been updated in 6 months. However, you can get a newer source tarball for the Xorg driver from the Ubuntu Mobile package archive at http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobi...org-video-psb/ - make sure you get both the original tarball and the patch file!

    I don't know if you will be able to compile this on F10 - and I don't know whether or not it will function without its DRM kernel module(s). That code is squirreled away in the Ubuntu Hardy lpia architecture's kernel (kernel.ubuntu.com) - but it's only 2.6.24. The folks in the aforementioned forum thread found a patch from the Mandriva project to forward-port it to 2.6.27, but have had mixed results.

    Good luck getting F10 to run on a Poulsbo-based system! My preferred distro is Fedora - after many, many years spent with RedHat-derived systems, Ubuntu feels weird - but having working hardware won out this time. Intel seems to be investing heavily in Poulsbo as a platform, so I'm hoping that the situation will improve over the next 6 months or so.

    i agree and generally go with what ever gets the most to function and i have to say that ubuntu 8.10 has been the most successful for me on ibm thinkpad t42. i have some t60s in transit and hope to have the same luck with them using ubuntu. i try not to get stuck on any single distro. these guys should give ubuntu 8.10 a try at least.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by brteag00
    Good day -

    I know it's somewhat heretical to post this in a Fedora forum, but I've got Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) running flawlessly on my Poulsbo-based Dell Mini 12. Perhaps my experiences will be useful to you all - see in particular http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...014534&page=10, post #94.
    [...]
    Good luck getting F10 to run on a Poulsbo-based system! My preferred distro is Fedora - after many, many years spent with RedHat-derived systems, Ubuntu feels weird - but having working hardware won out this time. Intel seems to be investing heavily in Poulsbo as a platform, so I'm hoping that the situation will improve over the next 6 months or so.
    No, it is not heresy (IMHO)!!! Whatever works for your needs, and it's all Limux. Thanks for the info.

    V

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