Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook 765 Dx Laptop

Revised on January 27th, 2000

Disclaimer: This is freely available information which comes with absolutely no guarantees. Use at your own risk.

Summary: Installation was straightforward except for finding of the proper configuration for X11.

Introduction: This file contains information relevant to installing and using Linux on a Fujitsu Lifebook 765Dx laptop purchased in march 1998.

The laptop comes with 32 Mb of RAM (which I've upgraded to the maximum 86 Mb) and 2.5 Gb of hard disk. The screen is a 12.8 inches TFT with 800x600 by 16 bpp resolution. It also sports an integrated modem.

Installation: I installed a plain RedHat 6.1 distribution from CD-ROM with no problem except for the setting of the soundcard wich was not working at the beginning and for the setting of the X11 parameters.

X-Windows: This was the actual problem: finding out a "modeline" definition suitable for the screen. After many failed attempts with XF86Setup utility and request for help in the laptop newsgroup, I finally found an XF86Config file which was close to working (the screen was not good, but readable) and then I got it to the point by fiddling with some parameters in the modeline.

Here is the XF86Config file which works well.

PCMCIA: Standard PCMCIA support as provided in the RedHAt distribution works smooth: you plug-in the card and listen to the two beeps.

Network: The network was started with no problems via a Genius ME3001II SE PCMCIA card.

Modem: The integrated modem is a Lucent Winmodem for which lucent provides a driver: It works. I downloaded the support file: http://www.linmodems.org/linux568.zip and executed the installation script provided (Note: The installation script fiddles with the rc.local file, I actually gave the same commands by hand). After that the module is installed at boot time (it gives a warning related to unresolved symbols, but I ignored it). After that I could use "minicom" to connect to a remote system. I had just to modify the initial setting because the modem didn't recognize the dialtone (but this is usual in Italy: all my modems have dialtone check disabled with the command: ATX0).

Note: The modem drivers use the sound support to let you listen to the dialtones and initial modem connection. If the sound system is not installed the modem works all the same, but it is difficult to know what it is doing.

Sound: Sound doensn't work at once. But by using sndconfig I set up the following parameters: Card type: "Sound Blaster PRO", Port: 220, IRQ:5, DMA:1 and it worked fine.

Advanced Power Management (APM): APM support under RedHat Linux 6.0 is active by default and works well.

Acknowledgements: I have got useful hints from the Linux Laptop web page and the RedHat errata page. I also found modem related hints from: Linux Winmodem Support home

I consulted the newsgroup: linux.dev.laptop and got many valuable answers. David Fox (foxcat.nyu.edu) and Brian Hoffman (hoffbcfermi.ccqc.uga.edu) provided me with some XF86Config files to test (one of them was the good one). Kyle Fink (kylexig.com) suggested me a commercial X11 implementation I didn't purchased.

Luca Fini (lfini

arcetri.astro.it) --- Home page