Linux on the VB 7580

This page describes how I got linux installed on the hitachi visionbook pro 7580, what problems i had to face and how i solved (some of) them.
The main problem was the internal Netcard (NIC) which is now a DEC DC21142 (rev 48) Chip AKA Tulip.

A description of the problems the driver used to make you will still find here.

The VB 7580 features the ct65555 graphikchipset, that is more than rudimentary supported in XFree 3.3.2. as David Bateman, one of the authors of the C&T support in XFree has pointed out to me.
The details you will find here.
And now lets begin with the begin.
 

"Linux Laptop best"

When my old laptop started to look its heavy use, it was time for me to look for a new one. This time linux should really run nice and easy.
Being able to run linux was my main issue. After two years of running linux on TI Travellmate 5200, i wanted a laptop that really worked with linux.
The Travellmate had two basic shortcommings concerning linux.
     - you needed a patched X Server to get 800x600 pixels on the display.
    - apm did not work. (Kernel panicked after reconnecting to the source.) Plus the display hinges. were very unstable and broke.
 
 
 

So this time everything should be alright and so i put "Linux Laptop best" as searchstring into dejanews .  The result was some 65 messages claiming the hitachi visionbook to be the best laptop for linux.  I orderd at outpost since hitachi does not distribute this laptop in germany yet.  Due to some upgrade in the visionbook pro line, i could not get the 7560 that i ordered, but had to settle for the 7580.  featuring:  intel p 233  4 gig Harddive  and 13.5' TFT Display  Of course nobody mentioned the change of the NIC.

Shortly after midnight, (when i was alone in my bed with my new laptop) i started the installation.
 

• Step 1 Adding more RAM.

  When you unscrew a lid at the bottom of the laptop, you find two banks of RAM. 16 MB are internal, one bank is filled with another 16 mb.
  Both banks have to be filled with the same amount of ram. So by adding 64 MB you get 16 MB to trade or throw away. (Anybody intrested ?)
  The ram changing is quite easy compared to other laptops i know.
   

• Step 2 Repartion the harddisk

  Since there is windows on one big 4 gb partion, i made a dos-bootdisk, bootet and used fdisk to partion the disk.
  You have to use the dos variant of fdisk, for otherwise the windows setup will not recognize your partion.
  I choosed to give dos 1gb of primary partition and the rest to be extended.
   

• Step 3 Reinstall windows.

  There is a Recovery Utility disk and a Product Recovery cdrom you have to put in the laptop and boot. When asked if you want to reinststall say yes and your partion will be formated and a virgin win95 will be installed to your Disk. This works real nice and easy. Compared to other laptops......
  Since the Win95 that comes with the VB Pro is a later edition of Win95, it will default to using FAT32 instead of FAT16. An unpatched linux will not be able to read this filesystem. So you have two options:

  • 1.) When you do your reinstall, specify FAT16 (you should get the option)... Linux sees it and uses it fine.(information kindly provided by Chris Cox )or
  • 2.) patch the kernel or use a distribution that has an already patched kernel. You can find the patches here(information kindly provided by Michael Lowry ) .  

• Step 4 install linux

  Now the fun part starts. I used the SuSE  Distribution 5.2..
  Since the 7580 has a cdrom drive installation is real easy.
  Enter bios setup (F2 after reboot) and put cdrom before hardrive in the bootsequence.
  Put the first cdrom in the drive and boot.
  Choose your language, colordisplay and your keyboard layout.
  Say "Install system". and then you can use yast to partition the rest of your hd.
  This is my partition table
  Disk /dev/hda: 128 heads, 63 sectors, 993 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 bytes

  Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
  /dev/hda1 * 1 1 254 1024096+ b Unknown
  /dev/hda2 255 255 993 2979648 5 Extended
  /dev/hda5 255 255 287 133024+ 82 Linux swap
  /dev/hda6 288 288 326 157216+ 83 Linux native /tmp
  /dev/hda7 327 327 365 157216+ 83 Linux native /
  /dev/hda8 366 366 442 310432+ 83 Linux native /home
  /dev/hda9 443 443 950 2048224+ 83 Linux native
  /usr /dev/hda10 951 951 993 173344+ 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M /exchange
  (i have setup a small second dos partition, to easily exchange data between linux and windows.)
   

• Step 5 install all you want.

  with 4 gb i had for the first time in my life enough space on a laptop to put everything there that i want or want to try. End yast.
   

• Step 6 Configure X.

  This was very easy done with  XF86Setup. But some advanced finetunnig for the ct65555 was needed.
   

• Step 7 Recompile kernel

To get soundcard and netcard running you need to compile the kernel. This is quite easy and well described in a thousand places.
Everything was real fine up to here. 3 o clock in the morning most of the system is ready installed. Then BUMMER , the netcard is not detected.
See my  documentation of the tulip driver for  hitachi pro 7580 for more detail.
 

• Step 8 Some fine tunning

  Since the internal Netcard did not work i had to use a pcmcia card.(a 3com combo 3C589C) If you are about to buy one make sure to check the file
  usr/doc/packages/pcmcia/SUPPORTED.CARDS. Compile the kernel with no netcard enabled, enable pcmcia. And configure the file /etc/pcmcia/network.opts.
  You can check the pcmcia modul being loaded with 'lsmod' . When you do this you will probably see that the pcmcia modul is using IRQ 3. But this IRQ is also
  used by the internal modem. If you want to use your modem you have to uncomment ' exclude irq 3' in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts.
   

  X
   

Other Problems not Linux related
 

The powermanagment can not be customized in the bios. The upgrade hitachi provides is not compatible with my machine id.
When powermanagment is enabled for the soundcard you will hear nasty clicks and even worse when listening to a cd on AC-Power (The bulkiest walkman i ever had) the soundsystem will keep on hibernating and has repeatedly to be woken up (for example by changing the volume)
I hope hitachi will come up with an bios upgrade soon as well as with a V90 upgrade for the internal modem.

The modem does not recognize the german dialtone. I could fix this with ATX3 but i hope i will find a register setting to change this.
 
  If you have further question concerning linux on the vb7580 you can contact me.