Kubuntu 17.04 on an Fujitsu Lifebook E736

The old Netbook did a good job for 6 years, but now even basic operations became long computing operations. So I switched to a used – in fact 3 month old – Fujitsu Lifebook E736. It comes with a Core i5-6300U processor, a 13,3″ Anti-Glare-Display with a 1.366 x 768 resolution and a 500 GB SSHD. It works very well running Kubuntu, but read the details:

Disclaimer

This page describes my personal experiences with my notebook only. This is nothing official from any vendor! I am not responsible for anything you do with your hard- and software. For any support contact the respective vendors! Please respect the legal notice.

Who should read the following description? The machine runs mostly „out-of-the-box“. All the rest is due to you. Be willing to learn, follow instructions form Ubuntu geeks, accept to fail and start again. At least you should know:
  1. How to operate apt or Adept Manager
  2. Read Readme-Files and HowTos
  3. Read Error-Messages and use search machines to find a solution

A good resource for hints, tips and questions is http://ubuntuforums.org/

Preparations

My notebook came with a Windows 10 Pro installed. My dealer is happy to re-install the original software if I want this, maybe for warranty reasons it is wise to make a backup of the original hard-disk first.

Let’s go: Boot the notebook from Kubuntu Live Flash Drive. You have to plug in the USB-Flash-Drive to a USB port, start the machine, and press the <F12>-Key during start-up. A boot device menu screen shows up, use the flash drive option and go.

After Kubuntu is running attach an external USB-hard-disk, open a shell e.g. by pressing <Alt>+<F2> enter „konsole“ and now you can use the dd-command for low-level backup. Just as example:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda | gzip --fast -c | split -d -b 1500m -a 3  - /media/root/fj_e736/sda_image.gz.

restore (hopefully) with somewhat like:

sudo cat /media/root/fj_e736/sda_image.gz.* | gunzip -c | sudo dd of=/dev/sda

Please! Do this on your own risk. Learn about dd in advance (Google is your friend). Be patient the whole process will take more than three hours, because there is a 500 GB storage to be processed at low-level.

 

Installation of Kubuntu 17.04 „Zesty Zapus

Installation runs smoothly, no binary drivers needed. I used the full hard disk for Kubuntu.

++ Graphics card

„Intel® HD Graphics 520“ works with the correct resolution and 3d support. The open source intel driver seems to be fine

++ Power management

Battery sensor works, lid close, screen power save and automatic shut-down on low energy level

++ Standby mode

Works as designed, I do not know if really every device is up and running again after suspend but it seems so USB, network, no complains from my side.

++ Touchpad

Operates fine.

++ USB 3.0

All functioning incl. the Anytime-USB-Chargeing slot.

++ Keyboard

The typical ACPI control keys work: brightness, volume and mute. The ECO key (and ECO led) are not working out of the box, nevertheless the ECO key sends a keycode so it could be assigned to a useful function. I have no idea if you get the led glowing 🙂

++ Network – LAN

The cable „10/100/1000 Mbit/s Intel® I219V“ interface runs.

++ Network – WLAN

Shows up as „Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC8260 11ac with integrated Bluetooth 4.2“ works fine.

++ Audio

„Realtek ALC255“ is doing the job as designed. The machine comes with a DisplayPort to my best knowledge without an integrated HDMI. So no HDMI sound available by design.

+ SD/MMC card reader

„Realtek PCIE CardReader“ is named „BayHub OZ621/OZ777 Memory Card Reader“ works with legacy SD cards out of the box. Nevertheless it did not work with my current UHS-II cards. tail -f /var/log/syslog shows errors like

kernel: mmcblk0: error -110 sending status command, aborting
kernel: mmcblk0: error -123 sending status command, retrying

Via this askubuntu I found a workaround or in this case a quirk.

Open a konsole become admin and create a new file „sdhci.conf“ add one line

sudo su -
vim /etc/modprobe.d/sdhci.conf

options sdhci debug_quirks2=4

Now update the initramfs image

update-initramfs -u

reboot. Also you can reload the sdhci module:

rmmod sdhci-pci sdhci
modprobe sdhci
modprobe sdhci-pci

++ Bluetooth

Seems to function, it connects. I did not test any details.

++ WebCam

It runs with guvcview.

++ DisplayPort

All good.

++ VGA external port

Operational on the spot.

LSPCI Listing

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 520 (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d10 (rev f1)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d13 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I219-V (rev 21)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a)
03:00.0 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. SD/MMC Card Reader Controller (rev 01)

LSUSB Listing

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0b97:7772 O2 Micro, Inc. OZ776 CCID Smartcard Reader
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0b97:7761 O2 Micro, Inc. Oz776 1.1 Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b563 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

BIOS version

BIOS 1.22 (20.12.2016)

Any hints?

Please send me any hints, new tips, report errors, etc. via comment below. Please no support requests, thanks!

Links

Fujitsu support, bios updates and documentation:
http://www.fujitsu.com/de/support/

Good starting points for Linux on Notebooks/Laptops are:
http://tuxmobil.de/

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

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