The BSD Journal - NetBSD on the Fujitsu Lifebook P2120


NOTE: This information is out of date (from mid 2004) but I am leaving it online for historical reasons.

Purpose
I have been determined for a long time to find a very small notebook computer that is easy to carry and yet has lots of functionality. The search started with the Toshiba Libretto L1. There are many things I really like about the Libretto L1 but its lack of any sort of removable storage was a major hinderance. That problem led me to learn more about the Fujitsu Lifebook P Series and eventually to the P2120.

Specifications
The Fujitsu Lifebook P2120 has the following specifications with my upgrades in parentheses:

CPU: Crusoe TM5800 @ 933 MHz
RAM: 256 MB (upgraded to 384 MB)
HD: 40 GB 4200 RPM (upgraded to 40 GB 7200 RPM)
Screen: 10 inch TFT active matrix at 1280x768 resolution
Video Card: 8 MB ATI Radeon Mobility M6 LY
Modem: Built-in modem

Install
As soon as the Lifebook P2120 arrived, I swapped out its original hard drive for a 7200 RPM 40 GB hard drive. This should improve performance even though it will decrease battery life. When the unit first arrived, I did not yet have a CD drive of any sort for it. I did have the floppy drive though. I started out with a mid May 2004 snapshot of NetBSD 2.0_BETA which I built from my autobuild server. I used bootlap1.fs and bootlap2.fs for the install. I used the usual commands to create the floppies:
dd if=bootlap1.fs bs=18k of=/dev/rfd0a

dd if=bootlap2.fs bs=18k of=/dev/rfd0a
I used the rtk(4) ethernet interface to do the installation of the sets. I intended to use the built-in wi(4) interface but it was not recognized initially.
Because this laptop makes use of ACPI, the first task was to rebuild my kernel after the initial install. I went through and selected all of the options I needed and removed extraneous options in order to make the kernel smaller. I finally ended up with the P2120 kernel config file. One thing that I had to do in particular was add an entry for wi(4) for the pci bus instead of just for PCMCIA cards. This entry can be observed on line 437 of the P2120 kernel config file.
I have now updated to my own 20040610 NetBSD 2.0_BETA snapshot which is available from my autobuild server. You can also download the 20040610 NetBSD 2.0_BETA P2120 kernel binary here.

Configuring NetBSD
The apm command does not work for finding out what the battery level is so you have to use a different alternative. This alternative is the envstat(8) command. It gives you useful readout from different sensors including battery life. The envstat(8) command is most useful with the -r flag which formats the output into rows. I wrote a script that gives a readout of the battery level and updates it every five seconds. The script is available as battery.sh.
Kernel Configuration
As I mentioned earlier, I created my own kernel configuration for the Lifebook P2120. It is available as P2120. Most of the configuration for this computer is done through ACPI which is why a custom kernel is required. You can also download a kernel binary built from the 20040610 NetBSD 2.0_BETA sources as kern-P2120.tgz. You can download the 20040610 NetBSD 2.0_BETA snapshot from ab.hub3.net in this directory.
XFree86 Configuration
I am using XFree86 4.4 from the NetBSD 2.0_BETA xsrc compiled on 20040610 using the autobuild procedure. You can download my XF86Config file here. The complete snapshot of NetBSD 2.0_BETA from 20040610 including XFree86 4.4 is available here.
To be continued...

Links
These are some links that I have found to be a valuable reference.
Dare's Fujitsu P2120 Laptop Page
Fujitsu P2120 Suspend-to-RAM under Linux
P2120Linux
Installing Debian on a Fujitsu LifeBook P2120
Fujitsu P2120 product specs (From Fujitsu and by probing)
Linux on the Fujitsu P-2120
P-2000 Memory Upgrade Procedure
Hard Disk Upgrade
Silicon Pop Culture - Reviews - Fujitsu P2120 Hard Disk Upgrade

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