Hi Christopher.

I was unable to test the Saucy images and the latest mainline kernel, as they refuse to boot/install on the Amilo due to lack of PAE support.

jani@kingugidora:~$ LC_ALL=C sudo dpkg –install linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic_3.11.0-031100rc6.201308181835_i386.deb
(Reading database … 818498 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic (from linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic_3.11.0-031100rc6.201308181835_i386.deb) …
This kernel does not support a non-PAE CPU.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic_3.11.0-031100rc6.201308181835_i386.deb (–install):
subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 3.11.0-031100rc6-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 3.11.0-031100rc6-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-image-3.11.0-031100rc6-generic_3.11.0-031100rc6.201308181835_i386.deb

I guess the only (unimportant) question remaining is how come I was able to boot -pae kernels on this very same device back in the pre-release times (3.2.0-[<23]) – perhaps those earlier kernels didn’t properly detect the lack of PAE?

The wireless now (with the current 3.2.0-52-generic #78-Ubuntu) seems to somehow work without wistron_btns.

I’m not sure how to deal with the tags & bug status in this case, so I’ll leave it to your discretion. If you have further ideas to test, I’ll be happy to provide, but closing this report (perhaps as ’Invalid’) is also fine by me.

No problem, and good luck with the pen drive!

Hi Francesc. I haven’t tried this using a pen drive, so I can’t guarantee it’ll work. But as for my opinion, I think it may very well work as long as you can get the pen drive to boot. The flashing app probably doesn’t care what media it is running from.

You’re right, the ISO produces a seemingly empty disc when burned, but it is still bootable and works. The ISO I used is FTS_BIOSFlashISOCDImageESPRIMOU9200_111_1023383.ISO from ur1 dot ca slash ajjrc#. I think they’ve just fiddled with multiple sessions or something to make it seem empty for some reason.

Ahem. It now looks like non-pae + wistron doesn’t work either. But this looks more like a configuration issue on my part, I’ll have to investigate it further. It still doesn’t freeze or anything, it’s just that the wireless doesn’t go online.

Luis, there actually was a BIOS upgrade available from Fujitsu [1], thanks for prompting me to look! I flashed the latest revision S0Z in (it was S0U until now), but unfortunately this didn’t change the behavior at issue here. (There was no mention of the wireless in manufacturer’s changelog either, but those are often incomplete anyway.)

*[1] http://download.ts.fujitsu.com/download/ShowDescription.asp?SoftwareGUID=1968BB6F-7819-4C8C-A488-BAA44C111F7C

Thanks for commenting, Luis. I booted with noexec=off a couple of times with 3.2.0-24-pae, but it didn’t seem to change anything, i.e. the boot still (seemingly) froze when wistron_btns was enabled.

I was unaware of fsam7400 prior to this, so I tried that too, instead of wistron_btns. With fsam7400, the -pae kernel boots fine here even without noexec=off, apart from a ”Waiting for network” , and the wireless network never coming up (can’t bring it up from the desktop either). So here, at least, the noexec=off workaround isn’t needed with fsam7400, though it isn’t much good wrt the wireless either.

To reiterate: the only way currently to have this system boot with the wireless working is to have wistron_btns enabled and to use a non-pae kernel.

I should mention that I’ve upgraded the laptop to Quantal.

I should also mention that Precise’s mainstream installation media refused to boot on the laptop. I believe the message was ”This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae”. This despite the fact that the -pae kernels, once a system has been installed, *do* boot and work just fine, albeit not with wistron_btns loaded. So currently I’m unsure whether the CPU actually supports pae or not.

Oh, but I couldn’t reproduce it on a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M7400 laptop, so it seems to be hardware dependent.

Voihan siihen vanhaan läppään asentaa Linuxin, jottei ihan tyhjänä tarvitse eteenpäin lahjoittaa.

Minullakin on huono kokemus Fujitsu-Siemensin koneesta, mutta se oli pöytäkone. Toisaalta taas pikkuveljellä on FS:n läppäri, joka on hänen mukaansa paras kone mitä hänellä on ikinä ollut (enkä minäkään muista sen kanssa mitään ongelmia koskaan olleen). Mutta nyt seuraankin mielenkiinnolla tätä, että mitä tulet tuosta Sonysta pitämään. Niistä kun minulla ei ole yhtään kokemuksia, ja ne ovat ainakin hintansa puolesta olevinaan oikein eliittiluokan laitteita.