I work for the University of Waterloo / Computer Science Computing Facility. A client has requested that we install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Ubuntu Linux on this Tablet PC. I will perform a clean install of Ubuntu (not upgrading) and will post here any issues I will encounter and any solutions I may find for them.

Installation

We have a pre-configured PXE boot server, which is from where I started the installation program. I also resized the windows partition beforehand using Partition Magic.

I used the vga=791 boot option to get a higher-resolution framebuffer.

Installation proceeded as normal, no errors, nothing odd. It found the wired Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit network adapter and used it. The Atheros AG Wireless network card was detected, but not configured. Configuration was painless using the GNOME Network manager (the settings should be obvious).

What Works Out-Of-The-Box?

• Ethernet
• Wireless
• Hibernation
• Frequency Scaling
• Display at native resolution (1024x768)

What Does Not Work Out-Of-The-Box?

• Tablet Pen (see below)
• Fn-Fx keys (no idea how to make them work, yet...)

  • If you mean the special application buttons near the screen, they could be activated using apanel. -- Eckhart

  • If you see my wiki entry for the Fujitsu Lifebook T4220

    • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/T4220, you can see that with the fsc_btns it is quite simple. BTW this also included automatic rotation.

• Screen rotation with RandR extension xrandr (is it possible at all?)

  • With X.org 7.1, the i810 driver supports RandR. Should therefore be possible in Edgy. Use relevant parts of http://www.missirina.com/risujin/debian.php. -- Eckhart

  • See my wiki entry https://help.ubuntu.com/community/T4220 and go to the rotation

    • area. Either make your own scripts (four way rotation) or let fsc_btns do it for you
• Card Reader

Post-Installation

Tablet Pen

Serial Port Configuration

You first need to install the setserial utility which allows us to configure serial ports:

apt-get install setserial

Now we need to enter the /dev/ttyS0 (COM0) settings in /etc/serial.conf. Add this to the file:

/dev/ttyS0 port 0x220 irq 4 autoconfig

To apply the settings immediately, execute this command:

sudo /etc/init.d/setserial reload

Xorg Configuration

Add the following lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "Module"
...
        Load    "wacom"                 # add this line
EndSection
...
...
...
# These lines should go after the detected mouse and touchpad
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "cursor"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"
        Option          "Type"          "cursor"
        Option          "Mode"          "absolute"
        Option          "Speed"         "3.0"
        Option          "Threshold"     "2"
#       Option          "DebugLevel"    "10"
#       Option          "MaxX"          "24576"
#       Option          "MaxY"          "18432"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "stylus"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"
        Option          "Type"          "stylus"
        Option          "Mode"          "absolute"
#       Option          "Tilt"          "on"
#       Option          "TiltInvert"    "on"
        Option          "Threshold"     "2"
#       Option          "DebugLevel"    "10"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "eraser"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"
        Option          "Type"          "eraser"
        Option          "Mode"          "absolute"
#       Option          "Tilt"          "on"
#       Option          "TiltInvert"    "on"
        Option          "Threshold"     "2"
#       Option          "DebugLevel"    "10"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
...
        # TabletPC Pen Device
        InputDevice     "cursor"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "stylus"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "eraser"        "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Upon restarting X (sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart), the tablet pc pen should work