Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

borretti.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 173 posts

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#151

Post by Forgeties79 »

bigyabai wrote: post #150
Forgeties79 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not particularly surprising to be honest. A lot of what makes Apple tech what it is is the concert between their hardware and software. Not trying to put it too poetically here, but that’s what it’s always seemed like to me. In general when I install Linux on an Apple device I just assume there isn’t the same level of performance. I remember installing mint on a 2016 intel MBpro and the limitations/cons didn’t…

> A lot of what makes Apple tech what it is is the concert between their hardware and software. That's very cute, but it's not why Apple laptops run Linux poorly. Apple Silicon has terrible and inefficient support because Apple released no documentation of their hardware. The driver efforts are all reverse-engineered and likely crippled by Apple's hidden trade secrets. This is why even Qualcomm chips run Linux better…

>That's very cute, but it's not why Apple laptops run Linux poorly.

I have no doubt you have good information after this, but this sentence makes me not want to read any further.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#152

Post by The_President »

nullbyte808 wrote: post #107
bArray wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can back this. Many years ago I purchased a Dell Latitude from eBay. After messing around with a 3D printer, there was a short of mains voltage onto the USB line, frying the laptop and tripping the house electrics. I contacted Dell asking for a schematic of the PCBs thinking that I had blown some components, but they informed me that the laptop was still under warranty thanks to the original business purchaser (by ju…

I really don't care for repairability as I average maybe 2 years before getting a new laptop.

[dead]

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#153

Post by oneplane »

bigyabai wrote: post #149
oneplane wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you boot into macOS and connect it to the internet. iBoot2 never changes by itself, you, the user, decides if you want to boot into recovery or macOS and run an update. So can Apple stop signing new iBoot2 versions? Sure! And that sucks. But it's a bit of FUD to claim that Apple at arbitrary points in time is going to brick your laptop with no option for you to prevent that. Granted, if you boot both macOS an…

> You can never connect macOS or recovery to the internet, or never boot them In other words, you're completely fucked if you brick your install. I consider iBoot a direct user-hostile downgrade from UEFI for this reason. YMMV, but I would never trust my day-to-day on an iBoot machine. UEFI has no such limitations, and Apple is well-known for making controversial choices in OTA updates that users have no alternative…

> In other words, you're completely fucked if you brick your install. I consider iBoot a direct user-hostile downgrade from UEFI for this reason.

That's a bit of a creative perspective, isn't it? You have no control over the UEFI implementation of your vendor, same can be said for AGESA and ME, as well as any FSP/BSP/BUP packages, BROM signatures or eFused CPUs. And on top of that, you'll have preloaded certificates (usually from Microsoft) that will expire at some point, and when they do and the vendor doesn't replace them, the machine might never boot again (in a UEFI configuration where SecureBoot cannot be disabled as was the case in this Fujitsu - that took a firmware upgrade that the vendor had to supply, which is the exception rather than the rule). For DIY builds this tends to be better, Framework also makes this a tad more reliable.

If anything, most OEM UEFI implementations come with a (x509) timer that when expires, bricks your machine. iBoot2 is just a bunch of files (including the signed boot policy) you can copy and keep around, forever, no lifetimer.

Now, if we wanted to escape all this, your only option is to either get really old hardware, or get non-x86 hardware that isn't Apple M-series or IBM. That means you're pretty much stuck with low-end ARM and lower-end RISC-V, unless you accept AGESA or Intel ME at which point coreboot becomes viable.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#154

Post by bitwize »

WillAdams wrote: post #146
bitwize wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find this rather interesting. Gibson knew dick about computers in 1984, which makes his early cyberpunk works more interesting because so much of the technical stuff is pure imagination and guesswork. He peppered his 1980s prose with Japanese-sounding brand names because he assumed that the Japanese would dominate computing the way they dominated electronics for things people like William Gibson do—things…

I found myself using Fujitsu tablets for a long while because I prefer using a stylus, and there was a long while they were the best option --- in particular, the Stylistic line and the ST4100 and ST4110 were perfect for my needs, esp. the latter w/ its daylight-viewable transflective display. Still worked last time I needed to scan something. The Samsung Galaxy Book 12 was a nice replacement (save for daylight viewa…

Lenovo ThinkPad Yogas are also an excellent choice. Be sure to get one with the "ThinkPad Yoga" branding (not just Yoga). You get the high Linux compatibility of ThinkPads, tablet/hybrid modes, and a stylus. I found a used one for $300 and it's my new art machine.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#155

Post by RunningDroid »

jackyard86 wrote: post #134

Stop referencing Twitter posts. The only thing I see in it is a popup that I should sign up for their platform.

You can use xcancel.com or farside.link's nitter redirect to avoid that, if you're on Android it's easiest to use URLcheck‡ with these chunks added to the pattern checker:

``` "Twitter to Nitter": { "regex": "^https?:\\\/\\\/(www\\.|mobile\\.)?(twitter|x)\\.com\\\/(.)", "replacement": "https:\/\/farside.link\/nitter\/$3", "enabled": "true" }, "Twitter image to Nitter": { "regex": "^https?:\\\/\\\/(pic\\.twitter|pbs\\.twimg)\\.com\\\/(.)", "replacement": "https:\/\/farside.link\/nitter\/pic\/$1", "enabled": "true" }, ``` (I haven't updated my copy of the Twitter image regex for the rename because I haven't seen any X.com image links and upstream seems dead)

‡: https://github.com/TrianguloY/URLCheck

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#156

Post by user_7832 »

gchamonlive wrote: post #78
user_7832 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know what the oled screen resolution is on your device? One of my family members has what I believe is the same laptop, and while I appreciate the build quality, the OLED clearly isn't RGB (in its subpixel arrangement - or some other such major aspect), because the 1080p screen looks so bad for text I initially thought it was broken.

1920x1200 It's awesome for text though. The only issue I found was the overblown reds.

Thanks. That’s funny (iirc it’s the same resolution), maybe they updated the sub pixel structure I suppose.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#157

Post by worthless-trash »

worthless-trash wrote: post #106
storus wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the recent Intel layoffs many Linux drivers are no longer maintained and as a consequence some older laptops don't boot anymore.

Did upstream disable hardware.. I didnt see the memo for disabling anything boot related. Can you tell me what you found breaking as I will have to deal with that.

Quick research showed that some were marked as 'unmaintained', but I don't see anything that would prevent systems from booting, or even the code from working.

Some (not all) of the systems were picked up by other people. I do not know where you're getting the information from, but if you want to, please share.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#158

Post by vladvasiliu »

kstrauser wrote: post #128
bArray wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can back this. Many years ago I purchased a Dell Latitude from eBay. After messing around with a 3D printer, there was a short of mains voltage onto the USB line, frying the laptop and tripping the house electrics. I contacted Dell asking for a schematic of the PCBs thinking that I had blown some components, but they informed me that the laptop was still under warranty thanks to the original business purchaser (by ju…

It’s hit or miss with them. I bought a brand new Dell monitor from Amazon, through their Dell store, fulfilled by Dell. The HDMI input stopped working a couple months later, as verified with multiple known working devices connected to it with multiple known working cables. Then Dell’s support absolutely refused to honor their warranty because their database showed that someone else but me owned it. Remember, I bought…

Never had to call Dell support, but I've had a similar experience with a Logitech mouse bought through Amazon (although it was sold and shipped by Amazon).

Since Amazon honored the warranty in less time than it took me to look up how to contact Logitech and go through their ridiculous process, that mouse was replaced with another Logitech one bought through Amazon. Wouldn't buy anything directly from the Logitech store, though.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#159

Post by jjice »

dcminter wrote: post #39
jjice wrote: post #4

Tossing Linux on used enterprise laptops is maybe the best bang for your buck machine you can get. They're often time a great value and within three years old. Used multiple Thinkpads and Dells over the years that were fantastic and gotten sub $400. Things I learned to look out for: - Locked BIOS - Look into the manufacturer's repairability reputation. I replaced the entire keyboard on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon and it wa…

I swapped the keyboard on my wife's X1 and man, they are so fiddly to get to these days. It used to be a 2 minute job but I think this took me nearly 2 hours! I had to remove practically everything to get to it. Still happy with the result and I agree that 2nd hand business machines give great bang-for-buck. I adore my beater Dell Latitude for example.

Oh, it sucked haha - I totally agree. Glad I could do it though.

I believe mine was a gen 3 and I I had to remove everything and the keyboard is the last part you remove before putting the new one on. I assume it was similar for you considering the time spent?

The more traditional thinkpads have the dream situation where it just pops off, if I recall.

I had to stop and go out to purchase a Dremel to cut a notch in a screw on the main board that was stripped before I had gotten it. Good times!

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#160

Post by bornfreddy »

wpm wrote: post #147
bornfreddy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious what the cuts are? I'm forced to use MBP at $JOB and it sucks compared to Linux at home. Maybe I'm just used to Linux, don't know? But I love the fact that I can configure it the way I like, especially all the keyboard shortcuts. On MacOS this has proven to be difficult.

macOS has two keyboard shortcut management mechanisms. I find it far easier to control keyboard shortcuts on macOS vs Linux. You either can do it in the GUI in Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard shortcuts, either per app or global, or you can use the older KeyBindings method: drop a .dict or a .plist in ~/Library/KeyBindings with your shortcuts in there. See https://web.archive.org/web/20070513170225/http://www.hcs.ha...

This is nice, I agree, but you can't e.g. switch Fn and Ctrl keys this way, afaik.
Post reply on HN