Linux on the JVC MP-XP 731

The underlying hardware, as far as it is recognized by Linux

The hardware is Intel Centrino based, as many other Centrino laptops, too. It stands and falls mostly with the support of that chipset in Linux. Thus your first source for information should be a close look for Centrino support in the documentation you have available.

The graphic chip is an Intel 855 GM. You should keep that in mind...

Here is the output of the lspci command: 

    00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 02)
    00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 3584 (rev 02)
    00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 3585 (rev 02)
    00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
    00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
    00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 03)
    00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 03)
    00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 03)
    00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2 (rev 03)
    00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 83)
    00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
    00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 03)
    00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
    00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
    01:03.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 (rev b8)
    01:03.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C551 IEEE 1394 Controller
    01:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
    01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VM (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)

The LINUX distribution used

Currently (2006) running Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS, which really runs great! Every hardware is recognized and works absolutely flawless! A big recommendation from me!

In my first attempts to install Linux on the MP-XP 731, I tried a DEBIAN 3.0 (Woody), as well as a Knoppix 3.2 and 3.3. I also tried FreeBSD and NetBSD, but all in vain, because of one simple reason: I tried to install them from the available USB 2.0 CD burner and DVD reader.

The reason they all failed, was that I was not capable to load at a certain stage the USB storage module for the kernel. The first positive impression was from a SuSE 8.1, from a rudimentary distribution sold with a PC magazine, called "PC professionell" (a german magazine). It booted flawlessly, by offering me the opportunity to additionally load the required module and at the same time offered support for repartitioning the already installed Windows XP. Another valid option would have been that the default kernel would include USB-storage support, but that seem to have not yet been implemented by the other distributions. You would have to install your distribution on another machine, build a matching kernel and burn your own boot-CD.

The SuSE 8.1 went fine and without any major problems. Thus I decided to try the (now) current version 9.0 from SuSE for a full installation. - This is OK, as long as you set your boot-options to "apic=off". If you don't do it, you will experience the same problem that I had, when I at first updated the 8.1 installation and afterwards deceided to install many other packages, too. This second installation was a drag. It took me over 8 hours! - I could not believe it! - There had to be a reason for this extreme slowness! - So I took a deep look into "top" and saw, that the "keventd" sucked up to 96% of the CPU and producing a permanent load of about 2.3 even when the machine was idle. I searched the web for this phenomenon and had to find out that this is a known issue with some PCs. You simply have to deselect APIC-support. This is very sad, since the computer itself seems to be quite comfortable with APIC. It showed the status of the two batteries and the 8 CPU modes (only two of them make sense)

The results, part 1: what works

Currently, as far as I can say for now, the following hardware is functional in some way or another:

  • the keyboard (I have a german keyboard, thus they have put the | (pipe) sign on the y-key (which is the z-key on english keyboards) and until just this moment I had no idea how to produce the | sign (Für deutsche Leser: Das Pipe-Zeichen kann man erzeugen, indem man zuerst "AltGr" und dann "Fn" und anschliessend "y" drückt.), but now I have it.
  • the display works great. The official resolution of the JVC is 1024x600. (That's about 133 dpi - check this with your current monitor!) At first I could only manage to run with 800x600. But this works even without black bars on the left or on the right or on both sides. It uses the full screen width. I assume that the JVC uses a "miraculous" mode in which you give him 800x600 and the display makes up the missing pixels from fresh air but as one can already expect, the display makes a somewhat "murky" impression in this mode. Circles are not round but 'eastereggs'. If you experience those eastereggs, you still have not reached the optimum. The solution was, to pick up the modeline for 1024x600 from other JVC subnotebooks and introduce them MANUALLY in the XFree86 setup under: /etc/X11/XF86Config. You also have to change everywhere you find in that file the resolution of 800x600 to 1024x600 and add the following modeline: 
      Modeline      "1024x600" 50 1024 1104 1176 1248 600 603 619 630
    Restart your X-server and you should have a working display with a stunning resolution.
  • 3D support for the graphic chip. By default 3D support is not enabled, but you can enable it via YAST and it seems to work. Before GL Chess complained about missing 3D support and switched to use of Mesa. After enabling 3D for this chip, there was no complain and it displays a framerate of up to 400/500 fps during the startup screen when it whirls around the pieces. But don't take that too serious, the game GL 117 complains about too weak hardware and the movement of the board in GL Chess is still quite sluggish when you start playing.
  • the soundchip seems to work, since KDE makes some noise when it comes up, and some games do play sounds over the internal speakers, but I could not yet manage to play a music CD. :-(
  • the mousepoint really works flawless, but you have to invest some more work if you want to use a USB mouse in parallel, but it is possible and works well
  • the three mousebuttons should be considered a major win for X11-users. They all work as expected.
  • the USB ports seem to work fine. At least I tried a USB mouse, a USB keybord and the CD-burner/DVD reader works at the USB port, too. The system has two USB ports, so you may have a combination of mouse and CD player at the same time, which is nice and useful. Even an interaction (or same time use) of mousepoint and USB mouse is possible, but you may have to restart your X11 for that.
  • the 100 MBit NIC is working right out of the box.
  • the 40 GB harddisk even works with UDMA enabled ! 
     hdparm -tT /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   1792 MB in  2.00 seconds = 896.45 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   70 MB in  3.11 seconds =  22.51 MB/sec
    I still have to try and set the idebus variable for startup to see if it boosts the performance.
  • the PCMCIA-slot seems to work well. Two cards (one 100 MBit Netgear FA511 and one Lucent Orinoco Silver) were recognized. The 100 MBit card works well, but the WLAN card was not further tested.

    • The results, part 2: what is untested (by me) for now

    I currently have not yet tested (but I believe they look quite promising):

  • the firewire IEEE 1384 port (should work, because there are not many different chips around, and they all work)
  • the external microphone (If this fails, it won't hurt much...)
  • the external headset (I can perhaps live without it, if it doesn't work)
  • the internal 56k modem (will check this one later)
  • the external monitor port (will check this later, too - but it is only a cable and some settings in the XF86Config. Should be no huge affair)
  • burning a CD with the JVC MP-WDX2E is something I have not tried yet.

    • The results, part 3: what is knowingly not running

  • the internal WLAN card seems to be a problem, but meanwhile there exists some workaround. If you want full WLAN support, better try an additional, knowingly working PCMCIA card. Otherwise keep looking on the homepage of Intel for the Centrino WLAN support.

  • the CPU speed stepping for the Centrino is currently not working very well. In fact you have to switch off APCI and the CPU is recognized as 1 GHz Pentium M, but the necessary speed steps are not yet implemented. I have contacted the maintainer already and hope to have that working soon.

    • My personal summary of the JVC MP-XP 731

    Some last words by me. When I was looking for informations about Linux support for a nice subnotebook, I had the choice between several different models and companies. After reviewing technical data, two models were left. One model was dropped by me in my decisions because I heard ONLY negative feedback about the support of that company. The other choice was the JVC. And I won't say any negative stuff about JVC here. They simply plain and clear told me, that they do ONLY support Windows. So I can't complain. And so I took the incredible load on my small private shoulders to support Linux on the MP-XP 731 myself. You won't get support for it from JVC.

    What I'm missing is an IrDA port. It would be quite nice in conjunction with a mobile phone. But I guess there is a cheap way to get an IrDA dongle for USB ports.

    The most depressing part for me was when the APIC was enabled and the system was incredibly slow. Disabling APIC solves this and the overall performance is great. In fact, this laptop seems to be quite solid and robust and performs well. It is handy, lightweight, and has a crisp display. The only really annoying fact is the placement of the key symbols '>', '<' and '|'. Especially the key '>' is a real pain to enter, because you have to press three keys (Fn, y and Shift) at the same time. - All three are close to each other, unless you use the right shift key and the keyboard is very small. So you have the feeling to be a specially trained finger-acrobat in order to enter this single sign. :-((((( It would be much more useful to map these keys on the windows keys that are available... - I guess I will remap them for me. But this is only valid for the german keyboard. The american and english and even other keyboard layouts may be completely different with other or maybe even without any problems.

    If you are unsure, whether to buy this computer, or not: Buy it! It is well worth the money. The most important parts work with Linux or will do so, soon. The display is brilliant and the speed sufficient. The system does not heats up too much and due to the Centrino technology, you will benefit from a long battery life. For me it is exactly the computer I need. It is tiny and lightweight but powerful. Alltogether: GREAT! :-)

    If you believe you need some more information about Laptops and Linux, please look here:

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