Today I got Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 for one project and this tablet rocks with Linux. I installed Ubuntu 15.04 (AMD64) for evaluation and almost everything worked out from box.
Basically this is not tablet, it's more like a tablet form computer. Meaning that you find full and easily accessible BIOS setup and it allows you to boot Ubuntu installation. I've played with Toughbooks over last ten years and I hardly never had any issues with them supporting Linux.
Since I installed Ubuntu with integrated hard disk encryption (LUKS), I believe I need to have keyboard present (to give passphrase on boot). That's why there is this wonderful iKey attachable keyboard.
This keyboard has nice backlight and totally waterproof keys. They are not as usable as normal laptop keys, but they withstand elements. So this is a thing.
Backlight issue
FZ-M1 backlight needed some tweaking to work with Ubuntu, but I managed to google solution for this. You need to create file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf and place this in file:
And add this into file:
Section "Device"
Identifier "card0"
Driver "intel"
Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
So, if you're after Linux tablet with serious professional touch - I would recommend this Toughpad in fully.
Update on modem
Sierra Wireless EM7305 MBIM vs QMI modes. It seems that Modem Manager has an issues with MBIM mode, so we have to enable QMI mode with this:echo 1 > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-3/bConfigurationValue
After this, modem manager works and you can create your mobile connection just fine. Just remember to insert MicroSIM to your device:
5 comments:
Does the hot swappable battery functionality work on this with Linux?
Great post by the way!
Yes it does. I have CF-AX2 with hot swappable battery and it works nicely, Linux even recognizes two different batteries and allows discharge both of them while using. And same with this Toughpad, works like a charm.
Great writeup. 7 years later, in the summer of 2022, this is still a great little Linux tablet, the best one I've tried to work with to date. I picked up an FZ-M1(C) off eBay and installed Ubuntu 22 LTS on it. Everything pretty much works out of the box with no tweaking. To get the on screen keyboard to pop up reliable you need to log in as Ubuntu on Xorg from the login screen.
The only complaint I have so far is that the on-screen keyboard is a little on the small size, and could easily be 20%-30% larger to improve usability.
What are the steps to switch to Linux from the Windows 8 version? Is it like any regular computer where you connect a USB and access the boot? Any suggestions before changing the operating system?
Hi,
Thanks for this very helpful site. I am a linux user with a number of Toughbooks all running Ubuntu 22.04 nicely with a few tweaks and am about to purchase the FZ-M1. Great to know there are other Linux Toughbook users out there!! Keep up the good work!
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