Who has a Sony Vaio?

[jabr at blu.org (John Abreau)]

On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, David Kramer wrote:

> Somebody in the group has a Sony Vaio, the handheld one, but I can't
> remember who.
> ........
> And I think I remember your Vaio running Linux.
> 
> If you are willing to answer a few questions, please contact me.

That would be me. I just reinstalled it for LinuxWorld Expo, to upgrade
from Redhat 5.2 to 6.0, and the few problems I was having have gone away.
I think the 2.0 kernel didn't support the CardBus pcmcia hardware and the
2.2 kernel does; in any case, my ethernet card now works under linux, and
I am very happy with it.

When I first saw it at CompUSA, I made a note of the model number and then
did a web search that evening to see if anyone had gotten Linux t run on
it. I found the following guide, which I used to install:

http://www.solluna.org/~bookwyrm/pcg-c1x.html

The basics are to boot from a pcmcia cdrom drive with the following bot
options:

boot: linux ide2=0x180,0x386

Then, when the redhat installer asks if you need pcmcia support to
install, you tell it "no". From there the installation is smooth. Oh and
you download the neomagic X server and the prebuilt XF86Config file from
the above URL.

The laptop doesn't come with a cdrom drive, so you'll have to get one
separately. I originally got the Sony pcmcia cdrom drive, which uses a
separate power supply and doesn't take batteries, so it's not really
portable. I don't know if the above boot parameters are specific to the
Sony cdrom drive or not.

I recently picked up an EXP dvd-rom drive, which has the option of running
off the laptop's power. DVD movies don't play under linux yet, due to
licensing and patent issues, but it works reasonably well under windows,
which was convenient on the long plane ride out to San Jose. Battery life
is kinda short, though; I've found the batery lasts a little over an hour
(Sony calls it a "3-hour" battery; go figure). I'm tempted to get a couple
additional batteries for travelling, though they are somewhat pricy.

More good news: under 5.2, the APM stuff didn't work right; I did a
sleep-to-disk once to try it, and X froze up completely, requiring a hard
reset. Under 6.0, it works perfectly right out of the box. Also, when you
shutdown the system, it powers itself off automatically.

Note that you have to leave the tiny hda4 partition in place for the BIOS
to do power management.

--
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix 
Email: jabr at blu.org / URL: http://www.blu.org
ICQ#28611923 / AIM abreauj
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Those not competing for alpha geek status usually don't like being
encrusted with electronic barnacles everywhere they go."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).