GNU/Linux on the Sony VAIO PCG-NV309
Warning: This documentation comes with no warranty whatsoever. Use at your own risk. Or go home.
SummaryDistribution | Mandrake 9.1 [updated to Mandriva LE 2005] | works |
Processor | AMD Mobile Athlon 2000 XP | works |
RAM | 256 MB PC100 SDRAM (512 MB Max) | works |
Chipset | ? | works |
Display | 15¨ TFT 1024 x 768 | works |
Graphics Adapter | NVidia GeForce4 420 Go | works |
Sound | Integrated Via chip VT 8233 (AC97) | works |
Hard Disk | 30 GB ATA/IDE | works |
Optical Drive | Matshita CD-RW/DVD Combo | works |
Ethernet | Integrated 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX | works |
Modem | Conexant Integrated V.90/K56flex Winmodem | not tested |
WLAN | Netgear MA401 | works |
Pointing Device | Two Button Touch Pad | works |
USB | Three ports (UHCI) | works |
Battery | Lithium-ion (PCGA-BP1N) | works |
i.LINK (aka IEEE 1394, FireWire) | S400 4-pin | not tested |
Power Management | ACPI | works |
Floppy Drive | Removable 1.44 MB, 3.5¨ | works |
Distribution
I'm running Linux Mandrake on my desktop computer so I chose the same distribution for my laptop as well. It used to be the Mandrake 9.1 Download edition. [Upgraded to Mandrake 9.2 on December 20th 2003.] Inserted the first cd into the cd/dvd drive and booted off the cd. I chose the usual software, configured X Windows and everything went smooth. Instead of a standard mouse I chose GlidePoint as a PS/2 device. In Mandrake 9.2 the standard PS/2 device works well, so I chose this.
In October 2004 I upgraded to Mandrake 10.1 Community edition. Most worked well. After Easy Urpmi included these sources as well, I was able to update the edition. In June 2005 I updated to Mandriva LE 2005.
I have not compiled a new kernel, because sound, touchpad and network adapter worked out of the box. There are some things left to be done, however. Power management (acpi) has not been thoroughly tested. I get messages that tell me eveything is alright, but I cannot get the jogdial working.
Processor
[tom@milo]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 6 model : 8 model name : mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ stepping : 0 cpu MHz : 1666.772 cache size : 256 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow bogomips : 3322.67
RAM
The machine has two memory slots, supporting a maximum of 512 MB RAM. It came with 256 MB. That's enough for now...
Sound
Sound worked with the Alsa drivers in Mandrake 9.1. The new Alsa drivers seem to be broken when using the via82xx driver. The oss emulation works but has annoying background noises, when using Alsa in xmms, no sound is heard. With a geexbox cd, which uses a newer Alsa driver, everything works. Strange. This is what dmesg has to say:
Via 686a/8233/8235 audio driver 1.9.1-ac2 via82cxxx: Six channel audio available PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:11.5 to 64 ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: YMH3 (Unknown) via82cxxx: Codec rate locked at 48Khz via82cxxx: board #1 at 0x1800, IRQ 11
With Mandrake 10.0 Community sound works again. So it looks like it really was a buggy Alsa driver. But then again in 10.1 there were sound problems...
Hard Disk
30 GB ATA/IDE drive: The disk came with two partitions; one held Windows XP Home Edition and the other contained only one directory for Sony's Sonic Stage application. I just formatted the second partition and installed Linux on it without affecting Windows.
[root@milo]# dmesg | grep -i hda hda: IC25N030ATCS04-0, ATA DISK drive hda: DMA disabled hda: host protected area => 1 hda: 58605120 sectors (30006 MB) w/1768KiB Cache, CHS=3648/255/63, UDMA(100)
[root@milo]# /sbin/hdparm /dev/hda /dev/hda: multcount = 16 (on) IO_support = 1 (32-bit) unmaskirq = 1 (on) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 8 (on) geometry = 3648/255/63, sectors = 58605120, start = 0 [root@milo}# /sbin/hdparm -Tt /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.48 seconds =266.67 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.20 seconds = 20.00 MB/sec
Optical Drive
Vendor: MATSHITA Model: UJDA730 DVD/CDRW, 8x CD-R, 4x CD-RW, 24x CDROM, 8x DVD. According to another page about Linux on a Sony Vaio laptop, this drive is region locked (RPC-2) and that there's currently no known way to disable it.
The drive is manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., also known as Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Ltd. or Panasonic.
I've successfully burned CD-Rs using eroaster, have watched DVDs with Xine and have ripped CDs. I have problems listening to CDs though. Whether gnome-cd or grip is used, the drive plays the disc, but no sound is heard. However, the mixer settings are correct.
Ethernet
Integrated 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX ethernet card with a Realtek chip. I have used the network card only to connect my laptop with my t-dsl modem. I had no problems so far. I still have to test the card in my local network. At my parents' place it worked with a Netgear router and dhcp enabled. This is what dmesg says about the card:
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xd2a30000, 08:00:46:64:f3:7b, IRQ 9 eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C' eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
Modem
It's a Conexant Integrated V.90/K56flex Winmodem. I have not tested it yet.
WLAN
Netgear MA 401 works. With the Mandrake Control Center it was fairly easy to configure. After I activated WEP, I had to edit the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1. [10.1 Community screwed this up, maybe the Official cd set has a fix. 10.1 Official worked, but 10.2 Beta1 doesn't. Perhaps I should stick to the official distribution.] This is how it looked in 9.1-10.0:
DEVICE=eth1 BOOTPROTO=dhcp ONBOOT=yes WIRELESS_ESSID="MYESSID" WIRELESS_MODE="Managed" WIRELESS_ENC_KEY="aabb5455565758595a5b5c5d" [No, this is not my real key.] WIRELESS_RATE="auto" WIRELESS_IWCONFIG="key restricted" DHCP_HOSTNAME="milo" NEEDHOSTNAME="yes"
USB
Getting USB working required no additional work. I tested USB with my Nike psa[play and rioutil. I can format the device and upload new songs. The Logitech mouse works as well, my Archos mp3/video player is automatically detected [Mandriva LE 2005].
At boot I get some annoying error messages about ¨disk read failed¨, I think it is the USB memory stick thingy, which complains that no stick is attached to the ¨drive¨. [It was the Memory stick. With Mandrake 9.2 the complaints are only visible in syslog or with dmesg.
acpi
I enabled acpi by passing the appropriate option to Lilo. At boot there are no complaints about acpi trouble, but I did not get very far, when I tried to enable the jogdial.
I've had enough fiddling with the jogdial and bought an optical Logitech mouse (PS/2 and USB). Works, has a scroll wheel, need I say more?
[root@milo]# dmesg | grep -i acpi ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030122 ACPI: Interpreter enabled ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing ACPI: System [ACPI] (supports S0 S3 S4 S5) ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 9 10 11 12, disabled) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs *9 10 11 12) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 9 10 *11 12) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs *9 10 11 12) ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC0] (gpe 1) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PPB_._PRT] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10 PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off' apm: overridden by ACPI. ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT1] (battery present) ACPI: AC Adapter [ACAD] (on-line) ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports C1 C2, 16 throttling states) ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (54 C) ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF] ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SBTN] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]