Linux on Sony VAIO PCG-SRX51P
I created a bootable DVD-RW from the CD images (just as described for Red Hat 8.0 in
[1]). This
time it was possible to boot and install from the external drive. The
mouse pointer is a bit difficult to use during the installation, as it
is strangely shifted (this was also reported by
[2]), but in
most cases the keyboard can be used instead. I chose the ALPS Glide
Point mouse and a generic laptop display with a resolution of
1024x768. After first boot the mouse was okay, sound was enabled, but
WLAN and the USB/Memorystick device were not detected.
Patching and compiling the included kernel 2.4.20 gave me WLAN and
Memorystick, but for whatever reason (probably because I did not use a
standard kernel) the system crashed quiet often when logging off from
KDE, and it froze whenever I tried to modprobe eth1394 to (try to) use
ethernet over firewire. These problems were finally solved by
installing kernel 2.4.23 from [3]
and applying the ACPI patch from [4]. My kernel configuration
is based on the one provided by [2], minor
changes include the modules i810_audio, eth1394, and usbcore. You can
find my config here. Compiling the
kernel and modules was done as described in the Customization Guide [5]. After
booting the new kernel, the root device (in my case /dev/hda8) was not
detected, so I had to edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and replace
root=LABEL=/ with root=/dev/hda8.
Kernel 2.4.20 needed a patch for the usb device, in 2.4.23 it is
already included. For mounting Memorystick and USB Stick my /etc/fstab
contains the following lines.
/dev/sda1 /mst vfat noauto,user 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /usb vfat noauto,user 0 0
I can also use USB mouse and printer. However, attaching my (non-Sony)
digicam always causes immediate crashes (which is not really a
problem, because the cam contains a Memorystick.)
I had to compile usbcore as a module when I used kernel 2.4.20,
because the usb device was not detected when USB support was compiled
into the kernel. I didn't change this when upgrading to kernel 2.4.23,
so I don't know if it's necessary.
To mount the external Firewire DVD-ROM /etc/fstab needs a line like this
/dev/scd0 /dvd iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0
However, the device is not detected after attaching unless the SCSI bus is updated manually:
# echo "scsi add-single-device 1 0 0 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi
After that it can be mounted. To get rid of this I enabled hotplugging as described in
[6]. As a result the script 'rescan-scsi.sh' is run whenever a device
is plugged in.
I added the following line to /etc/modules.conf
alias eth1 eth1394
After loading the module ('modprobe eth1394') the ethernet device can be started by
# ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.1 up
I did the same (with a different IP of course) on a Debian Linux (Sarge) PC
containing a PCI firewire card and was able to use the firewire
connection just like ethernet, speed was also the same (although it
could be faster than Fast Ethernet I think).
Works both. The orinoco wireless device is detected by 'kudzu' as
new hardware on every boot until you chose "ignore"
once. Configuration can be done with redhat-config-network, I use it
in Ad-hoc mode.
Requires the kernel module i810_audio mentioned above.
Fn keys for basic functions are enabled. To activate the scroll wheel
I've been using sjog [7] for a while. It requires a character device for the sonypi
driver, which is created as follows:
# mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 63
Later I switched to rsjog [8], which is written in 'ruby'. It gave me a
middle mouse button as an extra (the small 'back' button) and adds more functionality to the Fn keys. I had to
compile ruby-gtk (version 0.31), as I couldn't find an usable rpm. To adjust brightness you need write access for /dev/sonypi.
The included VGA adapter provides a dual display. There is a utility to switch between LCD & VGA [9] which I didn't test with Red Hat, but it works fine on Fedora Core2.
I finally managed to connect the laptop to my new mobile phone via
Bluetooth and use the phone as a modem to provide internet access via
GPRS. Most of the information below was collected from [2]
and various sites listed in [10].
You will need to install these packages from [12]
bluez-bluefw-1.0-1.i386.rpm
bluez-hcidump-1.5-1.i386.rpm
bluez-libs-2.4-1.i386.rpm
bluez-pan-1.1-1.i386.rpm
bluez-sdp-1.1-1.i386.rpm
bluez-utils-2.3-1.i386.rpm
Add the following lines to /etc/modules.conf :
alias net-pf-31 bluez
alias char-major-10-250 hci_vhci
alias tty-ldisc-15 hci_uart
alias bt-proto-0 l2cap
alias bt-proto-2 sco
alias bt-proto-3 rfcomm
alias bt-proto-4 bnep
alias bt-proto-5 cmtp
post-install bluez modprobe hci_usb
Create a device for the phone
# mknod -m 666 /dev/rfcomm0 c 216 0
Create a pin helper script /etc/bluetooth/givepin:
#!/bin/sh
echo "PIN:1234"
and make it executable. Now edit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf and change the path to the pin helper script:
# PIN helper
pin_helper /etc/bluetooth/givepin;
You may also change the local device name in hcid.conf, which is "Bluez (%d)" by default.
To connect to the Internet I use the scripts
gprs
and
chat-gprs
I took from a page that has now moved to
[11]
They have to be placed in the /etc/ppp/peers directory. You
might need to change the APN in chat-gprs (here: "internet"), ask your provider
Now after all this preparation turn bluetooth hardware and service on:
# spicctrl -l 1
# /etc/init.d/bluetooth start
Bring up the Bluetooth device and scan for your phone:
# hciconfig hci0 up
# hcitool scan
Your phone's hardware address should be displayed like this:
Scanning ...
00:0E:07:43:3C:0F T610
Bind the laptop to it:
# rfcomm bind 0 00:0E:07:43:3C:0F 1
To dial in just type
# pppd call gprs
This should make your phone ask for the PIN. A few seconds later you
should have internet access. Otherwise take a look at your recent
kernel messages in /var/log/messages , they should look like this.
