Re: tlug: Sony Vaio

["Manuel M. T. Chakravarty" <chak@example.com>]

Rob Bickel <rob@example.com> wrote,

> I am thinking of getting a Sony Vaio 505.  I have one concern.  I
> had known that Craig bought one and asked him about installing Linux
> on it and he said everything was pretty much fine except he couldn't
> use the internal modem.  Has any one installed Linux on one of these
> and got the modem to work.  This is a big thing since the Vaio 505
> has only one PC Card slot and I don't want to have to buy a compatability
> modem card and have it use my own available PC card slot.  

The modems works with Linux.  I am running TL2.0 on a VAIO
505.  The problem with the modem is only to have the right
IRQ assignment.  By default your /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia will
have a line

  PCIC_OPTS=irq_list=3,4,5,7,10,11,12,14,15

Unfortunately, interrupt 3 is also used by the internal
modem.  So, when you insert a PCMCIA card, the modem doesn't 
work anymore.  By changing the above line to

  PCIC_OPTS=irq_list=4,5,7,10,11,12,14,15

the problem disappears (I guess you maybe should also take
interrupt 5 out of the list as it is used by the sound card
-- but on my machine PCMCIA doesn't attempt to use it
anyway.)

Chris wrote,

> You should have two concerns.
> 
> The additional concern is the video chipset.  Neomagic.

It works with TL's SVGA server (which includes the Neomagic
patch).  I think, there now is also a second version of
SVGA for the Neomagic chips from RedHat.  So, this chip is
not really a practical problem anymore -- maybe a political
one.  And if you want to buy a NotePC without that chipset,
you are not left with a big choice...

There is one problem however.  The 505 does not have a
built-in CD-ROM (not surprising given its size).  The
optional (external) CD-ROM from Sony comes with a special
kind of PCMCIA card, which doesn't work with Linux.  Maybe I
should say, doesn't work for me.  Maybe somebody already
wrote a driver, I don't know -- if anybody has some
information regarding this matter, please tell me.

So, you have to install via Ethernet or so -- I did an ftp
install.  Apart from that, I really like the VAIO 505 :-)

Cheers,

Manuel

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