This report is listed at TuxMobil - Linux on laptops, notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones.
Send a message to katie-vaio-subscribe@hoteldetective.org to participate in ongoing discussion.
Special thanks to Gregg, Brian, and Beatrice for their input. You may want to refer to Gregg's Linux on the VAIO TR3 page for more details on getting the VGA OUT port to work, getting the wireless to work, and getting some of the VAIO-specific features to work.
My laptop computer is a Sony Vaio PCG-TR3A. That's right—the same one Dave Barry carries! It came pre-installed with Windows XP on one partition and, conveniently, a blank second partition. On the latter I installed Fedora Core 2 using CDs (a DVD ISO image is available, but I had trouble downloading a file that large). Since then I've upgraded to Fedora Core 4.
The widescreen aspect ratio of this laptop's display was not automatically detected by Fedora Core 2. I downloaded the 1280patch, compiled it, and added an invocation of it in the shell script /etc/X11/prefdm. I also had to add this ModeLine to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
ModeLine "1280x768" 80.14 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795Right out of the box, I don't think you can adjust the screen brightness under Linux. In Windows, I can adjust the brightness using the Fn+F5 key combination. Also, when Windows boots, it automatically adjusts the screen brightness according to the power source (normal under AC power, dimmer on battery power to extend battery life). Linux boots with whatever brightness was last set, which means that if you last ran under Windows with a dimmed screen, you get a dimmed screen when you boot Linux, regardless of your power source.
I understand that the Sony Programmable I/O driver will allow me to adjust screen brightness under Linux, and I plan to try it out soon.
Beatrice reports:
sonypi did something; now when pressing the keys I get a big window saying unhandled event: xx where xx is a different number for each Fn key—but of course no functionality. I need that, especially to enable external monitors (projectors) for my presentations—screen brightness would be nice too so as not to wake up the neighbor on a night flight.
Gregg says:
I've been able to get the function keys to sort of work with sonypi but you must be running KDE. If I press a Fn+Fxx key I get something like key undefined and I'm still looking for where to define them. KDE also has a dimmer switch for the monitor and a battery/power monitor.
Brian notes:
I emailed the guys who wrote the I/O drivers for the fn keys, camera, etc... The reply was that it doesn't work on the tr3.
The sound didn't work out of the box. To get it working, I installed gnome-alsamixer, ran it, and de-selected the "External Amplifier" option. (The audio controller in this laptop is an Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97.) On his Vaio page, Gregg gives a good explanation of why CD audio doesn't work out of the box under Linux on this laptop. The solution involves installing the xmms-cdread plugin for xmms. This Linux Forum thread shows how to configure xmms-cdread.
The built-in wireless card is an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection miniPCI adapter. The ipw2200 has developed a linux driver for it. Bill Moss of the Clemson Linux Initiative and R. Birdman each have excellent instructions on setting up this linux driver. Fedora Core 4 automatically recognizes the wireless interface and loads the appropriate driver without any user intervention.
Wired networking works right out of the box if you're using DHCP. If not, configure your networking by editing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.
I've connected my Nikon Coolpix 775 digital camera and my USB Memory Watch to this laptop's USB ports. To mount a USB device, I just use mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydevice. If there is already a volume mounted from /dev/sdb1, use /dev/sdc1 for the next one. This is the case regardless of which of the two physical ports you use first and second.
I haven't had occasion to try out the modem, but as it's a software modem, it's likely to be non-trivial or even impossible to get working.
I haven't been brave enough to close this notebook while Linux is running, but apparently I'm not missing much. Gregg Suaning reports that APM is not included in the Fedora 2 kernel, but the power button (to the upper-right of the keyboard) issues /sbin/shutdown -h when pressed.
Gregg comments:
Standby mode would be really nice. Fedora seems to disable APM in their kernels for some reason and I think that may be the key to getting standby mode to work. For now, the ON/OFF button issues /sbin/shutdown -h now which is okay until you hit it by accident.
Beatrice tried a kernel patch:
I didn't find a kernel patch for 2.6.5-*. A patch with 2.6.7 did hang so violently I had to remove the battery (and a long fsck then). [After that] kernel recompile I can't use xconfig, I only see funny symbols (half moons, etc.).
Gregg reports that PCMCIA support is card-dependent—it recognises when he puts things in (wireless LAN card for example), but he hasn't been able to get them to work (from lack of trying, he notes).
Again, I haven't tried this, but Gregg has, and he says that dongles vary—some work, some don't. The newer the better (he uses them to program microcontrollers—very iffy when buying even a “good” serial port dongle).
Gregg says:
CD burning works fine. Fedora autostarts CD Creator which, it appears, prevents me from using my old method of cdrecord -v speed=4 dev=1,0,0 /tmp/cdimage.iso
Beatrice reports that she's had no problem using xcdroast to burn CDs on the Vaio TR2 in Fedora.
I had no problems playing DVDs. There are several major DVD players for Linux.
According to the Sony Vaio PictureBook Motion Eye Camera Driver page, the Sony programmable I/O driver was integrated into the official Linux kernel starting with the 2.4.7 kernel. This leads me to believe that I should be able to use this built-in camera in Fedora 2 without a lot of fuss. I haven't yet tried it, though.
Beatrice's experience:
Again no such device /dev/video message when [I press the camera button] (after following the howtos). I of course made the device nodes and did chmod 666 them.
See Gregg's Vaio page.
I haven't been in contact with anyone who has a firewire device to try out with the Vaio. If you do, please let me know.