The authors purchased two Sony VAIO PCG-505TR computers ($1495/each) from
www.cdw.com.
(Note: I don't know of any company, including CDW, that still carries 505TR's.)
We chose this Sony model because of the small
size, high screen resolution, and Linux compatibility described by bfields and
jfreund
on the
Linux on Laptops page.
The newer N505 costs no more than the 505TR and features a
faster Celeron 333 processor, but
dwhysong
and
liz
have both reported significant incompatibilities
when using the N505 with Linux.
The first author previously owned an NEC Versa 2730MT, which
weighed over 7 pounds. He hardly took it anywhere because it was too heavy;
the VAIO is small enough that he carries it with him often,
which results in it being used much more. The small keyboard and screen
takes some time to get used to.
We were both pleased with CDW's service.
However,
our laptops appeared to be DOA! The solution is to plug the laptop in for
approximately 20 minutes to charge the internal battery so that the
machine will boot up. Our machines would not turn on before
charging the internal battery for a few minutes!
"I" in the description below refers to
William, and
all email enquiries should be directed to
[email protected].
Please do not send me Microsoft Windows related questions,
as I don't know anything about Microsoft Windows.
The Sony VAIO PCG-505TR uses the ESS-1879 chip set. This chip set
was not supported until kernel 2.2.11. If you are using an earlier
version then you will most likely need to use the OSS sound software.
Otherwise upgrade your kernel to 2.2.12 (this has some bug fixes). I had
to do this since I use SUSE 6.2 which is based on the 2.2.10 kernel.
Once this is done, then the 100% Soundblaster Compatible entry in the
kernel should work.
There is a bug in the kernel for the ESS-1879 sound chip that I
have found. This problem occurs when booting into Linux from Windows
without powering down the computer first. A register, 0x71, in the sound
chip can have values programmed into it that will alter the sample rate
algorithm of this chip. On my system this results in sample rates below
22050 being set wrong. This register does not get reset with a software
reset. The kernel does not zero out this register. The work around is
to power down the computer when exiting windows and before entering
Linux. I have reported this to the author of the module that supports
this chip, so this should be fixed in a future kernel. If you are an
experienced kernel developer then here is the fix.
Change file drivers/sound/sb_ess.c.
Add the following code to the
function ess_init, at the end of the function:
/* Disable audio 2 data if boot
from another OS w/o HW reset */
if (devc->submodel == SUBMDL_ES1879)
{
ess_setmixer(devc, 0x71, 0x00);
}
If you have never modified a kernel before, then I don't recommend doing
this. You can get into really big trouble. This fix should work for
kernels 2.2.11 thru 2.2.14.
I bought a 64MB RAM chip for $199 from
Coast-to-Coast memory.
I was not pleased with their service; for example, they told me
repeatedly that the memory would cost 119insteadof199, but
charged me $199. This isn't the place to go into more detail
about their poor service; at least the memory arrived and works.
The installation was easy: I followed the very detailed instructions
on the Sony web page, which involve turning everything off,
removing a single screw from the
bottom of the unit, inserting the RAM chip, and putting the screw
back in.
Since nobody seems to have found the true source of the problem, I
am using the following fix. I add a single option to /etc/pcmcia/network,
as follows:
# ...
'restart')
/sbin/ifconfig ${device:?} down up
;;
'resume')
./network stop eth0
./network start eth0
;;
esac
With this change, the ethernet card always works correctly.
I am confused as to why the "resume" option doesn't already exist, as
it is called by the cardmgr daemon when resuming from suspend:
Jan 4 21:20:51 localhost apmd[12336]: Normal Resume after 00:00:12 (99% 2:58) AC power
Jan 4 21:20:52 localhost cardmgr[393]: executing: './network resume eth0'
Next we describe how to use a PCMCIA ethernet card and
the built-in modem at the same time.
Fixed the IRQs
Add the following to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:
exclude irq 3
exclude irq 5
Using both the ethernet card and modem is a networking problem.
I only use the ethernet card to connect to my desktop machine,
so I set my network configuration up so that the eth0 device
was not the default route.
This was accomplished using linuxconf; I changed the default gateway
from 192.168.1.1 to blank.
The ppp0 interfaced (the modem) takes care of the default route.
Then, the 8 hours off problem you described was because
Red Hat's kernel configuration sets APM to assume your
system clock is set to GMT instead of your local time.
I compiled a new kernel with the following APM settings
and it works much better now:
CONFIG_APM=y
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
# CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE is not set
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
# CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK is not set
CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_MULTIPLE_SUSPEND=y
CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_SUSPEND_BOUNCE=y
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS=y
The Rio 500 MP3 player is
supported under Linux. In order to obtain support for the USB
port, I upgraded to the (unstable) linux kernel version 2.3.47.
Everything worked fine, as long as I didn't turn the laptop on with
the RIO plugged into the USB port. To enable communications with
the RIO, I execute the following script:
# installing these two modules will make the rio 500 communicate w/ my VAIO
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.3.47/usb/usb-uhci.o
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.3.47/usb/rio.o
After upgrading to kernel version 2.3.47, a few things broke. Most
noticeably, when I suspend under X the VAIO resumes with the screen
shifted about 25% to the right. I can fix it by typing "Ctr-Alt-F1" to
switch to a text console, and then "Alt-F7" to switch back to X.
The sound is (usually) nothing but a hissing squeal under VMWARE 2 with
Windows 98. Andrew Nguyen also experienced this problem, but
reports that the Olympus DS-150 player works under Windows 2000
with VMWARE 2.
Re: Linux / Olympus DS-150
From: Andrew Nguyen
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 00:16:00 -0700
Good news! I installed Win2000 under VMWARE 2.0.4 and the sound files play
just fine. However, i'm now having trouble seeing the files on a raw
disk......
--Andy
On Tuesday 05 June 2001 15:18, you wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 June 2001 18:12, you wrote:
> > That is the exact problem I have and will be trying to use Windows 2000
> > under VMWARE. I'll let you know if I find a better solution.
>
> Thanks, and let me know if Win 2000 works for you.
>
> -- William
Contact info
Email me at
[email protected]
with questions or comments.
I will add any interesting solutions we find to this web page.
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