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This page is pretty complete and will only be updated with major corrections. A Fedora Core 5 version of this guide is already in the works and if you want to install Fedora on this laptop I highly recommend the latest version which is far easier to install. If you have an interest in getting Linux running on this laptop I encourage you to join the mailing list I've set up and help out.
Having owned several laptops I now realize there are only a couple things that are truly important. Size (small but not too small) and a great screen. Based on those two needs I chose the Sony Vaio VGN-FJ170/B (decoding the model number: FJ series with 1.7Ghz processor in Black)
Please also refer to my Fedora Core 4 Tips & Tricks.
For those interested here is the full lspci output:
Please note I've also created a mailing list to discuss Linux on Sony Vaio FJ series notebooks. You can sign up HERE
Please note this is not an easy laptop to get going with Linux and the steps outlined below are not intended for Linux novices.
Ok, here is the tricky part. After installing Fedora Core 4 you'll need to boot into either Knoppix or the Fedora install CD's "rescue" mode and make a change to a startup script otherwise the laptop will hang when it boots. The file you need to edit is /etc/rc.sysinit and you'll need to comment out the following section:
# Sound
# for module in `/sbin/modprobe -c | LC_ALL=C awk '/^alias[[:space:]]+snd-card-[[:digit:]]+[[:space:]]/ { print $3 }'` $audio; do
# load_module $module
# done
# echo -n $" audio"
Great, you can now reboot into Fedora for the first time. You'll find a lot
of things won't work out of the box (sound, wifi, etc.) until you do some more
work. The first thing you should do is plut into a wired ethernet and do
a full update of the system before doing anything else:
# yum -y updateBefore you reboot you can go back and edit /etc/rc.sysinit again and uncomment the lines you just commented out above. The other thing you need to do is edit /etc/grub.conf and modfy the kernel boot line to add the word irqpoll to the boot line for the latest kernel like below:
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.
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.14-1.1653_FC4)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet irqpoll
initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1653_FC4.img
.
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You should be able to reboot into the latest kernel successfully now.
Some issues remain with audio. Setting the maximum volume causes
static and distorted audio. The OSS driver for some reason stutters
when playing medio. Using the older OSS driver doesn't have this problem.
Configuring the video
After rebooting with all updates applied I found the resolution came up
at 1280x800 but the driver was "vesa". It works but is slow and lacks
power management. To fix that you will need to download the
915resolution utility from
http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/. Then run the utility choosing one of the listed
modes that's closest to the native 1280x800 mode. This is how I did it:
# ./915resolution 65 1280 800Then you can configure the X server to use the i810 driver instead of vesa . Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the driver for the video card as follows:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
# Driver "vesa"
Driver "i810"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "Intel 915"
EndSection
Now when you restart your X server you'll be using the new driver.
It is possible to get it to work but a little tricky. First, you'll want Stelian Pop's sony_acpi driver which I modified slightly as well as the fsfn-1.1-take2.tar.gz. Put the files in /usr/src and extract and compile them.
# gtar xzvf sony_acpi-0.3.tar.gz # cd sony_acpi-0.3 # make install # modprobe sony_acpiTo get the sony_acpi driver to load automatically I added the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local . I know it's ugly and if you have a better way in Fedora please let me know! Please note that you will also have to re-install the driver when you upgrade to a newer kernel.
modprobe sony_acpiIf that worked you should have a directory /proc/acpi/sony and it will contain three files. You can manually adjust the brightness by echoing numbers between 1 and 8 to the brightness file.
Now you need to get fsfn to handle the special Fn keys and it will then control the audio volume and screen brightness for you and will display the new value in an on screen display. You'll need the xosd library installed for this to work properly.
# yum -y install xosd xosd-devel # gtar xzvf fsfn-1.1-take2.tar.gz # cd fsfn-1.1 # configure # make install # cp fedora/fsfn /etc/init.dBefore you start you'll probably want to read the fsfn(5) man page and create the configuration file /etc/fsfn.conf containing at least the following line to enable a special hack necessary for the VAIO FJ series of notebooks:
BRT_HACK_FJS=1To get this all working you'll need to start the fsfn service at boot time (after the driver obove is loaded). Rather than having it start automatically I added it to my startup file /etc/rc.d/rc.local :
service fsfn startAnd finally you will need the client that handles the on screen display to start when you log in. Go to Desktop -> Preferences -> No Preferences -> Sessions. Once there go to Startup Programs and add the command fsfn -o to the list of startup programs.
Once you do all that you should be able to adjust the volume and screen brightness with the special Fn keys just like in XP.
# rpm -ihv http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/4/i386/RPMS.freshrpms/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm # yum -y install ipw2200-firmware # modprobe ipw2200That will load the driver which will now have access to the firmware so the interface will come up automatically from now on. You can now set up your wireless interface as you would normally.
DRIVER=powernow-k7This will cause the correct module for this processor to be loaded automatically when the cpuspeed service starts up.
If you have any leads on getting any more features working pleae drop me a line.
Linux on the VAIO TR3 - This site helped me figure out some of the goofier things about Sony laptops. Why do some companies feel the urge to re-invent things that have already been invented better by others?Sony Vaio FS series FN keys - This site was a great source of information. It was for Gentoo/Ubuntu but the tips work just as well in Fedora.
HOWTO: Adjust brightness on Sony Vaio - Another Ubuntu related page for the FS series but many of the tips work on the FJ as well. A lot of what is in this guide came from this site.
| Comments From People Like You! Fedora Core 4 on Sony Vaio FJ |  add a comment |
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Will 24-Jan-2007 15:59 |
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I wrote a command-line tool to control screen brightness by echoing values to /proc/acpi/sony/brightness hope someone ends up getting use out of it
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