Howto install Debian Sid on Vaio Z21 (2011)

Hi,
this tutorial show you how you can install Debian Sid on your vaio Z21 from an USB key.
There are still some problems:
- cannot change brightness of the screen
- cannot use modeset (ie only fallback mode on gnome 3)
- touchpad behavior is weird

1. Prepare the usb key
a. format your usb key in FAT32

The following steps require Linux with grub2 (you could use a livecd):
b. sudo grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/media/USB_KEY_NAME /dev/sdx (replace x with your actual USB device)
c. download vmlinuz, initrd.gz and amd64 businesscard iso in /media/USB_KEY_NAME
d. create /media/USB_KEY_NAME/boot/grub/grub.cfg file and add the following lines:

Code:

menuentry "Debian amd64 business card" {
  linux /vmlinuz priority=low
  initrd /initrd.gz
}

* I have not try but maybe it is possible to install Ubuntu 11.04 or Ubuntu 11.10. If you want to try with 11.04 save Ubuntu 11.04 iso in /media/USB_KEY_NAME/ubuntu-11.04-amd64.iso and add the following lines in grub.cfg:

Code:

menuentry "Ubuntu 11.04 amd64" {
 loopback loop (hd0,1)/iso/ubuntu-11.04-amd64.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso/ubuntu-11.04-amd64.iso noeject noprompt --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

Now you can go to step 2.

2. Installation
I have encountered problems with ethernet connection which doest not work sometimes. In theses cases, I did the step again and see if all packages had been retrieved (tty4 is a debug tty on the debian installer).
I did the following steps with the partition manager:
- delete all raid configurations
- delete all partitions
- create a primary partition of 10 Go on the first SSD
- create a primary partition of 10 Go on the second SSD
- create a raid0 configuration (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 in my case)
- set this partition as ext4 with mount point / and noatime option
- do something similar for my /home partition

Personally, I created raid0 configuration for my /home partition but you can use another scheme.

3. First boot
I had a blank screen so you should have the same problem.
To bypass this problem, you need to edit the configuration of the kernel. So in the grub menu list, enter in edit mode and replace the line finishing with ro quiet by:
ro i915.modeset=0

 

What is weird about the touchpad behavior?

 

When you want to click on the left or the right button the position of the cursor changed and the cursor shakes.
For now, I do not try to edit the configuration, so maybe it wil be ok.

 

Are you able to right click at all?

 

No it does a left click.

 

you should of posted this in the linux section.