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    Installing Linux Onto My FZ

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by jam12, Feb 17, 2008.

  1. jam12

    jam12 Notebook Deity

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    Hi Guys,
    I'm thinking about installing Linux on my FZ and am a complete noob when it comes to this area. Was wondering whether you could assist me in dual-booting Vista and Linux.

    Questions
    1. Which Linux should I install? Some people say Ubuntu, some say Fedora. And why?
    2. Which partitions are already installed on the FZ. I have a 200GB HD and in 'My computer' it only comes up as 176GB. Is there, and where do I find the hidden partition.
    3. Will the linux cd/dvd I install from aid me into creating partitions and having a dual-boot?
    4. Is it safe to dual-boot?
    5. If I do in the future, how do I get rid of linux and the partitions its made. Does the unix cd/dvd help me in this?

    Thanks, Jam.
     
    jam12, Feb 17, 2008
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  2. Woodgypsy

    Woodgypsy Notebook Evangelist

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    I use Arch Linux on my FZ myself, although Arch wouldn't be good for new users.

    1. Major ease-of-use distributions or their derivatives are the easiest for the beginner, imo. Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, OpenSUSE all are good choices. Mandriva and Mephis didn't boot on my FZ, so I wouldn't recommend them. Personally, I recommend Mint or Ubuntu.

    2. There's hidden recovery partition on FZ that is taking up some space. Linux liveCD/DVDs can see that partition.

    3. Since you are using Vista, do not resize Vista partition with Linux LiveCD - but rather, shrink the main Vista partition using the partition tool in Vista. Then, create Linux partitions on that freed space, using "manually setting up partitions" on LiveCD installers.

    4. Yes. I can even call my recovery partition from GRUB.

    5. You can get rid of Linux easily - however, you cannot remove GRUB/LILO (bootloaders) unless you do repair install of Vista.

    On FZ related issues in particular,
    Sound works fine with the newest ALSA - make sure to set the option "model=vaio position_fix=0" on snd-hda-intel settings - where you have to set that option depends on distribution.

    For webcam, you have to use this driver.
    http://wiki.mediati.org/R5u870

    Still I cannot change the brightness level, but everything else seems to work fine. Good luck. :)
     
    Woodgypsy, Feb 17, 2008
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  3. ZorbaTheHuman

    ZorbaTheHuman Newbie

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    Hi, I want to reseize the 224 GB Available C Drive in my Vaio CR 390 into 3 partitions: 40 GB of C, 50 GB of unallocated for Linux and the remaining (~130 GB) for my personal files. but vista will not shrink more than 75 GB . is there any way around? -venkat
     
    ZorbaTheHuman, Mar 25, 2008
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