Linux on Sony Vaio Z?

I plan to purchase a Vaio Z series laptop, but I want to run Linux on it. With this in mind, I would appreciate any feedback people have concerning the Vaio Z and Linux. I have searched the forums and found some information that leads me to believe that the Vaio Z and Linux don't get along very well. =( Most of the posts I have read are a bit old, so I am hoping that some of the issues have been overcome. Again, any feedback is appreciated.

 

Technically you can run any OS on any system.

Problem is though, you don't get the drivers for some OS, or they won't recognize the hardware, etc. (e.g. Windows one on a modern PC)

But back on-topic regarding Linux.

You will possibly be required to instal several drivers by yourself as they may not be integrated into the Linux distribution.

And: You have to find how the graphics card switching works out in Linux.

Maybe you can ask specific driver questions in the Linux forum?

 

Yesterday I purchased a replacement for my Viao because I'm not purchasing the OS a second time if they dont' have drivers to support what they say they support, XP.

The HP rep, after I got him to be serious and not me, told me that M$ has been threatening HP if they don't close the doors on XP capability and support their "one install" program. He mentioned that they are pushing the Mfgrs. to produce laptops that can only run Vista from MS preloaded. None of this Linux, XP upgrading stuff. His feeling was that eventually M$ will dominate and control the hardware market one way or another.

Gotta love 'em.

So, if you're going Linux, go go go.

After this, I'm done with Window$.

 

There is no way you can lock out Linux.
Because if the Hardware manufacturer doesn't supply the Linux drivers someone will.

 

Indeed. Although in the past (if not today) Microsoft used anti-competitive selling practices to force manufacturers to pay for a MS OS license for every PC sold - even those with Linux installed. So although they didn't 'ban Linux' they made it uneconomical. As far as I know, Microsoft aren't quite as bad nowadays...

 

This may well be, but I think that's another issue...

 

I cannot comment on the VAIO Z, but the VAIO SR with ATI graphics runs pretty well
under Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. Most things work out of the box (graphics, ethernet, suspend
to ram, suspend to disk, touchpad including vertical scrolling, VGA adapter for external
screen, sound, dimming of screen while on battery).

I had so far no chance to test wireless and Bluetooth but they are recognized and
configured in Ibex. There are some small things that need fixing (in the standard
installation speakers are not muted when headphones are plugged in, and also some
Fn key combinations don't work, but that's nothing to be afraid of, the important ones
like the PgUp, PgDn key-combinations do work).

The largest stumbling block for using new hardware with Linux is usually the graphics
drivers. You should be safe here with the Z, because Nvidia have offered pretty good Linux
drivers in the past, which are rather easy to install in most distros. The free Linux drivers
for the Intel X4500 are problematic at present, but this should improve soon as the
developers have recently fixed a bug that has bothered many people with Sony VAIOS.

 

from the sony vaio Z owners thread

 

I currently have installed Ubuntu 8.10 (32bit) on my Z11MN/B, kernel .29.
Almost everything seems to go pretty well, but there's appearently no way to set the backlight (not even using the specifical sony brightness acpi interface, which instead works on the vaio SR11M, with the x4500).
It's stuck to the maximum level, so it's very annoying, and not suitable for real use.
I don't know if some minor features are supported (mmc/sd/ms reader or bt) simply because I still haven't tested them.

 

I tried Ubuntu 8.10, but I could not get the nVidia card to work with an accelerated driver. It also seems like when booting Ubuntu it powers both, the Intel and the nVidia card.
Without accelerated graphics, there is no 3D and a lot of image tearing effects due to slow graphics performance.

Did you get the nVidia card accelerated djlooka?

 

I run mother earth Vista Biz x64 and I have put OpenSuse11 and Solaris 10 Desktop and Ubuntu 8.04 on my Z.

How?

I use VMware.

 

It's true. THE problem is that we lack kernel support to dual gpu (as for Fn keys, brightness, etc).
Hopefully someone is working on it right now, so, just be patient

Yes, follow this guide:
h t t p://neotokyo.sytes.net/vgn-z11/Ubuntu8.10_vaio_vgn_z11.html

As it is in Spanish, Google translate may help

VMware is not a real solution IMO.
You can't fully take advantage of your hw.

 

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback!

This really has me worried =(

djlooka - While you are using the nvidia chipset, would you please try the following?

Code:

$ nvidia-settings --assign RedBrightness=0.5
$ nvidia-settings --assign GreenBrightness=0.5
$ nvidia-settings --assign BlueBrightness=0.5

More information can be found here:
w w w .linux.it/~malattia/wiki/index.php/Sony-laptop

 

Code:

luca@z:~$ nvidia-settings --assign RedBrightness=0.5

ERROR: Error parsing assignment 'RedBrigtness=0.5' (Trailing garbage).

 

on saturday ill try to install gentoo linux on my z. I want to have linux as my main OS, so i cant imagine my vaio without linux :|

anyway, so the main problem is that so far there is no kerner with 2 gpu card support, yes?

 

the main problem is that apparently the wireless driver in recent kernels fudges up the firmware of the wifi card

 

which kernel/s should i avoid? *.27 AND *.25 ? and what kernel should i install then?

 

THE problem is the brightness: it's stuck to the maximum, you can't use it on google for more than 3 seconds .
You can install both drivers today, but it's a tricky procedure (see link some posts above), and you'll have to boot up Windows XP (Vista is not compatible with the procedure) everytime you want to switch between the gpus.
I think today's a bit early to have linux as main OS, but I'm hopeful that in a few kernel releases the problems will be solved.

It was only involving the .27 kernel, and has now been solved.
I have both .26 and .29 on mine, and AFAIK there's no problem.

 

Doh, sorry about that! I found and old laptop with an Nvidia chipset, slapped linux on it and was able to reduce the brightness by using the nvidia-settings utility. The syntax that I posted earlier is apparently incorrect (as you discovered). The following method may be an eaiser way to reduce the brightness.

On my distro, after I installed the nvidia driver, an "nvidia-settings" utility was also installed:

Code:

$ which nvidia-settings
/usr/bin/nvidia-settings

$ sudo nvidia-settings

The last command should start an Nvidia GUI program. Under the "X Screen 0" tab (left side), select "X Server Color Correction". There should be a brightness slider bar that you can adjust to reduce the brigthess.

Please note there are numerous ways to set the brightness value. The correct command line syntax is:

Code:

$ sudo nvidia-settings --assign :0.0/RedBrightness=0.0 <--- repeat for other channels

 

can you adjust default brightness in the bios? my last laptop I could do that.

 

no, there is no option to do that :/

 

You got it!
It definitely does something! I currently set both Contrast and Brightness to "-1.00" (leaving Gamma to 1.00), and now I finally can watch my screen without my eyes being offended Great job! (but the colours are not the right ones: they look "weak", black turns to grey, etc)

It's not a definitive solution, but at least a starting point.
I mean:

• it's only possible to do it with the nvidia gpu enabled (which means the weird procedure of "boot win, switch, reboot, turn on linux, etc.")
• both the gpus are anyway turned on together, so the battery life is embarassing (considering my 5h of everyday use as comparison)
• the 9300 drains more power if it's really used and not only powered

As I said before, it's not ready for everyday use.

 

do you have hardware 3d acceleration? if so, are you able to run compiz-fusion? and one more, your wi-fi card is working?

 

Yes.

I don't know if it's comparable to the full compiz fusion, but it's possible to enable the enhanced video effects on Gnome (only tried with the 9300).

I have no wi-fi at home, but I remember network-manager didn't recognize any wlan some time ago. Currently I have wicd, so I'll try ASAP.
The only thing I'm sure of is that the "wireless" switch seems to work pretty well, as it enables/disables the BT service (and it's even a bit quicker than the windows one).

Good news: with the default BT service (bluez, I think) I managed to send a photo to my Nokia E65.
Bad news: I couldn't send anything from the mobile to my Z. It appears on the list, I can select it, but it fails: "Impossible to send".

One more thing: with the brightness trick (on Nvidia), the mouse pointer remains fully enlightened, it's not possible to regulate its brightness
So it's still not hw regulation, just a kind of sw calibration, that only involves the desktop (and not the whole X, for example).

 

Last night, i was playing with linux and i runned Fedora 10 (kernel *.27 if im not wrong) and almost everything works perfectly.

wi-fi working
enhanced video effects working
BT ok!

but like you said before, there is no brightness regulation. FN keys are working, but not one with "sun" :/. Hopefully soon we will have new kernel where everything will be ok!

 

Fedora? With Gnome?
Which network manager does it have?
Did you both send and receive files with BT?

 

Yes Fedora 10 with Gnome. Hm.. i dont know which network manager fedora is using, but it looks very similar to ubuntu tbh. There is one but! When i tryed Ubuntu 8.10 i couldn't connect to any wi-fi network, with fedora it works fine!

Tbh i didnt try to recieve files on my vaio, but sending works good! FN keys, such as Volume UP/DN works good as well. Soon, new Sabayon Linux is comming out. Maybe he will have new kernel, or at least video support will be better.

 

I had the same problem controlling the screen's backlight on my SR. If you are running
KDE you may be able to change the screen brightness using the slider in the Power
Management Widget of the KDE panel. Works great for me in all distros I have tested:
Ubuntu, Mandriva, and OpenSuSe. Moreover I can define a different default screen
brightness for different Power Profiles.

... btw I am writing this running on OpenSuSe 11.1 RC1, and I feel it IS ready for
everyday use. Wish only that ATI already provided an rpm with their latest driver for my
Radeon 3470 on OpenSuSe 11.1!

 

so the hybrid graphics don't work? can you switch at all? could someone make a list of what works and what doesn't on the Z?

 

Why is not running Vmware a good solution?

It detect USB when I plug in.

Yah, it does need to use the host to power most of the things.

I guess if you want adventure, then go for the real thing.

 

dhfriedman, the only thing that actually doesnt work, is brightness, you just cant set your own level. Video acceleration is working, sound, bt, wi-fi, gpu (both at one time afaik).

 

running both gpus at the same time seems like a major problem to me...

 

still its better to run both than not even 1

 

I'm happy for you, but here the problem is linux on vaio Z, with switchable graphics (Intel and Nvidia). I think that vaio SR with only ATI graphics is pretty a different thing, no?
I think that linux itself IS ready for everyday use, but not the way it's currently running on vaio Z.

 

you can still use him on vaio, but when you want to run him on battery, then this is a big problem

 

For one thing, Sony disables virtualization (VT) in the BIOS even when the CPU and northbridge supports it, so you can't run 64-bit operating systems under VMware on a VGN-Z.

And, of course, you can forget about working 3D.

 

Oh, people have found ways to enable it again...
Just search the forum.

 

Not on the Z. Just search the forum.

(It uses a completely different 32-bit BIOS (InsydeH2O))

 

Where there's a will there's a way.

You can be the first to find out the.

 

bad joke man...

 

Nvidia/ATI and the KDE 4.1 desktop has been an issue lately so it has nothing to do with the notebook. Some Linux users insist the newer Nvidia cards work fine but mine is older so I can't tell you one way or the other.

From my googling, I think if you go with the following specs on any notebook, you can use Linux just fine:

1) CPU - Intel Centrino
2) DDR2 or DDR3 RAM
3) Nvidia mobile GPU - unforunately, there are still major issues with ATI cards...according to most Linux users
4) Intel wireless - new or old, Intel is working on Linux compatibility
5) hibernate/suspend features seem to be a bit tricky and sometimes don't work quite right.... but, this has been with most notebooks, older and newer... I really think it's not very significant but I don't have a laptop yet

Laptops equipped with similar specs to the Sony Vaio Z series should work just as well as the Sony. It's mostly about hardware specs, not brand.

The issue with the e1000e driver has been fixed last I read.

The Nvidia/tearing issue seems more serious to me.

If you go with ATI, you will have another series of headaches according to what I've read. I think it will be a while until the open source advantage really means something.

But, either graphics chip can be dealt with.

Just go with Intel wireless, Intel graphics or if you need a better chip, go with Nvidia or ATI (either one but Nvidia has had a better recent history with compatibility).

 

Ubuntu 8.10 works pretty well. I am running the 64-bit Desktop version. All the hardware I care for is recognized (LAN, WIFI, BLUETOOTH, WEBCAM). The only little thing that bothers me is that standby does not work out of the box (complains about some hardware that could not go to standby), but in any case I have not researched the issue.

Boot and shutdown times are amazing in Linux. Shutdown is almost immediate, comparing to more that 2 minutes to shutdown vista sometimes.

BTW I am using intel (stamina) mode and I have not tried nvidia...

 

Why? Many Unix systems have more than one graphics card, often of different manufacture. That's no problem for X11 or Linux.

The main difference is that these two are hooked up to the same monitor, which, currently Xorg/XFree86 has no functionality for handling. Some commercial Unix systems have done it before, though.

 

Battery life.
There's no problem getting X11 to run if you know what you're doing, but with both graphics cards enabled battery life will suffer.
Other notebooks with hybrid graphics have the possibility to disable the discrete graphics card in bios, which would be perfectly acceptable to me. Having both running at the same time is not.

 

But on the VGN-Z, the Intel adapter is never disabled in Windows either. Go take a look in the Device Manager when running in "Speed" mode, and you'll see both.

 

Has anyone found a way to get the headphones working on linux yet?

Trying to use my headphones on my Vaio SZ71 doesn't work. No sound from the headphones, and the laptop speakers don't get muted. Not sure about other Distro's, but I'm using Fedora 10 right now, was hoping the upgrade from FC9 would help

 

Fedora 10 has switched from ALSA to PulseAudio. Check whether you can set it up in Applications -> Sound & Video -> PulseAudio Volume Control
If you can't, you may have to switch back to ALSA. A google for 'ALSA "Fedora 10"' should get you there.

 

Got it to work

If anyone else is having trouble, this is what I did:

Found the file '/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf.dist'

Added 'options snd-hda-intel model=vaio' to the end of this file.

Rebooted, and to my delight the headphones now work as expected

EDIT :: In fedora 11 the file which needs to be edited is now:
/etc/modprobe.d/dist.conf

 

new ubuntu 8.10 x64 is almost working fine, exept that i cant run full gpu acceleration (nvidia). Everything else is working ok!

 

What about screen backlight?