Sony And Lunix (Specifically Ubuntu)

Since I hadn't seen many (okay none.) on peoples experience with Linux and their VAIO's I thought I'd pass along my own experience and share.

This was all done on an SZ140 - 1.86GHz Core Duo, 80GB HD, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, Webcam, XP Pro installed.

I downloaded the Live CD version of Ubuntu (Back when Edgy Eft was the most recent), and have since updated it to the latest Feisty Fawn. Using the live CD, I booted up using the disk, used the partition tool (quite easy) and partitioned off 30GB for the install, and a 1GB swap partition.

The install went quickly, smoothly, updated quickly and more than I can say for Vista, almost everything worked right out of the box. I had previously had Vista on another partition on the notebook and was disappointed with the pain of getting things and drivers for the hardware to work. It's not like Sony was using weird parts for their notebooks. Standard hardware here.

The only things I have not gotten working on the SZ with Linux are the webcam and the fingerprint reader. Though I have not done too much digging to see if their is support out there. Otherwise everything else just worked. FN keys for volume and brightness? Check. Wi-Fi? Check. Bluetooth? Check. DVD burning? Check. Oh yea, and the Speed/Stamina switch. It has a hard time if you have it switched to the stamina, if you installed it under speed mode, but I've read of a fix, but have not bothered to mess with it as I rarely run in stamina mode unless I'm on a flight, and then I tend to be in XP.

Anyone else have experience with Linux and their VAIO?

 

When I had my S360 I also installed Ubuntu on it, and was really impressed with how easy the install was and how everything worked right away.

 

Have you tried looking here for the webcam driver and here for the biometric device driver? Thinkpads use UPEK biometric devices so that driver might be compatible. This might be useful as well.

 

I'm currently typing on a FE11H in SAM Linux (which I personally prefer to the 'Buntus, although I loooove the look of Linux Mint. I just miss the Control Centre you get in Mandriva/PCLOS spinoffs.).....................

Everything works- wireless, Beryl... lovely. Install was painless. Ditto partitioning, which was done in Gparted rather than the installer tool. The mute button also works, but I've never used the S1 or S2 buttons, so can't vouch for those.

My main niggle is the fact that the Fn buttons don't work. This wouldn't be a major issue either- apart from the fact that I find the default brightness of this machine really hard on the eyes, and under XP I usually have the screen brightness down as low as it will go, especially in the evening. During the it tends to be the opposite. Therefore, I need to be able to easily change the brightness... and acme doesn't work. Or rather, I don't know how to make it work. I have read though that this is a known issue with the FEs which won't be properly resolved until the 2.6.21 kernel is out?

In the meantime, does anyone know of a software fix? Or any other kind of fix that doesn't require elaborate editing of config files, although I can cope with straight cut'n'paste.

 

I sold my Vaio bcoz Virtualization is disable in default. If there is any way I can enable it in Bio, I would definitely use Vaio for Ubuntu.

 

My experience is the Fn keys worked, but the touchpad would not reinitialize properly after a suspend to ram. I installed in the stamina mode and could not get the speed mode to work right.

I have seen some possible touchpad fixes in the Ubuntu forum. Anyone know how to get the bluetooth transmitter to turn off?

Interesting links on the fingerprint reader, but a bit challenging. I guess no one has a tutorial for the same thing on the SZ.