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kyefun
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2003 2:59 am    Post subject: Vaio R505 w/ Slimdock Reply with quote

Hello, i've searched the forums for the string "vaio" and found a few entries. however, those results that matched r505 were mostly about pcmcia. I have a slimdock for my r505 that uses firewire for link. Inisde the dock is a dvd/cd-rw, as well as a floppy drive. The floppy drive works in ilnux without needing the firewire driver, while the cd-rom does.I really want to install gentoo using cd-rom. Is there a easy way to install gentoo?
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Bodhisattva
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2003 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you ask me, you had better forget about the CD for the installation, it's really not worth it. I don't know of any boot medium out there that supports the drive. However, I just did an installation on a R505R/GK on Monday [1], and it's not even exceedingly complicated. Ok, there's a number of different methods, one being a netboot from a GRUB floppy. The method I used is best described in Phong's guide, except that I had significant problems with the tomsrtbt floppy[2], so I chose to boot from three Slackware 8.1 floppies instead. I'll be doing a complete write-up of the process over the weekend, so if you don't mind waiting a few more days you can start from a step-by-step guide for a R505 with the dreaded IEEE1394 CD-RW/DVD combo in the dock...

[1] after waiting for a few months, by the way, basically for a few kernel modules to mature
[2] chroot produced "FATAL: kernel too old", check this thread
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kyefun
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 2003 12:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

looks like i'lll need to do the install using net-install

anyone know any botodisk that has firewire?
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serial.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2003 7:50 pm    Post subject: What about Memory Stick? Reply with quote

I have often read that the Memory Stick drive is supported out-of-the-box. What about booting from a Live CD, then grabbing all the packages and such from the Memory Stick?

I am just beginning to attempt an install of 1.4_rc2 on an R505DS, and after I pick the keymap, I get the following output:
Code:

---- Mounting the CD
mount: Mounting /newroot/dev/cdroms* on /newroot/mnt/cdrom failed: No such file
 or directory
---- CD not found
umount: /newroot: Device or resource busy

Busybox v0.60.5 (2002.12.28-23:31+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
#


I can't really do anything from this point, as the /lib directory does not exist (therefore no kernel modules). netboot from GRUB does not really help me, as I would need an existing Linux installation to create the GRUB disk, something that I don't possess. Plate, I'll be looking forward to that guide!

serial.

PS. - Several people have stated that with kernel 2.4.20, the DVD/CDRW drive "just works". Isn't this the same kernel that Gentoo uses? If not, would it be possible to boot from this kernel?
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Bodhisattva
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2003 1:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, the CD contains a 2.4.19 kernel. As I said, I don't know of any boot medium that recognises the drive long enough to be useful. Try the floppy method with Slackware and forget about the drive until you have compiled your own 2.4.20 kernel to boot from. My guide will be ready Real Soon Now (TM). :P

By the way, which R505 do you have? They came with different chipsets, you know. Quite possible that this page is more appropriate for you.
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kyefun
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2003 2:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i have r505el, comes with slimdock

Device manager says it's a
Texas intruments OHCI compiliant IEEE1394 controller
so, i am getting it uses ohci.o

i wonder of gentoo devs would release the 1.4 final w/ firewire in initrd
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2003 3:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My bookmark list is getting more impressive every day: Linux on the Sony Vaio R505EL Laptop 8) X will be tricky on that one, it has the dreadful i830 graphics controller chipset, good luck with that.

Just don't expect the Gentoo LiveCD to change to a 2.4.20 kernel until the final release next week...
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serial.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2003 4:44 am    Post subject: yeah, but... Reply with quote

But what about the memory stick idea? A 64MB stick would hold the 40MB generic CD very nicely... I experimented a little and it didn't seem to immediately work... should I keep working on this angle or just wait for the next version? Will (should) the next release work out-of-the-box? Should return the memory stick I just bought today? :wink:

serial.

PS- Here are some bookmarks of interest:

Installing Linux on an R505EL
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~jdavin/linux-r505.html

Getting XFree86 to work with i830
http://mobilix.org/debian_xfree43.html

More about XFree86
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/linux/c400.html#xfree86

Even more about XFree
http://www.jongans.com/gateway1450.html

KWiFiManager - orinioco wi-fi utils for KDE3
http://kwifimanager.sourceforge.net
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Bodhisattva
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2003 5:36 am    Post subject: Re: yeah, but... Reply with quote

You have no idea how cool it would be to be able to boot from a memory stick... If you pulled that one off, I think even Sony would consider putting Linux on their laptops in the future. 8)

serial. also wrote:
Should return the memory stick I just bought today? :wink:

Absolutely not. At the very minimum, keep it for your GnuPG keychain. :lol:

Glad to see Stefan Winter continued Korinoco under a different name for KDE3. I remember spending almost three weeks trying to get the predecessor to work in Mandrake, but when it finally did, it was a very nice piece of software.
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2003 6:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://vorlon.ces.cwru.edu/~ames/r505gl/

i found this quite helpful. I am installing gentoo on my r505gl right now using the cdrom and its working just fine. just use the 1.2 iso ;)
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Bodhisattva
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Second that. I've always found the 1.2 iso to be the real rescue disk. Keep one around at all times. If you can live with the fact that it dies on you right after you've got a shell prompt, you can even use it with that combo drive.

That said, nothing will boot from my CD drive anymore. DVDs aren't affected, but CDs are not bootable or even readable in most cases. Sometimes when I get really angry and shake the whole base station, it does occasionally start to work. People I've asked suspect laser drift... :cry:
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have been working on linux on my sony vaio r505gl for about 8 hours now, yeah im slow at getting it going ;) . But as far as procedure, it was pretty simple. Just use the 1.2 iso with the docking station cdrom drive, pull the stage3 (my preference) get the kernel installed, and thats it, everything else is good to go because network will be up (unless you coudlnt get your kernel compiled.

I had as exceptionally easy time getting my wpc11 card working as well. As all the other posts in this forum state, dont install anything pcmcia based in the kernel. If you dont install anything pcmcia kernel based, then emerge pcmcia-cs.

Modules I found useful to get everything going, including the cdrom and wireless wpc11 card were:

sbp2, sg, sr_mod, pcmcia_core, i82365 (for pcmcia), and prism2_cs (must emerge linux-wlan-ng, and configure /etc/conf.d/wlan.conf and /etc/conf.d/wlancfg-Default)

WPC11:

first, recognise that you must copy the wlancfg-DEFAULT to wlancfg-ssidname, where ssidname is the name of your access point. wlan.conf must be updated to reflect the ssid name.

if you have wep enabled on the AP, make sure you set the encryption options in wlancfg-ssidname to true, thats where i got lost for about 3 hours trying to get wireless working.

Then what i did was just copied net.eth0 to net.wlan0...... not exactly the best thing to do since i get a shitload of errors when shutting down, but hey, im not a linux genious (if anyone can think of a better way to make an /etc/init.d script for wlan0 please post!!!)

for the cdrom drive, i set fstab to reflect this for /mnt/cdrom: /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/cd /mnt/cdrom .......

Now, heres MY question that i just thought of.. how the heck do I specify in the boot loader hdx=ide-scsi so i can use my cdrom drive as a burner, especially when its a firewire drive and doesnt have a hdx name at all???
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Bodhisattva
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't think it'll ever work with ide-scsi, there's no trace of anything IDE in there. I can't test it myself (see above for reasons :( ), but you should have a device sr0 or scd0 in your /dev, and then you just go
Code:
scsi add-single-device 0 0 0 0
and it should get recognised instantly. That's the theory, at least.
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sa
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

theres also a sony viao mailing list, with lots of discussion of the r505:
http://returntonature.com/pipermail/linux-sony/

hth,
sa
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

for the scsi add-single-device 0 0 0 0, where should i add that?

Also, if anybody has questions relating to toshiba satellite 5005 (s504 specifically) or even the sony vaio r505 (like i have now) just let me know. I have done gentoo now on both, although limited on the vaio so far. I havent tried getting X to work yet.

Again, if anyone knows a better way of making an /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 script, post up!
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another update as I get X to work.

A side note, i find http://ghost.hn.org/~clesiuk/SonyVaio/ , plates link, very very helpful.

Now, basically, i generated a config with xf86config using the defaults mostly, entering 32768 for video ram, adding Load "glx" and Load "dri", adding

Code:
Section "DRI"
      Mode 0666
EndSection


to the end of the file, and using i810 as the video driver. For the moniter specifically, I just used the 1024 at 60hz setting.

Make sure to use glidepointps/2 or ps/2 for the mouse driver.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 11:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, wow, I didn't know that! They've finally managed to get a decent i830 driver in Xfree! No need to run any of the commercial X servers anymore to get past 256 colours on 1024x768. That's good news for a lot of people. Thanks for making me re-read what I post here... :lol:

The SCSI device-adding happens during boot-up if you put that one-liner in a script and add itt via rc-update to your runlevel. You may want to try it on the command line first.

Never make your Vaio triple-boot like I did. With legacy W2K at the bottom of the barrel and FreeBSD and Gentoo floating on top of it, my R505R/GK is constantly busy rsyncing or cvsuping, I never get to test anything anymore... :?
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heres a good question... how do I get sjog to change the brightness when its being done by a user and not root? In other words, how do I change the brightness as a user without becoming root to do so? And another good question.. processor stepping, is there a script or daemon that I can get that will moniter computer usage and automatically step down my processor? Besides that, i think my laptop is pretty well set for linux, minus the memory stick, but who fricken buys memory sticks.
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No idea about sjog, I haven't come around to using that yet. Somebody on the Linux-Sony mailing list posted a new XInput jogdial driver for Xfree86 to make it operate as a scroll wheel, but apparently you loose all other functions.

ACPI support in Linux is patchwork at best, and stepping the CPU speed is not covered yet. Some patience and watching the 2.5 kernel development tree will eventually solve this particular problem.

What does your dmesg say about the memory stick bay?
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 2:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well the memory stick bay, i could care less about. I was browsing this thread and someone said that it works natively, so cool, but Ive read in other places and getting it to work is a lost cause. Ill check my dmesg sometime after im done with my classes today, got a shitty solid block of 5 classes today. Thats what happens when you gotta get the good calc3 teacher, sacrifice lunch and an hour break in the schedule :-D (at least i get to sleep in later!)

Enough about my personal life. Im seriosuly getting excited about my laptop getting linux going so easily.

Plate- can you change the brightness as a standard user? If so, what steps do you take? Maybe its time for me to try another jog program.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 15, 2003 3:06 pm    Post subject: SJOG Reply with quote

My suggestion is to ditch sjog in favor of rsjog. sjog seems to have some stupid builtin check to see if you're root (doesn't even let you change brightness if sjog is run via sudo). rsjog works perfectly though.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:07 am    Post subject: FreeBSD? Reply with quote

Plate, I read your article, and the idea of FreeBSD on my r505 is very intriguing... in fact the only reason I looked to Gentoo was because I thought it impossible to install FreeBSD. I was wondering exactly how functional FBSD 5.0 is compared with Gentoo 1.4? Does the CDRW/DVD work? 802.11b? Sound, video, jog dial, etc.? Would it be usable as my only free OS on the system? Thanks for your answers - you don't have to do a full review, just a works/doesn't work checklist would be fine. :)

serial.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, reader feedback! :D To tell you the whole truth, the FreeBSD portion of that document isn't quite finished yet. I just updated one thing I got to fix yesterday about the CardBus manager that kept moaning about unrecognised card types (without a card actually present in the system...), but I actually haven't got much time to systematically check everything. The CD/DVD drive is broken, anyway, so I can't test that before I buy a new docking station, 802.11b works fine (now it does), sound is untested, and the jog dial, well: I didn't even get that to run in Linux yet...

Some of the answers I can't give you can be found here... But of course you'll have to promise to install Gentoo, too, because otherwise this thread would glide off topic and I'd have to mod myself... :P
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rak3
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:34 pm    Post subject: sjog setbrightness Reply with quote

To set the brightness in sjog, i ran (as root):

Code:
chmod u+s /usr/bin/setbrightness


Then the setbrightness program would run as a user. Note that this could be a security risk.
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revresxunil
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just had a friend help me with sudo to allow my user account access to the program.
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