Just before Christmas I bought a nice shiney new(ish) computer (and risked becoming an e-bay addict in the process). It took about 5 minutes to start really hating WinXP, so I decided to have a go at Linux. This page lists my adventures, for anyone out them hoping to do something similar. I decided to go for Redhat 7.3. Redhat because everyone around me seems to choose it (plenty of help when I get stuck), 7.3 because a friend warned me 8.0 has some problems. Oh yes, and he had the CD's for 7.3
There's loads of information about putting Linux on Laptops out there, but I couldn't find anything specific about the Vaio FX804, so I thought I'd share my experience.
As I said, this is a second hand computer, but I think this is a normal Sony installation. The hard disk was split into two partitions, with WinXP installed on the first and the second one empty. I just removed the second partition to make space for Linux - 15GB sounds like a lot of room to me. It took me a while to find how to delete it (good old FDISK has gone), but I got there: Control Panel->Admin Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. Right click the second partition and select delete. Remember, this is final. Anything on drive D:\ goes.
My ideal installation involves a few simple questions about how I'd like to set up the computer, and then everything happens automatically. That's pretty much what Redhat gave me. Most of it worked out of the box:
I'm dual booting with Windows XP. It's extremely useful to swap files between the two operating systems (like when the modem isn't working). The quick way to do this is to write files to floppy disks (!), but the sensible way is to mount the Windows partition somewhere in the Linux FS. With old versions of Windows (95/98/ME) it's easy, and supported in the standard Redhat install. WinXP uses the NTFS filesystem, so we need a little help here. Enter the Linux NTFS project - all I had to do was download an RPM and install (yes, I had to download the RPM with Windows and use a floppy disk to transfer it). Worked straight away.
To put the icing on the cake, I wanted the partition to mount automatically. Turned out to be quite easy (with a bit of experimentation). It's time to learn about the file /etc/fstab. It tells Linux what to mount at boot, and where to mount it. Mine looks like this:
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 /dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/hda1 /mnt/win ntfs defaults,user,ro,umask=002,gid=503 0 0 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
I added the line starting /dev/hda1 - that's where my copy of Windows lives. Also remember to create the directory /mnt/win as a mountpoint. The options are set so any user can access the Windows partition. It means any user with GID set to 503 can read any Windows files. I then set all users to the same group ID, 503. Now I can bin that floppy...
Modems are traditionally difficult under Linux. Real modems work just fine, but most modern modems are Winmodems. The one in the FX804 is, and is proving to be a little difficult. The first step is to work out what's in the box. Linmodems.org is a good place to start. I found the scanModem script didn't work, but reading through it gave enough clues to identify my modem. The command lspci -v gave a whole load of stuff, including:
00:07.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC97 Modem Controller (rev 30) Subsystem: Sony Corporation: Unknown device 80f6 Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5 I/O ports at 1400 [size=256] Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2That looks interesting - a modem controller. Now we need to find out who makes it. Typing lspci -vn gave the following:
00:07.6 Class 0780: 1106:3068 (rev 30) Subsystem: 104d:80f6 Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5 I/O ports at 1400 [size=256] Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2So now we know it's an AC97 modem (standards always sound promising), with the ID 1106:3068. That's nice, but we still have to find out who makes the damn thing. The ID should be enough, but then I remembered the easy way. Shut down and reboot to Windows. Right click "My Computer" and go Properties->Hardware->Device Manager->Modems. Sure enough, it says "Conexant-Ambit SoftK56 Data,Fax Modem". That's what we wanted.
After a bit of trawling the net, it looks like all Vaio models contain the same thing. A quick Google dug up Mark Boucher's pages about Conexant Modems. Searching around these pages revealed that my modem is an HSF softmodem. I've installed the driver, and think I may have communication with the modem. Minicom has found something to talk to, and an ATZ returns LinuxSoftK56_V5.03.27mbsibeta02122600, which looks promising. However, I've yet to pick up a dialtone. Consider this a work in progress.
Here's a task I thought would be simple. You ask the computer to reboot, it resets everything and starts afresh. Almost.
When I attempt to soft reboot, the computer shuts down fine, restarts, and then hangs at the Sony logo. It's happened to others too, and no-one seems too sure what causes it. It's not too serious though. Simply hold down the power button for 4 seconds, then power back up. You quickly learn to power down rather than soft rebooting. I'm sure it'll get fixed one day.
Comments or questions? arthur@arthurtech.co.uk. Written 11jan03. Last updated 11jan03.