sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

[Norbert Preining <preining@xxxxxxxx>]

Ok, here we go. Since I want W7 and it seems that one needs the latest
bios 2170 for the Z11, here is what happens:

case 1
======
- boot into linux in stamina
- turn off
- switch to speed
- start
Effect: BIOS is already screwed, weird stripes, but it seems that
	something is going on.

case 2
======
- boot into linux in stamina
- turn off
- switch to speed
- start
- (see above) blindly boot into W7
Effect: The laptop after loads of work shuts down automatically, and
	after that I can keep the switch at Speed and reboot, and
	the Intel will be active. Booting into linux then has the 
	hardware switch on the right (at speed) but the LED is Stamina,
	and also in the BIOS already you see that it is using intel.

case 3
======
- turn off
- stamina
- boot into W7
- soft-switch to speed (which works)
- shut down
- boot again
Effect: Although the switch is at speed, the bios boots with intel
	graphics card
	Booting into linux brings normal intel
	Booting into W7 switches at some point to nvidia

So it seems that the new bios:
- only allows booting with intel
- the OSI grub command line does something to the bios that switches
  actually to nvidia, but that one is broken
- switching to nvidia on W7 is always done in software after booting

Well, there we are now. So I have two options:
- go back to 2168 bios, but then the brightness keys will not work on W7
- keep 2170 and do not use nvidia on Linux

Both are not the best options, so that is somehow a call to find a method
how to soft switch the devices ....

Best wishes

Norbert

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Dr. Norbert Preining                                        Associate Professor
JAIST Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology   preining@xxxxxxxxxxx
Vienna University of Technology                               preining@xxxxxxxx
Debian Developer (Debian TeX Task Force)                    preining@xxxxxxxxxx
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