sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

[blackkane <blackkane@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wouter,
I resolve my graphic problem in a definite way through bios hack. I follow
this instruction ("graphic switch" section):
http://lowl.net/en/linux-on-vaio-vpc-z.html
Regards, F.

2010/12/10 Wouter van der Graaf <wouter@xxxxxxxxx>

> Hi all,
>
> I have a new Viao Z13 (VPCZ13C5E) and I have 3 problems at the mo. I
> will explain my steps for installing Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick meerkat),
> but first the issues I'm having right now:
>
> 1. Set switch to Stamina, boot, stamina LED is on, X comes up, get the
> Ubuntu gdm login screen, I type first characters of my password. HELP!
> After a short moment, total freeze of everything. Screen still shows
> login screen, but not responding to anything. No ctrl+alt+Fx for
> different tty, nothing! What's up with that?
>
> 2. In Speed mode, boots successfully. Got sound working by adding
> 'options snd-hda-intel model=sony-vaio-tt' to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.
> But microphone doesn't work with this configuration. The sound problem
> has to do with Adam's 2.6.37-6 kernel. Anyone got the microphone
> working?
>
> 3. Also in Speed mode, I only get into gdm when I have
> no /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. As soon as I run nvidia-xconfig (which
> generates it for me) and reboot, X doesn't come up and I get tty
> instead. I run new nvidia driver 260.19.26 from Ubuntu-X SWAT ppa
> package.
>
> Now the steps I took to get here:
>
> 1. Unbox shiny new hardware, Sony Vaio VPCZ13C5E, Core i7, 8 GB RAM,
> 1920x1080 screen, WWAN modem, 128 GB RAID 0 array (2x64 GB).
>
> 2. Boot Windows 7 to test all hardware components. Need to make sure
> it's all good. After that, I shrunk my Win 7 partition with the included
> admin tools. I then created 2 new volumes for Linux and Swap partition.
> I don't specify any drive letter or file system type for it, so these
> are 2 RAW partitions.
>
> 3. Still in Windows, I download the 3 .deb packages for Linux kernel
> 2.6.37-6 from http://www.voip-x.co.uk/files/adam/ and put them in my
> Downloads dir.
>
> 4. Set switch to Speed (was Auto).
>
> 5. Pop in Maverick 64 bit Live CD (USB actually). It boots perfectly at
> native 1920x1080 screen resolution, with working sound (due to older
> Maverick kernel). Installation application (ubiquity?) runs without
> problem. It even detects my factory default RAID 0 setup with Windows 7
> volumes and my 2 new empty volumes (making up total of 5 partitions). I
> can choose the new partitions for ext4 with mount point '/' and swap. I
> choose the 'parent' mapper volume (the one without the suffices in the
> name) for boot loader installation. Installation successfully completed!
> Ready to reboot...
>
> 6. Ouch, after reboot I get blank screen. No worries, trying hard reset
> and boot with nomodeset in grub bootloader entry. I get a terminal.
>
> 7. Now I can mount my Windows partition with 'sudo mkdir /media/windows'
> and 'sudo mount.ntfs-3g /dev/dm-4 /media/windows'. I copy the debs from
> my Windows partition to my Linux home dir. From there, I run 'sudo dpkg
> -i *.deb' to install the packages. I see that GRUB is updated with the
> new kernel.
>
> 8. Reboot (still on Speed mode)! Pick the new kernel. Yeah! Enter gdm
> login. Screen looks good. I can now enter gnome and do stuff. Webcam
> works normally. No sound, though. In sound properties I only see the
> HDMI device, not the Realtek ALC889 I was also expecting.
>
> 9. Add 'options snd-hda-intel model=sony-vaio-tt'
> to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base. Reboot. Sound works now! But microphone
> still doesn't work. It does show up in the sound properties input
> sources (mic 1, mic 2 and line), but it's not listening.
>
> 10. Now for the nvidia driver. As recommended on
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia I remove
> package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau from my system.
>
> 11. After reading about problems with the nvidia 260.x driver and
> finding that these should be fixed with version 260.19.26 I installed
> this version with the newer package nvidia-current from
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates. I added
> their ppa to my software sources and install nivdia-current from
> Synaptic package manager. Reboot!
>
> 12. It seems to work. I log into Ubuntu and I check the 'Additional
> drivers' application from the system/administration menu to see if the
> new driver is active. It is active and in use, it says. Then I try to
> turn on the Compiz graphical effects, but after some waiting it just
> says there was a problem and it couldn't activate effects. Bummer.
>
> 13. So I read on the BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia page that you may have to
> run 'sudo nvidia-xconfig'. I run it from the terminal and it generates a
> file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, which wasn't there before.
>
> 14. Reboot again. Now definitely something happened. This time I get
> thrown to a tty instead of X. So it seems the nvidia driver started
> loading, but couldn't initialize or something. I read
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaOnSonyLaptop about having to use
> a Custom EDID file for Sony Vaio displays.
>
> 15. Windows again. I use the Windows application
> http://www.entechtaiwan.com/lib/softmccs.shtm to extract the EDID binary
> to my disk. I reboot into Linux (tty) and put the file
> in /etc/X11/edid.bin. Then I create a new xorg.conf with the following:
>
> Section "Device"
>   Identifier "Device0"
>   Driver     "nvidia"
>   VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
>   Option     "ConnectedMonitor"   "DFP-0"
>   Option     "CustomEDID"         "DFP-0:/etc/X11/edid.bin"
> EndSection
>
> 16. Reboot, hoping this will work. No, it doesn't. Now what do I have to
> do? Can't find any more info on the web, or don't know how to search for
> it.
>
> 17. Removing xorg.conf makes my Speed mode Ubuntu enter gdm just fine
> again, without 3D graphics though (and some flickering stripy artifacts
> occasionally). I'm also not sure it's actually using the nvidia driver.
> But I uninstalled nouveau, so how to tell?
>
> 17. Try Stamina this time. Set switch to Stamina, boot, stamina LED is
> on, X comes up, get the Ubuntu gdm login screen, I type first characters
> of my password. HELP! After a short moment, total freeze of everything.
> Screen still shows login screen, but not responding to anything. No ctrl
> +alt+Fx for different tty, nothing! What's up with that?
>
> 18. So this is the situation I'm in. I have a working Speed mode,
> without fully working nvidia drivers and microphone. And I have a
> Stamina mode that halts some seconds after gdm login screen appears.
> What can I do to get these issues resolved? Anyone?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Wouter
>
>
> --
> Wouter van der Graaf
> entreprogrammeur and senior web developer
>
> d y n o r a
> web developers ~ both ends technology, interaction and aesthetics
>
> +31 (0)6 2893 0615 | wouter@xxxxxxxxx
>
> Burg. de Bruïnelaan 95 | 3331 AC Zwijndrecht | NL
> +31 (0)78 843 3139 | contact@xxxxxxxxx | www.dynora.nl
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series
> Post to     : sony-vaio-z-series@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>