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Vaio VPCz-1290x Fedora 14 x64

 

Hi everybody,

First of all, I am not a Linux expert so please bear with me. I think I am having issues getting the sony-laptop(0.9np8pre3) module working on my machine and I hope I can get some help on this mailing list.

1) I'm running Fedora 14 with two kernels, the default kernel (2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64) and 2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64.

2) I can successfully run the Nvidia card with either kernel and the Nvidia binary driver. I cannot run the Intel card on the default kernel (blank screen when X starts), but it runs fine on the 2.6.40 kernel (that's why I installed 2.6.40, besides 0.9np8pre3 won't run on 2.6.35).

3) I have updated the BIOS to allow static switching (it is set to static mode).

4) Running the Nvidia card (switch set to Speed) on 2.6.35 shows a single VGA card running (lspci | grep -i vga) and consuming around 17.4 watts idle. On the 2.6.40 kernel it displays 0Wh (Anyone know how to fix this?).

5) Running the Intel card (switch set to Stamina) on 2.6.40 shows both VGA cards running (this is the main issue). The 2.6.40 kernel displays 0Wh, but I can tell its consuming more than 17.4 watts by manually calculating it.

I would like to run with the Intel card only, so the battery lasts longer (should idle at around 11 watts I believe).

I think I have installed the sony-laptop module correctly, what I did was download the 0.9np8pre3 module and as regular user I ran "sudo make install". Is that all there is to it?

Running $modinfo sony-laptop shows the proper version "0.9np8pre3" (see below). Does that mean the module is installed and running?

How do I know the module is actually running? How do I configure the module parameters for keyboard backlight etc? I would like to have the keyboard backlight working, and disable bluetooth.

Is there a way to disable the Nvidia card manually?

Should the BIOS be set to dynamic switching for the module to work?


Here is my info when running 2.6.40, BIOS set to static switching, Stamina mode:

Laptop Model:
VPC-1290x
--------------------------
OS/Kernel:
Fedora 14
--------------------------
$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Aug 16 04:10:59 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
--------------------------
Install module:
$ sudo make install
mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64/updates/
cp sony-laptop.ko /lib/modules/2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64/updates/
#cp nvidia_bl.ko /lib/modules/2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64/updates/
depmod -a
--------------------------
lspci | grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)
--------------------------
Module info:
$modinfo sony-laptop
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64/updates/sony-laptop.ko
version:        0.9np8pre3
license:        GPL
description:    Sony laptop extras driver (SPIC and SNC ACPI device)
author:         Stelian Pop, Mattia Dongili
srcversion:     21EDB2749518F48870F9250
alias:          acpi*:SNY6001:*
alias:          acpi*:SNY5001:*
depends:        rfkill
vermagic:       2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64 SMP mod_unload
parm: debug:set this to 1 (and RTFM) if you want to help the development of this driver (int) parm: no_spic:set this if you don't want to enable the SPIC device (int) parm: compat:set this if you want to enable backward compatibility mode (int) parm: mask:set this to the mask of event you want to enable (see doc) (ulong) parm: camera:set this to 1 to enable Motion Eye camera controls (only use it if you have a C1VE or C1VN model) (int) parm: minor:minor number of the misc device for the SPIC compatibility code, default is -1 (automatic) (int) parm: kbd_backlight:set this to 0 to disable keyboard backlight, 1 to enable it (default: 0) (int) parm: kbd_backlight_timeout:set this to 0 to set the default 10 seconds timeout, 1 for 30 seconds, 2 for 60 seconds and 3 to disable timeout (default: 0) (int) parm: force_shock_notifications:set this to 1 to force the generation of shock protection events, even though the notebook do not support head unloading for the installed drive drive (int) parm: speed_stamina:Set this to 1 to enable SPEED mode on module load (EXPERIMENTAL) (int)
--------------------------
$ ls -ltrR /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/
/sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/:
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:11 uevent
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Aug 29 12:11 subsystem -> ../../../bus/platform
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Aug 29 12:11 driver -> ../../../bus/platform/drivers/sony-laptop
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 modalias
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Aug 29 12:21 power
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 kbd_backlight_timeout
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 kbd_backlight

/sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/power:
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_suspended_time
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_status
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_active_time
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_active_kids
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 autosuspend_delay_ms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 async
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_usage
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 runtime_enabled
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 29 12:21 control
--------------------------
$ sudo cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
 # grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/md127p3
#          initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/md127
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64)
    root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64 ro root=UUID=68dc6448-0de5-45f1-a41e-4419ff9b80c8 rd_MD_UUID=d067cb17:1eed8b3f:6d6a83a1:6746d53b rd_MD_UUID=00634b4d:a8321be1:59c780b6:a5fc3bbb rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us acpi_osi="" pciehp.pciehp_force=1
    initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64.img

title Fedora (2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64)
    root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64 ro root=UUID=68dc6448-0de5-45f1-a41e-4419ff9b80c8 rd_MD_UUID=d067cb17:1eed8b3f:6d6a83a1:6746d53b rd_MD_UUID=00634b4d:a8321be1:59c780b6:a5fc3bbb rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us acpi_osi="" xhci.enable=1 pciehp.pciehp_force=1 xhci.enable=1 xhci_hcd.enable=1
    initrd /initramfs-2.6.40.3-0.fc15.x86_64.img

title Fedora (2.6.38.8-36.royer.fc14.x86_64)
    root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-36.royer.fc14.x86_64 ro root=UUID=68dc6448-0de5-45f1-a41e-4419ff9b80c8 rd_MD_UUID=d067cb17:1eed8b3f:6d6a83a1:6746d53b rd_MD_UUID=00634b4d:a8321be1:59c780b6:a5fc3bbb rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us acpi_osi="" pciehp.pciehp_force=1
    initrd /initramfs-2.6.38.8-36.royer.fc14.x86_64.img
------------------------------
Power reading (idle):
while true; do devkit-power -d | grep "energy:";sleep 60;done
    energy:              49.06 Wh
    energy:              48.72 Wh
    energy:              48.4 Wh
    energy:              48.1 Wh
    energy:              47.7 Wh
    energy:              47.35 Wh
    energy:              47.07 Wh
    energy:              46.69 Wh
    energy:              46.32 Wh
    energy:              45.96 Wh
    energy:              45.58 Wh
    energy:              45.16 Wh
    energy:              44.81 Wh
    energy:              44.41 Wh
    energy:              43.92 Wh
comes out to 20.5 Wh

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Leo