sony-vaio-z-series team mailing list archive

["anestis.iliadis" <latebeat@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mauro, thanks for the answer,

I tried setting acpi_osi several ways including

acpi_osi="!Windows 2006"
acpi_osi="\!Windows 2006\"
acpi_osi="\\!Windows 2006\\"
acpi_osi="\\\!Windows 2006\\\"
acpi_osi=""

and none of them worked. (stamina / speed LED didn't come on) I think I've
run into this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/445952
http://www.mail-archive.com/sony-vaio-z-series@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg00601.htmls


After a bit of researching I found out that this kernel switch all it does
is enable static switching in the gpu, (i.e. only 1 gpu is active at a time
set by the speed/stamina switch). The default behaviour is dynamic
switching which means that depending on what OS is detected either one of
them is active. I also found out that with the extended bios settings (see
here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/473226-insyde-hacking-new-vaio-z-advanced-menu-bios.html)
there's a bios setting that you can select static/dynamic/auto vga
swithcing.
I followed the instructions, updated to the insyde bios and set the vga
switching to static. After that, the LED comes on to the setting that I
chose (speed/stamina) statically at 1st boot. Therefore there's no need for
the acpi_osi switch.
I confirmed that with lspci which showed 1 vga card each time (either
nvidia or intel). I didn't even have to blacklist nouveau. I installed
nvidia-current from the x--swat repositories, I rebooted with the switch
set on speed and bam! everything was working with nvidia. (Only thing I had
to run nvidia-settings and create an xorg file). Now if I set the switch to
stamina, I need to rm the xorg.conf and reboot and the system boots with
the intel card. I'm planning to modify write a simple script that will
check which card is running at boot time and depending if it's the intel or
nvidia, either cp or rm the xorg.conf

So with that done, I will have everthing that I ever wanted!! Just wanted
to share that with the list members as I think it works great!!

Regards,

Anestis



 Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 3:49 AM, <mauro.bis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Anestis,
> personally I have never used nomodest, neither with linux 2.6 nor with
> 3.5. If you pass this option to the kernel than the intel driver won't work.
>
> The param -rdblacklist, if I'm not mistaken, is used to blacklist a kernel
> module so that it is not loaded automatically. Not surprisingly it is the
> nouveau module that sometimes may give problems. For example on my vaio
> with linux 2.6 caused the screen to turn to black at boot time (with and
> without modeset).
>
> I've never used -vmalloc=192M option so I can't comment here.
>
> Regarding the acpi_osi parameter, you must be sure that to the kernel it
> is passed the string:
>
> acpi_osi="!Windows 2006"
>
> For example, here's my /proc/cmdline:
>
> BOOT_IMAGE=Slack-14 ro root=801 resume=/dev/sda2 elevator=noop
> vt.default_utf8=0 acpi_osi="!Windows 2006"
>
> The confusion with the number of escapes (\) is related to the fact that
> usually this string is specified inside a string field in the configuration
> of some program (lilo, grub...). If this string field is also protected
> with double quotes than you need to escape those of the parameter. The
> number of backslashes depend of the boot loader that you are using and on
> how the string field is interpreted. For example with lilo I use:
>
> append="resume=/dev/sda2 elevator=noop vt.default_utf8=0
> acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2006\""
>
> Anyway you can verify if you passed the parameter correctly by looking at
> the /proc/cmdline content.
>
> Best,
> Mauro
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 6:42 AM, Anestis iliadis <latebeat@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>>  Hey guys,
>>
>> I'm so confused though with all the different kernel switches suggested
>> by various blog posts, mailing list posts and all the variations in
>> between.
>> So far I haven't been able to reach to a definite conclusion what's
>> necessary and what's not.
>>
>> Can someone provide accurate information as to which switches are need
>> and why? I've seen so many versions of it that I'm a bit confused as to
>> which one I need and why.
>> So far I've seen:
>> -nomodeset (this is mostly suggested with 2.6.x kernels. So far with
>> 3.2.x I don't think it's needed any more but I would love to hear your
>> opinion)
>> -acpi_osi= (no quotes)
>> -acpi_osi="" (with quotes)
>> -acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2006\" (see:
>> http://0xc0dedbad.com/blog/category/linuxonvaioz)
>> - acpi_osi=\\\"!Windows 2006\\\"" (see:
>> https://lists.launchpad.net/sony-vaio-z-series/msg00636.html)
>> -rdblacklist=nouveau
>> -vmalloc=192M (that's new to me.. see:
>> httpAnestis://www.hayr.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85%3Alinux-fedora-on-vaio-z-vpcz13c5e&catid=12%3Alinux&lang=en&Itemid=25<http://www.hayr.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85%3Alinux-fedora-on-vaio-z-vpcz13c5e&catid=12%3Alinux&lang=en&Itemid=25>
>> )
>>
>>
>>
>> Also, Tommas, if I may ask, would you mind collaborating a bit more on
>> the halts and what you were saying? When do we need the halts and how can I
>> do that?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Anestis
>>
>>
>> On 10/03/2012 05:19 AM, mauro.bis@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>
>> Hi Tommaso,
>> I have a vgn z690 that should be quite similar to yours.
>> My laptop also activates both cards (intel and nvidia) by default. In
>> order to avoid this I added the following string to the kernel parameters
>> in lilo.conf:
>>
>>  acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2006\"
>>
>>  The backslashes are required because the double quotes are part of the
>> parameter string.
>> Try adding this line to the kernel parameters in your boot loader
>> configuration file.
>> In order to verify if it works you have to:
>>
>>  - halt the system and boot ensuring that this parameter is passed to
>> the kernel (you can verify it with cat /proc/cmdline)
>> - halt the system again
>> - now, with the power off, switch the physical switch below the screen to
>> either speed or stamina
>> - power the system on
>>
>>  Please note that in this case system halts are needed, not reboots.
>> At this point the correct speed/stamina led should be switched on and
>> only the corresponding cards should be active.
>>
>>  I found this procedure some years ago at this url
>> https://launchpad.net/~sony-vaio-z-series.
>>
>>  One more thing. I read somewhere (i can't find the link now) that
>> updating the bios to the version required by win7 may prevent the procedure
>> above to work, at least for my vaio model (for which the latest bios is
>> R4044M3). I'm not sure about yours but you updated your bios so take this
>> possibility into account.
>>
>>  Hope this helps.
>>
>>  Best,
>> Mauro
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Flavio <fbcyborg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> On 3 October 2012 00:41, tommaso capelli <thetom199@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> > Hi,
>>> > I'm finally writing you from my new mint 64 installation. The only big
>>> > problem is that both cards are recognized by the system. The
>>> stamina/speed
>>> > switch seems not working. I think that the problem is the bios, but
>>> i'm not
>>> > so sure about that.
>>> > Does anyone knows how can I fix this?
>>> > Thank you in advance
>>>  Hello,
>>>
>>> I had a Sony SZ330P having the same your stamina/speed switch and as
>>> far as I can say, if you switch on speed, it doesn't recognize the
>>> integrated
>>> grafic card and vice versa. Only one graphic card should be recognized.
>>> So it sounds very strange to me that both are recognized at the same
>>> time.
>>>
>>> Anyway, this is still not sufficient, because you have to configure an
>>> initscript
>>> that switches opengl to (e.g.) nvidia to xf86 depending on what the
>>> selected
>>> mode is.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Flavio
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>>
>