Abstract

This is my Linux experience on a VAIO PCG-505SN. I made here a compilation of all the information that was useful to make my system working. There are a lot of links to the sites where I found the original information. Very often I had to adapt things.

Model

Vaio PCG-N505SN

Hardware Parts

CPU: Intel Pentium II 400MHz
Chipset: Intel 440DX
RAM: 64MB
Hard Disk: 6.4MB
Video Chipset: Neomagic MagicGraph NM2200 rev 32
Video RAM: 2560kB
Sound Controler: Yamaha YMF744
USB Controller: Intel 82371AB PIIX4 USB
PC Card Slot: 1 slot type II
I-Link port
IrDA port
USB Floppy
CDROM: CDROM on PC Card

Sytem

I installed RedHat 6.2 using the CDROM.

What works?

X11 Video
PCMCIA CRDOM
PCMCIA Ethernet/Modem
Sound Card
ampd
USB Floppy
USB Keyboard
USB Mouse

TODOs

make an RPM with the kernel as it is working on my system
make the USB PS/2 mouse port of my USB keyboard working
make brightness control working
make IrDA working

HowTo

How-to access the BIOS?
At boot use the F2 key.

System Installation

[TODO]

To boot from the CDROM enter the following line at the boot prompt :

linux ide2=0x180,0x386

System Configuration

TODO: CDROM, PCMCIA, apmd configuration scripts

PCMCIA CDROM
The device assigned to the CDROM is not always the same so I have done this:

updated /etc/pcmcia/ide

*** pcmcia/ide.orig  
--- pcmcia/ide       
***************
*** 41,46 ****
--- 41,48 ----
  
  'start')
      add_parts $ADDRESS "$PARTS" || exit 1
+     # flav add : this should be the CDROM
+     ln -sf /dev/$DEVICE /dev/cdrom
      ;;
  
  'check')

added in /etc/fstab

/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom       iso9660  noauto,user,owner,ro 0 0

network scripts: I don't like the way /etc/resolv.conf was updated by the dial-up scripts so I modified /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-post:

updates on /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post:

RCS file: RCS/ifup-post,v
retrieving revision 1.1
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -c -r1.1 -r1.2
*** ifup-post   2000/08/18 21:32:23     1.1
--- ifup-post   2000/08/26 15:05:31     1.2
***************
*** 31,36 ****
--- 31,39 ----
  if [ "$PEERDNS" != "no" -o "$RESOLV_MODS" != "no" ]; then
    [ -n "$MS_DNS1" ] && DNS1=$MS_DNS1
    [ -n "$MS_DNS2" ] && DNS2=$MS_DNS2
+   logger -t ifup-post "setting up DNS"
+   logger -t ifup-post "DNS1=$DNS1"
+   logger -t ifup-post "DNS2=$DNS2"
    if [ -n "$DNS1" ] && ! grep -q "^nameserver $DNS1" /etc/resolv.conf &&
     tr=`mktemp /tmp/resolv.XXXXXX` ; then
      # replace only the first two nameserver lines; cannot count on awk
***************
*** 42,47 ****
--- 45,52 ----
        case $answer in
            nameserver*|EOF)
                if [ -n "$current_replacement" ] ; then
+                   echo "# ifup-post : changed for interface ${DEVICE}" >> $tr
+                   echo "# ifup-post : old : $answer" >> $tr
                    echo "nameserver $current_replacement" >> $tr
                    if [ -n "$next_replacement" ] ; then
                        current_replacement="$next_replacement"
***************
*** 66,74 ****
                ;;
            *)
                echo "$answer" >> $tr
!               ;;
        esac
        if [ -n "$DOMAIN" ]; then
           echo "search $DOMAIN $search" >> $tr
        fi
      done
--- 71,81 ----
                ;;
            *)
                echo "$answer" >> $tr
!               ;;
        esac
        if [ -n "$DOMAIN" ]; then
+          echo "# ifup-post : changed for interface ${DEVICE}" >> $tr
+          echo "# ifup-post : old : $answer" >> $tr
           echo "search $DOMAIN $search" >> $tr
        fi
      done

updates on /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-post:

diff -c -r1.1 -r1.3
*** ifdown-post 2000/08/18 22:21:11     1.1
--- ifdown-post 2000/08/20 13:29:37     1.3
***************
*** 10,15 ****
--- 10,63 ----
  CONFIG=$1
  source_config
  
+ # add Flav 19/08/2000
+ logger -t ifdown-post "doing post tasks for ${DEVICE}..."
+ 
+ # tring to delete DNS servers added by ifup-post
+ if grep -q "^# ifup-post : changed for interface ${DEVICE}" /etc/resolv.conf &&
+     tr=`mktemp /tmp/resolv.XXXXXX`; then
+     logger -t ifdown-post "deleting DNS entries done by ifup-post"
+     status=0
+     cat /etc/resolv.conf | while read answer ; do
+       case $status in
+           0)
+               if [ "$answer" = "# ifup-post : changed for interface ${DEVICE}" ] ; then
+                   status=1
+                   logger -t ifdown-post "deleting: $answer"
+               else
+                     echo "$answer" >> $tr
+               fi
+                 ;;
+           1)
+                 com_begin=`echo "$answer" | cut -d ' ' -f 1-5`
+                 if [ "$com_begin" = "# ifup-post : old :" ]; then
+                   status=2
+                   com_end=`echo "$answer" | cut -d ' ' -f 6-`
+                   echo "$com_end" >> $tr
+                   logger -t ifdown-post "changing: $answer -> $com_end"
+               fi
+                 ;;
+             2)
+                 # skiping this line
+                 status=0
+               logger -t ifdown-post "deleting: $answer"
+               ;;
+             *)
+                 echo "$answer" >> $tr
+                 status=0
+                 ;;
+          esac
+    done
+ 
+    # updating file, maintain permissions
+    cat /etc/resolv.conf > /etc/resolv.conf.old
+    cat $tr > /etc/resolv.conf
+    rm $tr
+ fi
+          
+ logger -t ifdown-post "done post tasks for ${DEVICE}..."
+ # end Flav
+ 
  # Reset the default route if this interface had a special one
  if ! check_default_route ; then
      add_default_route

Sound

I used the alsa-driver witch has support for the Yamaha YMF744.

You can look at the http://www.alsa-project.org./~valentyn for the last update of the Alsa-sound-mini-HOWTO.

XMMS is working with the xmms-crossfade output plugin.

Alsa-Driver Installation steps

I was using the default kernel provided with RedHat 6.2(linux-2.2.14-5). You need the kernel-sources for this.
You need to deactivate the PnP support in the BIOS.
Download the alsa-driver, alsa-lib, and alsa-utils from the alsa web site.
When I installed alsa the current versions were :

Untar the archives :

# bzcat alsa-driver-0.5.8a.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
# bzcat alsa-lib-0.5.8.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
# bzcat alsa-utils-0.5.8.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -

Make rpms:

# cd alsa-driver-0.5.8a/utils
# ./buildrpm
# cd ../..
# cd alsa-lib-0.5.8/utils
# ./buildrpm
# cd ../..
# cd alsa-utils-0.5.8/utils
# ./buildrpm
# cd ../..

This RPMS are available on my web site:

Install the rpms:

# cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 
# rpm -i alsa-driver-0.5.8a-1.i386.rpm
# rpm -i alsa-lib-0.5.8-1.i386.rpm
# rpm -i alsa-utils-0.5.8-1.i386.rpm

Edit your /etc/conf.modules to add this lines:

# TEST ALSA Flav
####
# Main multiplexer
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
####
# top level sound card
# ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-card-ymfpci
options snd-card-ymfpci snd_index=0 snd_id="YMFPCI"
# OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
####
# alsa addons for OSS Free emulation
# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

Test the driver:
```
# modprobe snd-card-ymfpci
```
Unmute the channels
```
# amixer pcm 100 unmute
```
Save the mixer configuration
```
# alsactl store
```
unload the module

test the module with the init.d scripts

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/alsasound stop
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/alsasound start

In order to restart the sound module after apm suspend, I created the /etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/apmcontinue script.

xmms-crossfade Installation steps