Linux on Sony Vaio PCG-F707 Laptop

Jonathan Jaccard, Kena

Last update: 21.01.2004

Historical note

This document used to be useful when the latest RedHat was 6.2 and the latest Mandrake was 7.2. The improvement of linux of the last years has been great and today you should not need support for installing linux on a Vaio PCG-F707.

The update of this document has been discontinued. It is left on the internet for historical purposes.

About

This document provides basic informations about how to install Linux on the Sony Vaio PCG-F707 laptop. My laptop currently runs Linux Mandrake 8.1. In the past, I used to keep Win98 (dual boot), but I realized that I don't need it. The screen works well with a 1024x768 resolution, 16 color depth. XFree86 3.3.6, XFree86 4.0.2, XFree86 4.0.3, XFree86 4.1.0, XFree86 4.2.0 all work.

Other useful information can be found at the linux on laptop pages.

Notes

Niklaus Lutz: about Debian, LCD and sound

The Vaio PCG-F707

The Vaio PCG-F707 is a Pentium III 600Mhz, 64Mb SDRAM, 256Kb L2 cache, 9Gb, 14.1'' TFT color 1024x768 XGA, 8 speed DVD-Rom, Internal Floppy Disk 1.4, Internal Modem 56K-V.90, TouchPad. My laptop has a swiss-french keybord layout. The PCG-F707 model belong to the F700 series.

Distributions

Mandrake 8.2. Everything goes fine.

Mandrake 8.1. Everything goes fine.

Mandrake 8.0. Everything goes fine.

RedHat 7.1. Everything goes the right way.

Mandrake 7.2. Installation is similar to RedHat 6.2 and things will even go better because Mandrake 7.2 is more recent than RedHat 6.2.

RedHat 6.2. The graphical installation didn't work, but the video card was listed, and this was enough to make X running after reboot in a ugly 320x200 resolution. Some tuning on the XF86Config file has been enough to get the 1024x768 resolution.

Partitionning

The laptop is preinstalled with Windows 98. If want to shrink the Windows partions to 4Gb or less, you can do the following:

Run C:\windows\defrag.exe for defragmentation of C volume. Before to run defrag.exe, you have to disallow all other programs that write to the disk. Close then all applications, deactivate anti-viruses and other background tasks, deactivate the screensaver, start up the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and kill all task but Explorer and Systray. Then you should be able to run defrag.exe without troubles.
Use fips to split the first partition
Don't erase the /dev/hda4 partition, since it is used by the system during hibernation.

If you delete the hibernation partition by mistake, you can recreate it with the C:\windows\command\phdisk.exe tools (run it from an dos boot disk, that you can create with the command format a:/s from Wiindows):

phdisk /create /partition /ram64, creates an hibernation partition (may destroy your second partition)

Monitor and Video Card configuration

The laptop comes with a NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV+, 128 bit accelerator with 3Mb (3072 Kb) video SDRAM. The chipset for this card is NM2230.

XFree86 4.2.0 has support for the NM2230 chipset.
XFree86 4.1.0 has support for the NM2230 chipset.
XFree86 4.0.3 has support for the NM2230 chipset.
XFree86 4.0.2 has support for the NM2230 chipset.
XFree86 4.0.1 has a dedicated NeoMagic module, but chipset NM2230 is not supported.
XFree86 3.3.6 doesn't have a dedicated module for this card, but it's possible to use the standard svga driver with the NM2200 chipset.

Mandrake 8.1 comes with XFree86 3.3.6 and XFree86 4.1.0 Choose XFree86 4.1.0.
Mandrake 8.0 comes with XFree86 3.3.6 and XFree86 4.0.3. Choose XFree86 4.0.3.
RedHat 7.1 comes with XFree86 3.3.6 and XFree86 4.0.3. Choose XFree86 4.0.3.
Mandrake 7.2 comes with both XFree86 3.3.6 and XFree86 4.0.1. Choose XFree86 3.3.6.
RedHat 6.2 comes with XFree86 3.3.6. The screen is not recongnized during the install process, you will have to proceed with a text-mode installation. You will have to edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config before to start the graphical environement.

Using XFree86 3.3.6

Edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file as follows:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "My Video Card"
    VendorName  "Unknown"
    BoardName   "Unknown"
    VideoRam    3072
    Chipset    "NM2200"
    
    Option "intern_disp"
    
   # Uncomment the following option if you want to use an external monitor or a beamer! 
   # Option "extern_disp"
    
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Driver      "svga"
    # Use Device "Generic VGA" for Standard VGA 320x200x256
    # Device      "Generic VGA"
    Device      "My Video Card"
    Monitor     "LCD Panel 1024x768"
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1024x768"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Here is my XF86Config file for XFree86 3.3.6

Using XFree86 4.0.1

I had no success, but it's probably possible to make it work.

Using XFree86 4.0.2, XFree86 4.0.3, XFree86 4.1.0, XFree86 4.2.0

Choose Generic LCD Panel 1024x768 as Monitor and NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)" as VideoCard. Choose 16 as Default Color Depth.
Edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file as follows:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)"
    VendorName  "Unknown"
    BoardName   "Unknown"
    Driver  "neomagic"
    VideoRam    3072
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device      "NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)"
    Monitor     "Generic|Generic LCD Panel 1024x768"
    DefaultColorDepth 16
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Here is my XF86Config-4 file for XFree86 4.0.2

Sound

If you're using Mandrake 8.1, Mandrake 8.0, RedHat 7.1 or Mandrake 7.2, the sound will work thanks to the Alsa driver ymfpci. You just have to type the foolwing commands in order to unmute the sound card:

amixer set Master 50 unmute
amixer set CD 50 unmute
amixer set PCM 50 unmute

With RedHat 6.2, you will have to download the alsa driver from the ALSA-project website:

download alsa-diver-0.5.0c.tar.bz2, alsa-utils-0.5.9b.tar.bz2 and alsa-lib-0.5.9.tar.bz2 and unpack them in /usr/local/src
go into the alsa-driver-0.5.9c directory and run ./configure --with-sequencer=yes --with-debug=detect --with-card=ymfpci, then make install
run ./snddevices. This script will create the alsa devices in /dev.
go into the alsa-lib-0.5.9c directory and run ./configure, then make install
go into the alsa.utils-0.5.9c directory and run ./configure, then make install

add the following lines in the /etc/conf.modules file:

 # ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-card-ymfpci
options snd-card-ymfpci snd_fm_port=0x388

# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
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

run /sbin/modprobe snd-card-ymfpci to load the sound card module.
run /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss and /sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss to have the sound be backwards compatible with the linux kernel sound drivers.
run amixer set Master 50 unmute, amixer set CD 50 unmute and amixer set PCM 50 unmute to specify the volume (50) and unmute the sound card.
if you need to restart the sound, go into the alsa-driver-0.5.9c directory and run ./utils/alsasound restart. Note: this RedHat specific script.

The sound should now work!

But there is still something to do to if you want for example to play mp3 files:

disable Plug & Play feature in BIOS (reboot and press ESC while the Sony logo appears to access the BIOS setup)
mpg123 or xmms didn't work for me, because /dev/dsp wasn't found. I solved the problem by creating a symbolic link with the command ln -s /dev/dsp0 /dev/dsp

PCMCIA

PCMCIA works well. With Mandrake 8.0, Mandrake 8.1, RedHat 7.1 and Mandrake 7.2 there is nothing to do.
For RedHat 6.2 I had to install the pcmcia-cs package, version 3.1.20.

I tried a 3Com OfficeConnect 10/100 LAN PC Card (SH572B) to connect to the network. It works well.
I also tried a Linksys EtherFast 10/100 + 56K Modem PC Card (PCMLM56). Both Ethernet and modem works well (modem device was /dev/ttyS1 for me).

To install the pcmcia-cs package, you need to have a complete source tree for your kernel. If it is not installed on your machine, you can get it from the RedHat 6.2 CD (package kernel-source-2.2.14-5.0.i386.rpm).

Refer to the PCMCIA-HOWTO for pcmcia-cs package installation details. To sum up, what you have to do is the following:

unpack pcmcia-cs-3.1.20.tar.gz in /usr/src and go in the pcmcia-cs-3.1.20 directory
run make config
run make all
run make install

To enable the ethernet network:

edit the file /etc/pcmcia/networks.opts to set the network parameters (IP, Gateway, Netmask, DNS, ....)
restart pcmcia sevices with the command /etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart

Internal Modem

The internal modem is a Conexant Soft56K PCI modem based on the Rockwell RS56-PCI chipset.
The modem works fine thanks to the linux driver available at Conexant website.

USB

I only tested USB with an USB Iomega Zip 250 under Mandrake 7.2. It works perfectly. You just have to (as root):

activate usb: /etc/init.d/usb start
load the module for mass storage devices: /sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.2.17-mdk/usb/usb-storage.o
mount the zip somewhere:
- mkdir /mnt/usbzip
- mount /dev/sda4 -t vfat /mnt/usbzip

APM & hibernation

APM & hibernation appears to work properly.