Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21S

This page will show you how to install Gentoo Linux on a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21S laptop.

Last updated: 2009-02-15 / WPA Wireless

Notes from Windows Vista before installing Linux
Install Printer -> Port: FILE -> Driver -> Generic / Text Only Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Action -> Print Start -> Run -> dxdiag -> Save All Information

Hardware Listing
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 2.20GHz Memory: 2048MB RAM Video Card: NVIDIA GPU GeForce 8600M GS      Video Memory: 512.0 MB         Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (70Hz) Sound: Intel HD Audio Hard Drive: FUJITSU MHY2200BH (200Gb) Digital Drive: MATSHITABD-CMB UJ-120 Network Card: Marvell Technology Group Ltd 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller Wireless Card: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 AG Network Controller USB: Intel(R) 82801H USB2 Enhanced Host Controller Mousepad: ALPS GlidePoint PS/2 Port Pointing Device IDE: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller

List of PCI Devices
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03) 00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0425 (rev a1) 06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 4229 (rev 61) 08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 16) 09:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller 09:03.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller 09:03.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
 * 1) lspci

Minimal CD Boot Options
If you do not set some extra boot options, the process will hang as it is hotplugging. After a lot of experimenting, here are the boot options I used for best results.

gentoo acpi=off noapm nopcmcia noapic nodmraid nofirewire nogpm nohotplug nolapic nox

Partitioning
Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x005224a3 Device Boot     Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1              1           4       32098+  83  Linux /dev/sda2              5         129     1004062+  82  Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda3            130        2562    19543072+  83  Linux /dev/sda4           2563       24321   174779167+  83  Linux
 * 1) fdisk -l /dev/sda

Listing of /etc/make.conf
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=prescott -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}" MAKEOPTS="-j3" USE="gif jpeg ldap nptl nptlonly tiff X xorg alsa -kde -qt -gnome -gtk -gtk2 -gtkhtml -doc -ipv6 -ssl" FEATURES="ccache" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.blueyonder.co.uk/mirrors/gentoo http://gentoo.blueyonder.co.uk" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" PORTAGE_RSYNC_RETRIES="3" PORTAGE_RSYNC_TIMEOUT="180" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" LANG="en_GB" LC_ALL="en_GB" LINGUAS="en_GB" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev"
 * 1) for an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo processor (32-bit mode)
 * 1) use 2 processors
 * 1) strip out unnecessary packages and optimise for a 2.6 kernel
 * 1) use compiler cache
 * 1) general tweaks to the portage update software
 * 1) add overlay directory for custom ebuilds
 * 1) language
 * 1) new variables for Xorg

Install the compiler cache software
emerge ccache ccache -M 2G

Bring the package list up-to-date
emerge --sync

Recompile all packages twice
emerge --quiet --emptytree --update --deep --newuse world reboot emerge --quiet --emptytree --update --deep --newuse world reboot

Copy of /etc/make.conf
http://www.littlefield.info/linux/littlefield_sony_vaio_make.conf

Copy of /usr/src/linux/.config
http://www.littlefield.info/linux/config-2.6.25-gentoo-r7

http://www.littlefield.info/linux/config-2.6.26-gentoo-r1

http://www.littlefield.info/linux/config-2.6.28-gentoo

Central Processor Unit (CPU)
This is an Intel Core 2 Duo, capable of 64-bit mode.

However, the following configuration sets up this laptop in 32-bit mode (for various reasons).

processor      : 0 vendor_id      : GenuineIntel cpu family     : 6 model          : 15 model name     : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7500  @ 2.20GHz stepping       : 10 cpu MHz        : 2201.000 cache size     : 4096 KB physical id     : 0 siblings       : 2 core id        : 0 cpu cores      : 2 fdiv_bug       : no hlt_bug         : no f00f_bug        : no coma_bug        : no fpu             : yes fpu_exception  : yes cpuid level    : 10 wp             : yes flags          : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm ida bogomips       : 4392.67 clflush size   : 64 processor      : 1 vendor_id      : GenuineIntel cpu family     : 6 model          : 15 model name     : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7500  @ 2.20GHz stepping       : 10 cpu MHz        : 2201.000 cache size     : 4096 KB physical id     : 0 siblings       : 2 core id        : 1 cpu cores      : 2 fdiv_bug       : no hlt_bug         : no f00f_bug        : no coma_bug        : no fpu             : yes fpu_exception  : yes cpuid level    : 10 wp             : yes flags          : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm ida bogomips       : 4392.67 clflush size   : 64
 * 1) cat /proc/cpuinfo

SATA / IDE Controllers
The SATA Controller is for the Internal Hard Disk Drive 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
 * 1) lspci |grep -i 'sata'

Recompile the kernel with the following options

The IDE Controller is for the Internal CD-ROM/Blue-Ray Optical Drive 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller (rev 03)
 * 1) lspci |grep -i 'ide'

Recompile the kernel with the following options

Network Interface Card
Check which chipset the network device runs

08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 16) *-network description: Ethernet interface product: 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.      physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 16 serial: 00:1a:80:20:5e:cf size: 100MB/s capacity: 100MB/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.21 duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.92 latency=0 link=yes module=sky2 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
 * 1) lspci |grep -i 'ethernet'
 * 1) lshw -class network

Recompile the kernel with the following options

Reboot and check that it is found

sky2 0000:08:00.0: v1.21 addr 0xfc000000 irq 16 Yukon-FE (0xb7) rev 1 sky2 eth0: addr 00:1a:80:20:5e:cf sky2 eth0: enabling interface sky2 eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex, flow control both
 * 1) dmesg |grep sky

Wireless Network Interface Card
'Hurray! I have now got this working by hand (still no joy with the Gentoo RC scripts)'

The usual route to finding information will not give much...

06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 4229 (rev 61)
 * 1) lspci |grep -i 'network'

...but using the 'lshw' package will give much more!

*-network UNCLAIMED description: Network controller product: PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0 version: 61 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0
 * 1) lshw -class network

Recompile the kernel with the following options

Install the wireless firmware
 * 1) emerge net-wireless/iwl4965-ucode

Install the WEP software


 * 1) emerge net-wireless/wireless-tools

Reboot and check the dmesg log

iwl4965: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN driver for Linux, 1.2.23k iwl4965: Copyright(c) 2003-2007 Intel Corporation iwl4965: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN iwl4965: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 19 802.11a channels phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-4965-rs'

Run 'iwconfig' to see if the wireless interface is found

lo       no wireless extensions. eth0     no wireless extensions. sit0     no wireless extensions. wmaster0 no wireless extensions. wlan0    IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"" Mode:Managed Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm Retry min limit:7  RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B              Encryption key:off Link Quality:0 Signal level:0  Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0 wlan0    IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"" Mode:Managed Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm Retry min limit:7  RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B              Encryption key:off Link Quality:0 Signal level:0  Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
 * 1) iwconfig
 * 1) iwconfig wlan0

2008-10-14 At last, I have found the magic process to getting this working!

1. Run the full iwconfig command (like the one below) to connect to your wireless Access Point / Router. You must put in the MAC Address of the wireless Access Point otherwise it will not work!
 * 1) iwconfig wlan0 essid "YOUR ESS ID" channel 11 ap 00:1B:3D:7B:6A:2F enc open key YOUR_KEY

2. Check that it has worked... wlan0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"MY ESS ID" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:1B:3D:7B:6A:2F Bit Rate=24 Mb/s  Tx-Power=15 dBm Retry min limit:7  RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B             Encryption key: xxxxxxxxxxx Link Quality=57/100 Signal level=-71 dBm  Noise level=-94 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
 * 1) iwconfig wlan0

3. Run the DHCP client to grab an IP Address and DNS Server
 * 1) dhcpcd wlan0

4. Check that it has worked... wlan0   Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:e8:ec:e2:e7 inet addr:192.168.0.5 Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::213:e8ff:feec:e2e7/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500  Metric:1 RX packets:528 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:375 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:457151 (446.4 KiB) TX bytes:63278 (61.7 KiB)
 * 1) ifconfig wlan0

5. Ping your router...
 * 1) ping 192.168.0.1

6. Enjoy! :-)

WPA Wireless
I have switched my home router wireless security to WPA (about time I hear you say :)

I have installed NetworkManager which handles wired connections fine, but not wireless on my laptop!

So, here is the fix... emerge net-wireless/wpa_supplicant wpa_passphrase [your essid] [yourpassphrase] >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlan0 [-B] & dhcpcd -d wlan0

Web page: iwlwifi

Web page: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

Xorg
Install the new Xorg 7 package (see new /etc/make.conf settings above)
 * 1) emerge --ask --verbose xorg-x11

Switch to nvidia opengl
 * 1) eselect opengl set nvidia

Load the nvidia driver
 * 1) modprobe nvidia

Configure Xorg
 * 1) Xorg -configure (or, if that does not work: xorgconfig)

Run Xorg with the new config file you just generated
 * 1) Xorg -config /root/xorg.conf.new

Now copy that to the proper place
 * 1) cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Start Xorg with no window manager first
 * 1) Xorg (CTRL+ALT+DEL to exit)

Now start Xorg with a basic setup
 * 1) startx (CTRL+ALT+DEL to exit)

Now fix the keyboard Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver     "kbd" Option     "XkbLayout" "gb" EndSection
 * 1) nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Copy of /etc/X11/xorg.conf
http://www.littlefield.info/linux/xorg.conf

Fonts
Install some standard fonts and tweak Load "freetype" Load "type1" ...       FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Type1" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/TTF" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/OTF" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/freefonts" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled" FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
 * 1) emerge --ask --verbose corefonts freefonts
 * 2) nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Now fix the dpi resolution to match Windoze Section "Device" Identifier "Card0" Driver     "nvidia" VendorName "nVidia Corporation" BoardName  "Unknown Board" BusID      "PCI:1:0:0" Option     "DPI" "96 x 96" EndSection
 * 1) startx -- -dpi 96
 * 2) xterm -> xdpyinfo |grep resolution -> 96x96 dots per inch
 * 3) nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

USB Mouse
I did not have to do anything special here. I just plugged it in and started X! Both the GlidePoint Touchpad and the USB Mouse work at the same time.

You can install the lshw and USB Utils software to check stuff *-usb description: Mouse product: Microsoft(R) Compact Optical Mouse vendor: Microsoft physical id: 1 bus info: usb@6:1.1 version: 0.01 capabilities: usb-1.10 configuration: driver=usbhid maxpower=100mA speed=1.5MB/s Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Bus 006 Device 004: ID 045e:00a4 Microsoft Corp. Bus 006 Device 002: ID 03eb:0902 Atmel Corp. Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05ca:183b Ricoh Co., Ltd Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 usb 6-1.1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3 usb 6-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice input: Microsoft Microsoft(R) Compact Optical Mouse as /class/input/input7 input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft(R) Compact Optical Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1.1
 * 1) emerge lshw usbutils
 * 2) lshw -class input
 * 1) lsusb
 * 1) dmesg

GlidePoint Touchpad Tapping
Want to know how to turn off the tapping on the GlidePoint Touchpad in X?

Firstly, make sure you have the 'synaptics' INPUT_DEVICES flag in /etc/make.conf

ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev synaptics"

Then, (re)install the 'xorg-server' package


 * 1) emerge xorg-server

Now, edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add / edit the following lines

Section "ServerLayout" Identifier    "X.org Configured" Screen     0  "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice   "Mouse1" "CorePointer" InputDevice   "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection

Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse1" Driver    "synaptics" # man synaptics Option    "Protocol"             "auto-dev" Option    "Device"               "/dev/input/mice" Option    "ZAxisMapping"         "4 5" Option    "Emulate3Buttons"      "yes" Option    "LeftEdge"             "120" Option    "RightEdge"            "830" Option    "TopEdge"              "120" Option    "BottomEdge"           "650" Option    "FingerLow"            "14" Option    "FingerHigh"           "15" Option    "MaxTapTime"           "180" Option    "MaxTapMove"           "110" Option    "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75" Option    "VertScrollDelta"      "20" Option    "HorizScrollDelta"     "20" Option    "MinSpeed"             "0.2" Option    "MaxSpeed"             "0.5" Option    "AccelFactor"          "0.01" Option    "EdgeMotionMinSpeed"   "15" Option    "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed"   "15" Option    "UpDownScrolling"      "1" Option    "CircularScrolling"    "1" Option    "CircScrollDelta"      "0.1" Option    "CircScrollTrigger"    "2" Option    "LockedDrags"          "1" Option    "SHMConfig"            "on" Option    "TouchpadOff"          "2" # 2 Only tapping and scrolling is switched off EndSection

Most of the time, I use my USB mouse but this works for me by turning off the tapping feature. I do not know what all the other settings do, but I will experiment to get the best speed, etc.

Fluxbox
Install the software
 * 1) emerge fluxbox

Edit the Gentoo Linux master run control file XSESSION="fluxbox"
 * 1) nano -w /etc/rc.conf

Fire it up and enjoy speed, speed, speed (fluxbox loads in 1 second flat!)
 * 1) startx

Right click on the desktop to open the menu

Edit the menu here:- ~/.fluxbox/menu

Edit your startup programs here:- ~/.fluxbox/startup

It doesn't get any better than this... superb! :-)

Essentials
Install the basic software to get you going
 * 1) emerge firefox-bin thunderbird-bin openoffice-bin filezilla xfe xcalendar epdfview

Editor? I use X File Write built into xfe (right click -> Edit)

Terminal Tweaks
Black background, White foreground, 100x25 size xterm*background:black xterm*foreground:white xterm*geometry:100x25
 * 1) nano -w ~/.Xdefaults

Sound
Follow the guide at - http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

Choose  Intel HD Audio for the specific chipset
 * 1) emerge alsa-utils
 * 2) alsaconf
 * 3) alsamixer
 * 4) rc-update add alsasound boot
 * 5) gpasswd -a root audio
 * 6) gpasswd -a audio
 * 7) aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

MMC / SD Card Reader Slot
Recompile the kernel with the following options

Build, install and reboot with the newly configured kernel.

Stick an SD memory card into the slot and keep your fingers crossed. You should see the following tifm_core: MMC/SD card detected in socket 0:1 mmc0: new SD card at address d36c mmcblk0: mmc0:d36c SD016 14560KiB mmcblk0: p1
 * 1) dmesg |tail

Create a suitable mount point
 * 1) mkdir /mnt/sdcard

You can now mount the SD card partition and use it in the normal way! /dev/mmcblk0p1 on /mnt/sdcard type vfat (rw) Filesystem   Type    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on 	/dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat    15M   48K   15M   1% /mnt/sdcard
 * 1) mount -v /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/sdcard/
 * 2) mount
 * 1) df -h /mnt/sdcard/

Reading
Check it has been recognised by the kernel

hda: MATSHITABD-CMB UJ-120, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hda: ATAPI 63X DVD-ROM DVD-R-RAM CD-R/RW drive, 8192kB Cache
 * 1) grep -i 'dvd' /var/log/dmesg

Stick in a disc and mount it

mount: block device /dev/hda is write-protected, mounting read-only /dev/hda on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro)
 * 1) mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
 * 1) mount |grep 'cdrom'

Now have a look at what is on it


 * 1) ls -lah /mnt/cdrom

Unmount the disc


 * 1) umount mnt/cdrom/

Writing
Install the CDR-Tools package


 * 1) emerge cdrtools

Check that it finds your drive

Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 2.01.01a34 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2007 JÃÂ¶rg Schilling Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27 Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'. scsibus1000: 1000,0,0 100000) 'MATSHITA' 'BD-CMB UJ-120  ' '1.01' Removable CD-ROM        1000,1,0 100001) * 1000,2,0 100002) *       1000,3,0 100003) *        1000,4,0 100004) *        1000,5,0 100005) *        1000,6,0 100006) *        1000,7,0 100007) *
 * 1) cdrecord -scanbus

Make a quick ISO image to do a burn test


 * 1) mkisofs -o cd.iso /home/paully/

Now cut it to the CD


 * 1) cdrecord -v dev=1000,0,0 -data cd.iso

DVD
Install the wonderful Xine software
 * 1) emerge xine-ui

Run the software as a normal user
 * 1) xine &

Stick in a DVD movie and press the DVD button on the control interface. Right-click on the movie picture for the menu and shortcut keys... enjoy! :-)

Blu-ray
Hhmm, this is a sticky one. Xine will not play my lovely Ratatouille Blu-ray disc; it bombs out with "- xine engine error - there is no input plugin available to handle this media. The source can't be read. Maybe you don't have enough rights for this, or the source doesn't contain data."

I have found this page - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

I am recompiling my newer 2.6.26-r1 kernel with UDF 2.5 support now; back soon...!

OK, Xine would not play the Blu-ray disc, but I can mount it.

/dev/hda on /mnt/cdrom type udf (ro)
 * 1) mount

total 12K dr-xr-xr-x 5 4294967295 4294967295  180 2007-11-08 22:49. drwxr-xr-x 9 root       root       4.0K 2008-09-02 13:59 .. dr-xr-xr-x 3 4294967295 4294967295  644 2007-11-08 22:49 AACS dr-xr-xr-x 10 4294967295 4294967295 520 2007-11-08 22:49 BDMV dr-xr-xr-x 3 4294967295 4294967295  192 2007-11-08 22:49 CERTIFICATE
 * 1) ll /mnt/cdrom/

That is as far as I have got. It seems that buying a £1,000 laptop and your own genuine copy of a Blu-ray disc isn't sufficient rights to play the movie. Reading the above page from the Ubuntu forums, it appears you have to copy the film onto your hard disk (but only if you have the key or something) then get a hacked version of mplayer to watch it.

Come on people... this is nonsense!

Oh well, back to playing Blu-ray movies on my Playstation 3 and Beovision 7 with surround sound then :-)

Device Listing
This device is listed as a Ricoh chipset in USB... ID 05ca:183b Ricoh Co., Ltd

Kernel Compilation
Recompile the kernel (I am using 2.6.28-gentoo) with these options...

Run the following in this order to build and install the required modules. This contains a crucial line which I did not know you could do... compile a module which is not listed in menuconfig! make make CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_DMA_SG=m make modules_install

The compilation doesn't work that way with the kernel 2.6.32. CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_GEN and CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_VMALLOC must be explicitly defined while compiling : make make CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_DMA_SG=m CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_GEN=m CONFIG_VIDEOBUF_VMALLOC=m make modules_install

Copy your new kernel files across and reboot.

R5U870 Driver
Then, install the r5u870 package, but make sure you have the latest CVS (9999) version... emerge =media-video/r5u870-9999

When you reboot, you will need to load the module manually to start with (after that, udev will take over do it for you ;-) modprobe r5u870

Make sure you have some kernel output like this... Linux video capture interface: v2.00 vivi: V4L2 device registered as /dev/video0 Video Technology Magazine Virtual Video Capture Board ver 0.5.0 successfully loaded. usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0) uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device (05ca:183b) usbcam: registering driver r5u870 0.11.2 r5u870-0: Detected Sony VGP-VCC8 usb 1-2: firmware: requesting r5u870_183b.fw r5u870-0: registered as video1 usbcore: registered new interface driver r5u870

Mplayer Test
First, use the mplayer package to test the camera is working... mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video1

Skype Video
Then, you can fire up Skype and go to the Options --> Video Devices --> Enable Skype Video. Choose the first device to test Video For Linux, then choose the second device [Sony VGP-VCC8 #1] (/dev/video1)] and then click Apply then Test.

Enjoy! :-)

Text Only Version
A text only version of these notes is available here:- http://www.littlefield.info/linux/sony_vaio_fz21s_install_notes.txt

Things To Be Done

 * Blu-ray Movies
 * External Display Output
 * Sony Laptop Extras Functions and Keys
 * Power Management