I'm finally proud to say that my laptop works 99.9% in Linux, so I recently removed Windows from it.
Remaining Problems:
| Kernel | Please don't use kernels older than 2.4.24 or 2.6.1. They contain grave security bugs and with the latest kernels, everything works out of the box. |
| Xserver | XFree86 4.3.0 or above or any version of xorg will do fine. |
| Distribution | My favorite is Gentoo Linux, but you can use every distribution you like. |
| Network | You can use either eepro100 or e100 kernel driver. |
| Sound | You can use the Intel ICH (i8xx) OSS driver (old kernels) or the snd-intel8x0 module from ALSA (you will be able to make it louder with ALSA). In 2.6-kernels, ALSA is already integrated. |
| Framebuffer graphics | radeonfb works with latest 2.4 and 2.6-kernels. |
| X/DRI graphics | Works in XFree 4.3.0 or any xorg version with the radeon-driver. For DRI (Direct Rendering, hardware accelerated graphics) you need to activate AGP-Gart for Intel-Chipsets and Radeon DRM in the kernel. Configure to 1024x768x16bpp or 800x600x24bpp (1024x768x24bpp won't work with DRI). |
| TV Out | I finally got TV Out working. It is a bit tricky: Start your X-Server with the VESA driver (the radeon-driver doesn't work!). Install atitvout and type in atitvout -fI couldn't find a possibility to use the TV Out with the accelerated radeon drivers. So you can't use hardware accelerated graphics on the TV Out. |
| Screen brightness | With the sonypi-driver (in the kernel), you can use spicctrl to set the screen brightness. |
| Jog-Dial: | With the sonypi-driver, you can run sonypid and it works as a mouse-wheel. |
| Power Management / ACPI: | All ACPI-stuff needed is in the kernel, so just enable it. |
| Battery: | If you install the sonypi-driver, you can use the
spicctrl-program to view
the battery capacity. If you enable ACPI, every battery applet that supports ACPI should be able to show the battery state. |
| Memory Stick | Activate USB Mass Storage and SCSI Disc support and it works. |
| Modem |
The modem works with the binary HSF Linmodem-drivers from Conexant. However, the latest version of this driver is no longer available for free. You have to pay for it (I suggest you don't do that, because we shouldn't support people taking money just for drivers), only a crippled version is left for free. http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/ You can download the last free versions here: hsflinmodem-5.03.27lnxtbeta03042700.tar.gz |
If you have any questions, you can contact me.