Linux on Sony Vaio Z?

[munsell]

I plan to purchase a Vaio Z series laptop, but I want to run Linux on it. With this in mind, I would appreciate any feedback people have concerning the Vaio Z and Linux. I have searched the forums and found some information that leads me to believe that the Vaio Z and Linux don't get along very well. =( Most of the posts I have read are a bit old, so I am hoping that some of the issues have been overcome. Again, any feedback is appreciated.

[DetlevCM]

Technically you can run any OS on any system.

Problem is though, you don't get the drivers for some OS, or they won't recognize the hardware, etc. (e.g. Windows one on a modern PC)

But back on-topic regarding Linux.

You will possibly be required to instal several drivers by yourself as they may not be integrated into the Linux distribution.

And: You have to find how the graphics card switching works out in Linux.

Maybe you can ask specific driver questions in the Linux forum?

[jpcook]

Yesterday I purchased a replacement for my Viao because I'm not purchasing the OS a second time if they dont' have drivers to support what they say they support, XP.

The HP rep, after I got him to be serious and not me, told me that M$ has been threatening HP if they don't close the doors on XP capability and support their "one install" program. He mentioned that they are pushing the Mfgrs. to produce laptops that can only run Vista from MS preloaded. None of this Linux, XP upgrading stuff. His feeling was that eventually M$ will dominate and control the hardware market one way or another.

Gotta love 'em.

So, if you're going Linux, go go go.

After this, I'm done with Window$.

[DetlevCM]

There is no way you can lock out Linux.
Because if the Hardware manufacturer doesn't supply the Linux drivers someone will.

[InfyMcGirk]

There is no way you can lock out Linux.
Because if the Hardware manufacturer doesn't supply the Linux drivers someone will.

Indeed. Although in the past (if not today) Microsoft used anti-competitive selling practices to force manufacturers to pay for a MS OS license for every PC sold - even those with Linux installed. So although they didn't 'ban Linux' they made it uneconomical. As far as I know, Microsoft aren't quite as bad nowadays...

[DetlevCM]

This may well be, but I think that's another issue...

[ssd4all]

I plan to purchase a Vaio Z series laptop, but I want to run Linux on it. With this in mind, I would appreciate any feedback people have concerning the Vaio Z and Linux. I have searched the forums and found some information that leads me to believe that the Vaio Z and Linux don't get along very well. =( Most of the posts I have read are a bit old, so I am hoping that some of the issues have been overcome. Again, any feedback is appreciated.

I cannot comment on the VAIO Z, but the VAIO SR with ATI graphics runs pretty well
under Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. Most things work out of the box (graphics, ethernet, suspend
to ram, suspend to disk, touchpad including vertical scrolling, VGA adapter for external
screen, sound, dimming of screen while on battery).

I had so far no chance to test wireless and Bluetooth but they are recognized and
configured in Ibex. There are some small things that need fixing (in the standard
installation speakers are not muted when headphones are plugged in, and also some
Fn key combinations don't work, but that's nothing to be afraid of, the important ones
like the PgUp, PgDn key-combinations do work).

The largest stumbling block for using new hardware with Linux is usually the graphics
drivers. You should be safe here with the Z, because Nvidia have offered pretty good Linux
drivers in the past, which are rather easy to install in most distros. The free Linux drivers
for the Intel X4500 are problematic at present, but this should improve soon as the
developers have recently fixed a bug that has bothered many people with Sony VAIOS.

[dhfriedman]

from the sony vaio Z owners thread

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ALL LINUX USERS!!! READ THIS OR YOUR HARDWARE MIGHT BREAK!!!

UBUNTU 8.10 (Intrepid Alpha) affected [1,2]
openSUSE 11.1 BETA 1 affected
much more

Fedora 9 + 2.6.25 might be affected, too [1]!

Sorry for "screaming", but this is really important to all Linux users: Kernel Only kernel 2.6.27 fully supports the Vaio Z's hardware. However it might break your network card permanently (won't work under windows, too). The problem is caused by the e1000e network driver, that seems to overwrite part of the network card's firmware. I was using 2.6.27, but luckily my network card still works. Probably this is due to the EFI system firmware, but I wouldn't trust this. For me, I'm going to disable e1000e immediately (using other hardware) -> only wlan.

[1] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Fehle...meldung/116350 (german)
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/263555 (launchpad - Ubuntu)
[3] http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11382 (Kernel Bug Tracker)
[4] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=459202 (Red Hat)

IMPORTANT NOTE: The information, that Intel Boot Agent Utility might be able to recover the network card given at some places (e.g. [1]) is WRONG (at least seams to be). It might make the problem even worse (network card no longer visible on pci(e) bus). Read [2] and [3] for more details.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ALL LINUX USERS!!! READ THIS OR YOUR HARDWARE MIGHT BREAK!!!

[djlooka]

I currently have installed Ubuntu 8.10 (32bit) on my Z11MN/B, kernel .29.
Almost everything seems to go pretty well, but there's appearently no way to set the backlight (not even using the specifical sony brightness acpi interface, which instead works on the vaio SR11M, with the x4500).
It's stuck to the maximum level, so it's very annoying, and not suitable for real use.
I don't know if some minor features are supported (mmc/sd/ms reader or bt) simply because I still haven't tested them.

[Yeeze]

I tried Ubuntu 8.10, but I could not get the nVidia card to work with an accelerated driver. It also seems like when booting Ubuntu it powers both, the Intel and the nVidia card.
Without accelerated graphics, there is no 3D and a lot of image tearing effects due to slow graphics performance.

Did you get the nVidia card accelerated djlooka?