| I worked at a university taking care of computer systems. The laptop of choice in my department was the Sony PCG-505 running RedHat Linux. The small size and weight of the 505, combined with the ready availability of scientific computing tools for Linux make the 505 an indispensable tool for computing on the run.
The 505 family have the following models: 505, 505G, 505GX and 505F, 505FX, 505TS, 505TX (current models). The "Z" 505 models are built on a different platform -- I have no experience with them.
|
505 |
505G |
505GX |
505F |
505FX |
505TS |
505TX |
| CPU |
P133 |
P200
MMX |
P266
MMX |
P233
MMX |
P266
MMX |
P300
MMX |
P300
MMX |
Mem
(max) |
16 (??) |
32 (96) ?? |
32 (64) |
32(96)?? |
64 (96) |
64 (128) |
64 (128) |
| HDD |
1 GB |
2G |
2G |
4.3G |
4.3G |
4.3G |
6.4G |
| Video |
800x600 |
800x600 |
800x600 |
800x600 |
800x600 |
800x600 |
1024x768 |
| iLink |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
I originally installed RedHat Linux 5.2 on a Sony VAIO PCG-505FX Laptop with support for:
- Dual Booting RedHat Linux 5.2 and Windows98 using V-Communication System Commander Deluxe
- Running X Server on the built-in NeoMagic video controller
- Installing Linux from, and using Linux with the Sony PCGA-CD5 CD-ROM accessory
- Local-area networking with the 3Com Megahertz 10Mbps Ethernet (10BaseT) PCCard
Since then, I've had the opportunity to also install a PCG-505TX Laptop and set up the following (in addition the items listed above):
- PPP networking with the built-in V.90 modem
- Processing digitial audio with the built-in sound hardware
I document the information here with the hope that it will be useful to you. I use "505" "505FX" "505TX" somewhat loosely in this document. This is because I originally wrote this for the 505FX, but updated the document with info from my own experience with the 505TX, and with info from other 505 (various) owners. I believe most of the information applies to all variants (with the notable exception of the LCD resolution, and possibly the CD-ROM drive).
For more information on running Linux on laptops, check out the Linux Laptop page at: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/
Your comments, suggestions, and corrections are all welcome! Please e-mail them to me at joechiu@joechiu.com. Thanks!
Version 0.10b.1 - May 8, 1999
Overview
Copyright and Disclaimers
Summary of technical hurdles
- Using the PCGA-CD5 accessory with RedHat Linux
- Using X with support for the NeoMagic video controller with RedHat Linux
Step-by-step installation
- What you will need
- Setup Microsoft Windows98.
- Install V-Communication System Commander Deluxe
- Repartition hard drive
- Install RedHat Linux 5.2 from CD-ROM
- Install 3COM Megahertz 10Mbps Networking PCCard
- Download and install X Server with NeoMagic video controller support
- (not done yet) Configure PPP networking using built-in V.90 modem
- Processing digital audio with built-in sound hardware
- Mounting CD-ROM in Linux
- Mounting DOS-floppies in Linux
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Open Issues
Copyright and Disclaimers
Copyright© 1999, Joseph Chiu. You may copy this document provided you copy the entire text of this document. Alternatively, you may copy parts of this document if you give proper attribution to its source and provide information on how the reader can obtain a copy of the whole document. (For exaple, a hyperlink to a copy of the entire document)
The author wrote this document to share his experience configuring a Sony VAIO PCG-505FX (and 505TX) laptop. He is providing the document to you so that you may study it and use it under your own discretion. While the author has used reasonable care in the preparation of this document and intends to provide accurate and useful information, he specifically disclaims any and all responsibility for damages and/or losses that you might encounter by your acting upon, or relying upon, the information contained in this document. You should have reliable back ups of any important data residing on your computer before performing any installation procedures.
Sony, VAIO, PCG-505, and PCGA-CD5 are tradermarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. 3Com, and Megahertz are tradermarks or registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. V-Communication, System Commander, System Commander Deluxe, and Boot Commander are trademarks or registered trademarks of V-Communication. RedHat is a reigstered trademark of RedHat Corporation. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, and Windows98 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Laywers. Don't talk to me about laywers. I got one for a brother!
Summary of Technical Hurdles
I encountered a number of technical hurdles while installing RedHat Linux 5.2 to support the PCG-505FX laptop. I am documenting them here because you might not want to duplicate my configuration of the the PCG-505FX, but may find the following information useful for your configuration.
Supporting the PCGA-CD5 CD-ROM drive under RedHat Linux 5.2
The PCGA-CD5 CD-ROM accessory is a plug-and-play CD-ROM drive and interface kit. While the Sony documentation specifies that the drive is ATAPI compatible, the default configuration of RedHat Linux 5.2 does not allow the system to properly detect (and use) the drive. This is true even if you specifically enable PCMCIA support during RedHat Linux 5.2 installation. This happens because the laptop configures the CD-ROM accessory's ATA (drive) interface at input-output addresses that differ from those which RedHat Linux expects.
In order to use the drive, you need to pass the following arguments to the Linux kernel:
ide2=0x180,0x386
For example, at the first boot prompt for the RedHat Linux 5.2 installation floppy or CD (the screen where it says "Welcome to RedHat"), type in:
linux ide2=0x180,0x386
During the RedHat Linux installation, do not enable PCMCIA support for the purpose of installing the operating system. This is unnecessary because the laptop has already configured the ATA interface of the CD-ROM accessory at that point.
A number of people have written me with reports of problems using the CD-ROM drive once they have Linux installed and running. I have seen the problem myself on a 505TX that I had configured. This is my best guess as to what is happening: when Linux starts the PCMCIA service, the service detects the presence of a card and initiates a card insertion event (even though the Sony POST/BIOS setup at boot time has already initialized the card). Somehow, the PCMCIA service tries to setup the card at IO address 0x190, 0x396 with IRQ 3 -- and fails. For an inelegant workaround to enable the CD-ROM, see below for more details.
Using X with support for the NeoMagic video controller with RedHat Linux
In the past, you had to purchase third-party X server that support the NeoMagic video controller because of inadequate documentation and/or support from NeoMagic to the Linux community. This is no longer true.
RedHat 5.2 supports the NeoMagic chipset. However, you might want to obtain the latest drivers by downloading the XFCom-neomagic package at ftp://ftp.redhat.pub/pub/XFCom (the latest version as of this writing is XFCom-neomagic-glibc-2.0.0-1.i386.rpm). Please be sure to follow the readme's and/or instructions which accompany the XFCom-neomagic package.
Step-by-step Installation
I am documenting details (too much details?) of how I configured a PCG-505FX, the end-result being a wonderfully portable and very functional Linux-on-the-go system. You probably will want to configure your system differently from the way I did it, but you can at least see how one person's working system came to exist.
What you will need
You will need the following items to match my configuration of PCG-505FX:
- Sony VAIO PCG-505FX Laptop
- Sony VAIO PCGA-CD5 24X CD-ROM
- RedHat Linux 5.2
- 3Com Megahertz 10Mbps Ethernet (10BaseT) PCCard [Details*]
- XFCom-neomagic-glibc-2.0.0-1.i386.rpm package (downloadable from the Internet)
- (optional) V-Communication System Commander Deluxe Version 4.02 [Details*]
- (optional) Targus Notepac or other suitable carrying case
(Note: clicking "Details*" will take you to a sponsonsored link with product information.)
Setup Microsoft Windows98.
Start the laptop and go through the Windows98 setup and registration steps. When you finish, shutdown the machine.
Windows98 plus the pre-installed software takes up about 1 GB of disk space, leaving upto about 3GB free disk space for installing Linux.
(Optional) Install V-Communication System Commander Deluxe
I used System Commander Deluxe to repartition the 505FX to dual-boot Windows98 (which comes with the system) and RedHat Linux. If you want, you can use "fips" (in the "dosutil" directory of the RedHat Linux CD-ROM) to repartition the system and use LILO to dual-boot between the two operating systems. Otherwise, follow the steps below to install System Commander Deluxe.
Install System Commander Deluxe to its default location (c:\sc).
System Commander Deluxe will generate a warning that the system may likely be infected by a MBR virus because it detects the system RAM at 636K instead of the 640K that it expects. On a brand new PCG-505FX laptop, this can be safely ignored. (The Sony BIOS apparently allocates some of the system memory for its own use.)
Complete the installation and restart machine to bringup boot commander.
Repartition hard drive
(Note: this section is very sketchy at this time)
When you reboot the laptop, it will first load and start Boot Commander.
Bring up the partition configuration utility.
Resize the FAT partition to about 2.8 GB.
Create a 130 MB partition at the beginning of the free area. Do not surface scan.
Create a ~1000MB partition (use maximum available) at end of free area, do not surface scan.
Save configuration and exit.
System will reboot.
Install RedHat Linux 5.2 from CD-ROM
Power-off the laptop.
You will need to turn the laptop off before attaching the CD-ROM drive.
Connect the CD-ROM drive
Connect the CD-ROM drive to the laptop using the PCCard. Power on the CD-ROM drive so that the laptop will recognize the drive when you power on the laptop.
Start the RedHat Linux Installation
Insert the RedHat Linux 5.2 master CD int he CD-ROM drive and power on the laptop. The laptop will boot the CD-ROM and start the Linux installation loader.
Linux installation loader -- Specify Linux kernel options to enable CD-ROM drive support
When the installation loader starts, the RedHat software will greet you with a "Welcome to RedHat" screen and give you the option to type in additional commands to pass options to the Linux kernel. (See the "Expert" screen in the installation loader for more details.)
Type in the following command so that RedHat Linux will see the Sony CD-ROM drive attached to the PCCard interface:
linux ide2=0x180,0x386
The installation program begins.
Do not enable PCMCIA support for installation
Because the laptop has already configured your CD-ROM drive's PCCard interface, enabling PCMCIA services for installation is unnecessary
Choose Installation Method
Choose "Local CDROM" for the media containing packages to be installed.
Choose Custom Installation
In order to give you the best control of packages which RedHat installs, choose Custom installation
Do not choose SCSI support
The PGC-505 does not come with SCSI.
Allocate disk partitions for use with Linux
Use Disk Druid to reconfigure the native linux and linux swap volumes. Partition the disk to suit your needs. There will be a volume with ID-code "0xb0" -- this is a special reserved partition for your laptop which you should not delete.
For my configuration, I used a 125MB swap volume, and allocated the remaining disk space to one big slab of native linux volume mounted as '/'.
OK the disk partitioning information and save the changes.
Confirm swap and base-directory volumes
The RedHat Linux installer will ask you which volume to use as swap. Confirm your choice (in my case, /dev/hda6 is the swap partition).
The RedHat Linux installer will ask you wihch parition to use for RedHat RPMS and base directories. Confirm your choice (in my case, / on /dev/hda5).
Choose and install RedHat components
I chose the following components:
Printer support, X Windows, Mail/WWW/News Tools, DOS/Windows Connectivity, File Managers, Graphics Manipulation, X Multimedia, Console Multimedia, Networked Workstation, Dialup Workstation, TeX Document Formatting, Emacs, Emacs with X.
RedHat Linux will create the file system and start installing the packages. This takes about 6 minutes.
Configure devices
Auto probe finds pointing device on ps2 port. Choose generic mouse ps2, with emulation of 3rd button. (You will need the "3rd button" for various Linux programs such as xfig.)
Auto probe will find magicgraph nm2160 SVGA display. Accept this selection.
System installs SVGA server.
Choose "LCD Panel 800x600" (505F, FX, TS) or "LCD Panel 1024x768" (505TX) for display query.
Allow probing of PCI VGA. RedHat Linux installer will choose a default resolution and color-depth. Accept it for now. You can later reconfigure the X server and display resolution.
Do not configure the LAN at this moment (we are using the PCCard slot for the CD-ROM drive at this point).
Configure the clock
Set clock to the correct time zone. For compatibility with Windows98, do not choose set-clock-to-GMT.
Configure system services
RedHat Linux installer will ask which services should be started at startup. Accept the default values.
Configure the printer
I choose not to configure the printer during initial installation.
Choose a root password
Choose a root password and enter it twice.
Create a boot disk
RedHat Linux will ask if you want to create a boot disk. Answer Yes and follow the directions for creating the boot disk.
Install LILO on the boot partition *NOT* the MBR
RedHat Linux installer will ask you where it should install LILO. Choose the first sector of the boot partition. Do not put LILO in the Master Boot Record (MBR).
Specify the Linux Kernel option to support the PCGA-CD5 CD-ROM Drive
RedHat Linux installer will ask you if you want to pass options to kernel at boot time. In order to support the Sony CD-ROM drive, you will need to pass in the alternate ATA interface address. Type in the following option:
ide2=0x180,0x386
Configure LILO for use with other operating systems
RedHat Linux will allow you to configure LILO to boot other operating systems. Don't make any changes. Just OK the default.
Finish the installlation
At this point, you are done with RedHat Linux installation. Remove any floppy from the floppy drive, and remove the RedHat Linux CD from the CD-ROM drive. Reboot the machine.
Make final changes in System Commander Deluxe
When you reboot the machine, System Commander Deluxe will report that the settings on the primary disk has changed. Tell System Commander Deluxe to save the boot sector.
From the Boot Commander main screen, press Alt+S, Alt+O to change the order of Boot Commander booting options. Order the options as: Linux, Win98, Win98 Prompt, Boot from A:. Hit ESC-ESC when done.
From the Boot Commander main screen, press Alt+S, ALT+G to change global option, Change laptop style override to 9x19 (this looks the best, but leaves blank lines at bottom), and edit the personal text to put in your ownership information.
If you need to setup a boot password to protect the system, you can set that up now as well.
Start Linux
From the Boot Commander main screen, choose the Linux boot option. RedHat Linux 5.2 will start.
At the login: prompt, login as root using the password which you chose earlier. To reboot the machine, just hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and give Linux a minute to shutdown.
Install 3COM Megahertz 10Mbps Networking PCCard
Get networking setup information
Contact your system administrator to obtain networking setup information (see below).
Start X to bring up the graphical environment
Start up Linux and login. Setting up the network interface is easy if you use the GUI-based tools. Start X if necessary:
startx
Enter networking details
Click on the network-configuration icon in the control-panel and type in the information which the operating system needs to configure your network interface.
Enter the appropriate information and save the changes:
Host Name: [name of your machine]
Domain: [name of your domain]
Nameserver: [ip-address of your namserver. Example: 192.172.10.10]
Add an interface entry for your network interface card, including its TCP/IP address:
Interface: eth0
IP Address: [ip-address of your system. Example: 192.172.211.103]
atboot: Yes
Add routing information for your network interface card:
Default gateway: [ip-address of your gateway. Example: 192.172.211.1]
Default gateway device: eth0
Save all information.
Enable the network card
Go to the interfaces panel, select the eth0 entry and click "activate".
Test the connection
Try running telnet / ftp / netscape to verify that your networking now works.
(Optional) Download and install X Server with NeoMagic video controller support
You can obtain the latest NeoMagic X-server support by downloading the XFCom-neomagic package at ftp://ftp.redhat.pub/pub/XFCom (as of this writing, the latest package is XFCom-neomagic-glibc-2.0.0-1.i386.rpm). For up-to-date installation details, check the readme that accompany the package. As of this writing, the steps are:
Install the NeoMagic X support package:
rpm -ivh XFCom-neomagic-glibc-2.0.0-1.i386
Setup the X server link and copy default configuration files:
ln -sf /usr/X11R6/bin/XFCom_NeoMagic /etc/X11/X
mv /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/X11/XF86Config.old
cp /etc/X11/XF86Config.neomagic /etc/X11/XF86Config
Start the X server
startx
(Optional) Change the video color-depth
To change the colors-per-pixel from the default (256 colors using 8 bits-per-pixel), open a new terminal shell and start the X configuration tool:
XF86Setup
Choose the correct resolution and desired color depth. For the 505F, FX, and TS, I choose 800x600x16bpp. For the 505TX, I choose 1024x768x16bpp. Accept this setting. Skip xvidtune, save the configuration, and exit. Answer 'Okay' to establish a link to the server in /etc/X11.
Exit the X Server
To exit the X Server, you can either exit using the window manager's exit command, or by typing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.
Configure PPP networking using built-in V.90 modem
I have verified that the modem works as /dev/cua1 on the 505TX. Other models should be similar.
Setting up a PPP0 interface for dial-up networking
As root, run netconfig:
# netcfg
Select the Interfaces tab.
Click "Add" button. The "choose interface type dialog" pops up.
Choose "PPP" as the interface type. Click OK. The "Create PPP interface" pops up.
Enter the phone number, user name, and password. Enable "use PAP authentication". Click Customize.
If desired, change "Modem Port" to "/dev/cua1". Click Done. Click Save (configuration).
Using PPP0 for dial-up networking
You can activate/deactivate the dial-up networking by running the usernet program:
# usernet
By clicking on the "PPP0" button, you can activate the interface (the status will go from red to green) or to deactivate it (green to red).
Processing digital audio with built-in sound hardware
Run sndconfig to setup SoundBlaster 16 compatible audio
As root, run the RedHat sound configuration program:
# sndconfig
sndconfig will report "No PNP/PCI Audio Detected". Continue and choose the SoundBlaster 16 setting. Set the settings as follows:
I/O ADDR
|
IRQ 1
|
DMA
|
IRQ 2
|
MPU I/O
|
220
|
5
|
1
|
5
|
330
|
When you accept the settings and test the audio, you should hear a test message.
sndconfig will updated /etc/conf.modules so that the values will auto-load correctly in the future.
Mounting CD-ROM in Linux
Normally, you can mount and unmount the CD-ROM like this (as root):
# mount /mnt/cdrom
# umount /mnt/cdrom
However, a number of people have reported difficulties with the PCGA-CD5 accessory, with lots of retry timeout and device reset messages. I have confirmed this on a 505TX (but I'm not sure if it's the 505TX causing the problem or different batch of PCGA-CD5's...); on the 505FX, I did not have this problem.
Turning off PCMCIA support to enable CD-ROM (Some models)
If you encounter problems with CD-ROM drive, you may need to turn off PCMCIA support when you want to use the CD-ROM drive. It's a pain, but I have not found a way around this problem. (Playing around with the PCMCIA configuration files and card databases didn't get anywhere.)
To turn off PCMCIA support, enter the following command (as root):
# chkconfig pcmcia off
You must reboot the system with the CD-ROM unit attached and powered on, before you can use the CD-ROM drive. After the reboot, you can mount and unmount the CD-ROM drive.
Re-enabling PCMCIA support when you don't need the CD-ROM (Some models)
To turn on PCMCIA support (to use your network card, for example), enter the following command (as root):
# chkconfig pcmcia on
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia start
You do not need to reboot your machine when you re-enable PCMCIA support.
Identifying the PCGA-CD5 adapter
To identify what PCMCIA card you have connecting to your CD-ROM drive, type in the following:
# cardctl ident
On the unit giving me problems, the card auto-identifies as " ", "NinjaATA ", "V1.0", "AP00"
According to information in /etc/pcmcia, the card is a Teac IDE Card/II. In reality, it's probably just using the same chipset as the Teac card.
(See the open issues section for a possible solution to the PCMCIA/CD-ROM conflict.)
Mounting DOS floppies in Linux.
The external floppy drive works exactly like a typical floppy drive. It shows up on your system as /dev/fd0.
If you regularly use DOS floppies, you might prefer to mount /dev/fd0 as a msdos filesystem. To do this, modify /etc/fstab and change the filesystem type for /mnt/floppy from "ext2" to "msdos".
To mount the disk, put the disk in the drive and run the mount command:
# mount /mnt/floppy
When you are done, be sure to unmount the disk before ejecting it. If you eject the disk prior to unmounting, Linux might not have flushed data to the disk, and you might lose data. To unmount the disk, run the umount command:
# umount /mnt/floppy
Thanks and Acknowledgements
First of all, a big thanks goes to the Linux community-at-large and especially Linus Torvalds for being at the right place at the right time with the right idea, and then sticking with it to grow it to what it is today.
The clue that I needed to get the CD-ROM working came from scattered bits and pieces on the Internet, but the big break came when I stumbled upon a little blurb at a Japanese site (http://www.nui.org/vaio/pcg505.html) and realized that the reason why RedHat Linux didn't see the ATAPI CD-ROM drive was because it was located on an ATA interface at a non-standard address. A quick look in the Windows98 control panel (control panel->system->devices->SCSI->ATA PCCard | Resources) confirmed this and made it all possible.
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Additional Notes
These are additional notes that I need to add to my document. If you have information that can be useful, please let me know!
- Because the PCMCIA card is located under the right half of keyboard, xjack card users might find that the LAN or phone cable connected to the jack gets in the way of typing or using a mouse.
- Sony no longer sells the PCGA-CD5. The replacement PCGA-CD51 is a faster and more convenient drive. It doesn't require a separate power cable -- a big plus!
- Add pictures of the computer, accessories.
- Need more technical details on PCGA-CD5; need to find out why I had the problem with PCMCIA on the 505TX.
- Decipher intriguing info from http://www.i.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~shom/vaio/ (in Japanese):
/etc/pcmcia/config
card "Sony PCGA-CD5 CD-ROM""
version " ", "NinjaATA-", "V1.0", "AP00 "
bind "fixed_cs"
/etc/rc.d/rc/pcmcia /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia
CORE_OPTS="unreset_delay=300"
- The latest PCMCIA Card Services (3.0.9) includes the Sony PCGA-CD5 in its list of supported cards. (http://hyper.stanford.edu/~dhinds/pcmcia/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS) N.B. if you choose to install the latest PCMCIA Card Services, be sure to follow the readme; specifically about how the standard PCMCIA CS distribution's configuration files differ from the files that RH Linux includes in its distribution. (/etc/sysconfig/network and maybe others?) Thanks to Matt Dharm for this information.
- Choose 8bpp or 16bpp instead of 24 bpp with the NeoMagic X drivers. The driver is unaccelerated at 24bpp. Thanks to Paul Lemaheiu for this information.
- If you have a PCMCIA SCSI card and SCSI CDROM drive, you can install using the SCSI CDROM drive. It actually works rather well.
- Newer Linux kernels have varying degree of support for IrDA and USB. iLink/Firewire is probably in the works, somewhere.
- It would be nice to show how to use FIPS/PartitionMagic/LILO-based booting (as alternatives to System Commander).
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