Debian GNU/Linux on the Vaio PCG-C1VE
Here I gathered results from installing the Woody-branch of Debian GNU/Linux on
a Sony Vaio PCG-C1VE. The same should apply to the C1VN and C1VJ, which are basically identical in
respect of hardware.
Installation notes
- If there's W2k or higher preinstalled and no bootable USB-floppy
drive around the only way out is to use Symantec Ghost (a bloated replacement for dd)
and Partition Magic. First install a somehow more usefull Win98 or similar DOS-based OS on
another box, create a Ghost-image of it and copy it to the Vaio (using a PCMCIA network
card which is hopefully supported without the need of external drivers and/or
the Windows CD). Use Ghost on the Vaio to replay the image on a partition which
has been prepared with Partition Magic beforehand. Mind that Ghost needs one 'free
partition slot' so be sure to only use three or less primary partitions until work
with Ghost is finished. Once the alternate OS is in place, the installation is quite straightforward
by using loadlin: Copy /install /dists and /pool to the root Windows/DOS partition,
run /install/boot.bat from DOS-Mode and choose the compact flavour.
- Installation using the Sony PCGA-CD51 isn't interesting (linux
ide2=0x180,0x386 and you're set).
- Using a bootable USB-floppy drive is defenitely the most comfortable way
if you consider the price in contrast to a CD drive. Using the first method
might be cheap but also kinda risky due to the lack of a boot device in case
something goes wrong. I created my own
set of floppies to install Debian woody.
Framebuffer/X notes
Update - Great news! Nicolas Henry has created a standalone fullscreen console patch for 2.4.36. Check it out on his page here.
Update - I managed to replace the atyfb code of 2.4.27 with the
one of 2.4.16. This means there are dozens of new drivers available for
for users which need the framebuffer-patch. Due to its completely different
design, 2.6.8.x kernels still bring along difficulties in respect of forward
porting. Anyway, the resulting 2.4.27 kernel is
available
as a deb-package.
Using kernel 2.4.16 with or without full-width console patch works fine with X. Mind
that the following modeline is required:
ModeLine "1024x480" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync
The atyfb of 2.4.18 and later seems to have changed a lot. The full-width
console patch doesn't apply cleanly anymore - not even
this one. If framebuffer support is compiled in, Xfree86 4.3
whites the screen slowly which doesn't look healthy. Not even the modeline
entry helps. Xserver-mach64 works insufficiently (corrupts the screen and
mouse-input is translated horribly).
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