http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html Recently DPD had an express delivery for me. They delivered the Sony Vaio X I pre-ordered the day it became available. Vaio X is Sonys newest development in the ultra portable market. Even though it has an Intel Atom processor and therefore seems to belong into the netbook category of products it is much more. It is bleeding edge technology in an ultra slim and nearly weightless carbon shell. I bloody love this thing. Unfortunately it came preinstalled with Microsofts new Windows 7 operating system, which is an absolute no go for me ;). One of the first things I did was installing Ubuntu Karmic Koala on it. Read this article for a detailed installation log. en CC by-nc-sa Jakob Westhoff Jakob Westhoff <jakob@westhoffswelt.de> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:24:12 +0000 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:24:07 +0000 eZ Components Feed dev (http://ezcomponents.org/docs/tutorials/Feed) http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_91 Download and install this psmouse driver, edge scroll and disable while typing feature of the touchpad works again. http://people.canonical.com/~sforshee/alps-touchpad/psmouse-alps-0.10/psmouse-alps-dkms_0.10_all.deb Jeff Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:59:35 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_90 Successfully upgrade from 10.10 to 11.10 using livecd from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11356431#post11356431 Jeff Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:18:16 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_89 This was helpful for me as well; determining just what package triggered post-resume actions on Linux can be a pain for those of us who spend our time in normal application space. Thank you! Fred Drake Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:09:47 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_88 hi guys, thanks for the very nice post, I appreciated. I have a sony vaio x vpcx131kx and I just installed ubuntu natty 11.04. I can't manage to get the suspend or hibernate to work properly... did anyone manage to make it working? thanks f federico Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:57:04 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_87 Hello guys, here some updates concerning 11.04 and the Sony Vaio X: 1. step: Install the emgd driver sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/emgd sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install xorg-emgd emgd-dkms sudo emgd-xorg-conf 2. step: Replace /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-emgd.conf with http://paste.ubuntu.com/612551/ 3. step: Backlightkey-Support: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10930921&postcount=4244 Still not working: 3G/UMTS Touchpad works, but no scrolling via borders or multi touch Standby Bye MPW MPW Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:44:22 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_86 I have problem with screen, after installing the driver the screen just shows some weird things.. seems something with configuration, can you please show me your xorg.conf for vpcx11 ? Vitali Sat, 28 May 2011 08:51:11 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_85 Trying to install the poulsbo drivers as explained on the wiki on Lucid 10.04 (Vaio X) and it doesn't work at all. Once I reboot the screen goes all funny and there is no /etc/grub.d/10_linux file any longer I could modify. Did anybody managed ? Is it better with Natty ? I'd wish I'd get them work Martin Mon, 16 May 2011 22:41:55 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_84 I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my Sony Vaio X. It seems to be less responsive than the original Windows 7 shipped with the notebook, isn't it? Mattia Sun, 15 May 2011 19:01:28 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_83 @zheca: why did you install the 64-bit version? I have the 32-bit one and don't face that problem! TBRT Sun, 17 Apr 2011 08:09:14 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_82 Hi, nice Article! I'v installed Ubuntu 10.10 amd64 on my z21.Works ok out of the box,but I do have an overheating problem.It seems that ubuntu cann't control the funs speed as it should be.It's not critical, but CPU is always at 70. Do you have this problem? zheca Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:15:10 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_81 I don't seem to have a /etc/default/grub petrie@charity:~$ cd /etc/default petrie@charity:/etc/default$ ls grub ls: cannot access grub: No such file or directory Charles Petrie Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:49:30 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_80 Thanks allen Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:24:31 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_79 @Charles Petrie: You have Ubuntu 10.10 on your Vaio X? Did you try to add memmap=1K#0x7f800000 to your kernel-parameters? Change /etc/default/grub: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="memmap=1K#0x7f800000 quiet splash" and then run sudo update-grub Worked for me like a charm! MPW Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:01:31 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_78 Still running Vaio X in a crippled state. Can't even watch movies from an external drive because the video is too slow. But ok. And trying to install the drivers, as above causes me to have to re-install. And memory stick boots don't work. Etc. What I really want to work is Bluetooth. When I try to enable this, I get a pop-up window that "Your computer does not have any Bluetooth adapters plugged in." Is there a driver I can get-apt install please? The Vaio X is perfect for my use: very light, large enough screen, and enough power for my modest usage. But I am regretting, for the first time, not keeping windoz around. Charles Petrie Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:30:41 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_77 Hello, @GS: In my case I wanted to install the Ubuntu on an USB stick (from one to another one). This was possible by booting with one stick pluged in and than inserting the second one a few minuites later. And then I had to install grub from another computer again (pluged the usb-stick with the installation on it into another ubuntu laptop and installed grub with chroot) (Somehow the /dev/sdX changed...of course) And of course I used the cdrom-detect/try-usb=true fix! I wasn't able to install the poulsbo with Ubuntu 11.04/10.10 oder 10.04. I'm now fine with 9.10. It's okay for me and everything is fine now. Even youtube is quite usable (if you have only one tab open) Still having problems with wifi. After standby and resume I have to restart the network-manager. But that's not a big problem. I get 6,5 hours without wifi and BT. (standard 8 hour on Windows Battery). 4 h 20 min with wifi on. Quite okay I think. Webcam and Sound is fine now(tweak in the also-conf). I hope the new emga (or how it's called) driver will work with ubuntu 11.10. Having no flash-support is not acceptable. Graphics are okay, I don't use compiz. Moving around large windows like firefox still lacks somehow. One day before the two weak try ran out I got it working! Yeeeeeeees! I'm lovin it! Got it as B-ware :-) Did someone fix the touchpad? Would be nice to have as my asus supported this on linux. Keep on going! Gonna look around in some days. Bye MPW MPW Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:50:08 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_75 Same trouble i have with my vaio. if there are any ideas, it would be fine. I've tried to write in gub to boot with usb, but don`t know realy the right commandline to do so. Maby you know that MPW? GS Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:55:10 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_74 Excatly the same usb stick boots without any problems on my other computer. Why doesn't it work on the sony vaio x? MPW Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:07:14 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_73 Hello, I installed 10.04 but completly destroyed it with the gma500 drivers. So I now wanna directly install 10.10. But the cdrom-detect/try-usb=true memmap=1K#0x7f800000 trick brought me didn't bring me anywhere. I created the usb-10.10-alternate stick with ubuntu 10.04. Can you help me anyway? Thanks for hints. Bye MPW MPW Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:08:44 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_72 hello all ok everything is installed but nothing changed, can someone paste hist xorg-conf please ? my system bug when a put driver "psb" thc zeebra zeebra Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:03:06 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_71 OK, I had to re-install 10.10 and I have not tried to fix the paulsbo drivers as the fixes above crash my machine in an unrepairable manner, twice now. The simple fixes for the sound of editing options have not worked and the site that advises editing /etc/default/grub doesn't work for me because that file doesn't exist. Bluetooth is non-existent. If anyone has overcome the same problems on a Vaio X, please advice. The hardware is super but it runs very crippled with ubuntu so far. Charles Petrie Sun, 26 Dec 2010 20:24:41 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_70 some more comments after using alternate 10.10: - the machine is slower than before. - In order to have the mobile internet option available you first have to boot in Win7. I don't know if there is any idea to bypass that? Thanks TBRT Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:36:48 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_68 I upgraded my Vario vpcX131kx/b running Ubuntu 10.10 with the poulsbo drivers according the website above, and X broke upon reboot. Adding the mem=2000MB incantation did nothing to fix this. The website does say X can break and gives instructions for uninstalling and re-installing the drivers, but this did not work either. I am about to have to reinstall my OS from scratch and just stay away from these driver "fixes" but I would certainly appreciate any hints. Thanks, Charles Charles Petrie Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:28:16 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_69 Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:39:37 +0100 it looks like that Ubuntu 10.10 works quite well. Almost everything seems to be out of the box. here is what I did: - connected an external DVD via USB - used the Ubuntu alternate 386 distro - I'm running Win7 + Ubuntu! - did create a 3GB partition for swap - did create a 1 GB for /boot - did create a 60GB for / - did encrypt swap and '/' partitions - '/boot' should stay unencrypted! - before running the installation turn off 'acpi'! Press 'F6' and choose 'acpi=off'! - the installation did run without any problems - when the system asks you to remove the CDROM from the tray and tries to reboot, not much happens. The VAIO logo appears on the screen but nothing moves. I had to press the I/O button (the green one!) in order to switch it off and then you get GRUB on your screen - the system boots as expected (passphrases for the 2 encrypted partions are asked + for the regular Ubuntu user) - WLAN works out of the box - external speaker work out of the box - mobile internet (SIM) does show up in the network options and asks you to enable via few windows - internal mic does work. For skype users, uncheck the option where skype tries to adjust the mic level cause it sets it very low and people can hardly hear you! In general, I didn't have to install any additional drivers and no 'hack' was required to make things (as listed above!) work. Thanks TBRT Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:39:37 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_67 if i put the told line in grub there is the trouble, that # will be understood as comment GS Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:36:09 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_66 How can i boot in expert mode, what do you mean with .. before quiet.. normally boot with usb doesn't work. I get the same errors as before. HELP!!! GS Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:22:31 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_65 Hi GS! Boot ubuntu alternate from usb, use expert mode and add (before quiet): cdrom-detect/try-usb=true memmap=1K#0x7f800000 Lazycow Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:54:54 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_64 @Gs You need to copy the correct kernel on the USB, it cant find the installation files. Try to install on USB a kernel with network support and then install from network. I do have no idea how ubuntu works , since i mainly use slackware. Saxa Sat, 04 Dec 2010 07:08:16 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_63 im getting the following error when trying to boot ubuntu 10.10 32bit via CD or USB stick: (Initramfs) konnte nicht gefunden werden ein Medium mit einem Live-Dateisystem Have the same trouble and allso no idea what i can do. But I'm also no linux Professional. So if anybody has an idea -please post ist here. I will update to 10.10 from10.4 because its not possible to use the external vga to use an beamer. And also the built in HDSPA Modem doesn't work. I got it for one time, after an warm start no problem it works fine. But the i do a cold start. and fom that ponit in it never goes again. Also the sound no chanche. GS Fri, 03 Dec 2010 08:05:56 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_62 Anybody out there running Slackware on it ? Also any problems with linux and SSD ? Saxa Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:28:58 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_61 boot ubuntu alternate from usb, use expert mode and add (before quiet): cdrom-detect/try-usb=true memmap=1K#0x7f800000 lazycow Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:08:21 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_60 im getting the following error when trying to boot ubuntu 10.10 32bit via CD or USB stick: (initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system any help? jolly Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:00:01 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_59 scubajeff: Really great post on that Bluetooth/USB issue! Just upgraded to 10.10 and you saved the day! Svante Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:17:18 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_58 Just found out another tips, use this in your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf options snd-hda-intel model=3stack it will help activating recording correctly and by pluggin in headphone it will mute your speaker automatically too. scubajeff Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:00:59 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_57 ok, guys, i manage to solve the a kernel issue stopping Maverick from recognizing USB on my sony x. By digging dmesg output, found that ehci_hcd is trying to use io mem 0x7f800000 but fails and stops loading, and the lastest psb driver is also complaining it can't use memory range from 0x7f800000. So that is the problem. Solution: by adding memmap=1K#0x7f800000 to your grub config, update grub and reboot. everything work again! scubajeff Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:33:40 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_56 Actually all the usb function is gone. dmesg tells that ehci fail initializing. Adding "acpi=off" can bring USB back, but that conflict with GMA500 driver. scubajeff Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:50:42 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_55 Just upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10, bluetooth doesn't work anymore. scubajeff Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:46:07 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_54 Svante, thanks for the pointer. I tried the instructions in the link you provided but encountered error saying that "you have build-in alsa in your kernel". Coming back to your post you mentioned that this "has to be done for each kernel..." Can you be more specific or point me to another resource on this? Thanks. Shi Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:47:17 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_53 Thanks Jacob! GS and others: Internal speakers are fixed simply by upgrading the Alsa driver to latest version (1.0.23). See http://tech-reveal.blogspot.com/ (has to be done for each kernel though). Svante Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:34:35 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_52 Hi, i've 10.04 on my vaio. But no sound by speakers. i put in the line options snd...... in the named directory/ file. i can't find mono so it was not possible to change. can anybody help me. linux is newland for me. GS Sat, 07 Aug 2010 12:02:09 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_51 Thank you very much for the comprehensive guide. This helped a lot! I successfully installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my Vaio X from the regular desktop i386 image. USB stick did not boot for some reason, so I had to use external optical drive. Installed poulsbo drivers from http://code.google.com/p/gma500/wiki/PPARepository. Everything worked fine out-of-the-box except for suspend/resume - it was a blank screen on resume. The problem was solved by removing /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99video, as was recommended in some GMA500 -related thread on Ubuntu forum. Vadim Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:07:14 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_50 Excellent writeup! It has helped me immensely with my Vaio. I have installed 10.4 on mine and out of the box the Wireless and Bluetooth worked. I am having problems with your two scripts that fix the sleep and networking after sleep. Neither of them work. Must I change something in the code to allow it to work for this version of Ubuntu? Also, My sound has not worked. Where could I find the drivers for this? Nick Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:23:06 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_49 VPCX138JC My Email is tangdongjian@gmail.com Thaon Toncien Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:45:30 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_48 And I tried it on Ubuntu9.10alternate, It has not changed even. Is that so?: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libdrm-poulsbo1 poulsbo-config poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d psb-firmware psb-kernel-headers psb-modules xpsb-glx sudo apt-get install psb-kernel-source sudo dpkg-reconfigure psb-kernel-source // I did all the above is. I need help!! Thaon Toncien Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:40:22 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_47 I use Kubuntu10.04, and I have never successfully start X... Thaon Toncien Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:03:27 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_46 any experience with the build-in webcam? I didn't try it yet with skype but looks like of a slow response with 'cheese'. Like a 'slow-motion' mode. TBRT Mon, 17 May 2010 18:02:57 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_45 I did follow the instructions as stated in posting: on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:19:06 +0100 concerning the internal speakers but didn't work! I installed the Netbook remix 386 10.04! How do I enable 'mono output'? I couldn't find any setting like this in the mixer! Thanks TBRT Mon, 17 May 2010 16:53:35 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_44 Hi, in my VaioX following: linux ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro $2 reads: linux ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro ${args} and indeed appending the proposed 'mem' value does solve the problem! TBRT Mon, 17 May 2010 16:50:59 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_43 Hi ! Thanks for the various tips, especially mem=2000MB ... @starryalley : jolicloud'X keeps crashing with framebuffer errors i guess it's the missing mem=... Btw it's working fine on lucid (10.04), there is a poulsbo_lucid.sh around for auto install, and the modem is ok too :) warestoth Sat, 15 May 2010 13:20:09 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_42 Hi, first of all thank you for this info which helps me a lot in deciding to buy this excellent NB. However I have a concern regarding video playback. Can you test 720p video playback for me? Does it work fine? For your reference I found a OS: http://www.jolicloud.com/. It claims to support GMA500 chipset and can play 720p video. But I will stick to Ubuntu when I buy the Vaio X. Thanks. starryalley Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:30:11 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_41 @xlq: Is it hibernation that does not work or suspend? I never actually used hibernation. Suspending works flawlessly using the given shell script on my system. Therefore I don't think I will be able to help you with this problem. Sorry. Cheers, Jakob Jakob Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:37:43 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_40 Hi guys, for information, i got the inner microphone working using the instruction from http://geekyschmidt.com/2010/03/22/sony-vaio-p788k-ubuntu-9-10-load Internal Mic Fix * sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-2.6.31-20-generic * sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/unstable * sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade * Edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf * Add at the bottom of the file o options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba-s06 power_save=10 power_save_controller=N * On Sound Preferences change Profile to Analog Stereo Duplex * Turn speaker volume up HIGH HTH someone ... Syl Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:53:40 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_39 I have followed these instructions (in particular the poulsbo instructions from the Ubuntu wiki) on Ubuntu 9.10 on a Vaio VPCX11S1E, but despite using your /etc/pm/sleep.d/99_psb_fix, recovering from hibernation sometimes works perfectly and sometimes hangs with a black screen. I can kill something with alt+sysrq+k and I'm then presented with the gdm login screen. Any suggestions? xlq Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:37:10 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_38 Hi Jakob, Thanks very much for writing down your experiences. I am on the cusp of buying an X series Vaio and getting a linux distro on it is of great importance to me. A question: did you keep the Windows 7 pre-installed OS? I'm not sure from reading your installation instructions if you kept it or if you completely reformatted the drive and installed Ubuntu from scratch. I would like to repartition the drive, provide some space (30gb?) for Ubuntu and keep Windows 7 on the rest. Even better, eventually I would like to be able to run Ubuntu in a VM using Win7 as the host OS. (This might not work so well on an Atom processor, but I don't really know.) Any insights you have on any of this would be appreciated! Thanks, - Richard RichDice Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:18:19 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_37 I had never any problems with bluetooth on my Vaio X. It just worked out of the box with karmic. Therefore I don't really have an idea about what might causing your problems. I am sorry. Cheers, Jakob Jakob Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:36:55 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_36 just did a fresh karmic install on vaio x, and my bluetooth is not working at all.. any ideas? Ronald Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:48:40 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_35 Thank you for /etc/pm/sleep.d/99_psb_fix Konstantin Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:57:29 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_34 Hi, We are very close to obtain a full compatibility, only one thing is missing. Is somebody able to use the integrated Gobi 2000 GPS with Windows or Linux. It has never works for me. Best Regards, Richard PEREZ Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:31:14 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_33 Thanks a lot guys for having found out how to get the WWAN modem working :-) That's really great ! So now, i'm sure: i'll get one of this beautiful laptop asap!! Syl Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:04:31 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_32 Has anybody found the way to activate the touchpad's multitouch? Karmic doesn't recognize the touchpad at all, instead it sees it as a Macintosh mouse. Jeff Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:01:07 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_31 Jakob, thanks for sharing your research! i'm still worried, though, that if i get one of these, my right hand won't be able to rest without accidentally hitting the touchpad. i think sony had it right on the older vaio's, too bad they changed it. dfong63 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:28:07 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_30 I have just finished installing and configuring all the needed stuff to make the WWAN modem work. Thanks guys for all the information. I have written down a step by step guide on this topic. http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html Cheers, Jakob Jakob Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:40:24 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#trackback_1 Three month ago I bought a Sony Vaio X netbook. The Windows 7 which was preinstalled on the system was no option for me. I installed Ubuntu on it and got mostly all of the hardware working. Read my Ubuntu Installation experience article for more details. One piece of hardware did however refuse to work: The WWAN modem. Finally the offline times are over. The modem is now working like a charm. Westhoffswelt - Welcome to the real world Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:35:45 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_29 @dfong63: The touchpad is located exactly in the center of the laptop body. The spacebar however is not. Therefore it might look like the touchpad has been moved either one of the sides, but it hasn't. I never had any problems accidentally touching it during typing on the keyboard. Cheers, Jakob Jakob Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:51:19 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_28 could you answer a question for me? the pictures i've seen show that the X's touchpad was located weirdly. it seems not to be centered wrt the spacebar as was done on other vaio models. it is shifted to the right. i'm afraid if i got one of these machines my right hand would be accidentally hitting the touchpad all the time as i type. have you found this to be an issue at all? is there any advantage to the X's placement of the touchpad? dfong63 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:43:06 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_27 Confirmed - it's working. Quick overview of what have I done. Follow the steps from the link I have provided above. This are specific settings for Sony Vaio VPCX11: 1. added {USB_DEVICE(0×05c6, 0×9224)}, /* SONY VAIO VPC-X11 QDL device*/ {USB_DEVICE(0×05c6, 0×9225)}, /* SONY VAIO VPC-X11 Modem device */ into qcserial.c 2. added ATTRS{idVendor}=="05c6", ATTRS{idProduct}=="9224", RUN+="gobi_loader $env{DEVNAME} /lib/firmware/gobi" into /etc/udev/rules.d/60-gobi.rules 3. created /etc/modprobe.d/usbserial.conf with one line: options usbserial vendor=0x05c6 product=0x9225 4. Network Manager 0.8 should recognize this usb modem without any extra tweaking. HTH. Victor Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:21:23 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_26 It seems to work. At least I can see "05c6:9225 Qualcomm, Inc." in lsusb Victor Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:42:06 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_25 I will try this week end. Richard PEREZ Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:01:46 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_24 That looks promising. The Vaio X Modem however has different device ids to the ones patched into qcserial. Even though I haven't tested it yet, (Hopefully I will find the time for this tonight) the ids 0×9224 and 0×9225 would need to be added to the qcserial.c to even try this out. I will report after I tested it. Jako Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:18:18 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_23 Hi, Been having the same problem with gobi and found: http://www.madox.net/blog/2010/01/06/hp5310m-un2420-wireless-gobi2000-module-in-ubuntu/ Can't try it at the moment, but if someone can give it a go, that would be great. Victor Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:07:12 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_22 I'm not able to find a driver package on the website. (If somebody want to try... please do not hesitate). So i'm stuck. May be we can ask this company for a support or try to get one of this ebook to download the driver... Richard PEREZ Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:45:09 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_21 @Richard Good stuff, did you by change get it working? cheers! Syl Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:26:33 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_20 Hi everybody, I'm still trying to find a way to make 3G Gobi 2000 Chipset work under Linux. I have found this ebook : http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Irex-DR800SG/ It seems that it is working under linux and use a gobi 2000 chipset. Richard Perez Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:29:41 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_19 @Angel: The ac-adapter of the Vaio X is one of the smallest I have ever seen for a laptop. It measures about 90mmx35mmx25mm, which is really small :) @Syl: I read that as well. However the information stated above is still valid, even if you install the normal desktop version of ubuntu on it. I have replaced my lpia installation with a simple desktop version without any problems on the device. @vvvv: The system is very response here. It is fast and works like it is supposed to. Did you install and load the poulsbo graphic drivers? The system is really slow and unresponsive with default vesa drivers. It is nearly unbearable without the accelerated drivers. Cheers, Jakob Jakob Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:38:37 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_18 Thank you very much for your guidance. I could install Ubuntu into my vaio x. It seems that my vaio x is very slow. I know that the processor in it is not excellent. But, I do not feel slow response when I use windows. I would like to know whether you feel so. Thank you. vvvv Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:16:55 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_17 Some news regarding futur of LPIA in Ubuntu: Retirement of the lpia architecture https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-November/000643.html Syl Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:06:08 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_16 Thanks very much for your reply Jakob, if the webcam is listed by lsusb, chances are it will work sooner or later. Also, if brightness buttons work, it is very likely sound ones will do too. One final question (sorry for bugging you again): what's the size/weight of the ac adapter of this netbook. I had a very bad experience with my last vaio: the ac adapter weighted 850 gr. (for real, I used a scale!). I certainly hope that's not the case for the X series :-) Thanks again for your help... Angel Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:54:47 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_15 @Angel: The brightness keys worked out of the box, after I had installed the poulsbo video drivers. I am not really using the Vaio as a music- or soundplayer much, therefore I did not really investigate how to get the volume keys working. I don't use the webcam either, therefore I can't help here as well. Sorry. I know the webcam is correctly listed in a lsusb call. But I do not know if working drivers exist for it. Cheers, Jakob Jakob Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:02:41 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_14 Thanks for sharing your experience installing ubuntu with the rest of us. I haven't seen it mentioned in any post above: did you have any luck configuring the function buttons for sound volume up/down, screen brightness up/down, etc.? I have an older vaio and it is a pain in the neck to configure those. Also, is the integrated webcam usable under ubuntu? Thanks very much for your help. Angel Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:07:55 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_13 I have a fresh install of Karmic on my Sony X, although the touchpad works, it's not detected as a touchpad, instead as a "Macintosh mouse button emulation". The x11 synaptic driver is not loaded at all, so all those options for Synaptics driver not work. I think this is the reason why those multi-touch feature wouldn't show up. Jeff Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:38:28 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_12 Unfortunately the "HP un2400 Modem" which is described in the mail you linked to uses the "Gobi 1000" chipset, whereas the Vaio X uses the "Gobi 2000" chipset, which is not even recognized by the qcserial driver by now. I think one can only wait for some developer to create a driver providing the serial interfaces for the modem. After that has been done one could sniff the data transfered to the device in windows, to determine the correct communication and firware uploading protocol. It is definetly not the same as with the Gobi 1000, as there are 3 firmware files now and not 2 as before. Cheers, Jakob jakob Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:33:23 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_11 I'm trying to make the wwan card working and i found this site, i hope this will help some of you. http://marc.info/?l=linux-usb&m=123874553630076&w=2 Richard Perez Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:28:31 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_10 Hi, some additional hints: you can query the temperature with... cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/ATF0/temperature | tail -c5 There's a noticeable speedup by using UXA drivers. Just replace the line in the xorg.conf by... Option "AccellMethod" "UXA" (it had one single freeze with this setting, but his has been weeks ago. Seems to be stable. At least with Xubuntu) As I am using Xubuntu, I had to disable compositing before the notebook goes to sleep and reenabling it after sleep (by altering Jakob's 99_psb_fix script from above)... #!/bin/sh ACTION=$1 case "$ACTION" in suspend|hibernate) xfwm4 --compositor=off --daemon --replace fgconsole >/tmp/xconsole.pm-sleep.tmp ;; resume|thaw) chvt 1 chvt `cat /tmp/xconsole.pm-sleep.tmp` xfwm4 --compositor=on --daemon --replace ;; esac One major problem for me is the backlight. It resets to full brightness after some events. Seems like the Xubuntu power manager does not call any scripts :-( Any hints? Lazycow Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:47:33 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_9 Great tutorial. I've found it after install Ubuntu, but was great to add some extra things on my vaio x. On my case, i can allways found the Qualcomm with lsusb... I will try to see if it works. The Vaio got some speakers inside (the sound works on Seven, so...) Thanks for this, Tiago Caldeira (Portugal) Tiago Caldeira Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:25:28 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_8 @smoo: The headphone jack should work out of the box with ubuntu karmic. I assumed the Vaio X didn't have a speaker because it did not work with the default configuration. I didn't really care about this as I was quite happy with having no speaker which could make noise ;). A fellow reader informed me by mail, that the speaker could be activated by setting the following option in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf options snd-hda-intel model=basic Furthermore Mono output has to be enabled in the mixer settings. I hope this solves your problem. greetings, Jakob Jakob Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:19:06 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_7 I don't have sound in my Vaio X. I use Ubuntu 9.10 as you. Could you tell me your alsabase.conf details about options snd-hda-intel ? What is model you are using? Thank you. smoo Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:19:47 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_6 As soon as I get WWAN to work I will update the post. But currently I seem to be out of ideas/options concerning this piece of hardware :(. If it is a binary firmware problem someone with more kernel insight might be able to isolate the firmware from the windows driver create a loader for Linux. If anyone has an idea to get this working I would really appreciate it. greetings Jakob Jakob Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:54:44 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_5 Re WWAN: It sounds like the device needs to have (binary only) firmware uploaded before you can get it to show up or work. I've had this case with the webcam on my Vaio TZ. Would be great if you could update your post in case you get it to work. Olaf Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:30:52 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_4 Thanks a lot Jakob! I was really frustrated with the performance, but didn't have the expertise to fix it. I followed your instructions and it is working fine. I would like to leave 2 comments that may help others: 1) I was unable to make it work with the daily build of LPIA (maybe I downloaded on a bad day ;) ). I downloaded the final LPIA build for Karmic and it worked fine 2) my system is not recognizing the Bluetooth adapter, and the WIFI performance is quite unstable. I didn't order the version with WWAN, and maybe my machine was built with a different wireless chipset (Foxconn T77H126.00 I guess). I don't really need Bluetooth on this machine, but now I will focus on solving the WIFI performance. Thank you again! eljacob Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:11:32 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_3 @Halldór: Until now, I do not have any problems with the sound hardware at all. The Vaio X does not have speakers build in, but connected headphones worked flawlessly every time I needed/used them. Sorry I could not help with your problem. greetings Jakob Jakob Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:01:02 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_2 I've got a EeePC 1101HA with the same GMA 500/Poulsbo architecture and I have problems with sound, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Haven't you experienced anything like that? Halldór Rúnarsson Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:28:19 +0000 http://westhoffswelt.de/blog/0041_sony_vaio_x_ubuntu_installation_experience.html#comment_1 I fortunately had the chance to get a detailed look at this beautiful peace of hardware last weekend and I loved it right away! Thanks for the great article which will come handy, if I will go for a Vario X as well. lapistano Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:42:09 +0000