Sony Vaio VGN-TX3
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Contents |
[edit] Hardware
(for the VGN-TX3XP Variant)
- Intel Core Solo U1400 Processor ultra low voltage (1,20 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)
- Intel Centrino Chipset, Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11b/g
- HDD: 80 GB (Ultra-ATA, 4200 RPM)
- DDR2-SDRAM: 1 GB (512 MB On-Board, 1 x 512 MB), max. 1,5 GB
- 11,1"-WXGA-LC-Display (1366 x 768) X-black with LED-back-light (ultra thin)
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, up to 128 MB shared memory
- ultra thin double layer DVD±RW drive
- Fingerprint Sensor
- extremely light weight (1.25 kg)
- up to 6.5 hours on battery (owners experience confirms)
[edit] Installing Gentoo
[edit] Geting started
The 2006.1 install disc does not fully work: the automatic X-server configuration fails and both network devices are not recognised automatically. Wireless from the live CD is hopeless, but the ethernet works after loading the module e100.
| Code: loading network driver module |
modprobe e100 |
After that you can use net-setup, see Installation handbooks for more info on network config.
Once the network work you're ready to use the dialog based installer.
| Code: starting the dialog based installer |
installer |
That allows you to do a basic installation, partitioning the disc etc.
[edit] Configuration
[edit] Kernel
Here is my (partly genkernel) kernel config for the vaio (gentoo-sources-2.6.19-r5, you may have to use "make oldconfig").
[edit] Graphics
See this guide.
[edit] Touchpad
The touchpad reacting when I was typing on the keyboard really annoyed me, so I was looking for a way to switch it off. I could not get the Vaios touchpad to work with the synaptics driver, which allows to switch it of while typing on the keyboard. So I wrote a script that runs at start of the system to check if an external mouse is present. If a mouse is present, a symbolic link to the mouse device is created, which is used in the xorg.conf see above. When no mouse is present, the symbolic link is created to point to a device file collecting all pointer devices, including the touchpad.
Put these files in place:
Starting the service "/etc/init.d/touchpad_select start" will make the choice. Add this to the default runlevel as well:
| Code: Automatically switch on/off touchpad on startup |
rc-update add touchpad_select default |
[edit] Ethernet
See this guide.
[edit] WLAN
See this guide.
[edit] Battery saving setup
Most information on the Xorg-setup and battery saving is from [1].
Make sure you enabled the "sonypi compatibility" and "sony laptop extras" in your kernel config.
This should give you a file /proc/acpi/sony/brightness with which you can control the brightness of the display by writing a number between 0 and 7 to that file. Lower values allow to save energy. Thus we'll have a script bellow to set this to 3 when on battery and to 7 when on wire.
| Code: Testing the brightness control module |
echo 0 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness echo 3 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness echo 7 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness |
Then emerge a few laptop packages which allow automatic switching of the energy saving features of the laptop (frequency switch, brightness and more).
| Code: Installing laptop packages |
emerge cpufreqd emerge app-laptop/laptop-mode-tools kde-base/klaptopdaemon rc-update add laptop_mode default rc-update add acpid default |
The laptop-mode daemon allows to ad scripts in a simple way to react to events. We use this to switch the brightness. Save this file as /etc/laptop-mode/batt-start/brightness.sh. The frequency scaling worked out of the box.
Now make sure all required modules are auto-loaded, save this file as /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and edit according to your own needs.
If you load all these modules and start these services (or after the next reboot of the system) your display should turn darker and the CPU switch to slower when you unplug the mains. Now you really have the 6.5 hours of battery life. ;-)
