Linux on Laptops
This howto is in the process of being written up from my old blog. Its not compete yet. I have also since sold the laptop there will be no new information added to this howto.
This page is intended to be a brief howto on installing Linux on a Sony Vaio SR1K laptop. It is hoped by sharing this experience here, will give the reader some insight in overcoming the problems that came up and ease the process of installing Linux on their laptop.
The Linux distribution chosen for this Laptop was RedHat Fedora Core 2. However many of the details will equally apply to other Linux distributions.
This page started out as a blog on a previous incarnation of this website. In migrating the data to this new content management system, it has been consolidated into a single document so as to be more easily digested.
Specifications:-
| Model PCG-SR1K | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Mobile Intel® Pentium® III processor 500 Mhz |
| L2 cache memory | 256 KB (on die) |
| Motherboard Chipset | Intel 440ZX |
| Memory | 64 MB (upgradeable to 256 MB) |
| Hard disk drive | 9 GB |
| Video Chipset | Neomagic MagicMedia 256AV+ |
| Video Memory | 3 MB SGRAM |
| Display | 10.4″ TFT XGA 1024×768 |
| Sound | Yamaha YMF754B-R • 16-bit CD-quality stereo sound |
| Ports on unit | 1 PC Card Slot(s) • 4 pins i.Link port • MemoryStick slot • 1 USB port(s) • Headphones out • Microphone in • Line in • |
| USB speeds supported | full / low speed |
| Display Adapter | PCGA-DA1S |
| PC Card Slot(s) | 1 PCMCIA type I or 1 PCMCIA type II Cards and Cardbus support |
| Modem | built-in modem V.90/K56Flex (56kbps) data/fax modem |
| Keyboard | 87 keys • Hotkeys |
| Special buttons | JogDial |
| Mouse | Alps GlidePoint |
| AC Adapter | PCGA-AC16V |
| Battery | PCGA-BP2S |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 259mm x 32.1mm x 209 mm |
| Weight | 1360 g |
| Supplied accessories | AC Adapter (PCGA-AC16V) Battery (PCGA-BP2S) Display Adapter (PCGA-DA1S) CD drive (PCGA-CD51A) Phone cable • Phone plug • Power cable • Documentation |
| Optional accessories | AC Adapters Bags & Slipcovers Batteries Display Adapters Drives Memory Software and Services USB Accessories Wireless Others |
| Operating System | Windows 2000 Professional |
| Warranty | 1 year |
Manual:-
A copy of the manual in PDF format is hosted on this website here (1.5Mb).
Installing Fedora Core 2
The installation of Linux on this laptop was a quite involved as it was missing both the CD drive and the floppy drive. These are both external devices, the CD drive (model PCGA-CD51A) connects via a PCMCIA card and the floppy drive (PCGA-UFD5) via USB. It is only these two devices and the hard drive that can boot the laptop, third party drive can not be used. The boot order can be edited in the BIOS, accessed by pressing F2 on bootup during the ‘vaio’ animation.
To overcome the problem of no boot device for the laptop, the hard drive was taken out and connected to a desktop computer using a 2.5″ to 3.5″ IDE adaptor. It was then posible to start the Fedora Core installation from desktop CD drive and install directly to the laptop hard drive. Coincidently the desktop computer was a Pentium 4, so the Fedora installer used a kernel that was compatible with the laptop. This maybe an issue if your desktop machine does not use a similar kernel, e.g. AMD 64.
When the Fedora installation requires a reboot, the hard drive was placed back into the laptop.