Linux on the Sony VAIO C1XD
RedHat 7.1 hard disk install
How it was done (read the fine print...)
WARNING: This is just a note on how I got my machine running. This is not a HOWTO, so if you break your machine while trying to copy me - tough. This information is provided with NO WARANTY, none what-so-ever. Use at your own risk!!! If you don't understand this document you should not be trying to install Linux alone on a laptop. Contact your local LUG for assistance.
Here we go:
1. The install requires a USB floppy drive and the ISO disk images of the RedHat 7.1 #1 and #2 CD-ROMS plus a standard RedHat 7.1 boot floppy.
2. PartitionMagic was used to set up my partitions as follows:
Windows C: drive shrunk to 3.2 Gb. This is an option - only if you need Windows on the machine.
Linux / partition of about 4 Gb (where the real work gets done!).
Windows D: partition of about 4 Gb
Linux swap partition of 256 Mb (twice the size of RAM)
The D partition is mounted as /home/shared and used for data which needs to be moved from Windows 98 to Linux.
3. Copy the ISO image files to D:.
4. Boot from the included RedHat boot floppy. Choose Hard disk when asked for the media containing the files. They will be in /dev/hda5 if your disk is partitionned like mine.
Notice that you aren't in the graphic installer. It doesn't bother me much, I have been using the text installer since RedHat 4.1.
The full Gnome "everything" install takes about 15 minutes on this machine. The installer recognizes USB mice and the Neomagic chipset. You will need to fine tune X after reboot.
5. Unplug the USB floppy drive and reboot.
The fun begins
Now you get to upgrade your kernel! Once you have your network connection up an running get the source for the 2.4.7 kernel. If you haven't done a kernel compile before read the documentation that come with it. If you don't understand it get your local LUG guru to show you how it is done.
My current kernel has everything compiled in. I will modularize later but I wanted to test for stability.
Warning!!!
There are some issues with an X application which cause the machine to freeze. I suspect Nautilus. I have deleted the run-nautilus script and this seems to help stability a lot.
Compiled with USB HID, IRDA (driver only rest as modules), motioneye and Sonypi (jogdial) and ieee1394 support.
My QPS CD-RW is recognized at boot! The video capture device is recognized and the capture program works just fine.
IRDA works with the HP printer I have.
Links:
Linux
on Laptops
several pages on C1 type machines to get you started
Other Linux on C1XD/XS pages
C1 pages mostly Windows (for those times when you "have" to)
Mostly WIndows mailing list