Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Vaio X and Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick

Here is how I make my Sony Vaio X work with Ubuntu 10.10.
I recently upgraded from 10.04 (here is my guide for installing 10.04) and found 10.10 much better (includes WWAN loader).
The installation/upgrade is not seamless and still need some tweaks.
Working:
  • LAN + WLAN
  • Trackpad with scroll area (no multi touch)
  • Audio/built in speakers
  • 2D graphics with external display (3D and Hardware Video Acceleration is also claimed to work) *
  • USB/Bluetooth *
  • WWAN 3G modem (Qualcomm Gobi 2000) *
  • Built in web camera (Tested ok with Skype, PIP does not work / worked in 10.04)
Not working:
  • Stand by / hibernation (kernel regression? - display comes back too bright or white)

Here are my steps:

1. Install Ubuntu from USB (instructions here).
Keep Windows 7 (WWAN drivers are located there).

* 2. Install Poulsbo video driver for GMA 500 (information here):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config && sudo reboot

* 3. Bug fix for USB/Bluetooth:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# append " memmap=1K#0x7f800000" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT)
# My working example: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem=1900mb nohz=off acpi_osi=Linux memmap=1K#0x7f800000"
sudo update-grub

* 4. Install WWAN 3G modem support:
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/gobi
sudo cp "/media/70E256E3E256ACDA/Program Files/QUALCOMM/Images/Sony/UMTS/"* /lib/firmware/gobi
sudo cp "/media/70E256E3E256ACDA/Program Files/QUALCOMM/Images/Sony/6/UQCN.mbn" /lib/firmware/gobi
sudo apt-get install gobi-loader
# and then Enable Mobile Broadband in the network tray application.

The above leaves the Vaio X fully working. I have always been a fan of hibernation but with web browsers being able to remember windows/tabs between restarts I'm still surviving without so far.

5 comments:

  1. Some hints to make the WWAN work better and not having OS wait for a timeout for 3 minutes at every start:

    sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/60-gobi.rules
    # make sure line includes -2000:
    ATTRS{idVendor}=="05c6", ATTRS{idProduct}=="9224", RUN+="gobi_loader -2000 $env{DEVNAME} /lib/firmware/gobi"

    If still no Mobile Broadband run:
    sudo /lib/udev/gobi_loader -2000 /dev/ttyUSB0 /lib/firmware/gobi
    and after a few seconds run:
    sudo pkill modem-manager

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello,

    any ideas for multi touch?

    My wifi laggs horribly. I have to reconnect to the wifi every 2 or 3 minutes, because I lose internet connection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think there is a solution for multi-touch. For 11.10 I use one for edge scroll. See my comment

      Delete
  3. My ubuntu 10.10 on a Vaio X has no /etc/default/grub file. ??

    ReplyDelete
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