Hi August,
I have extensive experience with an earlier model, PCG990FX (I think)
In brief:
You need to make sure the Linux kernel has ACPI support
built in, else you may cook the laptop.
In long:
The SONY laptops do not have any APM (Advanced Power Management)
(legacy stuff) but rather, use the newer and better ACPI stuff.
see google for acronym breakdown and groovy details on it.
ACPI replaces APM (and does more).
Importantly it runs your fans.
ACPI is most often (and with my model SONY laptop) software controlled.
ie: if you don't have the software running to manage the ACPI
messages etc, your fans won't turn on. and you will cook the laptop,
When I purchased my Sony Vaio, the kernel (2.4) did not
have ACPI support built in, but there is was/is a very good project
happening at http://acpi.sf.net such that ACPI support
is built into 2.5 and thus the new (yet to come) 2.6.
So .. get a distro that has patched the kernel with ACPI support
(any of the kernels 2.4.x pretty much onwards have ACPI support
or can be patched for it.
There are differences with the http://acpi.sf.net patches and the default
2.5 kernel tree ACPI support (minor i think, just ACPI moves quicker
then good stuff get's merged in, not too sure really, just noticed it was
different, and that acpi.sf.net was putting out patches for kernels
with ACPI support already in it.
The mailing list linux-sony @ (something) is the BEST place for all
these gritty details.
Your model may have a US equivalent and thus you can base a lot
of the research of that.
On another note: Sony didn't support Linux when I bought mine, but
such a nice laptop and good price I did not care 1 bit.
and it runs real well!.
HTH.
On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 13:20:18 +1000, augusts wrote
> Hi all,
>
> I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with this specific
> model of the Sony Vaio
> (http://www.sony.com.au/vaio/products/index.cfm?catid=19479&prodid=PCGV5
> 05GP) and Red Hat (or other distros). I've found a lot of Sony/Linux
> info on the web but not for this specific model.
>
> Things look promising for the whole V505 range, but before a
> purchase I thought I would check with the experts.
>
> August
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/
> More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
--
ramon buckland
www.thebuckland.com
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
