TuxMobil: Linux on the Sony VAIO PCG-F403 Laptop

This is a survey about Linux related hardware features of the Sony VAIO PCG-F403. I don't try to explain the usual installation details (for instance, which partitions I have made).

Installation

On my VAIO PCG-F403 I have installed the SuSE 6.4(http://www.suse.de) Linux distribution.

General Hardware Data

General system information:
Linux linux 2.2.14 #1 Sat Mar 25 00:46:59 GMT 2000 i686 unknown

Calibrating delay loop... 891.29 BogoMIPS

Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5              2474460    863472   1485284  37% /

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 730 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1       383   3076416    b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda2           384       400    136552+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda3           401       730   2650725    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           401       713   2514141   83  Linux
/dev/hda6           714       730    136521    6  FAT16

Hard Disk

/dev/hda:

 Model=HITACHI_DK23AA-60, FwRev=00XEA0G2, SerialNo=D64096
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
 RawCHS=12416/15/63, TrkSize=36477, SectSize=579, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=3(DualPortCache), BuffSize=512kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
 DblWordIO=no, OldPIO=2, DMA=yes, OldDMA=2
 CurCHS=12416/15/63, CurSects=11733120, LBA=yes, LBAsects=11733120
 tDMA={min:120,rec:120}, DMA modes: sword0 sword1 sword2 mword0 mword1 mword2 
 IORDY=yes, tPIO={min:400,w/IORDY:120}, PIO modes: mode3 mode4 
 UDMA modes: mode0 mode1 *mode2 mode3 mode4 
 Drive Supports : Reserved : ATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5

PCMCIA

Output of probe:

	PCI bridge probe: Ricoh RL5C478 found, 2 sockets.

Graphics-Chip

Output of SuperProbe:

	
SuperProbe Version 2.21 (12 October 1999)
	(c) Copyright 1993,1994 by David Wexelblat dwex_at_xfree86.org
	(c) Copyright 1994-1998 by The XFree86 Project, Inc

	This work is derived from the 'vgadoc2.zip' and
	'vgadoc3.zip' documentation packages produced by Finn
	Thoegersen, and released with all appropriate permissions
	having been obtained.  Additional information obtained from
	'Programmer's Guide to the EGA and VGA, 2nd ed', by Richard
	Ferraro, and from manufacturer's data books

Bug reports are welcome, and should be sent to XFree86_at_XFree86.org.
In particular, reports of chipsets that this program fails to
correctly detect are appreciated.

Before submitting a report, please make sure that you have the
latest version of SuperProbe (see http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ).

First video: Super-VGA
	Chipset: Yamaha 6388 VPDC (Port Probed)
	RAMDAC:  Generic 8-bit pseudo-color DAC
		 (with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6-bit mode))

I don't know why, but I have access on the hardware settings (like volume, brightness, video output, ... ) via the keyboard as the icons imply. Use Fn-(Key) to increase and Fn-Shift-(Key) for decrease. From Microsoft-Windows98 the features are known from the jog-dial.

Frank Ronneburg reported for a Sony VAIO 505X , which seems similar to this machine:
Fn+Sound first time OFF, second time ON (volume doesn't work)
Fn+Brightness brighter
Fn+Shift+Brightness darker
Fn+Zz don't use, machine will lock
Fn+LCD/VGA LCD or VGA or LCD+VGA

The key combination <Fn>+<d> seems to shut of the display backlight and <Fn>+<f> toggles the resolution in console mode. Couldn't check this, because I don't have this machine anymore [WH].

Jog-Dial

jogutils

You may find a Jog-Dial driver(http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/t-kinjo/vaio/index_e.html)by Takaya Kinjo. Probably you have to change two things in the spicdriver/Makefile:

CCFLAG has to be extended with -D_LOOSE_KERNEL_NAMES
CCFLAG has to be extended with -I/usr/src/linux-<kernel-version>/include

The README seems to be in Japanese, here is my English version.

$ tar xvzf jogutils.tar.gz
$ cd jogutils
$ make
$ su
# mknod /dev/spic c 60 0
# insmod spicdriver/spicdriver
# exit
$ cp jogapp/rcfile ~/.jogapprc
$ jogapp/jogapp

jogdiald

I heard also, ISHIKAWA Mutsumi has written jogdiald(http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pascal.brisset/vaio/), but I didn't have time to test it.

sjog

sjog(http://sjog.sourceforge.net/) is a program that uses the Sony Vaio laptops Jog Wheel to launch user applications. S-Jøg is also able to adjust the brightness of the Vaio screen and the sound volume using the Jog Wheel. S-Jøg pops up when you move the Jog Wheel then disappears after 3 seconds of inactivity.

PictureBook Tools

"This program(http://samba.org/picturebook/) captures images and movies on a Sony VAIO picturebook laptop, taking advantage of the built in CCD camera, hardware JPEG encoder, and jog dial. It also includes a utility to change the brightness of the laptop's backlight, and a utility to display detailed battery information. It may also be useful on other Sony laptops with similar hardware but without the picturebook's camera." I had no time to check this programm yet.

I/O Driver in 2.4.x Kernels

Please see ../Documentation/sonypi.txt in Kernels >= 2.4.7

spicctrl

picctrl(http://www.alcove-labs.org/en/software/sonypi/) is a small program that can use the Sony Programmable I/O Control device (SPIC), which is part of Sony Vaio's, to do a few simple things. Currently, it can only be used to control the brightness on the LCD backlight, and print out some information about the battery.

Infrared Port - IrDA(TM)

NSC,PC87338,11.2,0x398,0x3e8,0x3e8,10,0,1,0,1

ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS02 at 0x03e8 (irq = 4) is a 8250

CD Drive

hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2202, ATAPI CDROM drive
Uniform CDROM driver Revision: 2.56

Floppydrive

Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M

Survey PCI Devices

Output from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:08.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Sony Corporation CXD3222 iLINK Controller (rev 02)
00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Yamaha Corporation YMF-744B [DS-1S Audio Controller] (rev 02)
00:0c.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c478 (rev 80)
00:0c.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c478 (rev 80)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation [MagicGraph 256AV] (rev 20)
20:00.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics 56k WinModem (rev 01)

Survey RS232

Output from setserial:

/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS1, Line 1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS2, Line 2, UART: 8250, Port: 0x03e8, IRQ: 4
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal skip_test

/dev/ttyS3, Line 3, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02e8, IRQ: 3
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal

/dev/ttyS4, Line 4, UART: unknown, Port: 0x01a0, IRQ: 2
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport

/dev/ttyS5, Line 5, UART: unknown, Port: 0x01a8, IRQ: 2
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport

/dev/ttyS6, Line 6, UART: unknown, Port: 0x01b0, IRQ: 2
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport

/dev/ttyS7, Line 7, UART: unknown, Port: 0x01b8, IRQ: 2
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport

/dev/ttyS8, Line 8, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02a0, IRQ: 5
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport

/dev/ttyS9, Line 9, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02a8, IRQ: 5
	Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
	closing_wait: 3000, closing_wait2: infinte
	Flags: spd_normal Fourport