Table of Contents
Sony Vaio S13P
*UPDATE: (Apr 2015) I recently put Linux Mint 17 on this and it works perfectly and has fixed a lot of problems such as the mouse works great now.*
Here are my notes on what I have working.
Yet to get working is
- Work out why WIFI is so flaky. Doesn't work with all routers and drops signal.
- Get Nvidia card working for certain applications using something like: http://bumblebee-project.org/
- Turbo CPU mode for longer that a split second.
- Control fan levels even more.
- Get finger reader working
Crashing/Fan problem
When I installed a copy of Linux Mint 13 on this computer it crashed a lot sometimes three times a night. The fan was also going at full speed most of time even when just sitting there. It makes a lot of noise and it's hard to work with.
I found the problem was the that the Nvidia card was actually on even though I had switched the switch to 'Stamina'.
To fix both of these problem I turned the Nvidia card off. This requires you to upgrade the kernel and use the bbswitch.
I started looking at Fan controls for the Sony Vaio S13P but the closest I found didn't work: http://vaio-utils.org/fan/. The problem here I think is that this is for older models than mine and most of the ACPI devices are not showing up in the kernel.
Upgrade to the latest kernel
How To Upgrade your kernel, painlessly
Upgraded from 3.2 to 3.4.0-030400-generic 64bit.
This combined with the bbswitch has stopped the freezing problem.
bbswitch
The bbswitch is used to disable the Hybrid Graphics card.
Comparison of PM methods bbswitch git repository
Compile the bbswitch
git clone https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/bbswitch.git cd bbswitch make -j4 sudo make load sudo /sbin/insmod bbswitch.ko sudo make load
Get status
cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch
Manually switch off
sudo tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<OFF
Check status, first the proc, then the last line of dmesg.
cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch dmesg | tail -1
Dmesg output should look like:
: [ 1727.770947] bbswitch: version 0.4.2 : [ 1727.770953] bbswitch: Found integrated VGA device 0000:00:02.0: \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0 : [ 1727.770960] bbswitch: Found discrete VGA device 0000:01:00.0: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP : [ 1727.771008] bbswitch: detected an Optimus _DSM function : [ 1727.771014] bbswitch: Succesfully loaded. Discrete card 0000:01:00.0 is on : [ 1766.857393] bbswitch: Unloaded. Discrete card 0000:01:00.0 is on : [ 1766.858123] bbswitch: version 0.4.2 : [ 1766.858130] bbswitch: Found integrated VGA device 0000:00:02.0: \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0 : [ 1766.858136] bbswitch: Found discrete VGA device 0000:01:00.0: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP : [ 1766.858194] bbswitch: detected an Optimus _DSM function : [ 1766.858199] bbswitch: Succesfully loaded. Discrete card 0000:01:00.0 is on : [ 1801.720954] bbswitch: disabling discrete graphics : [ 1801.721091] bbswitch: Result of Optimus _DSM call: 01000059 : [ 1801.736774] pci 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D3
Install as dkms so that it builds on new kernels
sudo dkms remove bbswitch/OLDVERSION --all sudo make -f Makefile.dkms
Add the following to /etc/modules
bbswitch load_state=0
Blacklist the open source nvidia drivers from starting
Add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist vga16fb blacklist nouveau blacklist rivafb blacklist nvidiafb blacklist rivatv
Update the boot process.
sudo update-initramfs -u
Now reboot and make sure your card is off
Optimus Nvidia setup
1. Install bumblebee and nvidia tools
: sudo apt-get install bumblebee primus bumblebee-nvidia nvidia-detect nvidia-driver
2. Add the following to the kernel boot parameters
: rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=1 Make it persistent after reboot edit /etc/default/grub Adjust the following to look like this; : GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=1 quiet"
re-generate grub.cfg : sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
3. Install glxspheres (use instead of glxgears) - For tests
1. Download VirtualGL (.deb) from:http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualgl/files/2.4/
: wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/virtualgl/2.4/virtualgl_2.4_amd64.deb
2. Navigate to the folder containing the deb package and install it with:
: sudo dpkg -i VirtualGL_*.deb
3. Run glxspheres:
: /opt/VirtualGL/bin/glxspheres64
4. Link
: sudo ln -s /opt/VirtualGL/bin/glxspheres64 /usr/local/bin/glxspheres
4. Results
| Desc | command | FPS | |-----------+------------------------------------+-----| | original | vblank_mode=0 glxspheres | 120 | | optirun | vblank_mode=0 optirun glxspheres | 145 | | primusrun | vblank_mode=0 primusrun glxspheres | 190 |
Touchpad
The Sony Vaio touchpad is what they call a 'ClickPad'. There are no buttons and it's one big touch surface. Linux Mint 13 isn't setup to handle this out of the box so you have to do the following to fix the problem.
Create directory
sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
Create file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/synaptics.conf
Add the following to that file
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "LeftEdge" "2900"
Option "RightEdge" "4000"
Option "TopEdge" "1620"
Option "BottomEdge" "3800"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Option "TabButton3" "2"
Option "FastTaps" "1"
Option "CornerCoasting" "1"
Option "CoastingSpeed" "0.30"
Option "PalmDetect" "true"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "SendCoreEvents"
Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "50"
Option "LBCornerButton" "1"
Option "RBCornerButton" "3"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.60"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.10"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.030"
Option "EdgeMotionMinpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "SoftButtonAreas" "4000 0 3800 0 2000 3999 3800 0"
EndSection
Save & reboot your computer.
Now you should have a left, middle & right button at the bottom of your touchpad and you should be able to drag and drop.