Ubuntu 6.10 (the Edgy Eft) on Sony Vaio VGN-T140P
I mentioned in one of the previous posts that I will reinstall Ubuntu from scratch and document the process in more detail than I did last time. Well, here it is!
It took roughly couple of hours to get back to where I was after the last installation. There were the same issues as last time after a clean install, and I knew exactly what to do to fix them. More than week of googling and trying different things helped this install go much faster.
Before I reinstalled 6.10, I gave 7.04 alpha (the Feisty Fawn) a shot. It was good for most part, but had major issues with hibernate and response to power button behavior. I decided to go back to a more stable 6.10.
Output of lspci and lsmod are near the end of this post. And here’s the installation process:
Dual Boot
I wanted to keep Windows XP alongside Ubuntu on this laptop. So I partitioned the hard disc with Symantec Partition Magic 8. Created one Ext3 (approximately 13GB) and one Swap (little above 1GB) partition for Linux install. PM8 has the capabilities to create Ext3 and Linux Swap partitions.
Clean Install
I downloaded Ubuntu 6.10 Live CD image. Restarted the Vaio with the disc in the CD drive. Selected to ‘Run Live CD/Install’. After the desktop was up, I double-clicked on the install icon. That started the installation process. After answering a few easy questions, installation was on its way. Since I was using dual-boot, I had to make sure I am using correct partitions for Linux installation. This process took about 20-30 minutes.
After the installation process was done, I restarted the machine. On restart, I was given the choice to load Linux or Windows – I selected Linux (its all about making the right choice baby 
).
Wireless LAN (WPA)
First thing I had to bring up was networking, so that I could install updates and modules I needed to fix other issues. I use WPA for authentication. I created /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file with following contents:
ap_scan=2
network={
ssid="myssid"
psk="mypassphrase"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=TKIP
}
Then added following lines to the /etc/network/interfaces file:
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant
After I restarted the machine, wireless LAN was up and running. I added the Network Monitor applet to to a panel to monitor the eth1 connection.
Widescreen LCD
The thing that was still bugging me was that widescreen aspect ratio of the screen was not being used. I had to install the 915resolution package to get that right.
I opened the System -> Administration-> Synaptic Package Manager and installed the required module (after the required authentication).
After a restart, widescreen format was automatically detected and configured.
Audio
The computer was silent after the clean install. I found some help on ubuntux.org that helped me resolve my sound related problem.
I opened the Volume Control by double-clicking on the speaker icon in the panel. Un-muted every control in ‘Playback’ and ‘Capture’ and put the slider control somewhere in the middle for every output and input. Then I went to Edit->Preference, checked ‘Headphone Jack Sense’, ‘Line Jack Sense’ and ‘External Amplifier’ boxes. Back in the main window under ‘Switches’, unchecked ‘Headphone Jack Sense’, ‘Line Jack Sense’ and ‘External Amplifier’.
That was all I needed to get the audio working.
Touchpad
I customized Synaptics Touchpad to suit me. I turned OFF right-top and right-bottom corners, they were causing unintentional right-clicks and pastes. This is how my InputDevice section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf looks:
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0" Option "RightEdge" "950" Option "MaxTapTime" "225" Option "MaxTapMove" "160" Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "225" Option "SingleTapTimeout" "180" Option "MinSpeed" "0.40" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.90" Option "AccelFactor" "0.0060" Option "RTCornerButton" "0" Option "RBCornerButton" "0" Option "SHMConfig" "on" EndSection
Applications
Ubuntu 6.10 comes with a few applications that I usually use like, Firefox 2.0 and Gaim. Next, I installed all the applications I need for day to day work and fun. All these are available via Synaptic Package Manager
- gVim: Available in
vim-gnamepackage. I use the GUI version of vim for most of my editing/programming work - Banshee: Available in code>banshee package. I found this to be a decent MP3 playback and music library management application
- Ogle: DVD playback on Linux is a big pain. No single application/plugin plays all my DVDs well. Ogle plays some that I created myself pretty well. But it couldn't play the ones that I bought (encrypted?). Available in the
ogle-guipackage. I followed more instructions to use xine instead of gstreamer plugin for Totem, to play some DVDa that ogle does not play - GNUstep: Framework, more than an application. I am learning Objective-C programming with GNUstep, so all my current fun projects use this. Available in
gnustep-*devel*packages.
Like many blog posts helped me during my Linux installation, I hope someone finds this post helpful.
Output of
lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) 02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI7420 CardBus Controller 02:04.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI7x20 1394a-2000 OHCI Two-Port PHY/Link-Layer Controller 02:04.3 Mass storage controller: <:pci_lookup_name: buffer too small> 02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83) 02:0b.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
Output of lsmod:
Now, that's a long list. I am sure there are some modules that I don't use at all. How do I find out which ones? How do I stop them from loading?
Module Size Used by battery 11652 0 ac 6788 0 thermal 15624 0 fan 6020 0 button 7952 0 ipw2200 115652 0 ieee80211 35272 1 ipw2200 e100 38020 0 mii 6912 1 e100 isofs 38076 0 udf 89348 0 ipv6 272288 8 binfmt_misc 13448 1 rfcomm 42260 0 l2cap 27136 5 rfcomm sonypi 24252 0 i915 21632 2 drm 74644 3 i915 speedstep_centrino 9760 1 cpufreq_userspace 5408 0 cpufreq_stats 7744 0 freq_table 6048 2 speedstep_centrino,cpufreq_stats cpufreq_powersave 2944 0 cpufreq_ondemand 8876 1 cpufreq_conservative 8712 0 video 17540 0 tc1100_wmi 8324 0 sony_acpi 6412 0 sbs 16804 0 pcc_acpi 14080 0 i2c_ec 6272 1 sbs i2c_core 23424 1 i2c_ec hotkey 11556 0 dev_acpi 12292 0 container 5632 0 asus_acpi 17688 0 michael_mic 3712 4 arc4 3200 4 ieee80211_crypt_tkip 12416 2 nls_utf8 3200 1 ntfs 112116 1 sbp2 24584 0 scsi_mod 144648 1 sbp2 parport_pc 37796 0 lp 12964 0 parport 39496 2 parport_pc,lp af_packet 24584 6 pcmcia 40380 0 joydev 11200 0 ieee80211_crypt 7552 2 ieee80211,ieee80211_crypt_tkip yenta_socket 28812 1 rsrc_nonstatic 15360 1 yenta_socket pcmcia_core 43924 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic snd_intel8x0 34844 1 snd_ac97_codec 97696 1 snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_bus 3456 1 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm_oss 47360 0 snd_mixer_oss 19584 1 snd_pcm_oss snd_pcm 84612 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss snd_timer 25348 1 snd_pcm tsdev 9152 0 hci_usb 18068 0 bluetooth 53476 5 rfcomm,l2cap,hci_usb psmouse 41352 0 snd 58372 8 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer soundcore 11232 1 snd evdev 11392 2 serio_raw 8452 0 snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm shpchp 42144 0 pci_hotplug 32828 1 shpchp intel_agp 26012 1 agpgart 34888 3 drm,intel_agp ext3 142728 1 jbd 62228 1 ext3 ohci1394 37040 0 ieee1394 306104 2 sbp2,ohci1394 ehci_hcd 34696 0 uhci_hcd 24968 0 usbcore 134912 4 hci_usb,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd ide_generic 2432 0 ide_cd 33696 0 cdrom 38944 1 ide_cd ide_disk 18560 4 piix 11780 1 generic 6276 0 processor 31560 2 thermal,speedstep_centrino fbcon 41504 0 tileblit 3840 1 fbcon font 9344 1 fbcon bitblit 7168 1 fbcon softcursor 3328 1 bitblit vesafb 9244 0 capability 5896 0 commoncap 8704 1 capability
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