Sony Vaio P: Finding the right Linux Distro

This tutorial shows how to install Linux Mint on the Sony Vaio P (VGN-P21Z) netbook.

It took a while to find a distro that boots, supports the GMA500 (poulsbo) chipset, has some multimedia capability and the best: is debian based!
Ubuntu 10.10 did not even boot, Jolicloud needed a trick to start by tricking the RAM size still did not support the 3G modem, did not read any SD or MemoryStick cards inserted, and it seemed that once booted, the distro does not care about any usb drive plugged in the USB ports. Further, Flash (youtube) playback was interrupted and it was impossible to resize the video, etc.

So, here it is: Linux Mint on the Sony Vaio P

1. DownLoad Unetbootin to create a bootable live USB drive:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

2. Prepare a 1GB+ USB drive.
SD cards plugged into a multi-format card reader did not work..

3. Fromat the USB drive to WIN32 bit LBA mode

-first fdisk: del all, create new, partition type: “c”, set boot flag, write partition table to Flash, and exit fdisk.
-then mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx….

more here.

4. Run Unetbootin, choose  Linux Mint, version 9 (this version is based on Ubuntu 10.4).
Choose the usb drive and create the usb…

5. Switch the vaio off, plug into AC power. Plug in the usb into the Vaio, righ side USB plug. Slide the power button to right. Breathe…

6. Press several times F2, until the BIOS appears. Set external drive booting active, save bios, restart.

7. Boot the Mint Linux into mode 3 (compatibility mode or sthng like that in English). The other mode (mode 2) did not work, probably needs the same trick, as JoliCloud did, ie. pressing TAB at -grub time, and setting the memory size to 1900MB or less by using the following trick:

memmap=1K#0x7f800000 –

Now, Mint seems to be installed, but we need to fix some thing in order to have a real tiny multimedia PC:

Fix.1:. Connectivity:
try the 3G UMTS Modem, WiFi connections. WiFi should work out of the box, while the 3G modem needs a little trick:
Important:
do not forget to  deactivate the PIN of your SIM by using a mobile phone, before inserting it inot the Vaio.

How to make the modem appear in the list of wireless connections (thanks, elastic!):
- download this file and unzip it (creates a new folder),
- open terminal, switch to the newly unzipped folder, and execute the following one-by-one:
make => sudo make test => sudo make install
(the last one will do the depmod -a trick)
- restart and look for the Mobile broadband option under the Connectivity options:

Fix.2: Graphics, resolution, 2D, 3D acceleration:
Although screen resolution will be ok, glxGears will indicate only about 105 frames per second. Solution: install poulsbo support. Do not forget: the 9 version of Mint is based on Ubuntu 10.4!

Important: First edit the Grub parameters, and only then install the poulsbo drivers, otherwise you will get black screen after booting, and invoking command line (Alt-Ctrl-1) will also not work! So, pls change the grub params and THEN install the poulso drivers:

 

1) limit the amount of RAM used by the system so that there will be more available for the videocard:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

add the following parameters to grub configuation if you have for example 1GB RAM:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”mem=896mb”

or if you have 2GB RAM:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="mem=1920mb"

next run:

sudo update-grub

2) Install the poulsbo drivers:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

more details here. After the driver installation, glxGears should run at 800-1000 frames per sec (10x faster as w/o the driver). Below a compatibility table, screen-shot of the Ubuntu HW support page from 24.01.2011:

Fix.3: Install supported Video Player applications
… that are supported by the recent Poulsbo driver (vaapi backend):

mplayer, gnome-mplayer and vlc

Now: vlc seems to provide wrong video screen ratios, meaning that the whole video image is compressed into the left half of vlc window. The rest of the window is black. Acc to some sources, this poulsbo-related vlc bug has been already reported to the vlc team…

But luckily mplayer performs well, at least when opening a file by using the following parameters:

mplayer -vo vaapi -va vaapi %F

By trying smplyer (the graphical interface of the command line mplayer application), the situation is almost as good s using vlc: you need to play a lot with the settings, and even using x11 as output the -vo and -va parameters as above .. do not lead to fluent video playback. Reason unknown, pls give feedback if you manage to succeed..

Possible fix: to edit mplayer conf file, and not to use any options in smplayer setting window..

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1229345&page=152

Fix.4: Sleep and hibernation
… do not work right after installing the distro, so i did chose the simplest solution:

Menu > All applications > Preferences > Power management > When laptop lid is closed: Blank, When battery power critically low: shut down, Put computer to sleep: never

There is a way to solve the hibernation and sleep mode problem, solution here (session: tweaks). The following direct command (through command line) works…

Suspend by using uswsusp (alternative)

1. run:
sudo apt-get purge vbetool && sudo apt-get install uswsusp

2. …. and suspend using:

sudo s2ram –force

… but the trick by creating the defaults file …: the wake-up phase seems to be problematic (very long) on the vaio… Hope it helps. Cheers!

Installing debian on a PS3 from USB drive

Running linux on a PS3 is a common thing, although Sony does not support this hobby anymore, by the release of the new “slim” PS3.. The internet is full of tutorials on how to install Fedora, Ubuntu, YellowDogLinux, and other distros on the PS3, unfortunately almost all of them discuss installation from a DVD disc.

Since the PS3 i got has a … I mean has NO DVD drive inside (i decided to go for a light and not for the slim version), the installation was a bit more tricky.. :

1) I followed the tutorial from Fabiano Manoel de Andrade written in January 2009, on how to initialize the installation of a netinst debian image by using an USB drive.

2) Then, I arrived to a point, where no package wanted to install any more, because of a magical libc6 bug, with the following error: “libc6 not configured” … Some searching showed that the real problem is this:
“invoke-rc.d unknown initscript “/etc/init.d/-query not found”
So, I was looking for the solution of the invoke-rc.d problem, and found the solution of Pawel Tomulik :

“…there is probably a typo in post-remove script:
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libc6.postinst
about line 166:
invoke-rc.d -query ${service} start ; status=$?
there should probably be two hyphens before “query”:
I’ve replaced that single line, with three as fillows:

set +e
invoke-rc.d –query ${service} start ; status=$?
set -e
…”

3) Now I only only need to find a solution to switch to high resolution (1920 x 1080p), as the Screen Resolution seems to be locked at 576 x 384. Does not matter which boot parameter i choose

UPDATE: The screen resolution problem was solved by removing the last part of the video mode config line in the config file (see page 6 of the pdf linked from above)..
Orig: video=ps3fb:mode:<video mode ID> rhgb
New: video=ps3fb:mode:<video mode ID>

where the video mode ID is acc to the table in the pdf…

I believe, this short post will help ppl to install debian form a USB stick… If you have some questions, ev. remarks, pls drop a message. Thanks!!

The Motu UltraLite mk3 and Linux

Just a little update on what I am wasting time with right now: making the Motu Ultralite running with an Ubuntu laptop. Of course, Motu does not provide ANY driver or support when it comes to Linux… So, just checking the options… came through the FFADO project… Seems this is the only way to make the small multichannel Motu work with the machine… Will give more detailed feedback after testing it, but..

for now, just read what the FFADO readme says..
“Note: the support for these devices is based on a significant reverse engineering effort. This means that the developers had no support from the device vendor, and this of course limits the extent to which problems can be solved. You have been warned. Please do not buy devices for which support is based upon reverse engineering, nor from vendors that are Linux-hostile (e.g. MOTU). Value the support that some vendors provide and buy their stuff. Check ffado.org for details. It can’t be said enough: currently it is extremely unwise to buy a MOTU device if you intend to use Linux.”

Very very true. If there were a similar form-factor 8-channel device with Linux support on the market, this Motu thing would not sit on my table… but for now, there is only one way for cheap mobile 8-channel recording… if not less! let’s see after testing the ffado tool with the hw..

I am interested in other ppls experiences, pls leave a message if you are trying to run motu under linux, share the problems you met, and the tricks you figured out… thanks!

Acer Aspire One 1366×768 Graphics driver needed

Just “downgraded” from a Ubuntu-powered MacBook Pro* to the new wide-screen Acer Aspire One**. Reason1: heavy macbook, reason2: got tired of waiting for the release of the HP Mini 2140 HD. This new Acer netbook comes with an ultra-low power Intel Atom Z520 processor and the Mobile Intel US15W Express chipset.

acer aspire one 751 and hp mini 2133

Few minutes after the unpacking the latest 9.04 Ubuntu was installed, and seemed, that everything (sound, touchpad, keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, Hibernation) worked. However, the US15W chipset is not supported by recent Linux kernels [1]. This is frustrating from several reasons:
a) every change on the screen (opening or moving a window) is updated unbelievably slowly
b) Youtube and other videos do not play smoothly
c) the 1366×768 resolution is not supported by ubuntu 9.04, therefore the 1024×768 screen is stretched through the screen.

UPDATE1: 1366×768 needs some hacking, but works. For more detail see A.P.’s comment below.

UPDATE2: video playback is doable by enabling soft frame dropping in players supporting it, like KMplayer. More details in comments below.

UPDATE3 (Sept 27, 2009): VIDEO PLAYBACK FULLY SUPPORTED! you just need to install the poulsbo-driver-2D by adding some repos acc to this page: http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/poulsbo But be careful, new kernels (2.6.28.14 and 15) make extra problems, so follow the tutorial.. Tested with Kernel 2.6.28.11 here, and Youtube HD, and MP4 movies play perfectly. (Thanks, James for the hint!!!)

UPDATE- DEC 2009:

After updating the distro, it might happen that the whole screen resolution incl the 2D acceleration is messed again. I this case what you need to do is the following:

$ sudo apt-get remove psb-kernel-source
$ sudo apt-get install psb-kernel-source $ Sudo apt-get install psb-kernel-source
$ sudo shutdown -r now $ Sudo shutdown-r now

Audio:
-Output works
-Mic input not

I will keep looking for the solution and post my achievements here. If you know a short-cut, pls let me know. Here is the command line output regarding the graphics card:

lspci | grep VGA

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation System Controller Hub (SCH Poulsbo) Graphics Controller (rev 07)

*2.00GHz, 2GB, 320GB, 1440×900, 2.3kg
**1.33GHz, 1GB, 160GB, 1366×768, 1.3kg
[0] http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/poulsbo
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poulsbo_(chipset)
[2] http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=129379&postcount=21

[3] http://wiki.x.org/wiki/
[4] Intel Pousbo Linux driver in Dell Mini12

Build the iPhone Instrument

Hello. Many of you did ask for a little how-to, so here it is:
Schematic:

iphone instrument schemativ v.01

Connector layout:

Beside the standard RCA and 6.3mm jacks, you must of course have one of these special 4-ring Jack connectors with a 3.5 mm diameter:

Good luck! And don’t forget to give us feedback, share ideas, feature requests. We can also discuss a simple, but good-enough voltage pump solution to feed your professional condenser Mics with 48V.

The iPhone-Instrument Project

The appStore is full of recording SW, but what are we using it for? I was working on an interface for audio recording, that could take advantage of the best recording applications by adding functionality never seen before:

- recording from high quality Dynamic microphones
- connecting a Guitar directly to iPhone, making recordings wherever you are
- adding digital musical effects to any audio source played “through” the iphone-instrument module
- easy connection of the iPhone to amplifiers without any docking station
- recording from Line-level audio sources like CD players, FM radio, etc.

Device Compatibility:
iPod Touch 2G, iPhone 1G, iPhone 3G

OS Compatibility:
OS1.x.x, OS2.x.x

A photo describing different plugs of iPhone instrument is here. Pls tell us your opinion, feature requests, etc.

The Retro Frame Project

laser cut: eok. final pcb depends on the required ports. a better demo image would be maybe a running video, or safari in landscape mode any comments welcome.

Activate LineOut of Your iPhone

Below the Audio Input and Audio Output Status on devices running Different OS versions. The Table discusses only the Dock Connector Audio pins, not the headset pins!

Now the Easy Hack: Two ways to activate Line Out on iPhone with OS 1.x and OS2.x:
1) short-circuit the followint three Pins: 30, 29 (Audio Gnds) and ? (Serial Gnd), or
2) connect a 10k resistor between Pins 30 (Audio Gnd) and ? (Serial Gnd).

NOTE1: Tested only with OS.2.1 so feedback on other OS is welcome.
NOTE2: We index the DockConn pins from Right to left. Ie, if you hold the iPod in Front of you, with the display upwards, and Dock Conn at bottom the right most pin is nr.1, left most is nr 30.