[wplug] Re: linux on sony vaio PCG FRV 26

[Vanco, Don]

wplug-admin at wplug.org wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I recently got a Sony Vaio PCG FRV26 laptop. While I was
> trying to install RH 9.0 on this, it did not detect sony
> monitor and so once the installation is over, I had to change
> the monitor to generic with a resolution of 1024*768 to make
> it work. However, now I get an ugly band (in black screen)
> just before the redhat login window. My graphic card is
> radeon 64 MB. RH 9.0 installation has not selected that too
> and at present it is shown as generic. On the top of all
> these, I am not able to make my modem working. Have any one
> experienced problems like this on Sony Vaio? Any help would be
> greatly appreciated. 
It would be best to upgrade to the latest packages, but that's going to be
difficult to do unless you've got an Ethernet based broadband connection
available.  Not saying that you'll have your issues solved by this, but on a
fresh install you are quite a bit behind on XFree86 (and a skew of other)
updates.  You say you've set your monitor to "generic" - is that generic CRT
or generic LCD?  It needs to be the latter.

redhat-configure-xfree --reconfig

Your modem is likely a WinModem and possibly useless.  You'll need to know
the modem chipset and take a look at the various drivers out there - there
is one that's "for pay" that seems to help many folks.
http://www.linuxant.com/  ...but there are some "free" ones too.


.... I would try the various laptop sites before anything else - someone may
have already answered all this for you.  Vaio's are arguably some of the
most difficult laptops to load linux on - but it can be done in most cases.
Sony is notorious for making WinPuters.


> Some of the news groups suggested me to go for a Suse. But I
> do not have one at present with me.
I'd try Fedora before SuSE.... But that's just me.

Good luck -
Don