Ubuntu On Sony Vaio FW Series

By default, when you unplug your AC adapter, cpu scaling governor is not changing to powersave. It’s because Ubuntu using powernowd cpu frequency manager. And to fix this we need to install cpufreqd. Then open /etc/cpufreqd.conf for editing with root privileges (e.g. Alt+F2 gksu gedit /etc/cpufreqd.conf) and put this lines (it’s configured for my P8400 cpu):

# this is a comment
# see CPUFREQD.CONF(5) manpage for a complete reference
#
# Note: ondemand/conservative Profiles are disabled because
#       they are not available on many platforms.

[General]
pidfile=/var/run/cpufreqd.pid
poll_interval=2
verbosity=4
#enable_remote=1
#remote_group=root
[/General]

[Profile]
name=Performance High
minfreq=800000
maxfreq=2267000
policy=ondemand
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=Performance Low
minfreq=800000
maxfreq=1600000
policy=ondemand
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=Powersave High
minfreq=800000
maxfreq=1600000
policy=powersave
[/Profile]

[Profile]
name=Powersave Low
minfreq=800000
maxfreq=800000
policy=powersave
[/Profile]

##
# Basic states
##
# when AC use performance mode
[Rule]
name=AC Rule
ac=on                    # (on/off)
profile=Performance High
[/Rule]

# stay in performance mode for the first minutes
[Rule]
name=AC Off - High Power
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=70-100
profile=Performance Low
[/Rule]

# conservative mode when not AC
[Rule]
name=AC Off - Medium Battery
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=30-70
profile=Powersave High
[/Rule]

# conservative mode when not AC
[Rule]
name=AC Off - Low Battery
ac=off                   # (on/off)
battery_interval=0-30
profile=Powersave Low
[/Rule]

Now, when you unplug your AC adapter, cpu will work in powersave mode with frequencies from 800MHz to 1.6GHz and when battery is below 30% it will stay at lowest frequency value of 800Mhz.

And if you plug adpater back, frequencies will be from 800Mhz to 2.27GHz.

P.S. If you have found some decrease in performance or gui response, just reinstall powernowd.

Hey guys, do you have something specific not working in Hardy? on these laptops, I can investigate and write a solution then.

I will write more material about Intrepid after it’s final release.

Well it just works =) I’m able to see a picture with Skype and xawtv.

I have thought we need some special drivers, but found that it works by default.

UPD: Not work in Flash. Skype can’t use it anymore, just saying there is no devices… strange.

I’m working on sound now. We have Realtek ALC262 sound chip in our laptop.

Headphones works with front speakers together, if you select headphones in mixer on switches tab. To enable headphones only, you should mute Front channel in mixer. (on my older vaio laptop front speakers are muted when i plug in headphones automatically)

I still not able to make builtin microphone work..

UPD: Microphone plugged in front jack is working ok.

UPD2: Add options snd-hda-intel model=hippo into /etc/modprobe.d/options to enable headphones jack detection, thanks to Sean Carlos.

If you have 4Gb ram installed, you probably see only 3Gb in System Monitor.
To make your system see all 4Gb you need to install a version of kernel for servers.


sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.24-21-server linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-21-server


Then reboot to this kernel. That’s the newest version at the moment for Hardy.

Yes, I’ve moved to hardy, while fgrlx bug is not fixed.

Installed Hardy, then downloaded fglrx driver from ati.com and installed it too.

If you have xorg-driver-fglrx package installed, you should remove it first.

Now all works like on Intrepid, but with 3D and Compiz =)

I have Intrepid still installed on another partition, so I’ll keep watch that bug.

I’m going to test fglrx driver on Hardy to see if it’s able to handle 3D acceleration and HD video decong.

Continue >> http://vaioubuntu.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/back-to-hardy/