SONY SuperSlim VAIO

[Curtis Brune]

Latest news.  The ethernet adapter works!  The trick was to turn off the
Plug-n-Play OS option from the BIOS.  It was in the Ethernet-HOWTO
(excerpted)

3.7.3.  PCI machine detects card but driver fails probe.

  Newer PCI BIOSes may not enable all PCI cards at power-up, especially
  if the BIOS option `PNP OS' is enabled. This mis-feature is to support
  the next release of Windows which still uses some real-mode drivers.
  Either disable this option, or try and upgrade to a newer driver which
  has the code to enable a disabled card.

This was using the vanilla Debian/GNU Linux 2.1 distribution which uses
kernel 2.0.36 .  Plan to upgrade to 2.2.10 as soon possible, because I
need USB support bad .... the floopy drive depends on it.

Cheers,
Curt


Curtis Brune wrote:
> 
> Prelim results of using the internal ethernet adapter of the Sony VAIO
> Z505S with Debian GNU/Linux.
> 
> 1. booted Debian install off of CD-ROM drive; for examples of installing
> linux on SONY super-slim VAIO check out
> http://home.rochester.rr.com/specht/505/index.html and
> http://www.joechiu.com/computing/vaio/linuxon505.html
> 
> though neither of these describes the Z505S model explicitly.
> 
> 2. you have to add append="ide1=0x180,0x386" to the lilo boot parameters
> to get the CD-ROM drive to work.  See the above links for why.
> 
> 3. This VAIO model uses USB to connect the floppy drive; nice under
> windows since for the other VAIO models you have to reboot your machine
> when you add the floppy drive.
> 
> 4. install the base system and selected the "eepro100" during the
> install.  I did not add any additional parameters.  The system said
> "module installed successfully". Great.
> 
> 5.  reboot the sytem and boot linux from the hard drive.  Listed below
> is from my boot log.  There's a bunch of errors from eth0.  Any clues?
> 
> eepro100.c:v0.99B 4/7/98 Donald Becker ...
> The PCI BIOS has not enabled this device!  Updating PCI command
> 0013->0017.
> eepro100.c:v0.99B 4/7/98 Donald Becker ...
> eth0: Invalid EEPROM checksum 0xffc0, check settings before activating
> this device!
> eth0: OEM i82557/i82558 10/100 Ethernet at 0xfcc0, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF,
> IRQ 9.
>  Receiver lock-up bug exists -- enabling work-around
>  Board assembly ffffff-255, Physical connectors present: RJ45 BNC AUI
> MII
>  Primary interface chip unknown-15 PHY #31.
>   Secondary interface chip i82557.
>   Verify that the card is a bus-master capable slot.
> Self test failed, status ffffffff:
>  Failure to initialize the i82557.
>  Verify that the card is a bus-master capable slot.
> 
> After booting up I get the following two lines printed ot the console
> every 10 seconds or so:
> 
> eth0: Transmit timed out: status ffff command ffff.
> eth0: Trying to restart the transmitter...
> 
> Cheers,
> Curt
> 
> Here /proc/pci and /proc/interrupts
>  0:     250912  timer
>  1:     1091    keyboard
>  2:     0       cascade
>  8:     3 +     rtc
>  9:     0       Intel EtherExpress Pro 10/100 Ethernet
> 11:     0 +     ide1
> 13:     1       math error
> 14:     2298 +  ide0
> 
> ...
> Bus 0, device 6, function 0:
>   Ethernet controller: Intel 82557 (rev 8).
>     Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 9. Master Capable.
> Latency=66. Min Gnt=8.Max Lat=56.
>     Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfecff000.
>     I/O at 0xfcc0.
>     Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfed00000.
> 
> Donald Becker wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Curtis Brune wrote:
> >
> > > I just bought a SONY PCG-Z505S notebook that comes with an integrated
> > > Ethernet adapter.  THe Windows98 system identifies the adapter as
> >
> > I've been looking at the 505 for myself.
> >
> > > Intel 8255x-based PCI Ethernet Adapter (10/100)
> >
> > Read /proc/pci for the real chip type.
> >
> > > Is the eepro100 module the right network driver for this adapter?
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > Please send me a report ASAP.
> >
> > Donald Becker                                     becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
> > USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
> > Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
> > 301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html