coops1

This topic was initiated in another forum, link here, but i thought my remaining questions better suited here, and reason for original post solved. Used Linux for a while, mainly as a security audit tool and various servers, but now i thought i would try and get it up and running as a replacement for XP......time will tell if that was a sane decision, but i am adventurous. I have successfully installed Fedora Core 2 onto my new Sony Vaio VGN-A17GP. Need kernel option acpi=off otherwise get kernel panic, see here for more info on install and stuff i tryed to get it to boot. Successfully installed the wireless card, actually thought this would be the hardest (ipw2200 from sourceforge), but Sound, USB, and Firewire do not work properly or at all and no ACPI features due to acpi=off at boot, cant leave this out otherwise kernel panic. SOUND - I get an error when X windows starts when sound system set to Auto detect. Doing a Sound system probe reports Module:ssnd-intel8x0 sound system and a test sound plays eventually, but i put a CD in and no audio. Output from lspci Multimedia Audio Controller: Intel Corp (ICH4) AC'97 Aidio Controller (rev 03) USB (3 USB 2 ports) - When i plug a USB 1 memory key will work but system freezes for a minute when i plug it in and remove it (have to mount/umount manually not really a biggy). dmesg reports a number of things when i plug it in including attempting to mount the floppy image want to get rid of this as will not need floppy). USB 2 key doesnt seem to work, dmesg reports pretty much the same thing as USB 1 key, fdisk -l reports a whole stack of partitions on the key (actually only one fat part), attempt to mount and system hangs for a while dmesg has a lot of buffer errors. Output from lspci USB controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03) USB controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03) USB controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03) USB controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) USB2 EHCI controller (rev 03) USB Controller: NEC Corp USB (rev 43) USB Controller: NEC Corp USB (rev 43) USB Controller: NEC Corp USB 2.0 (rev 04) Output from dmesg | grep usb (after boot) usbcore: registerd new driver usbfs usbcore: registerd new driver hub usbcore: registerd new driver hiddev usbcore: registerd new driver hid drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c v2.0USB HID core driver output from dmesg | grep USB drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c v2.0USB HID core driver ehci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 ehci_hcd USB 2.0 enabled EHCI 1.0 hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found ehci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 ehci_hcd USB 2.0 enabled EHCI 1.0 hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 OHCI Driver PCI ohci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found ohci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4 hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found usb UHCI driver v2.2 ohci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5 hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found ohci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 6 hub 6-0:1.0: USB hub found ohci_hcd new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 7 hub 7-0:1.0: USB hub found ACPI - no good due to acpi=off at boot, attempting to turn this on always results in kernel panic. Have also tryed acpi=noirq with same result, it did work fine under Fedora Core 1 (battery meter atleast, never tryed anything else). Priority, as i need battery meter (at least) when not plugged in. Firewire - lspci reports Firewire Texas Instruments - Unknown device. I guessing the unknown device means i need to find appropriate driver module and install, simliar to wireless. Plugged in a firewaire drive and nothing happens havent checked output from dmesg, this is the lowest on list of things to get working. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks

USB- Forget about the USB issues, it turned out that it was a problem with the USB key i was using. I have tryed a couple of others, including USB HD, and they worked OK. Still unable to get that particular USB key to work, it works fine under windows, fdisk -l either freezes or reports some interesting results. dmesg gives the usual output up until it assigns it a dev name such as sda1, it freezes at sda: . Tried to repartition it which reported that it was now blank with no partitions, i then put it back into windows so it could set up fat partition but it could still see all the data. Its a PQI USB 2.0 256M key if anyone is interested. ACPI - Still no further luck with this one. Firewire - Looking at the config file in /boot it looks like IEEE1394 support hasnt been compiled in to the kernel or as a module. First attempt at new kernel build failed to load with error unable to mount / , bad option =LABEL=/.

SUCCESS - just about there. I have managed to get FC2 to install using the normal Fedora GUI. I managed to get this to work 2 ways: 1. linux pci=off ide2=0x180,0x386 (note the ide2 not ide1 as in other docs - this is how i actually installed) After install complete and rebooted the kernel panic message was back so i had to do some further investigation - kernel options. No point keeping pci=off as no hardware drivers installed. Basically i needed to add acpi=off as a kernel option, this allowed me to boot the kernel and all my hardware was succesffully detected and configured (except wireless, that needed extra work. 2. linux acpi=off (i succesfully got the fedora GUI up with anaconda but did not go any further as i had already installed it) WIRELESS - WORKING, to get the wireless to work i followed the guides at http://ipw2200.sf.net , i used ipw2200-0.8 and it worked fine with ipw2200-fw-2.0......THANKS to the team there for their work. USB - NO GO. I had it working in FC1 on same laptop but nothing happens when i insert a usb device now with FC2 - no light flashes on SB device. lspci reports hardware present, that is as far as i have gone, any ideas? MODEM - still to test further with appropriate drivers. Q: Any ideas on USB and ACPI to work, nice to have battery meter up.

tried linux acpi=on with same kernel panic message tried off as well, also added to linux pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386 acpi=on with no luck. almost 2 weeks searching for info with no luck Always use partition magic/commander to setup partitions first and image windows partitions.....better to be safe than sorry, windows is too easy to upset.

pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386 I have the same laptop as Tubby and have had no succces in getting FC2 to install. I have tryed the above options to boot the kernal and managed to get to an installation screen (blocky graphical/text method not X). I was then prompted to select my installation method, after selecting CDROM the next screen I see is requesting device drivers and I am unable to go any further. I have attempted to use a number of the drivers in the list but with no success. What drivers is it looking for, and where do i need to get them from? I would expect that since the kernel has managed to get this far that it would already be able to read the CDROM drive? Tubby, you had any further luck?? Any other tips welcomed!