Sony_Vaio_VGN-FS315E

General

This document comprises my experiences with the Sony Vaio VGN-FS315E and Gentoo Linux.

Specifications

• Chipset
  • Intel Mobile 915GM Express
  • ICH6 Family (82801Fxx)
• CPU
  • Intel Celeron-M 380
  • Donthan Core
  • 1.6 Ghz / 1024 KiB L2 Cache
• Video
  • Intel 915GM Express Video Controller
  • Shared memory
• Audio
  • Intel HD Audio Controller
• Other
  • PCMCIA - Texas Instruments PCI7420 CardBus Controller
  • FireWire - Texas Instruments PCI7x20 S400 iLink Controller
  • WLAN - Atheros AR5212 802.11abg Ethernet Controller
  • LAN - Intel PRO/100 VE Ethernet Controller (82562XX Chipset)

Current Status

• What's working
  • Audio
  • Video (framebuffer and DRI)
  • CPU frequency scaling
  • WLAN & LAN
  • PCMCIA / Cardbus
  • iLink / FireWire (S400)
• What's not working
  • MagicGate (Memorystick)
  • Modem (No attempts made thusfar)

Video

The integrated Intel Express chip isn't powerfull, but it'll do nicely for most non-gamers.

Framebuffer

I managed to get a fullscreen (1280x800) framebuffer with the 2.6 VESA driver and a tool called vbetest.

First, you need to have a proper kernel configuration, to enable framebuffer support.

--- VGA text console
[*]   Video mode selection support
<*> Framebuffer Console support
[ ]   Framebuffer Console Rotation
[ ] Select compiled-in fonts 

Next, we need to know the video mode number for the console to run in

 $ emerge lrmi
 $ vbetest (select any desired video mode and remember the mode number, in my case 356)

I use lilo as bootloader, and setting up de framebuffer is really easy in this case, just add 512 to the mode number you selected in vbetest and put that behind the vga= tag.

compact
lba32

boot = /dev/hda
map = /boot/system.map

vga = 868

image = /boot/bzImage
	root = /dev/hda6
	label = Gentoo
	read-only

DRI (Accelerated Graphics)