HOWTO Sony Vaio Z Series (2010) and Ubuntu Maverick alpha-3

Re: [Sony-vaio-z-series] vpcz12 and maverick alpha-3

On Thursday 12 August 2010 15:49:06 Justin Karneges wrote:
> I tried booting from the latest Ubuntu alpha live CD.  The initial menu
> sometimes appears, where you can choose to install or do a memory test,
> etc. However, more often than not it doesn't appear and a timeout will
> cause the system to go on ahead with booting the live desktop.

It seems if I press an F-key (e.g. F1, F2, or F3, etc), I can get the menu to 
appear most of the time.  There have been a couple of occasions when this 
doesn't work but the majority of the time it does work.  It might be a timing 
thing.  I think you have to press a key rather quickly.

> The initial menu has the wrong colors (pink-ish), as well as X once it
> loads.  Under X, the color distortion is more severe.

If I press F6 and add xforcevesa and nomodeset to the end of the kernel 
parameters string (so that the string ends looking like "-- xforcevesa 
nomodeset"), color is fixed in X.  I'm not sure if the "i915.modeset=0" 
option suggested by Martin has any effect.  It doesn't seem to for me.

However, X resolution remains incorrect (1024x768, stretched to 1600x900, 
looks pretty terrible!).  Also, I still can't say for sure if the physical 
graphics switch does *anything*.  I get the exact same results whether it is 
set to speed or stamina at cold boot.  I have a feeling this means that I'm 
using the same card every time, no matter what I have selected with the 
physical switch.  At least, this feels more likely to me than both cards 
having the exact same color distortions with the exact same kernel params 
fix.  I wonder which card it is using?

> Once X loads, the touchpad does not work.

Solved by adding the i8042.nopnp kernel param.  I don't know if the touchpad 
is getting used in its full capacity but it seems to work well enough, and I 
can even slide along the side for a wheel effect.

> I can flip over to the VTs and back to X no problem.  The VTs have the wrong
> colors but otherwise seem to work fine.

Once the desktop loads, using the above fixes for X, the VTs have the correct 
colors.

> I tried suspending (via keyboard in X, mostly blindly) and the system
> appeared to go into suspend, but on wakeup I was greeted with a blank
> screen.

Maybe this was a graphics issue.  With the above fixes for X, suspend and wake 
now works.  Strange behavior I noticed: when X restores after waking, the 
screen is no longer stretched, and instead the 1024x768 desktop is centered 
1:1 in the middle of the display.  Flipping to a VT and back to X will cause 
the stretching to restore.

Now that I can actually use the computer, I'll note that wifi also works.

> So that's the current "out of the box" experience with bleeding edge
> Ubuntu.

And just three added kernel parameters later, a usable Live CD experience!  
Not too shabby.