SonyVaioVGN-FW180E

Current Issues

This is my work laptop, so I can't afford to dink with dev releases.

I'm using the Intrepid 8.10 amd64 Beta and installing updates pretty much daily. Some minor functionality goes in and out with every patch, and I've had to do a little manual intervention once with dpkg, but the general trend is one of rapid improvement - in general, I'm very impressed. Note: I went for the Intrepid beta rather than Hardy because Intrepid is the first Ubuntu release to support the wireless chipset in this laptop, which is the new Intel Link 5100 (with 802.11n support) ... the first release of the Linux kernel to support this chipset is 2.6.27

The biggest issues are with power management:

  • Brightness control does not work - the backlight is at full power unless the screen is blanked
  • The CPU runs pretty hot, over 50C according to the Gnome CPU temp applet when the system is more or less idle. This is despite the system asserting that it has both cores clocked down to 800MHz. I suspect (but have no hard data) that scaling may not be working right.
  • The battery applet reports a predicted runtime of 75 mins while idling, which unfortunately appears correct. The standard battery is marketed as a 4 hour battery, which admittedly it probably isn't under Windows either, but I would expect to get 2 to 2.5 hours if power management was working
  • If used on your lap, it's uncomfortably warm Smile :-)

There are a few other, minor gremlins and annoyances:

  • Suspend/Hibernate tend to get broken by patches, though are working at time of writing (Oct 28)
  • When headphones are plugged into the jack on the front of the laptop:
    • the speaker above the keyboard does not cut off as you'd expect. However, it can be turned off manually from the mixer software.
    • only the left audio works on the headphones
  • The system locks up if an external monitor (HDMI or VGA) is connected while X is running
  • The closed-source ATI fglrx driver is not yet available, but it works fine under Hardy 8.04 and a 2.6.25 kernel

Something I feel is worth noting is the converse - the surprising amount of stuff that DOES work, out of the box at that ... this is a new Sony model, and Sony is notorious (with me anyway) for using wierd and funky hardware that is not Linux friendly.

  • Widescreen display, VGA, and HDMI all work with Xorg autodetected settings, and are sensibly named in xrandr
  • Off-brand Gigabit Ethernet, brand new Intel wireless chipset, Bluetooth
  • MotionEye camera

  • Touchpad, with X / Linux rather than BIOS level control (tap to click always gets me)
  • Volume keys
  • Blu-Ray drive (though there is no BD-Video player software in Ubuntu)
  • SD card reader

System Info

*Meta-Bug*: these commands do not exist in Intrepid

system-manufacturer: ACER

system-product-name: ASPIRE 7520

system-version: V1.10

Hardware details

Screen & Monitors

Device

Works?

Bug #

Intrepid Beta

TBA

TBA

TFT Screen

Almost perfect

-

-

Correct resolution?

Yes

-

-

Correct refresh rate?

Yes

-

-

3D Acceleration

Untested (fglrx not yet ported to 2.6.27)

-

-

External monitor works (HDMI)?

Yes, except hotplug

-

-

External monitor works (VGA)?

Yes, except hotplug

-

-

External monitor - mirrors

Yes

-

-

External monitor - extend desktop

Yes

-

-

Power Management

Battery detected?

Yes

-

-

Hibernates?

Yes

-

-

Suspend

Yes

-

-

Soft Power Button

Yes

-

-

Dim monitor on battery

NO

-

-

Blank monitor on inactivity

Yes

-

-

Lid Close

Yes

-

-

Cpu frequency scaling

Claims to (see above)

-

-

Sound

Sound works?

Yes

-

-

Correct volume?

Yes

-

-

Hardware volume switch

Yes

-

-

Built-in Mic

Sony claims there is one, but I can't find it

Headphone jack

Left only, no speaker cutoff

-

-

Mic jack

Yes

-

-

Networking

Wired NIC

Yes

-

-

Wireless NIC

Yes (requires 2.6.27)

-

-

Firewire

Untested

-

-

Bluetooth

Yes

-

-

Modem

Untested (probably NO)

-

-

Touchpad & Mice

Touchpad

Yes (all functions controllable from Gnome UI)

-

-

Touchpad - Doubletap = double click

Yes

-

-

Touchpad - Scroll down side

Yes

-

-

External mouse - USB

Yes

-

-

Docking Station/Port Replicator

Untested

Additional Hardware

CD/DVD/BD drive

Yes

-

-

Card reader - SD

Yes

-

-

Card reader - MemoryStick

NO

-

-

Camera

Yes (incl. warning light)

-

-

Function and other keys

Fn key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Intrepid Beta

TBA

TBA

+ F2

Mute

NO

-

-

+ F5

Lower Brightness

NO

-

-

+ F6

Raise Brightness

NO

-

-

+ F7

Toggle Displays

NO (but can be controlled from display config applet)

+ F9

Zoom Out

NO

-

-

+ F10

Zoom In

NO

-

-

+ F12

Hibernate

NO

-

-

+ NumLk

Scroll Lock

NO

-

-

Special Keys

Silver Key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

Intrepid Beta

TBA

TBA

S1

?

NO

-

-

Vol -

Lower Spkr Volume

Yes

-

-

Vol +

Raise Spkr Volume

Yes

-

-

Play/Pause

Play/Pause

NO

-

-

Stop

Stop

NO

-

-

Rewind

Rewind

NO

-

-

FF

FF

NO

-

-

AV MODE

?

NO

-

-

Notes


CategoryLaptop

SergioZanchetta/Old/SonyVaioVGN-FW180E (last edited 2010-02-26 14:06:33 by host226-241-dynamic)