Debian on Sony Vaio VPCS13V9E

After selling my macbook pro, I decided to go back to PC world and searching for something more suitable for a roadwarrior sysadmin.

I’ve bought a 13,3” Sony Vaio (VPCS13V9E), and I have found some rusty after having successfully installed Debian Squeeze.

• black screen after grub: added nomodeset kernel parameter;
• nvidia proprietary drivers not detecting screen: used custom xorg.conf, after copying /proc/acpi/video/IGPU/LCD0/EDID to /etc/EDID (not needed after nvidia-glx 260.19.44-1 from unstable);
• touchpad not working: worked after upgrading kernel 2.6.37 from unstable;
• audio not working: worked after upgrading kernel 2.6.37 from unstable;
• monitor backlight (brightness): installed nvidiabl (https://github.com/guillaumezin/nvidiabl) and created a brightness.sh (thanks to Sony BIOS that export a dummy ACPI video module) (not needed from kernel 2.6.38);
• umts modem: apt-get install gobi-loader and copy in /lib/firmware/gobi/ the blobs amss.mbn, apps.mbn, UQCN.mbn from Windoze.
• fingerprint reader (147e:1001 Upek): follow http://www.n-view.net/Appliance/fingerprint/

Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection

Section “Files” ModulePath “/usr/lib/xorg/modules” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi” FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi” FontPath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType” FontPath “built-ins” EndSection

Section “Module” Load “extmod” Load “dbe” Load “glx” Load “dri” Load “dri2” Load “record” EndSection

Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Keyboard0” Driver “kbd” EndSection

Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Mouse0” Driver “mouse” Option “Protocol” “auto” Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice” Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5 6 7” EndSection

Section “Monitor” Identifier “Monitor0” VendorName “Monitor Vendor” ModelName “Monitor Model” EndSection

Section “Device” Identifier “Card0” Driver “nvidia” Option “ConnectedMonitor” “DFP-0,DFP-1,CRT-0” Option “CustomEDID” “DFP-0: /etc/EDID” Option “NoLogo” “true” VendorName “nVidia Corporation” BoardName “GT218 [GeForce 310M]” BusID “PCI:1:0:0” EndSection

Section “Screen” Identifier “Screen0” Device “Card0” Monitor “Monitor0” DefaultDepth 24 SubSection “Display” Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection </code>

/etc/acpi/nvidia_backlight_up.sh #!/bin/sh

test -f /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness

exit 0

VAL=cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/actual_brightness MAX=cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/max_brightness STEP=10

VAL=expr $VAL + $STEP

if [ $VAL -gt $MAX ]; then VAL=$MAX fi

echo -n $VAL > /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness </code>

/etc/acpi/nvidia_backlight_down.sh #!/bin/sh

test -f /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness

exit 0

VAL=cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/actual_brightness MIN=0 STEP=10

VAL=expr $VAL - $STEP

if [ $VAL -lt $MIN ]; then VAL=$MIN fi

echo -n $VAL > /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness </code>

/etc/acpi/events/sony-brightness-up event=video/brightnessup BRTUP 00000086 00000000 action=/etc/acpi/nvidia_backlight_up.sh

/etc/acpi/events/sony-brightness-down event=video/brightnessdown BRTDN 00000087 00000000 action=/etc/acpi/nvidia_backlight_down.sh

faf675e54e68daa15bc95d883166e4ce amss.mbn d7496085f1af3d1bfdf0fa60c3222766 apps.mbn 633bed88c29244683635c261849d0e88 UQCN.mbn