topic Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working in PCs & Accessories

A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

Ecco — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 15:50:13 GMT

I can get every piece of hardware to work just fine under linux on my (absolutely beautiful) VAIO A115S. Even the Centrino wireless-lan is well supported nowadays, thanks to Intel.
In fact, everything runs so wonderfully I dare make the bold statement that running Windows on a VAIO is waste of hardware. You think XP looks good? Ever saw KDE of Gnome on a VAIO screen? I rest my case

There's only three big annoyances left for me:
- The ATI drivers. This has nothing to do with Sony, the performance is just pityful. But at least they're trying I guess.
- The firmware and BIOS updates from Sony. You can only run them from windows. No, in fact, you can only run them from the original install. There's some sort of annoying wrapper around the installation files that tells you you don't have permission to extract files. What's up with that?
- The most annoying of all: The function keys don't work properly in linux. This is because the VAIO's use a seperate interrupt controller for these keys (SonyPI) and Sony, for some reason god may only know, refuses to either give some simple hardware specifications so someone else could write proper drivers, or write the drivers themselves. There's a sonypi module in the kernel nowadays, but it was written using reverse engineering on the SonyPi windows drivers and runs far from perfect on all laptops. On my laptop for example, the volume keys, brightness key, zoom key and S1 key are recognised as "Event 32". So there's no way to distinguish between them 😞

Did anyone ever find a workaround for this problem?
Why does Sony hate Linux so much? I thought that was a Microsoft thing?

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

grahambird80 — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 11:16:44 GMT

Have you tried to contact sony about this to see if they have worked with Linux users before?

The computer is designed to work with Windows though as most laptops are.

I would imagine that reason for the event keys would be that the keyborads are different accross many differnet laptop manufactures. evethought the standard ASCI table is used on the keyboard the function keys are different and the windows driver is used to identify with function key is beeing used.

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

Ecco — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 12:39:47 GMT

I haven't contacted Sony but I think I will, if only to let them know there's a demand for linux drivers.
It probably won't have any effect though. The author of the sonypi module for linux tried. Sony didn't want to help, so the only thing he could do to get at least something to work, is reverse engineer the windows drivers.
I mean, what does sony have to lose by releasing specifications for the controller? It's not like it's got some sort of secret encryption technology or something. It's just a controller for handling key-presses. If anything they could write their own binary drivers if they don't want people to see their source, it should be a piece of cake. They'd make a lot of people happy.

Don't get me wrong though, I am very, VERY happy with my notebook. Like I said, almost all of the hardware works anyway, and there's simply no beating a VAIO screen

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

datamogul — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 02:21:32 GMT

Hi Ecco,
which distribution did you install?
my last installation is 2 years ago. at that time I installed debian linux on fujitsu a laptop with a K6-380 processor. So I don´t know which distribution is the best choice for vaio a series :smileyblush:

I bought my a115m 3 weeks ago and I am very glad to read your posting... because it´s really time to change the os and get rid of this xp-home! Thank god it crashed "only" 3 times yet.. wow(on non-vaio systems probably daily?!)

Yes I need linux on my machine. the malfunctioning of the fn keys does not disturb me.

Sony is cool but would be the very best, if they would support linux on a-series :smileygrin:

best regards,
ismail
-its not a trick-sony loves linux-

PS:My fujitsu laptop with AMD K6-380 Hz processor crashed 3 times in a year.:smileydevil:

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

kee-lo_ — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 13:52:28 GMT

Debian or RH should work well if you don't care about the FN keys.

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

Ecco — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:22:15 GMT

Any distro should work fine; they all require the same tuning for certain things though.
I use Gentoo, because it's the most configurable, yet user friendly distro I know

Btw linux really works wonderfully on VAIO laptops, except for the fn keys thing. But you don't even really need them. I'd seriously go for it. WinXP is an insult to your hardware

Re: A115 series on Linux: Fn keys not working

kee-lo_ — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:23:57 GMT

That one is new to me