Arch on Sony Vaio Pro feedback ?

Hi all,
Does anyone have feedback on running Arch Linux on a Sony Vaio Pro ?
Especially:
- compatibility/drivers
- battery life
- fan noize

Hi FlyingTortoise,
Was there any changes prior to touch screen not working? Like installing software or hardware? If not, then try using windows system restore to restore back to a date that you know when it was working. If that still does not resolve issue. Then we may have to put the unit back to factory condition to eliminate software related before servicing the unit for hardware.
Nick--

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] ACPI power issues with Sony Vaio Pro 13

tl;dr backstory:
Sony VAIO Pro 13 (SVP13215CDB) laptop was working great (Win 8.1).
Installed Win10 Tech Preview. A week later, it started going to sleep randomly and on certain key-presses (perhaps after performing Sony Vaio Software updates. I'm not 100% sure). I wiped all partitions installing Win7 in legacy mode. It still went to sleep randomly.
I restored to factory default Win8.1 with Sony Vaio software up-to-date. It still went to sleep randomly.
Took it to an electronics repair shop, to see if they could fix it, and they said it can't be fixed in any way without replacing motherboard, but that's basically a new laptop.
So I turned to Arch Linux.
I have completed the basic install from the Wiki, and it no longer sleeps/shuts down randomly, but it will gracefully shutdown when certain events/keypresses occur.
I installed acpid and used "acpi_listen >> acpi.log" to determine what causes the system to perform a graceful shutdown. Here is the result of acpi.log (each line was a shutdown event):
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Unplugged power adapter.
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Running on battery and idle. Perhaps battery percent update caused this?
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Plugged in power adapter.
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Fn-F1 Touchpad Disable
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Fn-F5 Brightness Down
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Fn-F6 Brightness Up
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Fn-F7 LCD/External Display
button/power PBTN 00000080 00000000 # Fn-1 (Weird. It has no extra function).
As you can see, they all seem to trigger the same shutdown event.
I have seen on other posts that these ACPI signals can be disabled or assigned to other commands, which would be an acceptable workaround if it stops my laptop from erroneously shutting down. Is this doable?
Also, I was not able to reflash the Sony VAIO firmware when using Windows, as Sony's package software is amazing wouldn't allow flashing an equal or lesser firmware version. Perhaps there is a way in Arch to force a reflash if I can get my hands on the firmware blob?
Thanks .
Last edited by SafeToRemoveACPI (2014-11-25 22:55:55)

linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=<UUID here> rw quiet acpi=off
Like this?
I did that, and it disabled my laptop keyboard entirely. In doing so, it disables the key-presses that would normally shutdown the laptop, including the power button. So the only way to shut it down is a hard shutdown via long-press of the power button. Thanks, though.
Update: Issue Solved. I will update post tonight. Flashing the BIOS again resolved the ACPI issues.
Last edited by SafeToRemoveACPI (2014-11-25 22:54:13)

Sony Vaio Pro 13's Horrible Graphics Performance

I'm using Sony Vaio Pro 13 Model SVP13215PXB and from day one it has this video problem. When you boot it up the videos (over internet or hard drive or games) will play smooth for 5 minutes and then start becoming choppier and choppier as time goes by. For example if you are watching a You tube video it will start normal then in few minutes the frames will start to freeze and hang and worst with time. I've been in touch with support over phone. They did basically install/uninstall of drivers then asked me to reinstall the OS and in spite that nothing has change. In the end they just gave up by saying “please use it for few days and let us know if anything changes”. Hoping against hope in my opinion. Looking close, there is no dedicated graphic memory in this high end laptop and that makes the machine struggle to keep up with today’s modern video demands. Even the cheap laptops come with 128-256 MB of memory. But this one has absolutely none. It’s so horrible that the GTA IV can’t be even played on it which I believe was released in 2008 and this is a 2013 machine. I know that nothing can be done about it and may be that is why Sony stopped making laptops. But the people who invested on the brand will suffer for few more years to come.

Hi asifms,
Sorry if I missed this post. This usually happens when customer is creating multiple threads. I already answered your other post and I will post my answer to this to the other thread, since you already asked the same question. I hope you don't mind.
Firmware update Error code 1
Thanks,
Vincent

Sony Vaio Pro 13.3 Touch: Touch screen not working

Hi, The touch screen for my Sony Vaio Pro 13 Touch suddenly stopped working two days ago and I have no idea how to fix it. I didn't install anything new before it stopped working, and I tried to install all the new drivers on the VAIO update but it still didn't work. I thought it might be because of Windows so I updated to Windows 8.1 today and it still does not work. On the PC info it even says" Pen abd touch: No pen or touch input is available for this display". but this laptop is supposed to have touch capability and it has been working up until now. Please help! My model number is SVP13215CDB. Do I need to install or update my driver?

Hi FlyingTortoise,
Was there any changes prior to touch screen not working? Like installing software or hardware? If not, then try using windows system restore to restore back to a date that you know when it was working. If that still does not resolve issue. Then we may have to put the unit back to factory condition to eliminate software related before servicing the unit for hardware.
Nick--

Arch Linux @ Sony Vaio

Hi!
I have a Sony Vaio with a Intel Core Duo processor. I've never used a linux contribution before (exept Ubuntu), and now I searching after a lightweight and not too "userfriendly" interfaced OS.
What can you say about using this rather than any other linux?
With best regards!
Rikard

With that modern of a processor you should be fine. If everything was working under Ubuntu, you might want to take a look at a few key files (like <code>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</code>) and possibly see which drivers your machine will require, but I'd say you should be able to get everything working...with a little hard work. Arch doesn't hold your hand nearly as much as Ubuntu does, but I'd say if you're looking to learn, you've found the right place to be!
(note: I came from Ubuntu as well over a year ago)

[WORKED AROUND] Installing Arch Linux with 3.11 kernel on Vaio Pro 13

Yesterday I received my Sony Vaio Pro 13.
The WLAN card is only supported since kernel 3.11, which has been released by Linus several days ago.
The laptop has no ethernet port, ideally I'd thus use the WLAN abilities using installation.
Since there is no Arch ISO available with 3.11 yet, I was hoping to create my own, using the arch wiki guide on remastering the ISO: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Re … nstall_ISO
I was wondering whether, instead of compiling my own kernel, I could just chroot into the unpacked ISO filesystem and install the 3.11 kernel from the testing repository using pacman.
Which, as far as I could tell, was the released kernel, and not an earlier RC. Is this possible?
One other question remains: the author of this blog mentions a diff that is needed to prevent the CPU freq to be stuck at 800Mhz (http://elouisyoung.blogspot.se/2013/07/ … -with.html).
Does anyone know whether this made it to the mainline?
# UPDATE
I explored the latest kernel release and found out that the patch is not yet included in the mainline.
So I'll have to compile my own kernel. There are however still issues with the CPU freq scaling (won't scale lower than 1.6Ghz). Nasty...
# UPDATE 2
Booting + installing mainline ISO, installed testing/linux for wifi, compiled own kernel + installed besides the testing/linux kernel worked fine for me.
Last edited by A.J.Rouvoet (2013-09-08 17:21:05)

Yesterday I received my Sony Vaio Pro 13.
The WLAN card is only supported since kernel 3.11, which has been released by Linus several days ago.
The laptop has no ethernet port, ideally I'd thus use the WLAN abilities using installation.
Since there is no Arch ISO available with 3.11 yet, I was hoping to create my own, using the arch wiki guide on remastering the ISO: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Re … nstall_ISO
I was wondering whether, instead of compiling my own kernel, I could just chroot into the unpacked ISO filesystem and install the 3.11 kernel from the testing repository using pacman.
Which, as far as I could tell, was the released kernel, and not an earlier RC. Is this possible?
One other question remains: the author of this blog mentions a diff that is needed to prevent the CPU freq to be stuck at 800Mhz (http://elouisyoung.blogspot.se/2013/07/ … -with.html).
Does anyone know whether this made it to the mainline?
# UPDATE
I explored the latest kernel release and found out that the patch is not yet included in the mainline.
So I'll have to compile my own kernel. There are however still issues with the CPU freq scaling (won't scale lower than 1.6Ghz). Nasty...
# UPDATE 2
Booting + installing mainline ISO, installed testing/linux for wifi, compiled own kernel + installed besides the testing/linux kernel worked fine for me.
Last edited by A.J.Rouvoet (2013-09-08 17:21:05)

Mac Pro compatibility with my Sony Vaio lap top

I think I am going to take the leap into mac. I really like the mac pro, but I am not ready to trade in my lap top. Am I going to have any problems switching back and forth from the Mac Pro to my Sony Vaio lap top?

You can run Windows on your Mac Pro. And you can be sure that it is proven machine today.
As for speculation about future products, what when and if, my guess is 2009 will be busy for Intel's rollout of Nehalem in mid-year, and 10.6 eventually, and while they will definitely improve the quality and performance, I'd worry about those 12/31/2009, not 2008.
Take a look at the Apple Store Specials link for Apple certified refurbished equipment.

How can I connect a sony vaio CD-ROM drive to my macbook pro

I have a Sony VAIO CD-ROM Drive Model PCGA-CD5 (PCG-CIX) and a 3.5" Sony floppy disk drive model PCGA-UFD1 that I would like to use with my MacBook Pro, any ideas as to how or where I can get an adapter?

That's a proprietary interface.
Odds are there is no adapter. Ask Sony.

Difficulty installing upgrade version Premiere Pro CS3 on Sony Vaio

I hope someone can help me. I purchased Sony Vaio multi media PC with Premiere standard factory installed. Last year I purchased upgrade premiere pro CS3 and installed it I had shared component error that was resolved with adobe tech support. the program worked flowlessly until recently my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced. Since then when I try to install Premiere Pro upgrade it has locked the program and is asking for serial number factory installed premier standard. The very first time I installed upgrade program originally it never did that . What can I do?

Contact Adobe.

Sony Vaio FZ Series - LCD brightness

Hi All,
I have recently bought a Sony VAIO FZ11S and I've successfully installed Archlinux:
Fully working:
- CPU Scaling (using cpudyn)
- Multimedia keys (mute, volume up/down, play/stop, etc. using Xmodmap)
- Wireless (using iwl3945. Can't connect with AP with hidden SSID)
- Nvidia GeForce 8400M (using latest nvidia drivers with stock arch kernel 2.6.23)
- Audio (after adding 'options snd-hda-intel model=vaio' to /etc/modprobe.conf. MIC not tested yet)
Untested:
- bluetooth
- SD/MS card reader
- Video camera
NOT WORKING:
- LCD brightness adjustment: FN+F5/F6 are detected correctly by acpid but nothing happens. I'm using the module sony-laptop included with kernel 2.6. Folder /sys/class/backlight is empty. I can use nvidia-settings to change COLOR BRIGHTNESS but this is NOT a good solution IMHO. I'd like to get the same capabilities I get running Windows Vista. (change LCD backlight).
I've read somewhere it is a problem common to all laptop with the same NVIDIA videocard. Does anyone know a fix for this? I've also tried with latest nvidia beta drivers with no success.
- Hibernate/suspend. I tried with pm-tools to suspend/hibernate laptop but nothing is working correctly. I didn't investigate further. Has anyone got a quick solution for this?
lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GT (rev a1)
06:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 16)
09:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
09:03.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
09:03.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
Please help
V.
Last edited by Vins (2007-12-09 11:37:08)

I recently bought a Sony FZ180, almost identical stats and hardware.
I tried all the same suggestions, which worked fine on my old laptop, but will not for this one. If anyone can think of another method to control the backlight I would be grateful.
Also, I tested the SD slot, the TI driver recognizes when a card is inserted, but no devices or mount-points are created.
tifm_core: MMC/SD card detected in socket 0:1
tifm0 : demand removing card from socket 0:1
(The second line is from me removing the card, not a defective slot.)
Everything else works great, though. Arch boots to a full KDE desktop much, much faster than my cleaned-up vista partition. I'm really happy overall.

[SOLVED]Custom DSDT not loading - OEM battery doesn't work - Sony Vaio

EDITING ORIGINAL POST TO POST SOLUTION so I don't do a massive bump
Installed windows and ran the BIOS flasher that came with the battery. Didn't work until I changed a line in the plaintext configuration file (config.ini or something) it comes with. Changed "Capacity: 20" to "Capacity: -10". This changed the battery charge requirement from 20% to negative ten percent (any negative number will do), allowing the program to run and flash the BIOS. Didn't realize I could do that, but it fixed the problem 100%.
#### BEGIN ORIGINAL POST: ################################
Hey guys,
I'm a bit of a linux noob, but I've spent many hours this week trying to fix this issue on my own and have learned a lot about making custom kernels, hardware stuff, ACPI, and ABS. However, nothing I've done has worked and I've hit a wall. For reference, I'm on a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ4000 with linux-3.0 base kernel, gnome3/gdm. The battery is made in china and doesn't list a manufacturer, just model number BPS8, 52000mAh.
[Backstory]
So I recently got an OEM battery to replace the broken original, which hasn't worked since before I installed arch (though it worked with an Arch install I did a couple years ago). When I first plugged it in, the gnome battery symbol popped up listing the battery at 0% with an exclamation icon. I unplugged from AC power and the laptop still ran, but the battery monitor just said it was at 0% and 'Estimating' remaining time. I figured this was a glitch with gnome or just because it was this battery's first cycle so I let it run down until it hard-crashed. Then I plugged back into AC and tried to turn on the computer, but it wouldn't do anything until I removed the battery.
Looking into the problem I discovered this was due to the ACPI firmware table DSDT being compiled for Windows, which has, shall we say, fewer restrictions on sanity than the Intel ASL compiler used for UNIX systems. Sure enough I extracted /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT to find that its section about the battery contained the entry 'Zero' for Battery Technology, which translates to "non-rechargeable", rather than 'One', which makes it chargeable. acpitool confirmed this; my system thought the battery was non-rechargeable and was constantly discharging it. Needless to say I've only been putting it in temporarily to test solutions since.
[/backstory]
[tl;dr] DSDT firmware contains malformed battery description, now I can't get my system to run with a custom DSDT. [/tl;dr]
Attempted solutions:
[1]
Extract, modify, recompile DSDT and include it with the kernel compilation .config options
CONIFG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT_FILE="/usr/src/custom_dsdt.hex
CONIFG_STANDALONE=n
as suggested here, a page linked to by the arch wiki page on DSDT.
I followed the instructions but no matter what this has generated errors during the kernel compilation, sometimes due to every line containing unexpected \231 (or other numbers) characters, sometimes finding some error in the DSDT file and then claiming that the driver it was compiling (ol.c somewhere in the drivers/acpi section I believe) had references to undefined functions all over the place. I CANNOT compile with a custom DSDT specified.
[2]
Place recompiled DSDT in /lib/initcpio/custom.dsdt and add 'dsdt' to the HOOKS in mkinitcpio (and rebuild the initramfs-linux-*.img, of course). Another version of this included recompiling the kernel with CONFIG_STANDALONE disabled.
In neither of these situations has the running DSDT ever been anything but the BIOS-supplied one and not once has the battery shown any different behavior.
acpitool and $ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info have consistently claimed the information specified in the BIOS-supplied DSDT; the battery is non-rechargeable and is discharging at an unknown rate. Sometimes acpi will even report that the battery has zero capacity.
The arch wiki does say mkinitcpio doesn't support the dsdt hook as of 2.6.30, but [1] didn't work either and mkinitcpio -H dsdt still told me to try this so I did.
[3]
The final solution I have tried has been to do [2] but to recompile the kernel with the legacy support for battery and ac adapter stuff disabled. I tried this because it was suggested in the kernel.log;
Sep 13 11:51:03 localhost kernel: [ 11.740059] ACPI: Deprecated procfs I/F for AC is loaded, please retry with CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS_POWER cleared
Sep 13 11:51:03 localhost kernel: [ 11.753434] ACPI: AC Adapter [ADP1] (on-line)
The corresponding line now reads
ACPI: AC Adapter [ADP1] (on-line)
(The same goes for the battery BAT0)
but all this does is remove the battery/ and adp1/ folders from /proc/acpi/ and break acpitool functionality. The log still doesn't mention the dsdt hook, either.
[4]
The old way to do this was to use the acpi-dsdt-initrd-patch-* patch, but that hasn't been updated for modern kernels, presumably because of the new "functionality" from mkiniticpio. The current kernel .config doesn't include any options for ACPI initrd/initramfs support or reading a DSDT from initramfs, which is the functionality provided by this patch.
This covers all the methods I've been able to find on the internet and I'm at a loss for what to do. Am I doing something wrong in [1]? Under what conditions will the compiler fail/succeed with a CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT_FILE?
When I recompile I fix the 'Zero' definition and a couple compiler errors and warnings. The errors come from section length definitions, which read as 0x00000000 rather than the appropriate max-min value so I fix those, and the warnings come from _T_* methods belonging to the compiler, so I refactor the code to remove the initial underscores. The last warning comes from an isolated And statement that's within brackets (compiler complains it doesn't do anything), but if I remove that the compiler fails hard.
Thanks to anyone who's read this far. Please let me know if you have any ideas how to get my system to use a customized DSDT.
Last edited by paraffin (2011-09-29 23:20:30)

Thanks for the offer, Radioactive man However, I'm actually compiling a customized kernel with the linux-ck and -sony patches, so your packages won't help. (The custom kernel works fine and I've tested this battery behavior on the the regular, -ck, and -sony kernels as well)
Anyway, so I tried another compile with
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=n in addition to the options listed in [1] and that time it compiled.
Unfortunately it still didn't load the DSDT!
I did catch a quick little error message that turned up in kernel.log though;
/var/log/kernel.log:Sep 15 11:50:24 localhost kernel: [ 0.925780] acerhdf: unknown (unsupported) BIOS version Sony Corporation/VGN-FZ4000E/R2110J7, please report, aborting!
acerhdf is a fan controller module for the Aspire One, and perhaps I left that in the kernel config and it's preventing the custom DSDT from loading, even though the acerhdf module never gets loaded itself, nor is it in my rc.conf or anything else... If that was the cause of all this, I'm gonna be angry...
Anyway, this message does not appear with my latest kernel build because I took off the custom DSDT option, hoping to be able to use ACPI_CUSTOM_METHOD=y, which supposedly allows one to inject a custom AML method into a debug fs. It wouldn't have worked anyway, as it doesn't let you modify Device sections, but even with a dummy method insertion it didn't give my root modification privileges as it was supposed to...
Will try recompiling AGAIN with this CONFIG_ACERHDF=n (it's simply 'not set' in my current .config), while also enabling the custom kernel etc. If this doesn't work I have no idea what I'll do.
Anyway, thanks for your help and time:

Sony VAIO laptop not recognizing video ipod

I just got a new Sony VAIO laptop. I plugged in my ipod, and it recognized it as an ipod and everything. I went to go install it, and the stupid windows hardware installation wizard couldn't install it. I have tried numerous times and it still can't. Now when I plug my ipod in, neither My Computer nor itunes recognizes it. The latest ipod updater doesn't recognize it either. However, the ipod itself has either the "charging" or "charged" icon on it. It charges like normal when connected to the laptop. I have yet to see it say "do not disconnect" when I connect it to the laptop I am using USB to connect the ipod. I have tried all of this stuff too and it didn't fix the problem: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301343

After three days and countless hours that I will never get back, I finally figured out how to get the computer to recognize the ipod and work like it is supposed to. If you go to the device manager and it is showing up with a yellow question mark next to it, open it up and if it is giving you a code 28, try this.
Go to this thread, it helped me and maybe it will help you.
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=2004249
Good luck.
Sony Vaio Windows XP Pro iTunes 6.0.5.20

Connecting Sony Vaio v

I am using Airport Extreme to connect multiple devices ( iMac, mac mini x2 , macbook , macbook pro, ipod touch, iphone, ps3 x2, wii, apple tv ) all with no problems.
However, the only windows device i try to connect doesn't work. It's a fairly new ( < 1yr ) Sony Vaio running Vista.
The Vaio is able to connect to other networks with netgear/belkin wireless routers.... just seems to be a problem with the Airport Extreme
Any thoughts?

Radio Mode : 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible
Wireless Security WEP ( Transitional Security Network )
Channel 1 ( Automatic )

Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E - can't set brightness

Hello everyone!
I have really annoying problem with my laptop - setting brightness just don't work. I have tested many others distributions and this work only under Ubuntu 9.10 beta. I think that is connected with this. How can I use this patch in arch?
Laptop: Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E
Graphic card: ATI Radeon HD3470
I'm sorry for my english but people in polish forum just can't help me ;p

oskar.einstein wrote:
@B I'm not able to make so specific changes like you said. I can build something from AUR, sometimes also make some changes to PKBUILD's but doing something with dsdt is to hard for me.
@litemotiv
Do you think I shoud compile new kernel with new sony-laptop module inside?
hmm, i'm not certain that will fix it for you..
do you already have a fixed dsdt for your laptop? if you do, the best way is to compile a kernel with these lines added to the kernel config file:
CONFIG_STANDALONE=n
CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT_FILE="DSDT.hex"
that will definitely fix the brightness issue. the sony-laptop module is built by default, so you don't have to compile that specifically (the module is needed to get the function-keys on your keyboard working, it shouldn't have any influence on the brightness itself).
if you don't have a custom dsdt yet, you need to make one following the instructions on the vaiobuntu blog. it's a bit daunting at first, but i assure you that it's doable.
Last edited by litemotiv (2009-10-26 21:11:30)

Brightness not adjustable in Windows 8.1 Sony Vaio (formerly sleep issue)

AAAAAARGH. Whenever I hear the word VAIO my blood pressure rises. Model: VPCYB13KX/P (P=Pink) but the problem seems to be a universal oneMajor problems: cannot change brightness at all, closing the lid puts computer in non-responsive but 100% CPU state (judging by the CPU cooler fan turning on to max and enough heat radiating from the base of the laptop to fry an egg)OS: Windows 8.1 upgraded from a clean install of Windows 8 64 bit So, in my case I clean installed Windows 8 followed by 8.1. Vaio "care" (if that's what you want to call it) and all the ancillary junk was installed as well (much of it removed in trouble shooting). Before I did trouble shooting I had four major problems:1 FN keys (F5/F6) did not adjust brightness at all (still broken, and officially broken for the VPCYB series according to http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/support-info.pl?info_id=1380)2 FN keys (F3/F4) did not adjust sound (fixed, not sure when)3 Brightness could not be changed AT ALL (broken, fixed and now broken again by solution to sleep problem)4 Closing the laptop's lid would cause the computer to go into a "frozen" but active state out of which it couldn't be woken up (fixed by steps at end of post)5 Complaint during boot about missing file (see http://community.sony.com/t5/Windows-8/iolorgdf32-program-can-not-be-found-Skipping-Autocheck/td-p/161333 for someone else's description of problem) (not fixed; not bothered to try... seems like a minor problem compared to everything else)6 mf110u DLL missing dialogue box upon startup (see http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_update/mfc110udll-missing-windows-8-pro-updates-wont/9596536f-a405-4b1e-b8cf-b06e28b7fea4?msgId=28e1af2b-d536-4258-aea2-a1155cc6464b) (fixed) Re: 3 brightness. Before the sleep fix (billed as a brightness fix) was applied I was able to adjust brightness using the Windows brightness controls (one in the new interface and one in the desktop/traditional interface). Now I can't. Re: 5 and 6 My guess is that #5 and #6 have to do with the Vaio Care software (which seems to be someone else's software repackaged?). This laptop has been a support headache from day one, even under the 'clean' OEM Windows 7 Home Premium with Vaio drivers and software being the culprits 95% of the time (terrible QAQC). Until very recently I had problems with the wifi cutting out daily in Windows 7 Home Premium (only fixed when I clean installed Ultimate and used non-Sony driver for wifi... I should've stuck with 7 Ultimate and not boethered with 8). What others have been told would correct their brightness problem fixed my sleep problem (I can close the lid now) but it broke my brightness adjustment ability. I'm now stuck at 100% no matter what I do. PS These are the instructions for how to fix the brightness problem (and, to reiterate, it broke my brightness solution but fixed my sleep problem): 1.Launch Task Manager
2.Terminate two tasks
•esrv.exe
•esrv_svc.exe
3.Delete “sony_acpi_battery_input.dll” Under “C:\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Care\ESRV\sony_acpi_battery_input.dll”
4.Restart PC So, if anyone has a suggestion about how to get brightness working without breaking sleep please let me know. If I don't have any success fixing this I'm simply going to downgrade the laptop to Windows 7 Ultimate again and transfer my Windows 8 licence to my home built desktop machine (I was going to pick up a second licence but maybe I won't bother since I'll only need one).

I did try that IIRC but no luck. I've simply given up and gone back to Windows 7 because I don't have the luxury of devoting time to re-installing software when I've got toddlers screaming for my attention and work taking up the rest of my time. I haven't installed a single piece of Sony software on my Windows 7 install and so far only two things were not working: brightness control and a broken wifi driver. I fixed the driver (Sony doesn't provide a fix for the faulty wifi driver for the VPCYB13KX, nor does Microsoft) by installing a driver from the web (care of Atheros.cz). And, i haven't bothered to go after the brightness control because it's not as pressing an issue as the faulty wifi driver. Plus, I don't have any of the Sony bloatware slowing things down (installing an SSD at the same time may have had something to do with the speed up ;-). Plus, in many ways going back to Windows 7 simplifies my life big time since it is a computer that's being used by two people and Windows 8.1 makes accomodating the work flow of two separate people in one account difficult. Tangent... And, it means that at least one computer isn't subject to the prying eyes of Microsoft Live. I am becoming really leery of the amount of information that private companies (which means there is zero transparency) are able to collect and sell about private individuals through Windows 8.1, Mac OS X 10.9 and Google OS. If you happen to allow the wrong settings these OSes are able to track and store phenomenal levels of personal information (which police would never be able to find out about you without a warrant, let alone store in perpetuity). And, who knows if these OSes even honour your opt-outs. Or, if through coding errors they still continue to collect the data anyway.

Arch on Sony Vaio Pro feedback ?

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