Linux users of Sony Z1 series

[Ionut Georgescu <>]

Hello,

just wanted to clarify a few details:

* I tested both S3 and S4 and they work. I used swsusp2 for S4 because
  some time ago it seemed to be the only actively developed one. And it
  is also very fast: it suspends in 17 and resumes in 20 seconds.  You
  need however to enable the nVidiaHack in hibernate.conf to fix the bad
  interaction with the touchpad, as Nicolas mentioned.

* the kernel I used is
        -# vanilla 2.6.9
        -# acpi-20040816-2.6.9.diff.gz
        -# software-suspend-2.1-for-2.6.9.tar.bz2 and
        -# alps.patch for 2.6.9 from synaptics-0.13.6
  You also need to disable framebuffer support.

All patches apply cleanly. If, by any chance, swsusp2 doesn't compile
(it sometimes used to in the past), it is a trivial fix. Unfortunately I
can't remember what I did :-)

I use debian unstable and the latest versions of synaptics (0.13.6) and
ipw2100 (0.60) are already available.

Personally I commited my self a while ago to using kernel.org kernels.
Vendor kernels are sometimes impossible to patch.

Greetings,
Ionut

On Wed, Nov 10, 2004 at 02:01:39PM +0100, Brouard Nicolas wrote:
> Thank you for all these informations from Ionut but also from Olaf and
> latest from Richard.
> 
> It seems to me that we are currently mostly discussing basic Linux
> questions and not really which best distro to use with a Sony Z1 even if
> our goal, at least mine, is to have distros having solved the Sony
> hardware questions and competing with other features.
> 
> >From what I read recently, I believe that we have no chance to have S3
> working with a 2.6.8 kernel. So the current solution of Mandrake with
> its 2.6.8 kernel is out (it is not out if you need only S4 with a
> patched kernel given on my sony web page). I am using other proprietary
> softwares like Win4lin and I can't be operational until I get the
> corresponding patches from the recent kernel that is the reason why I
> need a widely used kernel.
> 
> So lets take Fedora Core 3 because it has a 2.6.9 kernel (I haven't
> tested it). It will differ from vanilla kernel at least because some of
> the ACPI patch might be included and
> the latest acpi-20040816-2.6.9.diff.gz will not apply. But I am not sure
> that any after 2.6.9 ACPI patch  is necessary for the Sony and I am
> pretty sure that they don't include the video_post and kernel patch
> which are too recent I suppose. 
> 
> But I am pretty sure that we need the video_post because I suspect that
> Ionut tested succesfully S4 using swsusp2 instead (but I can be wrong).
> And swsusp2 concerns suspend to disk (suspend to RAM has another name I
> think):
> "Software suspend is the ability to take a snapshot of the state of a
> computer's memory and save it to disk, and restore that image later."
> 
> Swusp1 also concerns suspend to disk.
> 
> Swsusp1 is the default kernel way. You need to add a resume=/dev/hdaN
> in your lilo or grub in order to copy your memory to the swap partition 
> of your disk and your laptop is pwered off and doesn't consume battery.
> 
> Swsusp2 is more experimental and you need a resume2=swap:/dev/hda8 in
> your lilo in order to resume.
> 
> Swsusp2 uses a special command in order to activate the suspension
> with an echo >/proc/swsusp/activate
> This command is included in a
> file /etc/hibernate/scriptlets.d/swsusp2-15 
> from the special swsusp2 suspend-script package.
> 
> Swsusp1 uses the standard S4/ACPI command echo 4 > /proc/acpi/sleep
> (Even if your kernel is compiled with swsusp2 you can make S4/ACPI
> suspending to disk). In recent kernels, the standard way of suspending 
> is 
>  echo  shutdown >/sys/power/disk; echo  disk > /sys/power/state
> But both commands are working (or not working).
> 
> The standard command S3/ACPI for suspending to RAM is 
>    echo 3 >/proc/acpi/sleep
> Then your laptop will not completely halt but the button will blink and
> your memory is still alive, thus consuming some battery. If you hold the
> button you will resume. If you hold the button for a long time, you will
> halt and loose all what was in your memory.
> 
> With old laptop is was easier because the suspension was done by the
> BIOS not by software.
> 
> >From my experience, swsusp2 doesn't work  as well as swsusp1 (ACPI/S4)
> because evdev and psmouse did not resume correctly and have to be
> unloaded before suspending. Some code is missing (see my WEB page and
> a discussion between Nigel and Dmitry). Thus the alps, even patched,
> doesn't resume and you are back to a ps2 mouse with wrong parameters or
> something like that.
> 
> Also you have to take the latest Alps patch. I think that alps.patch
> from synaptics-0.13.6 is ok. Ok means that you can use
>     Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
> in your xorg.conf
> and this means that you don't need to specify a fixed 
>     Option Device/dev/input/event1 .
> It is particularly interesting after resuming if you have introduced
> your laptop into a dock station and/or added a psmouse because the event
> number attached to the touchpad may have changed and corresponds now to
> something else than 1 (in this example).
> 
> I don't know why this alps patch is still not filed into a standard
> kernel. In fact I know: it is because the tapping doesn't work
> completely satisfactorily.
> 
> Moving to xorg seems mandatory now. You can get my experimental
> xorg.conf on my sony site.
> 
> S3 or suspend to RAM is working with a 2.6.9 vanilla kernel by doing
> echo 3>/proc/acpi/sleep 
> if you have include the vga_post kernel patch in your kernel and
> vga_post at the correct place. Apparently, on Sony Z1, you won't get
> access to the console but on X (no framebuffer). Also usb devices do not
> resume correctly if USB is compile into the kernel. If compiled into
> module it has been reporting at least once. I haven't tried 2.6.9 .
> 
> In addition, if you are interested in suspending to disk, you might be
> interested by latest patches (2.6.10 but which are working against 2.6.8
> and 2.6.9 tooà concerning sonypi which will resume well (either with
> swsusp2 [I guess] and swsusp1.
> 
> In summary, currently on 2.6.9 (vanilla or Fedora Core 3 I presume) you
> need
>  - latest alps patch
>  - latest sonypi patch
>  - latest vga_post kernel patch
> 
> I am not sure that you need latest ACPI patches after 2.6.9.
> Your kernel will be able to suspend to disk (with standard swsusp1) and
> to ram with best conditions.
> 
> But you also need, the following software: vga_post, xorg.conf with
> parameters specific to alps (you still have "load synaptics"), and a
> script to suspend to disk (for clock and some usb modules).
> 
> In order to make other hardware working, you probably need hsfmodem (any
> alternative to this proprietary software?) kernel patch. Win4lin kernel
> patch might also be interesting if your are using it.
> 
> Concerning WIFI I haven't tested ip2200 but there has been some reports
> on the list (this is mostly software I think).
> 
> That's it.
> 
> Please report errors and mistakes.
> 
> Nicolas 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Le mardi 09 novembre 2004 à 17:03 +0100, Ionut Georgescu a écrit :
> > Hello,
> > 
> > just tried it twice so it can't be wrong :-)
> > 
> > Due to a mistake in the suspend script, I just discovered that S3 works
> > even without video_post. The console is unusable but frankly I don't
> > care. In all the situations where I needed S3 I was working under X and
> > X works marvelously. Even the ALPS touchpad [1].
> > 
> > Now only the Fn keys need to be implemented the right way to have this
> > computer perfectly supported by linux!
> > 
> > Ingredients:
> > * linux-2.6.9
> > 
> > So long and happy Z1-linuxing :-)
> > Ionut
> > 
> > [1] With swsusp2 the touchpad is much slower after resume, as if it lost
> > its resolution and/or acceleration settings. It gets better if you
> > restart X, but that's not an option.
> 
> -- 
> Brouard Nicolas 
> <>
> 

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-- 
-- 
***************
* Ionut Georgescu
* Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik komplexer Systeme
* Noethnitzer Str. 38
* D-01187 Dresden
* Tel: +49 (351) 871-2209
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