Installing Linux on a Sony Vaio Z505.

• What is the Sony Vaio Z505 ?
• Why install Linux ?
• The Installation Hardware.
• Linux Installation Time.
• The Linux Installation Process.
• The built-in Mouse.
• X-Windows.
• Peripherals.
• Interfacing a Linux laptop to household appliances.
• Linux Links.

Having managed to break the screen of my HP Omnibook 800 when I was out launching rockets one day, I had a problem. I needed a laptop to interface to the rocket onboard flight computers both before launch, and after recovery, but the Omnibook without a screen was not particularly useful. I needed a new laptop anyway, so I thought that this time, I'd get a Sony Vaio, since I had always been impressed by their design. The Omnibook 800 could then be used as a monitorless Linux Server.

I wasn't actually intending on getting a Z505, but wandering down Tottenham Court Road in London, I saw one, and fell in love with it.

The Sony Vaio came equipped with Windows 98. Obviously, the first thing that needed doing was upgrading it to a real operating system. Given that the latest version of the Red Hat Linux distribution, version 6.1 was available for download, this seemed an ideal choice.

What is the Sony Vaio Z505 ?

The Sony Vaio Z505 is a sub-laptop running with an Intel Celeron 333MHz CPU and 64Mb of RAM and a 6.4 Gb hard disk drive. It has a 12.1 inch active matrix (TFT) colour LCD screen with a resolution of up to 1024 x 768 (XGA). It is fitted with an accelerated 128-bit PCI controller with 1 Mb of Video RAM (NeoMagic. 2093). It weighs 1.77 kg, and comes equipped with the following connections on the laptop itself:

Port/Connector	Configuration	Gender	Comments
Network Port	RJ-45 socket	Female	10Base-T/100Base-T Ethernet interface
Modem Port	RJ-11 socket	Female	V.90 WinModem
2 x USB Ports	USB sockets	Female
IEEE-1394 (Firewire)	Firewire socket	Female
Memory Stick Port	Memory Stick socket	Female
1 x PCMCIA Card Cardbus ready	1 x Type II
IRDA-2 Transmitter/receiver	standard IR Transceiver	NA	Up to 4 Mbps data transfer rate
3.5 inch Floppy Disk port	USB	Female
Headphones out Stereo out	jack socket	Female
Microphone in Stereo out	jack socket	Female
Power connector socket	jack socket	Female	19.5 volts input supply at 1.1 Amps
Kensington security slot	slot	Female	Allows tethering of the laptop for security
Hard Disk Drive connector	IDE	Female	Standard IDE Internal Hard disk drive
External Port Replicator	68-pin, micro-centronics	Female	Output ports for: Serial Parallel Monitor (VGA)
	The port replicator does not seem to contain any active circuitry. It is merely a way of fitting the outputs of the 3 ports into the densest possibly connector, and then separating the wires out to the various connectors inside the External Port Replicator box. This is very good news for anyone who wants to control the ports in the replicator via Linux, since it makes the whole business of talking to the various ports, fairly straightforward.

Why install Linux ?

There are several good reasons as to why I wanted to install Linux on the Sony Vaio Z505, these being as follows:

1. Being a regular user of Windows 95/98, NT, SunOS 4.1.3 and FreeBSD, I prefer it to the other options. Simple as that.
2. I needed a portable computer for use in the field for data aqcuisition from ground based sensors, and sensor data telemetered in real time from rockets and for launch operations of rockets. Since this was going to entail programming of the parallel port in C, C++ and eventually Java, the simplest options were to use DOS or Linux. Let's face it, with that choice, how could anyone possibly fail to choose Linux ?
3. Having Apache Web Server running on a portable is a godsend if you need to develop any cgi code on the road.
4. Vast amount of useful tools.