How to use Sony Vaio PCG-R505GCP laptop video?

Message

mek363 · #1 Post by **mek363** » Mon 27 May 2013, 23:02

I have been trying to install Puppy Linux Precise 5.5 on my old Sony Vaio PCG-R505GCP. I've worked through a few problems with booting to CD/DVD and now I am able to boot, but my built-in laptop display shows garbage. I was able to proceed by connecting an external monitor. The video wizard doesn't help at any resolution. Any suggestions for where I might go next to try to get the built-in video working? From what I understand, it uses an Intel 82830M graphics controller (or maybe that's the external VGA connection, I'm not sure).

Thanks,

-Mat

#2 Post by **Flash** » Mon 27 May 2013, 23:35

Are you sure the built-in display isn't broke? Maybe that's why you got the laptop.

Does the display seem to work as Puppy is booting up? For instance, does it show the BIOS information before it even starts to boot an OS? Have you tried Xvesa instead of Xorg?

don570 · #3 Post by **don570** » Mon 27 May 2013, 23:41

Good point Flash!!

The wiring between the display and the main body will become
brittle and break with repeated opening of laptop.

____________________________________________

mek363 · #4 Post by **mek363** » Tue 28 May 2013, 03:17

The machine was running Windows XP fine until a few days ago when I decided to run chkdsk on the c: drive and came back to find the blue screen of death, and I could not get it to boot again.

I decided this was an "opportunity" to learn about alternative operating systems.

The built-in display works fine in text mode until X Windows starts (i.e. during the initial console output). I don't know how to switch from Xorg to Xvesa. Still learning a lot of the terminology. I'll see if I can figure that out.

Thanks for your help.

cthisbear · #5 Post by **cthisbear** » Tue 28 May 2013, 06:17

Specs???

http://gdgt.com/sony/vaio/pcg-r505/specs/

I would try Lucid 528 version 5

an older Slacko

or Dpup Squeeze

Give Dpup Exprimo a go.
This version.

""

squeeze-5.X.3.4.12-SCSI.iso

http://www.smokey01.com/pemasu/DpupSque ... imo5X3412/

""""
Slacko

http://www.smokey01.com/01micko/slacko/slacko-5.3.3.2/

""

Lupu 528.005 & Lupu Libre 528.005

Lupu 528.005 ->

http://diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/lupu-528.005.iso

8ad170c46b523436776398fa5ce39fa4

LupuLibre 528.005-2 with LibO 3.5.2 ->

http://diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/lupul ... .005-2.iso

610448a6f7e45733a6ae0589fbb203a8

Some features of Libre Office require java.

Lupu Plus Libre includes java--you can add java to Lupu Libre from here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 455#623455 or the java pet in PPM.
Don't forget to Quickpet -> More Pets -> Update Lupu PPM.

Lupu Plus & LupuPlus Libre-> Lucid 528.005 with 41 additional drivers, hpliplite for increased support of HP printers, Pmusic 2.x and
newer ffmpeg multimedia libraries.
The Libre version includes Java.

More info and download ->

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 054#622054

"""""

Welcome to Puppy.

Chris

#6 Post by **Flash** » Tue 28 May 2013, 12:51

Mek363, I think you'd be well advised to try one of the Puppys that cthisbear lists. Probably one of them will just work. You don't have to install each one to try it, just burn it to a CD then boot the CD with the puppy pfix=ram boot option. To avoid burning a stack of CDs that you'll never use, you can use a CD-RW if you have one, or a rewritable DVD if the computer has a DVD. I think it is also possible to boot Puppy from a USB flash drive with the puppy pfix=ram boot option, but I don't know how to do that.

Having said that, you can run xvesa by exiting X (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) then typing xorgwizard to run the video wizard.

mek363 · #7 Post by **mek363** » Fri 31 May 2013, 01:03

Thanks everyone for your help. I have no basis to know which flavor to select, so I'll go with cthisbear's first suggestion to start.

As I understand it, "Lucid 528 version 5" is the same as "Lupu 528.005", and then I should also get "LupuLibre 528.005-2" for the additional drivers and the office apps. Correct?

Thanks.

mek363 · #8 Post by **mek363** » Fri 31 May 2013, 01:10

Oh, one more question for Flash, about burning disks.

In order to initially get Puppy Precise 5.5 to run on the machine, I had to put certain files on a USB stick and then use "puppy pmedia=usbflash". The files were: vmlinuz, initrd.gz and puppy_slacko_5.5.sfs. See this discussion.

Can I use the same technique to try these other images? i.e. copy vmlinuz, inited.gz and the sfs file to a USB stick?

Thanks,

-Mat

#9 Post by **Flash** » Fri 31 May 2013, 01:24

I don't know, I've only ever run Puppy from a multisession DVD. What you propose is easy enough to try, but how will you download the .iso?

mek363 · #10 Post by **mek363** » Fri 31 May 2013, 03:19

Update: With Lucid 528, I was able to get 640x480 on the laptop screen, but no better. I also was not able to get it to recognize my network interfaces (built-in Ethernet or PCMCIA wifi), which was better with Precise 5.5.

Just tried Squeeze and it crashed after loading the SFS into memory.

I tried both of these by just loading the SFS from the boot prompt of the previous Precise boot image. That may be a flawed test, so I might try burning a disk. (I earlier found that I could not boot to a CD-R, but I could boot to a DVD-R.)

-Mat

#11 Post by **Flash** » Fri 31 May 2013, 03:47

Use a rewritable DVD if you can find one. DVD-R or DVD+R, either one works well with Puppy. Whatever kind of disk you use, Puppy's Menu -> Multimedia -> Burniso2cd works best to burn it. Copy the iso to /tmp and tell Burniso2cd to burn that.

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How to use Sony Vaio PCG-R505GCP laptop video?

How to use Sony Vaio PCG-R505GCP laptop video?