How to use Sony Vaio (VGN-FJ1S) WiFi in Ubuntu 7.10?

Post Reply
Message
Author
memo
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu 28 Jun 2018, 10:38

How to use Sony Vaio (VGN-FJ1S) WiFi in Ubuntu 7.10?

#1 Post by memo »

Hi all,

here is the situation. I have old laptop sony vaio that doesnot support booting from flash driver. in the past I have tried tens of distos but it refuses to operate unless it has xp. Now the xp os on it is corrupted and I thought to give it another try. I searched the internet and someone posted that only Ubuntu 7.10 can be installed.

I gave it a try and indeed it is installed and everything seems to work (except the wireless -it doesnot see the available Networks)and it is also slower than xp with very old and outdated apps. Any suggestion, I donot want to install Xp anymore as most of the apps are also slow and outdated and it is pain in the ass to install it on this machine with all these errors.

thanks;
Last edited by memo on Mon 01 Jun 2020, 10:13, edited 1 time in total.
Xanialpup 7.5 32 bit

enrique
Posts: 595
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2019, 00:10
Location: Planet Earth

#2 Post by enrique »

You may have hear me recently talking about my old laptop to be used for Puppy 1.

That Toshiba laptop is like yours. Came with XP originally. Bios do not have option to allow to boot from USB. In my case I have no HDD neither only CD. So In my case I use Plop Boot Manager

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/index.html

So in my case Laptop boot using CD. Plop Boot is installed on the CD. Plop Boot Manager have its own USB drivers and do not rely on Bios. Plop Boot Manager then search for all posible boot options and will let you select from those where to boot. In my case I program it to boot from USB.

Now in your case is simpler as you do have HDD. So you install Plop Boot Manager but into the HDD MBR. No need for CD. As result Plop Boot Manager will search your USB and allow then to boot from USB,

What I just did was to show that there is an option to allow booting from USB. But as you do have a HDD WHY you do not used your CD to Install Puppy on your HDD? Once Puppy is installed on HDD, you do not need USB bootloaders.

enrique
Posts: 595
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2019, 00:10
Location: Planet Earth

#3 Post by enrique »

One last things. there is a way to tell grub to load old ata drivers and allow grub to allow booting from USB.

memo
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu 28 Jun 2018, 10:38

#4 Post by memo »

hi Eenrique,
What I just did was to show that there is an option to allow booting from USB. But as you do have a HDD WHY you do not used your CD to Install Puppy on your HDD? Once Puppy is installed on HDD, you do not need USB bootloaders.
I did with ubuntu 7.10 that is the only distro that worked, I have tried literally many distro with that laptop an non worked. and ubuntu 7.10 comes with firefox 2 I believe and very outdated version of the apps, so it is not usable. as of other distro, I did put them on cd and tried to boot them but during the initation window it always stops for one or another reason. I will never buy any sony products especially laptops ( i think they made in a way to not accept anything else except xp). I have older product and it can accept all and boot from usb as well.

Thanks for the tip though, but how do you use your old machine? just general usage ? what about updates, do you have relatively operated versions of the apps?
Xanialpup 7.5 32 bit

enrique
Posts: 595
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2019, 00:10
Location: Planet Earth

#5 Post by enrique »

memo

Sony had nothing to do with the problem. You need to look at the product and understand why it was build that way. Because at that time USB was kind of a new thing. Before that PC where build ONLY with Serial and Parallel Ports. NO ONE thought that there where be a date where we will have External HDD, A thought of a Solid State Memory that could be Plug to a USB port was out of the question. And to use such a thing to boot, well maybe Martians from out of Space could had that technology at that time ;)

This is the reason for a Grub like new program called Plop Boot Manager.

Listen from what you said you will not stay with Ubuntu. One good thing is that now you have grub legacy installed and working.

We can help you if you decided, just let us know.

Please do not try Bionic. That PC should not have more than 250 or even 500MB of RAM. To little for Bionic. I strongly suggest to use Tahr or less.

I did ask you once, Why you have not try to install Puppy on the HDD?

NOTE: Do not uninstall Ubuntu 7. If you decided to let us help, I will need to collect some data, just in case we need to Buiild a New Kernel for your need.

memo
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu 28 Jun 2018, 10:38

#6 Post by memo »

enrique wrote:
This is the reason for a Grub like new program called Plop Boot Manager.

Listen from what you said you will not stay with Ubuntu. One good thing is that now you have grub legacy installed and working.

We can help you if you decided, just let us know.

Please do not try Bionic. That PC should not have more than 250 or even 500MB of RAM. To little for Bionic. I strongly suggest to use Tahr or less.

I did ask you once, Why you have not try to install Puppy on the HDD?

NOTE: Do not uninstall Ubuntu 7. If you decided to let us help, I will need to collect some data, just in case we need to Buiild a New Kernel for your need.
thanks enrique, the unique thing about this machine is that it is by today's standards not that old, processor 1.7 and memory of 2 gigs. I have asked around and it appears that sony vaio products most of the time have a closed systems that is designed to work only with specific hardwar, they also tweeks the hardware to work on a specific way. positive side of this strategy it to assure effeciency but on the downside there is no much place for configuration. think of it like a mobile with build in battary that you can not change vs. a mobile phone that you can change its battery. That is why I donot like their products. still I might be mistaken, iam no expert. I have anolde laptop with less specs where I can configureit as I want and boot form usb.

I didnot install ubuntu 7.10, just booted it from the live cd, I know it will be installed, but then I think about practicality, what am I going to use it for. for instance under xp I can install the latest version of libreoffice and most of the opensource apps or at least a relatively few years old version. weheras in UBuntu 7.10 I can not do that, firefox on it is version 2 :). That is mainly why I didnot install it, because no more modern distro like tahr or xenial even load the live cd.
Xanialpup 7.5 32 bit

enrique
Posts: 595
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2019, 00:10
Location: Planet Earth

#7 Post by enrique »

To moderators: This is in wrong section. memo needs help to install Puppy in a laptop that do not boot from USB. Sadly he claims this laptop hardware refuses CD installation of most distros including Puppy.

See it has nothing to do with networking wireless, but it should be kept in Beginners Help ( Start Here).
And suggested title. How to install Puppy on Sony Vaio (VGN-FJ1S)

@memo
I can not find info on that VGN-FJ1S. 1.7 it could be just a celeron. Now 2 GB memory is not bad. In any case I would not give up. It is mater of finding the appropriate Puppy or in worst case getting you a new kernel.

Now there are stories in the past that MBR of certain old XP PC should be kept and not mess. I do not know how true this is. I do not know if it your case.

But since you have an XP machine there is SAFE XP build in option to boot grub4dos after XP boot loaders. This is my recommendation to you for now. This method will allow your laptop to always boot XP. In fact when booting XP Bootloader will ask you if you want to boot XP or Grub4dos. Yes the ORIGINAL XP Multi-boot, It is the safe way until you find out how to boot Puppy.

So here is a quick review then if you like to try.

*You do not mess with your single XP Partition.
*I assume you have only 1 drive C. Lets called it sda.
*You will copy 1 or many Puppy as you like to try in their own separate folder C. Like c:\bionicpup_8.0
Yes they will coexist with XP. The limit is only disk space.
*You will make a backup of c:\boot.ini to c:\boot.ini.back
*You will modify ONLY 1 file from XP. It is called c:\boot.ini It usually look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
and we will modified to look like this
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
c:\grldr="Start Grub4dos"
*You will Copy & Paste from any Puppy 2 files: grldr + menu.lst. menu-advanced.lst is optional. So you will have then:
c:\grldr
c:\menu.lst


Thats it. Now when you boot XP will ask if you want to boot XP or "Start Grub4dos". Then grub4dos will allow you to boot any Puppy you add to C: and add its menu in c:\menu.lst

This is my best suggestion until you find your best Puppy.
Last edited by enrique on Tue 02 Jun 2020, 10:10, edited 1 time in total.

enrique
Posts: 595
Joined: Sun 10 Nov 2019, 00:10
Location: Planet Earth

#8 Post by enrique »

I forgot edit menu.lst to include your puppy like

Code: Select all

title Puppy bionicpup 8.0 (sda/bionicpup_8.0)
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /grldr
  kernel /bionicpup_8.0/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=/bionicpup_8.0 pfix=fsck
  initrd /bionicpup_8.0/initrd.gz
Notice that my example is bionic but I prefer if you start with tahrup. But since you have 2 GB bionic should work too.

Also check if your CPU can handle 64 bits. If not do NOT try any 64 bits

Note2:
If you need to get grldr you can find it inside Puppy at

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/grub4dos/grldr
or download this pet

Code: Select all

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet_packages-noarch/grub4dos-0.4.4.v1.9.4.pet
Extract it and look in /usr/lib/grub4dos/grldr

memo
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu 28 Jun 2018, 10:38

#9 Post by memo »

Heey enrique, that was clear an easy to follow, I will apply it by the end of this week and come abck witht he fedback. Thanks man alot, Highly appeciated :)
Xanialpup 7.5 32 bit

Post Reply