Linux on Sony Vaio VGC-RB54G

bobbymartin2_at_gmail.com
Date: 11/14/05 

Date: 14 Nov 2005 07:09:36 -0800

I googled the web and couldn't find any information on installing Linux
on this machine, so I thought I would document my experiences here.

This computer *requires* RAID 0. The bios doesn't provide an option to
recognize the two hard drives that come in it as anything other than
one HD of double the size. It won't boot past bios if one of the hard
drives is disconnected.

I recommend in the strongest terms against buying one of these
machines, whether you are running linux or not. From what I can see,
if one of the HDs goes bad you are in for a world of hurt recovering,
and may end up throwing away the other HD if you can't find a good
match for the bad one for the RAID array.

If you already are stuck with one of these machines and want to install
Linux, read on for how to limp by.

Linux afai can tell simply won't recognize the hardware raid on this
machine at boot time. So, when you install Linux it must be using the
two hard drives separately, or using a Linux software RAID which I
suspect won't be recognizable by the bios.

Once you install with Linux, the machine won't boot, since the bios
doesn't understand how Linux is writing to the MBR. So, boot using a
rescue disk and make a boot disk.

I installed using Fedora Core 4, so here are the instructions using
that:

--- Red Hat Fedora Core specific instructions ---
Install as normal. Then boot using install disk 1, with boot option
"linux rescue". This will get you a command prompt.

chroot /mnt/sysimage
mkbootdisk --iso --device boot.iso `uname -r`

Then ftp/scp/otherwise transfer that boot.iso file somewhere that you
can burn it to a CD. Now you have a boot disk that will *almost* get
you going.

Boot from the CD. Enter "linux acpi=off" at the boot prompt. You will
have to enter this every time you boot.

BTW, if you want to dual boot windows & linux, afai can tell you're
just screwed.

Hope that helps someone out there!
Bobby

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