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Most of hardwares installed in the system are compatible under
Linux. However there are exceptions of modem, USB Port and MPEG decoder.
Please be aware that you cannot use modem, which should be problem for
some of you. Modems installed in the VAIO is called DSVD modem, which is
the variant of the "Winmodem."
(Addition: 12/28/98)
Newer model seems to have normal modem instead of Winmodem.
The soundcard and the Video card installed are partially compatible.
Soundcard
Soundcard is compatible under Linux with supports of Microsoft Sound
System + Sound Blaster, if you want to use MIDI under Linux, you need to
compromise your sound input capabilities. For this case, cancel out the
Sound Blaster. If you need MIDI, and sound input, you may want consider
buying OSS/Linux, which you can use all of its capabilities under Linux.
The soundcard equipped with the VAIO is Yamaha OPL3SA, and OSS/Linux has
full support to it. It seems like that the wavetable synthesis mentioned
in the specification is really the soft synthesizer, so you are not
missing hardware capabilities on it. As the time I am writing this, there
is the OSS/Free 3.8, which supports
this soundcard under Yamaha OPL3-SA1 audio controller. Please note that
this is not initially installed on 2.0.x. You will need to download from
OSS site. 2.1.x comes with updated version of OSS/Free, but I haven't
tested compatibility with it. If you see that it is working with this
soundcard, please let me know.
Video Card
Videocard is partially supported under Linux. You will have no
problem
using it under Linux console mode. If you wish to use it under X Window,
get 3.3.1 or later XFree86, which has support to ATI Rage. Other
commercial X Window system should support this, too. However, 3D
acceleration of this video card will not work under Linux, as there is no
driver for this. (Update 12/29/98) For model number 505, ALSA drivers on
XFree86 V3.3.3 or later is compatible.
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