This page describes my experiences running Gentoo Linux on a Sony Vaio VGN-CS215J laptop.
| Component | Specification | Driver | Notes |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz | acpi_cpufreq, coretemp | frequency scaling supported, 64-bit not tested |
| Memory | 4GB PC2-6400 | requires 64GB Highmem support | |
| Chipset | Intel 82801I (ICH9 mobile) | ||
| Serial ATA | Intel ICH9M/M-E AHCI | ahci | legacy IDE mode not available |
| USB | Intel 82801I UHCI/EHCI | uhci_hcd, ehci_hcd | |
| Firewire | Ricoh R5C832 | firewire_ohci | Not tested |
| Ethernet | Marvell 88E8040 Fast Ethernet | sky2 | |
| Wireless LAN | Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100AGN | iwlagn | |
| Audio | Intel HD Audio, Realtek ALC262 | snd-hda-intel | |
| Modem | Conexant ID 2c06 | Appears as sound card codec, not tested | |
| Graphics | Intel Mobile 4 Series/4500MHD | ||
| Screen | 14.1” 1280x800 pixels | ||
| SD Card reader | Ricoh R5C822 | ||
| MS Card reader | Ricoh R5C592 | No linux driver | |
CPU frequency scaling works using the acpi_cpufreq driver. 3 speeds are available: 1.2GHz, 1.6GHz, 2.0GHz. Temperature sensors on each core can be accessed with the coretemp driver.
I have not tested a 64-bit kernel on this machine yet.
This model includes 4GB of RAM. With a 32-bit kernel, all memory can be accessed using the 64GB Highmem configuration option. With the 4GB option, which should work, only about 3GB is available.
Ethernet and WiFi are supported in recent Linux kernels.
The Marvell Yukon ethernet controller works using the sky2 driver.
The Intel 5100AGN wireless controller requires the iwlagn driver available in kernels since 2.6.26, as well as the iwlwifi-5000-ucode firmware package.
Both the internal hard drive and CD/DVD drive are connected to the Intel SATA controller. Since this machine ships with Vista preinstalled, the controller is configured for AHCI mode and cannot be changed to legacy IDE mode. This controller works with the AHCI driver in libata. Hard drive should be at /dev/sda and CD at /dev/sr0. SCSI CDROM support is required to use the CD drive (since SATA devices are considered SCSI rather that IDE).
SMART diagnostics are supported for the internal hard drive.
The optical drive in the CS215J claims to support CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R and DVD+RW recording. I have not tested any burning with it yet.
The machine includes an ExpressCard/34 slot, which suppors USB 2.0 and PCI Express. PCI cards require the pciehp driver for hotplugging support (otherwise the kernel will only detet a card that was plugged in at boot). I have used both a USB memory card reader and a PCI Express eSATA card in the slot, both hotplug correctly.
The sound card is an Intel HD Audio, supported by ALSA’s snd-hda-intel driver. Codec 0 is a Realtek ALC262, codec 1 is a Conexant modem. Sound playback works; I haven’t tested the modem or been able to capture sound from the internal microphone yet.
Mute and volume Fn- keys send keystrokes that are detected by the X server and can be assigned to desktop volume controls.
The graphics controller is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. X is able to use the card using the intel Xorg driver and kernel i915 DRI/DRM driver. Native panel resolution of 1280x800 works without the “915resolution” hack needed on older cards/drivers.
There is a “1.3 megapixel” (the actual sensor resolution seems to be nowhere near this) webcam above the screen. Like most cameras on modern laptops, it uses the USB Video Class (UVC), so Linux supports it using the uvcvideo V4L2 driver, included in kernel 2.6.26 and later.
Capture resolutions are 160x120, 176x144 (QCIF), 320x240 (QVGA), 640x480 (VGA) and 1280x1024. Native resolution seems to be QVGA, since anything higher shows very obvious scaling artifacts. There is no 352x288 (CIF) resolution, which might be a problem with older video conferencing systems.
Standard ACPI lid switch, AC adapter, and battery devices are available. Battery life, based on one incomplete test so far, should be at least 2 hours.
The battery reports current capacity in mWh, charge/discharge rate, and current voltage (apparently per cell, not the entire pack; it usually reports about 3.9V charged)
Backlight brightness can be controlled using the sony-laptop driver (other features such as A/V controls and brightness/sleep/zoom hotkeys) don’t seem to be supported at this time. HAL detects the brightness control, so Gnome’s power manager can control the brightness and automatically dim the screen on battery power.
The memory card reader uses a Ricoh chip and supports SD/MMC and Memory Stick/MS Duo cards. It actually has three interfaces: a proprietary MMC host that handles MMC cards by default, a standard PCI SDHCI host for SD (and MMC, if specially configured) cards, and a proprietary Memory Stick host. SD cards work in Linux, and MMC can be made to work (the MMC-specific chip has to be disabled so the SD host sees MMC cards; newer kernels have this built-in, otherwise you have to poke some PCI registers with a userspace tool). Memory stick is not supported for this controller. There is a MS subsystem in Linux that works with TI Flash Media chips, but it does not have a Ricoh driver yet.