LINUX on VAIO XG700.

Sony VAIO PCG-XG700 Mandrake 8.2 Install Info.

Introduction
Sony VAIO PCG-XG700 comes with Win-ME installed. The 20GB HD as shipped from factory has two partitions, one about 7.5GB has everything required for Win-ME including the drivers directory. The rest (drive D:) is not used. The Configuration I received was as follows:

Item
 Value
CPU Speed
 750MHz
Hard Disk
 20GB
RAM
 128MB
Display
 14.1" LCD (S3 Savage IX upto 8MB)
CD
 DVD Drive and CDRW Drive
Modem
 Winmodem (HCF 56K)
Sound
 YMF-744B [DS-1S Audio Controller]
Built in MIC.
USB
 1 port on Notebook
Floppy
 1.44MB Drive (Removable, comes with a cable for external connection).
The floppy drive can be placed in place of the removeable DVD/CDRW slot
Firewire
PCMCIA
 2 Slots (Type II) or 1 Slot (Type III)



Disclaimer
Mandrake Linux 8.2 was setup on the VAIO XG-700 in my case. However I do not undertake any liability written or implicit for another user with a similar setup.
Installation
Installation was simple. I am comfortable using fdisk and setup Grub as the boot menu of choice. Now when the system starts up it offers me a choice of Linux or WinME. (Default being Linux). At installation time, Mandrake was able to detect the video card and setup for 1024x768 mode. It also detected the sound card.

Harddrake was able to detect the Winmodem and pointed me to another site to download Winmodem drivers. Since my Xircom has a non-Winmodem with an ethernet interface, I chose not to use theWinmodem.

I have not tried to get the Irda or Firewire ports to work since I don't need them.

The USB port worked and Mandrake detected the Logitech wheel mouse.

The Jog wheel worked after I downloaded the driver and associated utilities from http://sjog.sourceforge.net . It even came with a program to set brightness. I have not yet got this working in user mode. I have to switch to root to get this working.
Help
If you need help setting up a notebook I offer email support. Please feel free to contact me by email only.