Ubuntu

Sony ultrabook installation issues

Asked by SpaceChimp

I just purchased a Sony Vaio SVP132A1CW 13 inch ultrabook, 4GB Ram, 128 GB SSD, i5 processor. As usual, the unit came with Windows 8 which I didn't want to keep so I hooked into a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04 from a USB key. The bootable USB was created using "Startup Disk Creator" and it used "ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso" to complete the task. In the BIOS, Secure Boot is disabled, Boot Mode = Legacy and 1st Boot Priority is Internal disk drive (I did change this during the last install attempt to External Device, then changed it back).

So, I've had several attempts to install Ubuntu, the last two successful to a point. They appeared to go well, but on reboot there were some issues. The main issues are: bootup is slow, almost 5 minutes to reach the login prompt. The purple screen comes up almost immediately, but hangs there for what seems like an eternity. Then it either presents me with the login screen, or a list of boot options, none of which end up being successful. This seems to be a random occurance with no pattern. Aslo, wireless is not working, nor is it an option in system settings. I've tried searching for a fix for this issue, but I guess I'm special as I haven't encountered anyone else (yet) with this problem.

My cruddy old HP that is 6 years old boots up in under two minutes and it's Ubuntu install was seamless.

I don't want to take the machine back to the dealer but it's looking like my only option at present as I now have a very expensive paperweight.

So, is there a known work around for any of these issues? Should I take the machine back and purchase a more "ubuntu friendly" brand of machine? Or, will the next version of ubuntu be more compatible with Sony hardware?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Space Chimp

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Revision history for this message
Warren Hill (warren-hill) said : 		#1

It can be a little tricky as Microsoft are trying to make it hard to install anything but Windows but its all explained here:
http://askubuntu.com/q/221835/107450

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#2

Hi Warren, my issue differs from that situation in that I didn't keep windows on my machine, I got rid of it during the ubuntu install.
Thanks anyway.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

What is the output of:

sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a

Thanks

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#4

Hi there actionparsnip, here's the output:

*-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:58 memory:f6400000-f67fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:f000(size=64)
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 13.04
Release: 13.04
Codename: raring
Linux *****-SVP13213CGB 3.8.0-19-generic #29-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 17 18:16:28 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I'm no Linux guru, but I'm tipping this is telling me that my network card is presently unsupported by this installation. I'm downloading the Beta of 13.10 in the hope it may have drivers.
Cheers,
Space Chimp

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#5

Oops, I meant to write video card. The video seems to be fine, but the network card is not working.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#6

The video card is identified as Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller and is using the i915 driver.

To identify the details of your network card issue the comand

sudo lshw -C network

and copy/paste the output as done before.

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#7

OK, so after a bit of digging, it appears that Linux is unsupported by Intel as there are no drivers available for download from their site. Bugger.
I guess I'm taking my machine back to the store.....

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#8

Several companies do provide only drivers for Windiws on their home pages, and no drivers for Linux. In most cases this does not create a problem, because generic or dedicated drivers developed by the Linux community are able to work with that hardware.

If you provide the output of the "sudo lshw -C network" command, it should be possible to identify your network devices, and based on the device details it should be easy to find out whether these devices are supported by Ubuntu.

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#9

Hi Manfred, it's an Intel 7260. The installation has crapped itself, so I'm going to install a beta of 13.10. If it still doesn't work, where is a good source of drivers?
Cheers,
Space Chimp

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#10

Contrary to MS Windows where you have to add drivers from different sources (microsoft pages, support pages of the manufacturer, ...), for Ubuntu usually all drivers that you need are provided in the standard Ubuntu repositories. There should not be any need for searching for drivers elsewhere. It is just the case that some devices from specific manufactureres (e.g. Broadcomm) create problems; this in many cases is caused by the manufacturers not publishing the details of their devices, but also not providing linux drivers.

I have seen some messages on the web about persons having problems to get their Intel 7260 network devices running. As I do not have such device myself, I cannot give advice.

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SpaceChimp (derek-archer) said : 		#11

Thanks Manfred. I'll wrap this question up then and concentrate on the wireless issue and see how I go. Cheers.