Problems with 9300M GS on Sony Vaio Z11

[lowtraxx]

Hi,

i tried several driver Versions (177, 173, 177 beta) on several linux distributions (gentoo, ubuntu, archlinux) and several kernels (2.6.25 - 2.6.27-rc7) but i get the same behaviour every time:

The laptop has a hybrid graphics system with an Intel graphic card on PCI:0:2:0 and a GeForce 9300 GS on PCI:1:0:0:

lspci | grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9300M GS (rev a1)

Intel Graphics also has a Problem, which is investigated here: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17508, but I also cannot get its NVidia card to work:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    BusID	   "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

X can't start. /var/log/Xorg.0.log shows:

(II) resource ranges after probing:
	[0] -1	0	0xffffffff - 0xffffffff (0x1) MX[b]
	[1] -1	0	0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[b]
	[2] -1	0	0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[b]
	[3] -1	0	0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[b]
	[4] -1	0	0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[b]
	[5] -1	0	0x00000000 - 0x00000000 (0x1) IX[b]
(II) NVIDIA(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
	"Screen0" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
(==) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using HW cursor
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration
(==) NVIDIA(0): Video key set to default value of 0x101fe
(II) NVIDIA(0): Support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X extensions is
(II) NVIDIA(0):     enabled.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:1:0:0. 
(EE) NVIDIA(0):     Please see the COMMON PROBLEMS section in the README for
(EE) NVIDIA(0):     additional information.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!

dmesg shows:

Oct  9 08:55:53 TSVaio nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Oct  9 08:55:53 TSVaio nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
Oct  9 08:55:53 TSVaio nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
Oct  9 08:55:53 TSVaio nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Oct  9 08:55:53 TSVaio NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  177.80  Wed Oct  1 14:38:10 PDT 2008
Oct  9 08:57:34 TSVaio NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  177.80  Wed Oct  1 14:38:10 PDT 2008
Oct  9 08:57:56 TSVaio NVRM: failed to copy vbios to system memory.
Oct  9 08:57:56 TSVaio NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x30:0xffffffff:894)
Oct  9 08:57:56 TSVaio NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

[sonic77]

Hi,

same issue here (Sony model VGN-Z11XN) with NVIDIA 9300 GS (0x06E5) using Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19 x86_64, and NVIDIA driver 177.80. Just to provide additional input, please find the bug report attached.

Thank you in advance.

[mehraan]

I have exactly the same problem with the same laptop.

Have you guys had any luck getting wireless to work? I couldn't do that either!

[dfacto]

Also having this problem in Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP. I have been using the intel video as a consequence.

I know this is off topic, but the wireless card is a quick fix. In ubuntu, just do this:

sudo aptitude install build-essential
wget http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi/downloads/iwlwifi-5000-ucode-5.4.A.11.tar.gz
tar xzvf iwlwifi*
sudo cp iwlwifi*/iwlwifi-5000-ucode-5.4.A.11/iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode /lib/firmware

wget http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-old.tar.bz2
tar xjvf compat-wireless-old.tar
cd compat-wireless-2.6-old/

vim  config.mk
#A file will open. Search for the string CONFIG_IWL4965_HT=y. Directly after that string, on a new line, add this string:
# Code: CONFIG_IWL5000=y

make
sudo make install
sudo make unload
sudo make load

Unfortunately most of the ACPI is not working for me, ie, cannot restart, hibernate, or suspend. Additionally, some Fn keys do not work.

[lowtraxx]

Are there any news on this issue? I filed a bug report to nvidia, but got no reply as of today. Are your Integrated intel Graphics working? The Intel team still could not fix my problem Im stuck with windows as of now and i dont like that...

Please help...

Thanks

lowtraxx

[beldog]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy one of the new Vaio Z11*, but I use debian and this problem are bad news :s

I found this thread in ubuntu forums, have you try it?
http://ge.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=939580

Does it work?

[tmacedo]

I have a Vaio Z21 and I have the exact same problem.

The only difference is that I managed to get the intel driver to work.

Version (gentoo):

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.27-r2
x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel-2.4.2-r3


As for the nvidia driver, I tried a few versions down from 177.80 and none of them worked.

[tmacedo]

Also I tried the 9500 fix (the kernel patch) and it didn't work for me

[lowtraxx]

The 9500 Patch also didn't work for me. As for the Intel Problem, it seems, it only occurs with the z11 Series with 4 GB of Ram and a native Resolution of 1600x900. On other Z11 (or Z11 likes) with smaller Resolutions it seems to work. Intel-Tecs are investigating this issue but haven't came up with a solution as of today.

Greets

Edit: I removed 2GB of my RAM to test, if it had something to do with the 64bit BAR adressing issues, but it didnt help either.

[lowtraxx]

Update: NVidia is now working. And you wont belive the solution... I had to install XP. It seems that vista is able to uninitialoze the Graphics cards while its running. So it is possible for vista to somehow uninit the cards when shutting down. The thing is i installed XP now and when i am shutting down, the LED stays on and when i am booting to linux only one of the graphic cards is visible. So at least Linux now works with the Nvidia card. Intel still not.

HTH

[frankbartoli]

Hi, for use also intel read this guide in spanish...
http://neotokyo.sytes.net/
But i want to use my Z11 with ubuntu and vista...Someone know another way to activate the switch in Ubuntu from Vista? Thx

[jeffpcarvalho]

Hello Guys ! Any news regarding this issue ? I have Vista and Open Suse 11. Tried a lot of distros and none know how to handle the ' sony soft switch ' - i am unable to start X