from a new Sony VAIO VGN-SZ56GN (aka SZ110 or something later, I’m sure).
Very sexy, just installed Debian. Basically everything but wireless worked out of the box (had to install a kernel module, just a simple apt-get).
Edit: OK, so I lied. Not everything worked as well as I had hoped:
- Had to install the icky NVIDIA driver (and kernel-headers, etc..).
- Create an init script to switch between the Intel and NVIDIA xorg.conf files depending on what the switch was set to on boot.
- Update ALSA kernel modules, so that the PC speaker would mute itself when I plugged headphones in. Haven’t testing the microphone yet, but I suspect that’s been fixed too. Debian came with 1.0.14, and this was fixed in 1.0.15rc3 (which has been released). Also needed to force the vaio version of the driver. A newer version of ALSA has been uploaded by the Debian ALSA maintainers and is waiting to be accepted into sid.
- ACPI events via sony-pi are buggered - need to apply a patch so that the laptop gets detected correctly instead of falling back to an incorrect default. Either that, or use sony-laptop, I forget. (This appears to be patched in the latest kernel release - will get back to you on this one).
- A patch exists to make the Motioneye Camera on this machine appear at /dev/video0, so that other apps can access the webcam, but I haven’t tried nor bothered to get it working yet. I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually, but it’s not really high priority for me at the moment. (Note: might be fixed by getting the above issue resolved)
- Cannot easily adjust backlight values. If I’m running on the Intel graphics adapter, I can jump into gnome-terminal/xterm/whatever, and run xbacklight -set 50; the NVIDIA card does not have an obviously apparent way to adjust the backlight brightness - it can adjust the screen brightness, but this does not equate to less power used. Using the screen brightness applet causes it to crash. (Related to sony-pi driver).
- Haven’t tried out the fingerprint reader, but I suspect I’ll need to install a driver or two to get that working properly too.
The amount of custom hardware on this machine makes the software issue worse than most other brands though; but the machine itself is pretty hard to beat - nice and light, long battery life, looks good, feature-full, and a full-sized keyboard.
I did also manage to remove the “Windows Vista(tm)” sticker; pretty damn hard mind you. 
Edit x2: More detailed information will now live here forever.
It’d probably be useful to explain to everybody briefly what all the codenames we’re on about actually mean, seeing as there’s probably going to be much discussion regarding them fairly soon. Hopefully I haven’t missed anything.
I should probably also mention this reflects my perfect view of the world, and mine only. Some of the stuff mentioned here I haven’t really discussed with many, so it may hit the trashcan quickly. I’ll also avoid getting into technical details - you can check out the wiki and try to piece together how it works if you’re so keen, or you can catch me on IRC.
- Dragonfly: The current web UI implementation, duh.
- Crystal: What I intend to be the core for our new web bits - Flasher and Avocado (see below). Basically, Crystal will consist of a pluggable backend, message transport API thingy, and the base client made from Javascript. Both Flasher and Avocado would be able to plug into the Crystal’s client bit with their own (X)HTML and Javascript to make it look and do like whatever it needs to, while still being able to have access to all the helpers, communcation libraries, shared APIs, etc. Less duplicated code, FTW. Please note that some of the stuff on the wiki isn’t the latest version of what’s in my head/doesn’t make sense. Note to self: don’t write wiki entries very late at night.
- Flasher: Alex Hudson’s proposal for a web interface that can be accessed by users without a Bongo account (either on the current server, or generally). We want to be able to interact with them, share events etc., without having to register them. Primarily, people will gain access to Flasher in two ways: either by having a link sent to them via e-mail (e.g., an invitation), or by following a link from a website. Flasher will probably end up being a very cut down version of the calendaring component in Avocado, with some extra Flasher-only bits built on top.
- Avocado: the sexy, new web UI for Bongo (hopefully). Would have it’s own neato interface, and be mainly plugin-based. Mail, calendars, contacts would be part of the ‘core plugins’ shipped with Avocado. Developing/adding new plugins should be relatively trivial. APIs will be provided from both Avocado itself (for stuff like widgets, etc) as well as Crystal (networking, basic plugin stuff, …).
Comments, please!
More Javascript hacking!
I’ve been working a little utility class called TemplateBit that enables you to create little template things out of HTML elements in Javascript. There are several advantages for using TemplateBit instead of doing things the traditional way:
- Keeps your code seperated and neat. Don’t mix up your HTML and Javascript.
- Easy to modify and theme.
- Less code required to write your web application.
You can check out the source of TemplateBit, the demo source (useful if you want to know how it worked) and the demo itself. Be sure to view the demo JS source, as its easier for you to see than for me to explain.
You can also check out a version created without using TemplateBit here.
Hopefully we can utilise this for Avocado and Flasher at some stage.
Speaking of Bongo, I’m planning to do some Bongo work at some stage during the next week or two, and will be spending most of my break working towards the stuff I didn’t finish for M3. I’ve had been fairly busy of late, as (for those who didn’t already know), I had a lot of work dumped on my plate at the last minute, and the fact that my internet went down for a bit didn’t make things any better.
I also want to get the finalised planning for Crystal underway, probably after a meeting with probably the Chief Moo, and who ever else wants to come along. I’ll give out proper details as to when we’ll be discussing it so you can come and join the fun. I’m not sure if we should use IRC or the -devel.
I think that’s enough blogging for one day by my standards.