Vaio SVT1313 (Intel i5, 2013 model)

TOC

Let me keep up note on configuring and administrating my Sony Vaio SVT1313 (Intel i5) under Debian GNU/Linux. This is a second hand used PC which costed me about $100 as total after fixing its keyboard.

This is hardware specific tips.

How to access BIOS menu of Sony VAIO SVT1313

Pressing ASSIST button instead of POWER button starts PC with boot device and BIOS setting selection menu.

Why boot with MBR and not with UEFI

I got this machine as second hand. This PC came with a buggy UEFI which refuses to accommodate dual boot scenario with reasonable usability.

• I ended up selecting “legacy” mode to use MBR in BIOS. No more secure boot.
• I replaced the internal keyboard. (Missing key event problems on “e”, “u” and “Delete” are fixed.)
• The card side contacts of SO-DDR DRAM needed to be rubbed by eraser to get it work right.

Use of Btrfs with LUKS on MBR system

grub-pc has a bug which needs to be worked around. See the procedure described there.. This is the essential step.

I want to setup simple robust grub configuration entries to enable dual boot without mentioning kernel version. To enable this, / must be on ext4 accessible directly by grub-pc which lacks capabilities to handle BTRFS and LUKS encrypted volume.

I put / on ext4 filesystem on non-encrypted partition.

Since I wanted to keep all user data on encrypted disk, I set up system by mounting all /usr, /var, /home/<name>, etc. from the BTRFS subvolume under LUKS encrypted volume .

This way, /vlmliniz etc. is stably available while user data are securely stored on encrypted volume using Btrfs allowing to make snapshots.

Touchpad of Sony VAIO

Touch pad only functions as left-click button. I verified it by opening its touch pad to see one button switch under it. So realizing left/right click needs some driver support. So far under Wayland, I didn’t see any easy solution. Interesting references are:

• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=597082
• https://xorg-team.pages.debian.net/xorg/howto/configure-input.html
• https://www.linux.org/threads/right-click-with-macbook.9667/
• https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/mouse-mousekeys.html.en
• https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/a11y-right-click.html.en

I initially used following (now deprecated) setup.

• Settings
• -> Accessibility
• -> Pointing & Clicking: Click Assist On
• -> Simulated Secondary Click ON

This method yields not-so-good user experiences when I wanted to open a linked page to another browser tab page with “right-click & select”:

• Press TP
• –> No left- nor right- pressed event
• Hold TP
• –> Timer displayed to wait
• Release TP after timer
• –> Left-released event (annoying)
• –> Right-click (==pressed then released)

I then found interesting setting in GNOME Tweak.

• Tweaks
• -> “Keyboard and Mouse” tab
• -> “Mouse Click Emulation” section
  • -> Check on “Area”

For Mac or some Sony Vaio with single tap pad button, this allows secondary click as expected.