It’s now running Ubuntu 10.10 no problem, with practically all devices working pretty much out of the box, except of course the Intel GMA 500.

The best workaround I’ve found is:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/fix
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

All works fine until now…
(fast graphics, suspend/resume, brightness keys, etc…)

only thing i’ve seen not work so far is:
-once wifi dropped. i restarted it and we moved on
-Suspend option worked, but waking did not turn monitor back on (though the machine stirred/behaved like it was prolly fully awoke — just nothing on screen)

if installing lucid beside my win7 changes anything i can write back.
but otherwise, this is supercool that everything “just worked” pretty much.

(not sure what i’m going to do if there’s no way to hibernate (since sleep eats up too much battery over a day or two) –
maybe i’ll just turn it off/on each time, or stick w/ win7 for light browsing and ubuntu for ssh-ing in and emacs hacking, etc….)

Just wonder if somebody tried to make it work for Linux using built in wireless 3G from Verizon?

thx.

Important note———————————————–:
HD 720p (h.264) movies works very nice with smplayer (even on fullscreen)

keyfactors making a huuuuuuge difference:
- visual effects: none
- smplayer:
preferences > performance > h.264 loopfilter: Skip only on HD videos

I love it! Except the less than 2hrs battery life.
Hope they update poulsbo driver soon…

Sadly, my Vaio P and I parted ways today. I just wasn’t using it enough to justify keeping it around. The good news is that the gentleman I sold it to is planning to give it to his wife as a Christmas present. She works for the UN and travels to a lot of “hotspots”, so it’s nice to know that my Vaio P will be doing some good out there.

so anyway, thrilled there seems to be a modern take on the picturebook. i just pulled my old slow picturebook out and was like “why can’t someone make this similar keyboard size and form factor, but now smaller & lighter even with something slow like a smartphone chipset! i spent hours going over netbook specs and only after all that, did i happen to find the P!

my work hackers (some w/ netbooks) were all super impressed suspend and such seems to work on a karmic P!

thanks for all your help — you have the most comprehensive reviews and information of anywhere else that i can find on the web!

Hey, I used to have a Sony Picturebook too. I loved that thing. I have a love/hate relationship with the Vaio P right now (more below)… I used to be a Linux dev/sysadmin, but ever since Apple went Unix, I’ve been relying more and more on OS X. Windows 7 is bearable, but nothing beats a Unix command prompt. I actually had OS X running on the Sony P for a little while, but the graphics were completely non-accelerated (1600×768 though!)

OK, to answer your questions (all “out of the box” on Ubuntu 9.10, unless otherwise noted)

1. Wifi working on my Sony Vaio P (Canadian model: VGN-P530CH)
2. All 1600×768 pixels working. I know this because my eyes are killing me. Accelerated graphics required a few command line incantations.
3. Can suspend and resume. Once or twice WiFi did not come back after the resume. The solution was to toggle the wifi on/off switch, no need to power down/reboot the machine or reload the wifi module.
4. Not sure about the hotkeys. (Well, volume works, and I believe that brightness did too after the accelerated drivers were installed)
5. Built-in webcam works.
6. Audio out via speakers works.

I have not tried audio input, nor have I tried headphones, so I can’t really give you an idea about those two.

As for crashing/locking up – not that I’ve seen. I *did* notice WiFi slowing down a couple times on a really large file xfer on my own network, but it seemed to recover on its own after ~20 seconds.

Now, those are the positives. Here are the negatives:

The CPU is underpowered. It also can’t really drive the 1600×768 screen effectively. Forget about watching video on the device, unless it’s in a very, very tiny window. Even with the 2D acceleration enabled.

Also, the 1600×768 screen is just *too* high-res. I have excellent eyesight, but it’s hard to look at for a long time. Upping font sizes helps, but isn’t perfect across all apps.

The included battery is not very good. In general, you’re looking at 2 hours or less of battery life on the device. So if you do get one, I suggest splurging for the extended battery.

At this point, I’m probably going to sell my Vaio P – it’s a neat little toy but I haven’t been able to do much real work with it. I find the CPU to be very underpowered compared to other netbooks, and the onboard HD is horribly slow. That said, it does run Ubuntu 9.10 fairly well now.

ok, i’m starting to froth at a much better version of my very old picturebook from sony!

so just to be clear/explicit, with 9.10/karmic, between an “out of the box” install and the video acceleration steps mentioned above, is it the case that you have your P (it is a recent “mark 2″ model?) doing the following:
- wifi working
- have all 1600×768 pixels working
- can suspend/resume

do its hotkey work (just curious)?
does anything *not* work that you can enumerate?
it’s not crashing or locking up, too, right?

i gave up on windoze due mostly to vista, but cygwin just started driving me nuts. between mac and ubuntu having unix-style “developer’s dream” terminals/shells, i’d like to never have to subject myself to windows again
(but of course the lure of the shiny P(enny) is hard to not notice!)
thanks for any more info