I have always wanted to have a thin and light laptop with wi-fi capability so I could work on my bed or on my couch, watching TV . So I have recently bought a Sony Vaio VGN-S360. It came with Windows XP but I didn’t care too much for it; First thing I did was to install my Debian distribution on it. Adding and compiling support for the Intel Centrino chip for Linux on this Sony wasn’t obvious so I thought it would be worth an entry.
I also tweaked the kernel options to get the sound card and ACPI support

1. Linux kernel

This is the kernel config I used. I used a 2.6.11.5 kernel.

2. Intel Centrino support

Intel provides the Linux driver for the Centrino chip. I have put the files here for your convenience. You should read their user end agreement before installing the driver.

Copy and decompress the firmware:


$ cp ipw2200-fw-2.2.tgz /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
$ tar -zxvf ipw2200-fw-2.2.tgz


Copy, decompress and compile the module source files:

$ cp ipw2200-1.0.2.tar.gz /home/starvinh/install/
$ tar -zxvf ipw2200-1.0.2.tar.gz
$ make


The ipw2200 module needs to be loaded before configuring the card. This can be added to a script. Your wifi router needs to be configured to specify the frequency(channel), network id and encryption:

root@pioneer:/home/starvinh/bin# more centrino.sh
modprobe ipw2200
iwconfig eth2 essid levinh channel 9 enc D60FAD06205A83117D2E736DCA


iwconfig gives information about the wifi interface just like the standard ifconfig:


starvinh@pioneer:~$ iwconfig eth2
eth2 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"levinh"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:2D:27:72
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=88/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


The interface is then ready to be configured with an ip address. This can be done with DHCP or you can assign a static address. That’s it! Your Sony Vaio laptop is connected to the internet!