Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 13:48:11 -0000
From: Jean Delvare
To: Sony Vaio Support

I would like to get in touch with a Sony technician about eeprom
reading issues on my GR214EP laptop.

I was able to read the first SO-DIMM memory slot eeprom on the i2c bus, at
address 0x50, but I can't find the second one. Is it readable? How?

I also could find that some information related to the laptop itself is
available at address 0x57. I could see the model name and serial number, but
many things remain hard to interpret without complete specifications. I would
like to get these specifications.

Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 12:44:04 +0100
From: Sony Vaio Support
To: Jean Delvare

Dear Vaio user 

Do not forget to register your computer to gain access to the support and
waranty services from SONY.
Specification of your sony computer can be found on our web site and in the
user guide provided with your computer and downloadable on the same web site.

Further or more detailed information are not available.

regards 
Sony vaio-link response center

Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 17:27:02 +0100 (MET)
From: Jean Delvare
To: Sony Vaio Support

> Do not forget to register your computer to gain access to the support
> and waranty services from SONY.
I already did this.  Does it mean that I can hope more help from you?

> Specification of your sony computer can be found on our web site and
> in the user guide provided with your computer and downloadable on the
> same web site.
Such technical data are of course not part of the laptop user guide.

> Further or more detailed information are not available.
How bad.

Let me recap the situation.

I am working for the LM Sensors project (http://www.netroedge.com/~lm78/.)
The goal of this project is to support, the best we can, i2c devices under
Linux.  Among other things, this include sensors readings and eeprom
readings.

I just bought a Sony Vaio laptop and of course tried our project on it.
I had suprises and am now trying to understand.  You should consider it an
opportunity to make the Linux support for your laptops better, which is
certainly a good thing for your sales.  It would cost you almost nothing.

Major companies already understood this.  The name of Intel comes to my
mind, together with Philips, Fujitsu-Siemens, Texas Instruments and many
more.

Your hardware has no value until it is supported.  Non-Windows systems
being more and more used and especially on personal computers and laptops,
you should start thinking about supporting operating systems such as Linux
or BSD, and the best and cheapest way of doing so is to give us,
developers, the information we need to do the job.

I please you to reconsider your answer.

Thanks.

Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 13:58:40 +0100
From: Sony Vaio Support
To: Jean Delvare

Dear Sir,

I'm afraid that system information at this level of information is managed by
Sony Japan, and is considered confidential by them.

We are not allowed to provide motherboard information at this level, let alone
that we receive this information from Sony Japan.

Kind Regards

Sony Vaio Link Support

Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 14:40:41 +0100 (MET)
From: Jean Delvare
To: Sony Vaio Support

> I'm afraid that system information at this level of information is
> managed by Sony Japan, and is considered confidential by them.
>
> We are not allowed to provide motherboard information at this level,
> let alone that we receive this information from Sony Japan.

How sad.  Could you please give me a contact information, preferably
e-mail, to someone from Sony Japan who could provide this information, or
at least someone I could discuss with about my problem?  Thanks.

Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 15:34:33 +0100
From: Sony Vaio Support
To: Jean Delvare

Dear Vaio user 

Do not forget to include the model and serial number of your computer in any
communication.

Sony does not support Linux, if this changes in the future it will be
advertised on our support web site.
The sony Vaios are so far " designed for windows.." as explained on the sticker
on the unit themself, this might be the cause of some difficulties in running
other Operating systems.

The information you are requesting is not and will not become available.

regards 
Sony vaio-link response center

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