[Techtalk] Completely stumped on linux install on Sony Picturebook

[Akkana Peck]

Michelle Murrain writes:
> I am trying to install linux on some Sony Vaio PCG-C1Vx computers,  
> known as the picturebook. There are lots of people who seemed to have  

Cool machines! Same era as my Vaio SR71, but a little smaller (and
pricier at the time, alas). I've definitely seen Linux running well
on them, though not recently.

> So here's the problem, and my experiences. I have three of them.  
> These little beasties have only a hard drive. They have external  
> floppies via one single USB port. I don't have any CD drives for them.

I never actually had to do that with my Vaio, because just as I was
collecting information on how to do a CD-less install, my husband
bought his own Vaio that came with an external CDROM drive.
But at the time, the best info available was on linux-laptop.net,
not under the Vaio listings but under Toshiba Libretto listings.
The Libretto was always a popular Linux platform which didn't come
with a bootable external CDROM drive. I have links to four (actually
only three, one is now a 404) Libretto pages I found, here:
http://shallowsky.com/linux/vaiolinux.html#withoutCD

HOWEVER, that said: if I were in your place, I wouldn't even bother
to install Linux onto the machines themselves. I'd remove the
drives, plug them into a 2.5-3.5" IDE adaptor and stick them in a
desktop machine, then cp -a the Linux distro of choice. I suppose
you do need to do something about putting a grub boot block onto
the MBR of the drive, but I think grub-install has a way to do that.
 
Good luck! They sure are neat little laptops, and supposedly you
can even control the built-in webcam on them with spicctrl and
similar programs.

-- 
    ...Akkana
    "Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional": http://gimpbook.com