Sony VAIO VGN-P70H¶

The Sony VAIO P series (2009) was an ultra-portable "lifestyle PC" with a distinctive pocket-sized form factor. I use a VGN-P70H (Japanese model) as a TTY-only Linux machine.

Specs¶

Mods¶

SSD Swap¶

The original 1.8" ZIF/CE hard drive has been replaced with an mSATA SSD using an adapter board.

Required component:

• mSATA (PCI-E) SSD to ZIF/CE adapter

The adapter board is secured in place with double-sided tape.

CMOS Battery¶

The original CMOS battery was dead. I replaced it with a CR1220 3V battery with a 2-pin PH connector, soldering the cable onto the original connector.

Power Supply¶

The original battery is dead and no longer holds a charge. Instead of sourcing a replacement VGP-BPS15, I power the laptop with a USB-C PD power bank and a USB-C PD trigger to 4.8x1.7mm DC jack (compact 90-degree right angle, 12V). The VAIO P expects 10.5V but runs fine on 12V.

Disassembly¶

OS Setup¶

I installed Void Linux and use it exclusively as a TTY machine.

Initial Setup (chroot)¶

After installing the base system and entering the chroot:

chown root:root /
chmod 755 /

passwd root

echo vaio-p > /etc/hostname

echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" >> /etc/default/libc-locales
xbps-reconfigure -f glibc-locales

LUKS Encryption¶

The partition is encrypted with Serpent instead of AES, as the Atom Z520 lacks AES-NI and Serpent provides faster software encryption/decryption on this CPU:

cryptsetup luksFormat --type luks1 \
  --cipher serpent-xts-plain64 \
  --key-size 256 \
  --hash sha256 \
  --iter-time 1000 /dev/sda1

Key file¶

Add a key file to avoid typing the LUKS passphrase twice at boot (once for GRUB, once for the initramfs):

dd bs=1 count=64 if=/dev/urandom of=/boot/crypted.key

cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/sda1 /boot/crypted.key

chmod 000 /boot/crypted.key
chmod -R g-rwx,o-rwx /boot/

blkid -o value -s UUID /dev/sda1

cryptroot  UUID=<your-uuid>  /boot/crypted.key  luks

install_items+=" /boot/crypted.key /etc/crypttab "

grub-install /dev/sda
xbps-reconfigure -fa

GRUB¶

Enable graphical GRUB with the Void Linux splash screen at native resolution:

GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/void-artwork/splash.png
GRUB_GFXMODE=1600x768x32

Then regenerate the GRUB config:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Slimming Down the Initramfs¶

By default, dracut builds a generic initramfs with modules for every possible hardware and filesystem. On a known machine like the VAIO P, most of these are unnecessary and waste both disk space and boot time on an already slow CPU.

Host-only mode¶

Build the initramfs for this machine only, including only the drivers and filesystems actually in use:

hostonly="yes"
hostonly_cmdline="yes"

Omit unnecessary modules¶

Remove modules that are irrelevant for a bare-metal VAIO P:

omit_dracutmodules+=" btrfs nvdimm qemu virtiofs lunmask resume hwdb "

Disable AMD microcode¶

The VAIO P has an Intel Atom CPU, AMD microcode should not be included:

early_microcode="yes"

No compression¶

Since the Atom Z520 CPU is extremely weak, skip compression entirely to speed up initrd creation and loading:

compress="cat"

Rebuild¶

After configuring, rebuild the initramfs:

xbps-reconfigure -fa

KMSCon¶

The graphical console is provided by KMSCon, which gives a modern terminal experience with proper font rendering directly on the framebuffer, without needing a full display server.

KMSCon requires at least one TTF font installed on the system:

xbps-install -S kmscon dejavu-fonts-ttf noto-fonts-cjk noto-fonts-emoji

Create the runit service¶

The kmscon package does not ship a runit service, it needs to be created manually:

mkdir -p /etc/sv/kmsconvt-tty1/dependencies
ln -s /etc/sv/dbus /etc/sv/kmsconvt-tty1/dependencies/

#!/bin/sh
exec kmscon --vt /dev/tty1 --seats seat0 --no-switchvt --login -- /bin/login -f benoit

chmod +x /etc/sv/kmsconvt-tty1/run

This starts KMSCon on tty1 with auto-login for the benoit user. Since the LUKS passphrase is already entered at GRUB, the system can be considered in the hands of its owner after decryption.

useradd -m -s /bin/bash benoit

Enable KMSCon on tty1¶

Replace the default agetty on tty1 with the new KMSCon service:

rm /var/service/agetty-tty1
ln -s /etc/sv/kmsconvt-tty1 /var/service/

# auth required pam_securetty.so

Framebuffer Access¶

By default /dev/fb0 is owned by root:video with mode 660. To allow a regular user to open it (required for framebuffer apps like Links2 in -g mode, timg, fbterm, etc.), add the user to the video group:

usermod -aG video benoit

Log out and back in (or reboot) for the group change to take effect.

yazi + chafa (File Manager with Image Previews)¶

yazi is a terminal file manager with image preview support. Inside KMSCon, it uses chafa to render images as Unicode block characters, no Sixel or Kitty protocol needed. The result is surprisingly usable and fun on the VAIO P's 1600×768 display.

xbps-install -S yazi chafa

yazi

fbv (Framebuffer Image Viewer)¶

fbv is a minimal image viewer that writes directly to /dev/fb0. No X11 or terminal emulator involved, it blits the image straight to the screen. Must be run from a raw agetty TTY (see Framebuffer Access).

xbps-install -S fbv

Switch to tty2 (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and view an image:

fbv photo.jpg

mplayer (Framebuffer Video Player)¶

mplayer supports direct framebuffer output via the fbdev2 backend. mpv --vo=drm does not work on the GMA 500 (no DRM atomic support), making mplayer the practical choice for video playback without X11.

xbps-install -S mplayer

Scale to native screen resolution and play:

mplayer -vo fbdev2 -vf scale=1600:768 video.mp4

Must be run from a raw agetty TTY (see Framebuffer Access).

Links2 (Graphical Framebuffer Browser)¶

Links2 can run in graphical mode directly on the Linux framebuffer, providing image rendering and proper page layout without needing X11. It runs on a raw agetty TTY (not KMSCon, which is a userspace terminal emulator incompatible with direct framebuffer access).

xbps-install -S links

Switch to a raw TTY (e.g., tty2 via Ctrl+Alt+F2) and launch:

links -g -driver fb

LXQt + qutebrowser (Graphical Desktop on tty2)¶

For a lightweight graphical desktop with a full browser (JavaScript support), LXQt with qutebrowser keeps everything on the Qt toolkit, minimizing RAM usage from duplicate libraries. X runs on tty2, leaving KMSCon on tty1.

xbps-install -S xorg-minimal xinit xf86-video-fbdev lxqt qutebrowser qt5-webengine

Create the xinitrc:

exec startlxqt

From tty2, start the graphical session:

startx -- vt2

Audio¶

ALSA channels are muted by default on Void Linux. Add the user to the audio group and unmute via alsamixer:

usermod -aG audio benoit

Then open the mixer (re-login first for the group to take effect):

alsamixer

Navigate with arrow keys, press M to unmute a channel. Channels showing MM at the bottom are muted, at minimum unmute and raise Master and PCM.

Networking¶

The VAIO P doubles as a TTY debug machine to connect to anything on my Tailnet. I use Tailscale with its built-in SSH server, so there is no need to install a separate SSH server on the machine.

useradd -m -s /bin/bash ts

tailscale up --qr --ssh --accept-routes