vaio 505JE and ethernet + usb

[Seth Daniel <seth@goodbull.com>]

All,

I recently purchased a Sony Vaio PCG-Z505JE.  There is a page
for it off of the Linux Laptops page:

  http://larve.net/people/hugo/2000/07/linux-vaio

Anyway, on several pages with similar laptops it is mentioned that
the ``Plug And Play OS'' option (in the BIOS) needs to be turned
off in order to use USB and sound.  The problem is that when this
option is turned off I can't configure the internal ethernet card
w/o the laptop completely hanging (yes, hanging).  With the option
turned on I can run pump, or ifconfig w/o any worries.

I have a second problem wrt USB.  I have tried this with the ``Plug
And Play OS'' option turned off and with it turned on.  I have patched
kernel 2.2.16 with the USB backport from here:

  http://www.suse.cz/development/usb-backport/

It compiled just fine and I'm running the kernel now.  Here's the problem.
Several web pages suggested that these steps needed to be run:

(I'm attempting to access my usb floppy)

  o modprobe usb-storage
    - this works great.  When I do this it loads the usb-storage module along
      with the usbcore and scsi_mod module.
  o echo "scsi add-single-device 1 0 0 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi
    - i do this and then if I cat the ``/proc/scsi/scsi'' file it
      says ``Attached devices: none''.
  o I then try to mount the floppy with ``mount -t ext2 /dev/sda /mnt''.
    The sd_mod module is loaded and it tells me that /dev/sda is not a 
    block device.  

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Even if I can access my USB device, if I have to turn off Plug And Play OS
in the BIOS I then can't use my ethernet card!  Anyone have any suggestions?
-- 
seth / moc.llubdoog@htes