Sony
Vaio PCG-C1VRX/K
and Debian Linux Sarge
Kernel 2.6.11 Custom
built for special needs, details later
Here I will try to
explain as best as I can how I got Debian Sarge
working on my Sony PCG-C1VRX/K laptop.
A lot of things are not
obvious about the installation, so I will try
to get to the details as much as
necessary, so that it can be understood. I am still updating the site
frequently, as I discover new things all the time.
Some things are very
straight forward, so I wont go into them. What I
will focus on, is:
Install
Debian Sarge
X-Windows
and 1024x480 Resolution
Optimized
2.6.11 Kernel
ACPI
Power Management (Suspend to RAM
& Power Savings on Battery)
Camera
- Motioneye
JogDial
Capture
Button
Bluetooth
Extra
Features (Gnomemeeting; Nokia 6630; Japanese Input)
Install
Debian Sarge:
It wasnt a very easy
task but also wasnt very hard (like
the Libretto
L1 ) ,andI am done
after all. What I had to do as I have no USB CD
drives, I used a USB Floppy drive. I grabbed Debian`s latest Floppy
Images from here
and made the 3 necessary boot floppies for the
install, which are BOOT ROOT and NET drivers. I booted with the 3
floppies, and it luckily recognized my Network Card, which is aNetgear
MA401. It uses the Orinoco driver. You may use any older type of
PCMCIAcards, that the 2.4.27 kernel supports, because at the time of
writing that is the kernel that comes on the floppy. It was pretty
straight forward from then on, as the Net was recognized, so I could
attach to the Mirror`s and start downloading the distribution. First it
installes the Partitioner and other things, thenasks 10000 questions,
and shortly after that you are on your way for getting about 500 or so
MBs from on of the mirrors, and installes your full distribution.
Few notes:
If you have an internet
connectivity issue even after the PCMCIA
network card was recognized, you can change console ALT CTRL (F1-F6).
Your install is at F1 soyou can change to F2, press enter, and you get
a blinking cursor. At this pointyou dont have a lot of power, as most
commonly used commangs are unavailable, as they dont fit on the floppy.
You can use cat for editing and viewing. Most importantly you can
restart PCMCIA services if there is a problem, by typing
/etc/init.d/pcmcia
X-Windows
and 1024x480 Resolution
This was a challenging
one. Debian Sarge at time of writing (2005 May
6th) comes with Xfree86 4.3 which is a pretty stable X , but not good
for the ATI Rage Mobility P/M Mach64 that this laptop has. I read many
pages, and many people has it working, but nobody with 4.3. Usually 4.2
or earlier, as this laptop isnt new anymore. I suffered and sweat a lot
until I realized this. I tried at least 100 different XF86Config-4
configuration, but it was always the same. GRAYISH SCREEN FILLS UP THE
LCD. Darn. Well, what I learned in the 2 days that I tried to fix it
was that 4.3`s ati driver is not good for this laptop when displaying
1024x480, only in 8bit (unacceptable) or 640x480 (way unaccaptable).
I went and grabbed the Xfree 4.5 which
is the newest one available. I
also tried 4.4, with no luck. So here we go how to make X work for this
beautiful laptop.If you want to give it a shot without all the hassle
to get 4.5 going, just copy my XF86Config-4 file from below, and use
it. If it wont give you the greyish screen, you are in luck. If it
will, then keep reading on.
Go to here and
download the files necessary. Please read that page
carefuly, as I dont include step by step install on X. I could do it by
reading the manual, and it didnt take long, so I am sure you can manage
as well. What is compilcated (or what was for me) is the messed up
font.
I will get into that in detail shortly. You will see on X`s site, that
you need 13 mandatory files to be downloaded. There are also a good 10
or so files that are extra files, and not necessary. I have chosen a
few of those too, and downloaded them, like the 100dpi fonts, and the X
headed files for future compilings that might take place. When you
compile for X something, it needs the headers, and since this X didnt
come from Debian, you cannot just apt-get for the header files, so
include them if you need them. That file is called Xprog.tgz .
Another important thing
that you will see on that site, is to check for
what version you exactly need. There is a script to be downloaded from
them in advanced, to check what version of X you will need, so you can
make sure to download theright one.
That script is called
Xinstall.sh and you need to run
sh Xinstall.sh -check
this will show you what
version to download. From here on I trust you
can get a working X going. Now for me what happened, is that when I
started X for the first time (I have KDM start it for me) my fonts were
all messed up. I couldnt see anything except squares instead of letter.
Any font that was present on my window was a square. It was terrible.
It took me days to find out why, and finally I found this site that
explained what might have happened to me. It was written for Suse
linux, but it sure worked for me. What I had to do is to make sure I
donthave absolete entries in my
/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
file. Now my font.conf
looks like this. Its a bit different from what
that gentleman describes on his site, but when I did his way, my X was
way too slow. He puts every font directory as a new entry, and instead
of that, I just inserted one link to a directory called FONTS that
includes all the subdirectories with all the fonts. Now I also did what
he describes in his "3rd step", which was to copy the fonts.dir files
over the fonts.scale files in every directory where the fonts.scale
file was empty. Anyways, after doing all this, my X is working like a
charm in 24bit 1024x480 and with beautiful fonts.
Here is the top part of
my /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE
fontconfig SYSTEM
"fonts.dtd">
<!--
/etc/fonts.conf file to
configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>
<!--
The intent of this standard
configuration file is to be adequate for
most environments. If
you have a reasonably normal environment and
have found problems with
this configuration, they are probably
things that others will also
want fixed. Please send any suggested
changes to fonts@xfree86.org
so that future releases can include
such changes.
Note that the normal 'make
install' procedure for XFree86 is to
replace any existing
fonts.conf file with the new version. Place
any local customizations in
local.conf which this file references.
Keith Packard
-->
<!--
Font directory list configured
on Wed Mar 16 18:25:30 EST 2005
-->
<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
I only touched the very
last line, and some other lines that were just
like that, except obsolete, so I removed them. And VOILA, my X works
great.
Now the main part, the
XF86Config-4 file. Without that all you get is a
640x480screen, that is stretched across the LCD. You need to specify a
ModeLine for the 1024x480 to work. I found way too many on the net when
i thought that was the reason my X didnt work. What I have now is
pretty much what I found last and tried last before I realized that my
problem was very different from having a wrong ModeLine. If you want to
tweak it more, just search for it. I am sure you find it.
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
#
XF86Config-4 (XFree86 X Window
System server configuration file)
#
#
This file was generated by dexconf,
the Debian X Configuration tool,
using
#
values from the debconf database.
#
#
Edit this file with caution, and see
the XF86Config-4 manual page.
#
(Type "man XF86Config-4" at the
shell prompt.)
#
#
This file is automatically updated
on xserver-xfree86 package
upgrades *only*
# if
it has not been modified since
the last upgrade of the
xserver-xfree86
#
package.
#
# If
you have edited this file but
would like it to be automatically
updated
#
again, run the following commands as
root:
#
#
cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4.custom
#
md5sum
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
>/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.md5sum
#
dpkg-reconfigure
xserver-xfree86
Section
"Files"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath
"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath
"/usr/share/fonts/truetype/sazanami"
EndSection
Section
"Module"
Load
"GLcore"
Load
"bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load
"extmod"
Load
"freetype"
Load "glx"
Load
"int10"
Load
"record"
Load
"speedo"
Load
"type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection
Section
"InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option
"CoreKeyboard"
Option
"XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option
"XkbModel" "jp106"
Option
"XkbLayout" "jp"
EndSection
Section
"InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option
"CorePointer"
Option
"Device"
"/dev/psaux"
Option
"Protocol"
"PS/2"
Option
"Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option
"ZAxisMapping" "4
5"
EndSection
Section
"InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option
"SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option
"Device"
"/dev/input/mice"
Option
"Protocol"
"ImPS/2"
Option
"Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option
"ZAxisMapping" "4
5"
EndSection
Section
"Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "ati"
EndSection
Section
"Monitor"
Identifier "DXS:1313"
#HorizSync 28-50
#VertRefresh 43-75
#Option "DPMS"
Modeline "1024x480" 29.5
1024 1032 1176 1344 480 491 493 525 -hsync -vsync
EndSection
Section
"Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic
Video Card"
Monitor "DXS:1313"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes
"800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes
"800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes
"1024x480" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes
"800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes
"1024x480" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes
"1024x480" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section
"ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default
Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
EndSection
Section
"DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
I can use the 1024x480
resoltuion and my JogDial works as a mousewheel
by usingthis config file. (UPDATE:
I
recently read, that Jogdial works out of the box if you have a kernel
2.6.9 or higher.)
That is all I care about. I also tried to
make DRI/DRM support to work, and got 80% complete, but never finished
it. I will include info about what I did to get that far.
Optimized
2.6.11 Kernel
I have
downloaded the sources from here and installed it on my
laptop. I
also have a Dell
700m with a beefy
CPU Centrino 1.6, and a compile takes about 25
-30 minutes. Given that, I compiled at least 20 kernels until I arrived
to this stage of having one that I like and keep, and suggest to other
people. If you are bored with my talk, and details, grab the kernel
config file from here
(FIXME
broken link)
and compile your kernel. If you need the
details, read on. What I included in the kernel are the following
mandatory things. I compiled in CPU MSR and CPUID support, which is
needed for the Longrun. I also included Longrun support, and have
choosen CRUSOE as the type of CPU. Other than this, I made sure the
kernel has adequate PCMCIA support, Sound support, USB Blueetooth,
Wireless (For wireless PCMCIA) and the SONY spcific things, like
the Jogdial and the Camera onboard. Other things I might have forgotten
to mention, but to emphasize the point, EVERYTHING works on the laptop,
so the kernel should be right. This kernel is a regular Debian kernel,
which needs INITRD support. I am sure you are aware of that if you are
an oldtimer Debian fellow.
Here is my
/boot/grub/menu.lst portion that is for the new compiled
kernel. It was created automatically when I installed the kernel,
except for that little ACPI parameter which I included and which is
VERY necessary for ACPI suspend, but more on that later. Just make sure
you have that.
title
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.11
root
(hd0,1)
kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11 root=/dev/hda2 ro acpi_sleep=s3_bios
initrd
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.11
savedefault
boot
And here is my
/etc/modprobe.conf file that I created to load the
Camera and Sony drivers as they need to be loaded. This was a battle
also, as many people have wrong info on their sites, or just their
laptop behaves differently, but for me this works only. WHat is
different from others` site is that they use 250 for the sonypi minor
and I use 63. This I got by inserting sonypi when I didnt have this
modprobe.conf file in place, and I did a "dmesg | grep sonypi" which
showed me the right minor was 63 for sonypi on my laptop. When I had
250 before that, my camera misbehaved badly, and I couldnt get the FN
keys to work. Beaware.
/etc/modprobe.conf
alias
char-major-10-63 sonypi
options
sonypi minor=63 camera=1
fnkeyinit=0
alias
char-major-81 videodev
alias
char-major-81-0 meye
options
meye gbuffers=32 video_nr=0
include
/etc/modprobe.d/
Here the last line
makes sure the rest of the modules wont get ignored.
Must Have.
Thats all about the
kernel I can think of. If I know more, I post more.
ACPI Power Management (Suspend to RAM
& Power Savings on Battery)
This is a tricky part.
This Sony VAIO does not like to Come back
(resume) from suspend. What I could achieve, is that with kernel
2.6.11, and a boot parameter passed by Grub, the system is suspendable
and resumeable, if there is no current Network traffic going on with
the PCMCIA network card. IF there is, the PCMCIA cannot be ejected, and
it will halt the process. I made a script, that will get triggered when
I close the lid and suspend. When I open the lid, I have to press a key
to wake up. What you need the most is the 2.6.11 kernel, and the acpid
package (apt-get install acpid). That has to be running, so that the
laptop will pay attention to when the LID is closed.
Here is my
/etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh script
#!/bin/bash
killall
cardmgr
sleep
3
cardctl
eject
rmmod
usb_storage
rmmod
uhci_hcd
rmmod
usbcore
echo
"Oyasumi..."
sleep
2
echo
"mem" > /sys/power/state
cardctl
insert
sleep
3
cardmgr
modprobe
usb_storage
modprobe
uhci_hcd
modprobe
usbcore
#Personal
Modifications
/etc/acpi/ac.sh
/etc/init.d/laptop-mode
restart
For this of course you
need another script, which tells acpid to run
this previous script upon the LID event. And that is
/etc/acpi/events/lidbtn
It looks like this
event=button/lid
action=/etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh
Now you should be able
to suspend and come out, given if you pass the
following little boot parameter into Grub`s menu.lst file. The
parameter is this
acpi_sleep=s3_bios
And the way it
looks when inserted into the menu.lst file:
title
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.11
root
(hd0,1)
kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11 root=/dev/hda2 ro acpi_sleep=s3_bios
initrd
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.11
savedefault
boot
Now reboot, and you are
ready to go. Try it, close the lid, and open
it. It will resume after you hit a key. Now I will explain what my
script exactly means, step by step.
#!/bin/bash
killall
cardmgr
sleep
3
This stops the
PCMCIA card manager. Without this, we cannot
remove the modules cleanly. Also it waits 3 seconds, to give time for
it to halt.
cardctl
eject
This immitates as if we
ejected the PCMCIA card by hand. It`s also
needed for the module removal. These were all tested by me, and I had a
hard time to get to this point, believe me.
rmmod
usb_storage
rmmod
uhci_hcd
rmmod
usbcore
Removal of modules.
echo
"Oyasumi..."
sleep
2
Say something nice
(Japanese Good night) and wait 2 seconds.
echo
"mem" > /sys/power/state
This actually
suspends the machine, finally.
cardctl
insert
From here these
are the steps to get back to life. This emulates
as if we put the PCMCIA card in by hand. And a short sleep, so that it
can take it`s time.
sleep 3
cardmgr
Now start the
card manager.
modprobe
usb_storage
modprobe
uhci_hcd
modprobe
usbcore
And load the
modules. Now we have the system working again.
#Personal
Modifications
stepThese are
what I set for my needs. It restarts the
laptop-mode as I need it for powersavings, and it isnt working after
the suspend. Also it runs a script, that checks if the machine is on AC
or battery, so it can set the energy consumption and brightness. More
on that later
/etc/acpi/ac.sh
/etc/init.d/laptop-mode
restart
Camera
- Motioneye
Pleae read the whole
document, specially the Kernel specific topic, as
you need a specially built kernel. THings to look out for is to have
the SONYPI enabled as a MODULE and not compiled in, as you need to pass
options when loaded as module. Compiled in things wont let you modify
options unles you mess with your grub, and that is ugly. Other than
that you need Linux Video and the Sony Video Inteface (MEYE) enabled
also as a module. This is what is needed for the Camera. Now use my
modprobe.conf file from above (Kernel Seciton) and put it in
/etc/modprobe.conf . Do an "update-modules" to register the changes,
and do a reboot or if not, just insert the modules
modprobe
sonypi
modprobe
videodev
modprobe
meye
This should load the
modules. Now when you look at dmesg like this
"dmesg | grep sony" and "dmesg | grep meye" you should get this
FIXME
INCLUDE LINES FROM DMESG FOR
REFERENCE
Now we need programs
that drive the camera. The best working one is
motioneye. You can install it with apt-get as it is a debian package.
apt-get
install motioneye
This program was
written specifically for this camera, and can use the
builtin compressor for the video, so that it wont be as huge as
recorded with other devices. Read the man page for it for details. You
can take snapshots and movies with it, in 320x240 and 640x480. The pity
is that it only allows you do do one thing at a time, and when you
record for example, you cannot watch what is being recorded. When you
have a nice display and can see what the camera sees on the screen, you
cannot record. What a shame.
To view the camera do
"motioneye -d". Its pretty fun.
There is also xawtv,
but it wont work for me. I posted messages on the
video4linux message list, but they didnt have a solution for me.
UPDATE: I have it working now. The /etc/modprobe.conf needs a little
modification, so that it can force the V4L1 to be used instead of the
V4L2, and then it will work. Change one line of the /etc/modprobe.conf
to look like this
options meye gbuffers=32 video_nr=0
forcev4l1=1
And then run
xawtv -c /dev/video0 -geometry 320x240
Another nice and fun
app is effect. You can also get it from debian
with apt-get.
apt-get
effectv
This lets you view the
camera in full screen and lets you add real time
effects to it. WHen I saw it first, I almost fall back with my chair.
Its pretty amazing. Just run it like this
effectv
-fullscreen
And then keep pressing
the UP arrow, and it changes the effects.
Amazing truly.
JogDial,
Capture Button
For Jogdial and
Capture button, visit the site I created, as it happened to be way
complex, so I have included all my success and other trials as well on
the site. Check it and check the main site for more Linux Tricks. I
made another page that you can access from there about how to run linux
on slow laptops, might come in handy.
http://celifornia.com/linux/article.php?story=20050629121445911
http://celifornia.com/linux
and this is for the main site.
Bluetooth
Extra
Features (Gnomemeeting, Japanese Input,
Nokia 6630)
To get Gnomemeeting to
work with the Motioneye camera, you need to force the MEYE module to be
loaded with V4L1 support, and not V4L2, as that is buggy still, being
fairly new. And just to let you know, everything will still work, even
though we use the V4L1 instead of the V4L2, and to top that, even Xawtv
will work like this, as that uses V4L1 as well. So we need to change a
few things, firstly the
/etc/modprobe.conf
needs to be modified, only the line that calls for the Meye driver.
Here is how it should look now:
options meye gbuffers=32 video_nr=0
forcev4l1=1
Now remove the meye module, update the modules and insert the module.
This goes like this:
rmmod meye
update-modules
modprobe meye
At this point we need to install gnomemeeting and another package that
will let us use the correct V4L1 in Gnomemeeting. Do an:
apt-get install gnomemeeting
libpt-plugins-v4l
Now we can start gnomemeeting and set it up the way you want it, just
when you get to the video settings, make sure you choose the V4L as the
Video source, and at the next step, choose MEYE. After this, there is a
button to test settings. If it comes back with no error, you are good
to go.
To get Gnomemeeting going with Netmeeting, you need to make sure that
all ports are open that need to be open. 1503 and 1720 ports need to
point to the machine with Gnomemeeting. This is of course if you are
behind a firewall. On the Netmeeting side, you also need the ports
open. Look out for Windows XP Service Pack 2 machines, as they tend to
have a built in firewall, that also needs to be opened. After this, you
are good to go, but one more thing before you start chatting, disable
the H.245 Tunneling in the Gnomemeeting preferences. Now your
Gnomemeeting is ready to speak with a Netmeeting.
To get Japanese
support, you need to install a few packages, and
include Japanese in your locales. For that run
dpgk-reconfigure
locales
Now choose the Japanese
locale as well, but keep your own one as
default. You will be promted for that when you say OK after choosing
locales.
Now install a few
packages
apt-get
install canna kinput2-common
kinput2-canna ttf-sazanami-mincho ttf-sazanami-gothic libcanna1g-dev
libcanna1g canna-utils
This installes the
character conversion as well as the Japanese fonts.
Now, we need to modify the Xsession file. I am a single user of this
laptop, so I modified the default Xsession file, but you are welcome to
create on ein your path as ~/.Xsession and then only your session will
be modified.
I use KDM as my X
loader, so I had to modify KDM`s Xsession file, that
is under
/etc/kde3/kdm/Xsession
My file looks like this
#!
/bin/sh
#
Xsession - run as user
export
LANGUAGE=en
export
LINGUAS=en
export
LC_CTYPE=ja_JP # May break certain things like window
maker; untested
export
LC_TIME=C # Format time
as English
export
LC_NUMERIC=C # Format numbers as English
export
LC_MESSAGES=C # Output messages in English
export
LC_COLLATE=ja_JP # Do
sorting and collating of characters as Japanese
export
LANG=ja_JP # Use Japanese for
all others
export
XMODIFIERS="@im=kinput2"
kinput2
-canna &
#Uncomment the following line to let other key change to Japanese as
well.
#xmodmap -e 'keycode 49 = Kanji'
#
invoke global X session script
.
/etc/X11/Xsession
Now when you restart X
you should have an English Debian System with
the ability to type and read in Japanese. Just press SHIFT + SPACE and
you are into typing some Japanese. Pretty nice.
I dont like the
SHIFT+SPACE combination, I hit it way too many times
when I shouldnt have hit it, and it makes me angry, as Japanese
characters start showing up when they shouldnt. Annoying. So I took on
another day-journey into GOOGLE`s deep jungle, and finally found the
solution on a Japanese site (no I dont read Japanese that well, but I
use worldlingo.com`s translator). What you need to do is to reassaign
the default keybindings. This is done in a file called
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/Kinput2
Here you need to fine a
line toward the bottom that is similar to mine.
Of course mine is already replaced with my desired KEY.
*ConversionStartKeys:
\
<Key>Zenkaku_Hankaku
\n\
<Key>Kanji
This makes my real
JAPANESE-ENGLISH selection key work, that is
included in every Japanese keyboard, and called Zenkaku_Hankaku. If you
wonder what keys your keyboard contain, and what is their real name,
just pass the following command.
xmodmap
-pke
Also if you want to
keep the SHIFT+SPACE and also allow another key to
do the job, you can add an additional line to the Xsession file. In my
Xsession file it is already included, just commented out. There you
need to give the number of the KEY given by the xmodmap command, and
restart X.
Another annoying thing is that after we start to use this Japanese
capability, man pages will not work anymore. It will show an error like
this, when you try to see a man page:
ben@vaio:~$ man man
Reformatting man(1), please wait...
invalid charset name
man: command exited with status 256:
/usr/bin/zsoelim /tmp/zmanfSRURp
| /usr/bin/tbl | /usr/bin/nroff
-mandoc -Tascii8 | iconv -c -f ISO-8859-1 -t
EUC-JP | exec /usr/bin/pager -s
To correct this, we need to write up a little script, that will
overwrite the locale settings for MAN. I named this "mannew" and I put
it in /usr/bin/
SO here is how my /usr/bin/mannew looks like
#!/bin/sh
unset LANG=ja_JP
unset LC_CTYPE="ja_JP"
unset LC_NUMERIC=C
unset LC_TIME=C
unset LC_COLLATE=ja_JP
unset LC_MONETARY="ja_JP"
unset LC_MESSAGES=C
unset LC_PAPER="ja_JP"
unset LC_NAME="ja_JP"
unset LC_ADDRESS="ja_JP"
unset LC_TELEPHONE="ja_JP"
unset LC_MEASUREMENT="ja_JP"
unset LC_IDENTIFICATION="ja_JP"
export LANG=C
export LANGUAGE=C
/usr/bin/man "$@"
After this script is in place, make sure you have execution rights set
with chmod. Now, you should see a regular man page, like this
mannew manpage
Where manpage is the actual man page you are looking for.