Tutorial: Ubuntu Linux on HP Pavilion
dv2000, dv6000, dv6500 and dv9000 series laptops

QUESTA GUIDA E’ DISPONIBILE ANCHE IN ITALIANO

This guide guides you through Ubuntu Linux setup and tweaking. It applies to all HP Pavilion computers with Intel Centrino processors, Santa Rosa platform, and AMD Turion platform, with either 14′ display (dv2000 series) 15,4′ display (dv6000 series) or 17′ display (dv9000 series).

Changelog:
2008 08 25 - added workaround for touchpad losing vertical scroll functionality and freezing
2008 07 29 - added support for DV9000 series Ricoh integrated webcam (thanks yecarrillo!)
2008 07 18 - fixed a typo and tagged first step as not not more necessary in fingerprinting support
2008 07 16 - improved guide on biometrics fingerprinting support to support log in and sudo auth.
2008 05 22 - Firmware F.2A has been reported to fix cpu-freq related problems on INTEL dv2000 series (incl. dv2765tx) (thanks Astar!) download here
2008 05 01 - published a tutorial for customizing touch sensible buttons
2008 04 20 - more on brightness control failures on dv2xxx here (thanks Chris!)
2008 04 16 - updates on the bluetooth issue at boot and on Intel wireless issues on Ubuntu Hardy
2008 04 15 - address Broadcom wireless losing signal design flaw on dv60xx-dv63xx and dv90xx-93xx.
2008 04 01 - wireless LED now toggling on/off (at last!)
2008 04 02 - updated and improved my power saving tips, getting as low as ~13watts, no joke!
2008 03 31 - added support for Broadcom Wireless cards shipped with AMD Turion laptops
2008 03 28 - added support for modem and lightscribe on x86_64 (64bit) Ubuntu (thanks rac)
2008 03 16 - added workaround for bluetooth module preventing the system to boot (thanks Philip)
2008 01 31 - new host, restyled, cleaned, improved some sections with tips from old comments
2008 01 16 - added more powersaving options (sata link and audio suspend) in Laptop Mode energy saving

Check also my other posts related to HP Pavilion laptops
http://aldeby.org/blog/?s=Pavilion

Index

1. Choosing the Right Ubuntu CD
2. Booting into Ubuntu
3. Installing Ubuntu
4. Video Device
5. Wireless Adapter
6. Webcam
7. Touchpad
8. Media Cards Reader
9. VGA & HDMI Outputs
10. Remote Control
11. Firewire
12. Battery Recalibration
13. Laptop Mode (energy saving)
14. Suspend & Hibernate
15. Lightscribe Support
16. Audio Subsistem
17. Fingerprint Scanner
18. Hardware Sensors
19. Modem
20. Touch Sensible Buttons
21. Ethernet
22. Bluetooth
23. TV Tuner

1. Choosing the right flavour of Ubuntu Linux

Many of you may be wondering whether or not you should install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Ubuntu Linux. Since all recent HP Pavilion laptops support 64-bit, you will get the best performance 64-bit Ubuntu. However there are a few drawbacks: some software, including internal modem (check paragraph for details), Lightscribe support (check paragraph for details) and some third party device drivers do not natively support 64-bit operating systems. With 32-bit OSs you also cannot exceed 3Gb memory.

Workarounds exist that allow these programs to run on 64-bit operating systems, but they require insane tweaks to be setup. If you want your operating system to “just work out of the box” or you are new to Ubuntu/Linux, I would recommend 32-bit as you will not have to fix these issues, this would not affect system speed and in any noticeable way.

Get your Ubuntu Linux from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

for daily built development and unstable/unsupported snapshots:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ for graphical installer and Live CD
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily/current/ for text mode automatic installer

2.Boot into Ubuntu Linux CD

From Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 upwards (which includes Ubuntu Hardy 8.04) there are no issues at booting and installation.

Should I install with the LiveCD or the AlternateCD?
- AlternateCD uses a terminal-style installation method that allows for more flexibility on installation, but no live system would be available. On the other hand it can provide a very simple recover menu (e.g. to restore Ubuntu if it disappears from the boot menu or you messed with packages and nothing more works)

- Live CD enables you to setup Ubuntu via a pleasant and simple graphical setup wizard and to run a fully functional OS live from CD/DVD which is also very handy for accessing a damaged installation/partition.

I would suggest LiveCD, unless you need the AlternateCD for a more complex installation, you prefer the terminal-style interface, or you do not succeed booting LiveCD.

Note on booting into the LiveCD

This applies only to Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 if boot hangs or fails, Ubuntu 7.10 onwards boot perfectly well on these platforms!

a) At the GRUB menu press F6 then add “break=top” and boot. The system will eventually stop booting prompting an initramfs shell. Here write down modprobe piix and then exit.

(after completing setup login and open /etc/initramfs-tools/modules here add a new line with word piix then save and in shell type update-initramfs -u reboot)

b) alternatively you can press F6 at the GRUB menu and add these parameters:
noapic irqpoll noirqdebug

NOTE: Only adding ‘noapic’ to the boot parameters has been reported to disable the USB ports. Only adding ‘nolapic’ has been reported to prevent the NVIDIA driver from loading correctly. However use of both ‘noapic and ‘nolapic’ is not know to cause these problems. Also if you use “IRQPOLL” or “IRQFIXUP” along with “noapic” will enable usb support. Feedback on this would be appreciated.

3. Installing Ubuntu Linux

Note: drives are in ’sd**’ format because these laptops use SATA hard drives (ie sda1 sda2 sdb1 ecc)
Note: if you want suspension to work you MUST set a swap partition equal or bigger than your RAM memory.

4. Video Device

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the video subsystem is fully supported.

Intel chipsets are fully supported directly by Xorg. Intel X3100 is the only one decent graphic chipset available at the moment that has a completely full featured open source driver.

nVidia is fully supported as well. There are however 2 drivers: ‘nv’ which is 2D only and open source and ‘nvidia’ which is 3D and full featured but closed source. In order to enable 3D you just have to enable nVidia drivers via Restricted Drivers Manager (Hardware Drivers in Hardy) under System -> Administration menu.

AMD ATi has fairly good support for linux. Things seem to be changing for the better lately. Here we also have 3 drivers: ‘ati’ and ‘radeon’ which are 2D open source and ‘fglrx’ which is 3D closed source. In order to enable 3D you just have to enable ATi drivers via Restricted Drivers Manager (Hardware Drivers in Hardy) under System -> Administration menu.

HOWTO use ENVY install script:

NOTE on Envy: You do not have to use Envy script since latest official drivers are generally available through the update manager in a week from their public release.

Using Old Envy (prior to EnvyNG) can cause some annoying issues for those not used to cope with shell mode since whenever you upgrade the kernel your graphical interface won’t work any more. (In order to fix this you should reboot in failsafe mode and type envy -t, then select the number corresponding to your driver and reboot once again after Envy has finished installing).

Envy is a very handy tool cleverly coded by Italian OpenSource supporter Alberto Milone to whom goes my credit. It can be downloaded from http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html.
Install the .deb and Choose Applications->System Tools->Envy
Choose to install the NVIDIA driver. During installation it will ask you if you would like it to configure
xorg.conf for you. Choose ‘Yes’. Reboot and if everything went correctly you should now have the NVIDIA driver installed.
If you want to use Envy on Hardy you will only have to follow these steps:

type:
sudo nano -w /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/Envy/classes.py (location seems to be changed with recent versions of Envy)

get to line 324 (simply search for cassandra doing CTRL+W in pico or nano editor) which will look like the following:
elif self.details['osname'] == ‘cassandra’:#SUPPORT FOR LINUX MINT CASSANDRA

and replace the word ‘cassandra’ with ‘gutsy’ so that it looks like the following line:
elif self.details['osname'] == ‘hardy’:#SUPPORT FOR LINUX MINT CASSANDRA

Save and exit by pressing CTRL+X

Then launch Envy and install dirvers for your graphics card.

Please notice that envy requires internet access and since a download might fail due to timeouts if it ends in an odd way you should run it again. Since it has to download several packages no surprise if you have to run envy a few times before completing successfully if you have a poor quality internet access.

In case the 3D driver was not installed correctly and Xserver fails to start, don’t panic!
After you receive the error you will be presented with the console, so just login and you have two options:

A) Install the driver with ENVY in text based mode
Simply type: envy -t
This will launch ENVY for text based installation.

When you finish simply type startx to start X, the Linux graphical interface

B) Restore the 2D driver by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf (sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf) and replacing string Driver “nvidia” with Driver “nv” forn nVidia owners, or if you have AMD/ATi Driver “fglrx” with Driver “ati” or Driver “radeon”.

—————

After running envy on Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 6 I experienced an extended (over 1280×800) login window and and a very slow desktop with very small text in taskbar. Refresh was @51hz. The system eventually freezed.

Solution: go into recovery mode and type: sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf then locate Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device ….
and change values within SubSection “Display” and EndSubSection as follows:

SubSection “Display”
Virtual 1280 800
Depth 24
Modes “1280×800@60”
EndSubSection
Save with CTRL+X and Y

reboot

now everything should work and compiz should be running happily!

Also, in the graphics card driver section, add

Option “NoLogo” “true”

in order to remove the nvidia splash when X starts.

Option “OnDemandVBlankInterrupts” “true”

in order to enable power saving features.

Brightness Control malfunction on dv2xxx: brightness control can be achieved through the applet Power Management in System -> Preferences (and also with the Brightness Applet from the Gnome panel), however in case those do not work (ie. for dv2690el, dv2058ea) you can achieve the same effect via keyboard shortcus Fn+F7 Fn+F8.

The only problem is that gnome-power-manager periodically checks the display brightness, thus making the keyboard shortcut tweaking useless.
In order to disable gnome-power-manager brightness monitoring you have to run gconf-editor from shell, browse to /apps/gnome-power-manager/backlight and uncheck the enable string.

User Chris in this comment suggests having a look at the patch attached at the following post which, he claims, solved this problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=673946
and at this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdebase/+bug/145337

5.1 Intel Wireless (3945ABG, 4965ABGN)

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the wireless subsystem is fully supported (through backport modules).
On Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 the there is a partial support for the wireless subsystem, which leads to a usable networking (powersaving and led blinking fetures notably missing)

Update: you are strongly encouraged to install the linux backports modules since a part from wireless switch light several minor bugfixes have been integrated here.

After ages the Intel crew finally made it: wireless switch led toggling is now supported!! Wow… http://bughost.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1209

To get this support in Ubuntu Hardy you simply have to install kernel backports this way:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-hardy-generic

Drivers are now slipstremed into the Linux kernel (since 2.6.24), no more need to manually update them via http://intellinuxwireless.org

5.2 Wireless Broadcom

There is no native support for Broadcom wireless cards, however they work through ndiswrapper workaround.

Jlandaw has written a comprehensive guide on this issue here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4808350

HP Pavilion Laptops with AMD Turion platform ship with a Broadcom wireless card. Unfortunately Broadcom is one of the least Linux friendly companies and in fact it does not provide any support for linux OSs (differently from e.g. Intel). Given this, support for linux is provided via ndiswrapper hack.

You can download the windows drivers here (these are for a Broadcom BCM 4328 but should work for all the series) then extract the archive in a folder you call broadcom in your home directory.

Install ndiswrapper and follow the procedure:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils

sudo ndiswrapper -i $HOME/broadcom/DRIVER_EN/bcmwl5.inf

sudo ndiswrapper -l

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

To make ndiswrapper automatically run at each startup:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

OR we can add ndiswrapper module to boot modprobed drivers

gksu cat ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

At next bootup your Broadcom wireless card will be recognized!

NOTE:a serious issue has been reported by users and acknowledged by HP concerning not only the wireless card but also the motherboard. This affects model versions
HP Pavilion dv6000 series with model numbers between dv60xx and dv63xx;
HP Pavilion dv9000 series with model numbers between dv90xx and dv93xx;
Compaq Presario V6000 series with model numbers between V60xx and V63xx.
and also some dv2000 like dv2312us.
The core issue is that the wireless card can often lose the signal and display an orange led light. More on the technical issues can be found here where you can also find a link for the RMA procedure, even though your warranty has expired (being a technical design flaw).

Despite that being a win only technical support forum it’s not difficult to implement the workarounds in linux too: You should first update the BIOS (from a windows partition possibly) and the try updating also the wireless driver (downloading them from your HP model support page).
Not being supported by any linux driver, ndiswrapper enables you to use the latest up-to-date windows drivers. You can remove previous drivers from ndiswrapper and install the new ones.

6. Webcam

HP Pavilion DV laptops come with three flavors webcams (use lsusb command to locate yours):

04f2:b015 Chicony Electronics Co., which is fully supported in Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 via V4L2 default drivers

This means that it works out of the box with Ekiga Softphone, aMSN, Skype etc.

Also Linux-UVC drivers support this webcam, if you wish you can install them:
sudo apt-get install luvcview
modprobe uvcvideo
luvcview -d /dev/video0 -f yuv -s 640×480

I would like to thank very much Michel and Sylvie Xhaard for their incredible and precious work now providing support for over 300 webcams on linux.

05ca:1810 Ricoh Co., 05ca:1870 Ricoh Co., 05ca:1812 Ricoh Co. (in progress), which are featured in various models, including some Pavilion DV9000 series and Pavilion DV6502AU. These are supported in Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 via an external module not yet merged into the kernel.

You need r5u870 module created by Sam Revitch http://wiki.mediati.org/R5u870

You can either choose to compile yourself the sourcecode of the latest version from Sam site or use the precompiled package from Stéphane Galland repository: http://www.arakhne.org/spip.php?article51. I wont cover the first method as it is a standard one and clearly described in Sam’s wiki.

In the latter case just add his repository and install the module:

sudo -s
echo “deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/arakhne/ubuntu hardy-arakhne universe” && /etc/apt/sources.list
gpg –keyserver keyserver.mobrien.net –recv-keys 0xBA62BC7E
gpg –export -a 0xBA62BC7E | apt-key add -
apt-get update

apt-get install ricoh-webcam-r5u870-`uname -r`
modprobe r5u870

note: you have to re-type the last two lines every time you upgrade your kernel via the Software Update in order to install the latest r5u870 module into the correct kernel folder.

7. Synaptics Touchpad

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the touchpad is fully supported.

Update: With Ubuntu Linux Hardy it may happen that during a work session the touchpad loses the vertical scroll functionality. It then freezes for a few seconds more and more often until you get locked out from both touchpad and keyboard. This appears to be a problem related to the touchpad communication protocol which is mistakenly set to ‘experimental’.

A workaround that has gained some positive feedback is editing xorg.conf

gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

go to

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”

and ensure in this line you have only “auto” and not “auto-dev”
Option “Protocol” “auto”

save and restart Xserver (or simply reboot).

For some advanced tweaking options install GSynaptics (or KSynaptics if you use KDE) through Synaptic Package Manager

Note: since Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 also gnome applet in System>Preferences>Mouse has basic touchpad configuration options.

If you decided to use G/Ksynaptics edit xorg.conf to enable Touchpad app to use touchpad.

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Scroll down to the “Synaptic Touchpad” section and add the following line:

Option “SHMConfig” “true”
Save xorg.conf

Xserver must be restarted for this to take effect. You can do this by logging out and in again.

8. Media Card Reader

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the media card reader support is limited to: SD (Secure Digital), MMC (Multi Media Card)

It’s a Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter

I tested only SD and MMC cards. Please send feedback for the other types of media (MS, MS Pro, and XD cards)

Support for MS (Sony MemoryStick) cards has been added with 2.6.25 kernel (maybe Ubuntu Hardy 8.04.1 ?).

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=baf8532a147d5b76681ce040e2c8f25a3f0e718d

author     Alex Dubov <oakad@yahoo.com>
Sat, 9 Feb 2008 18:20:54 +0000 (10:20 -0800)
committer     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@woody.linux-foundation.org>
Sat, 9 Feb 2008 19:08:34 +0000 (11:08 -0800)
memstick: initial commit for Sony MemoryStick support

Sony MemoryStick cards are used in many products manufactured by Sony.
They are available both as storage and as IO expansion cards.  Currently,
only MemoryStick Pro storage cards are supported via TI FlashMedia
MemoryStick interface.

9. VGA & HDMI Outputs

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the video outputs are fully supported using the restricted drivers (nvidia for nVidia cards, fglrx for AMD ATi cards).

Does not work with the 2D nv driver when the xserver is running

Screen is cloned by default.

NOTE: Use nvidia-settings (run it via ALT+F2) to configure resolution and refresh rate as the Screen Resolution app does not correctly detect refresh rates.

I do not have any HDMI enabled TV (nor are keen to spend 85€ for buying the HDMI 5m. cable).
However some people reported it to work partially: video only is available.
Further investigation is being carried out. (thanks EXCiD3)

10. Remote Control

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the remote control is fully supported.

This works out of the box, even without installing any infrared support (since HP Pavilion series do not actually have a IR communication port, it is just a receiver)

To configure the buttons have a look at paragraph 20 (Touch Sensible Buttons)

11. Firewire

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the firewire is fully supported.

12. Battery Calibration

HP recommends battery calibration every three months. This means disabling low power shutdown and allowing the computer to discharge the battery to 0% charge.
To do this, change your Power Management setting “When battery power is critically low:” to “Do Nothing”.

13. Laptop Mode (Energy Saving)

Check my post concerning Linux Laptop Power Saving Tweaks for HP Pavilion laptops

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 several new power saving features have been implemented, so that power consumption can be furtherly reduced (in my case till 13 watts / ~3hours with typing browsing and 8.5 watts idle).

Update: Firmware F.2A has been reported to fix cpu-freq related problems on INTEL dv2000 series (incl. dv2765tx) download here

What follows only concerns laptop-mode enabling and powertop tool.

Note: with current version of laptop-mode this feature is not enabled when you switch from AC to battery. However following this guide you would be able to have it automatically run each time you work with battery.

To manually activate laptop-mode type:
sudo laptop_mode start
however this will only last until next reboot.

Laptop mode is disabled by default in Ubuntu. To enable it open terminal shell and type:

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

At the bottom of the file, there is ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE variable, set this to true. A restart is required to enable this setting.
Read through this file to see some of the other options.
Ensure you have laptop-mode installed:
laptop-mode
laptop-mode-tools
laptop-detect
Linux can use different power management profiles called “governors.” By default, Ubuntu does not allow you to change which governor it uses, however you can enable the option with one command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

After that, make sure you have the “CPU Frequency Monitor” applet running in your Gnome panel. Right click on the applet and go to the Preferences. Under “Frequency Selector” section, make sure the “Show menu” is selected on “Frequencies and Governors.”

Then you can left click on the applet and from here, choose which governors or frequencies to use.
You can change this via the command line without having to enable anything. Just go to /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ (if you have multiple processors/cores/hyperthreading change cpu0 to cpu1, cpu2, etc. for each cpu you have listed) and edit the file (use sudo) “scaling_governor”, just change the governor that is listed to whatever governor you want to use. Available governors are listed in “scaling_avail_governors”

man laptop-mode.conf

and edit /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

Note: consider installing also powertop which could easily help you reducing energy consumption by analyzing actual energy wasts and give you useful tips on how to save.

sudo apt-get install powertop

14. Suspend/Hibernate

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 suspension and hibernation are fully supported.

On Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 hibernation is fully supported, suspend (aka stadby) is only partially supported (the second time the laptop is suspended freezes on resume).

In Gutsy malfunction causes are related to compiz (to figure out do a simple test: disable compiz before entering standby and you should be perfectly able to resume)
then install via apt-get CompizConfig
go in General Options -> Display Settings

and disable Sync to VBlank

if resume from standby still gives you a black empty screen with only the cursor then edit the following file:

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

go to POST_VIDEO=
and set it POST_VIDEO=false

in the same file nVidia suggests to disable use of VBE to restore power states for improved stability on resume:

• Some distributions use a tool called vbetool to save and restore VGA adapter state. This tool is incompatible with NVIDIA GPUs’ Video BIOSes and is likely to lead to problems restoring the GPU and its state. Disabling calls to this tool in your distribution’s init scripts may improve power management reliability.
  http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/169.07/README/chapter-18.html

In order to accomplish with these suggestions make sure this line shows as follows:

# Should we save and restore state using the VESA BIOS Extensions?
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false

By the way I myself have found no problems in keeping SAVE_VBE_STATE true and actually it seems to be also a workaround for some resume problems.

no need for other options

15. Lightscribe

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 lightscribe feature is fully supported via clsed source drivers available at Lightscribe website.

Although Lightscribe packages are provided directly from the Lightscribe website www.lightscribe.com also LaCie www.lacie.com provides a fairly good lightscribe printing program compatible with K3B.

Despite being developed only for x86 32bit versions of Ubuntu user rac managed to install these also on 64bit Ubuntu via 32bit compatibility libraries. Here is how:

Install fakeroot alongwith 32bit compatibility libraries:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs fakeroot alien

then convert the RPMs you have downloaded from LaCie into debs

 fakeroot alien lightscribe-X.X.X.X.tgz

fakeroot alien 4L-X.X.tgz

then install this software

 sudo dpkg -i lightscribe_X.X.X.X-2_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i 4l_X.X-2_all.deb

finally you can load this program for testing via

4L-cli enumerate

the graphical user interface via

4l-gui

For what concerns labels you can find hundreds of amazing lablels on lightscribe.com website, however if you want to customize them or create your own label user reiki has created a template for use with inkscape program. http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3923862&postcount=203

You can also read the original post by rac in German language here.

16. Audio Subsystem

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the audio subsystem is fully supported.
On Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 the audio subsystem is not natively supported. Support is provided via backports kernel modules.

Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10, unfortunately, has no native support for Intel Santa Rosa ICH8 platform audio chipset (alsa version 1.0.14) however this is provided via the backports modules.

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules

Reboot to have changes make effect.

If, for any reason, you have decided to mess with bleeding edge unstable development drivers remember after each kernel upgrade to remove ubuntu snd-hda-intel module (which is only for older ICH chipsets).

sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/media/snd-hda-intel/snd-hda-intel.ko /tmp

Ubuntu Wiki has a well done wiki concerning this issue: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

17. Fingerprint Reader

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 biometrics are fully supported (logging in with fingerprint included).

There could be a better support for linux, however since linux is a conceptually secure operative system it do not pay much credit to biometry by default.

Note: please note that biometric login could be far less secure than a good password, fingerprints are far than unique and eaily reproducible! Also have a look at this news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4396831.stm

By the way if you really want to show off your laptop features with your friends and want to enable fingerprint authentication for login and subsequent sudo superuser requests you can follow this procedure that will enable biometrics on HP Pavilion laptops equipped with Authentec 2501 fingerprint sensor.

1) UPDATE: since now fprint project has been ported to official Ubuntu Hardy-backports repository you can skip this first step and jump to 2) after having enabled backport repository in your software sources applet under System-Administration menu.

in gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following repository line at the bottom

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/madman2k/ubuntu hardy main restricted universe multiverse

2) update your repositories and install the following packages (aes2501-wy is the driver, fprint-demo a simple fingerpints management program, libpam-fprint is the PAM authentication module fingerprint support plugin):

gksu apt-get update

gksu apt-get install aes2501-wy fprint-demo libfprint0 libpam-fprint

3) edit /etc/pam.d/common-auth

gksu gedit /etc/pam.d/common-auth

and add this line

auth sufficient pam_fprint.so

4) launch fprint-demo (e.g. ALT+F2 and write down fprint-demo) and register the finger print you are going to use for authentication. That’s all.

Please note that not all login themes support the fingerprint dialog, however in any case simply select or type in your username and scroll the finger on the sensor to log in.

take a look also at these pages:

http://reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_the_fingerprint_reader

http://wiki.debian.org/FingerForce

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FingerprintAuthentication

18. Thermal sensors

a) CPU and Hard Disk thermal monitoring

apt-get install lm-sensors hddtemp sensors-applet

then add (rightclicking on a status bar) and configure the gnome applet to show the temperatures

b) GPU (graphic card)

sensors applet supprots by default temperature monitoring for nvidia chipsets, however you should compile it with the support enabled (this is not the case of the package currently available form ubuntu official repositories)

I have packaged the latest version with gpu support which you can download from here. However I do not guarantee that it will actually work also on your system. You’d rather compile it by yourself. (I posted an how-to here)

19. Internal Modem

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the modem is not supported (at least for most it does not work).
On Ubuntu Linux Gutsy 7.10 the modem is not supported.

Internal modem is a winmodem by Motorola model SM56 Si3054. Being a softmodem much of the work is delegated to the audio drivers. Recent ALSA drivers do support this modem, however their support is somehow lacking and not perfect at all. You can give them a try though.

First of all ensure you have the above mentioned version and model. You may usue scanModem tool from http://www.linmodems.org/.

Here are some instructions that may get it working:

cd /tmp

wget http://132.68.73.235/linmodems/packages/scanModem.gz

gzip -d scanModem.gz

chmod 777 scanModem

./scanModem

grep 3054 Modem/ModemData.txt

If you get the following info (or similar) you actually have 3054 device

0000:03:0d.0 1057:3052 1057:3020 Modem: Motorola: Unknown device 3054 Class 0703: 1057:3054 Modem: Motorola: Unknown device 3054 Primary PCI_id 1057:305

If not, read carefully the ModemData.txt file to get more help on how to setup your winmodem.

To the Si3054 or Si3052 Motorola modem owners: let’s install the smarlink driver.

Despite what stated on the old documentation this modem is now supported both on 64bit and 32bit flavours of Ubuntu Linux. What you need to have it run is just install sl-modem-daemon packet via package manager (along with 32bit emulation libraries linux32 if you have Ubuntu Linux x64) and simply running this command

slmodemd -country=ITALY --alsa hw:0,6

makes the modem wake up and run. You should only deactivate CARRIER sensing; from the minicom (for testing) just issue an ATX0 before the dial command.

User Max has kindly provided us with a tweaked version of sl-modem-daemon packet specifically conceived right for Si3054 Motorola modem which si provided on the vast majority of HP Pavilion DV laptops. You can download and install this package via GDebi from here.

—– follows old documentation for reference only —–

Get the tools necessary to build the drivers

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential
Download the latest ungrab-winmodem and slmodem drivers from
http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/smartlink

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto

then patch it with the simple patch found at Hell Labs
http://helllabs.org/blog/20070710/slmodem-period-size-48-not-supported/

As of the slmodem-2.9.11-20070813 tarball, this patch is still necessary.
Compile slmodem with make SUPPORT_ALSA=1.
WvDial needs the Carrier Check = no line for it to work, but other chatscripts work.
Config modem country.

Use AT+GCI=<T.35 country code> command to setup country.

Also you can setup default modem country by passing command line
parameter ‘–country=MY_COUNTRY’ to program ’slmodemd’.

See output of ’slmodemd –countrylist’ for a list of supported
country names and T.35 country codes (see also ’slmodemd –help’).

Note: Command ATI7 shows currently installed country setting.

slmodemd –country USA –alsa hw:0,6
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
error: period size 48 is not supported by playback (64).
Untar them
tar xzf slmodem-2.9.11-20070505.tar.gz
tar xzf ungrab-winmodem-20070505.tar.gz

Build and install
cd /tmp/slmodem-2.9.11-20070505/drivers/
make
sudo make install
cd /tmp/ungrab-winmodem-20070505/
make
sudo make install
Load the modules

sudo modprobe ungrab-winmodem
sudo modprobe slamr

Edit your /etc/modules:
sudo gedit /etc/modules
and add the following lines (in the same order) at the tail of the file:
ungrab-winmodem
slamr

Install the sl daemon:
sudo apt-get install sl-modem-daemon

And start it:
sudo /etc/init.d/sl-modem-daemon start

That’s all. You must have now a /dev/ttySL0 device as your modem

Note: you have to reinstall ungrab-winmodem and slamr each time you upgrade your kernel

20. Touch sensible buttons

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the touch sensible buttons are fully supported.

The touch sensible buttons over the keyboard come already configured in someway, however not all buttons have a function assigned and you may want to change their assignment.

This can be done in an easy way via a gnome applet: in System > Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

For advanced tweaking (e.g. assigning the QuickPlay button to Elisa Media Center) please have a look at my tutorial here: http://aldeby.org/blog/?p=144

For non Gnome applications such as Amarok and Audacious a few more steps have to be carried out.

Amarok: in Tools menu select Script Manager, then Get More Scripts, in the new window scroll down to the one named “Gnome Multimedia Keys” and click to Install button.
Audacious: right-click on the interface and select Preferences from the contextual menu. Then go to plugins section, general tab and tick the plugin named “Gnome Shortcuts“. Note: you should have to have those two additional packages installed:
sudo apt-get install audacious-plugins
sudo apt-get install audacious-plugins-extra

21. Ethernet port

ethernet port works, however it does not work as expected at 1 Gigabit speed, but only as a legacy card at 10/100Mbit. As far as I understood it is not an Ubuntu Linux faulty (also Windows does not manage to get 1000mbit ack nor transfers) but instead an HP fault. It advertises for a feature that is not actually present!! What a shame!

see also here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=550804
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2625646

If you own a laptop such as dv6575us and decide to take action against HP for this issue please drop me a comment.

Update: I figured out that other than being just a standard Fast Ethernet port it also suffers from poor performance under Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 and previous due to buggish r8169 driver. With this driver installed only ~ 15Mbit speeds can be achieve, while with official r8101 driver you can easily reach ~90Mbit speeds.

You have to manually remove (or blacklist) the above mentioned driver
sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/drivers/net/r8169.ko /tmp
(to blacklist r8169 driver edit file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add line r8169

then download r8101 driver from here: ftp://202.65.194.212/cn/nic/r8101-1.005.00.tar.bz2
and as usual do make and sudo make install

22.Bluetooth

Several people have complained about bluetooth module not working properly, and preventing Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 from booting on some hardware configurations and BIOS versions.

In order to fix this issue and manage to boot Ubuntu Gutsy on such hardware 2 solutions have been suggested.

NB: unfortunately HP did not provide me with any bluetooth module, these solutions are not tested by me.

1st solution tested on DV6749el by Straps

consists in blacklisting the uvcvideo driver (it’s the webcam driver)

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

write inside

blacklist uvcvideo

save and reboot

2nd solution tested on DV6558ea by Philip

consists in disabling the bluetooth boot up

sudo nano /etc/init.d/bluetooth

enter an exit 0; in a new line after the #!/bin/bash at the top of the file

save and reboot

Here you can find his more comprehensive guide and screenshots 

23.HDMI Out

I do not have any HDMI enabled TV (nor are keen to spend 85€ for buying the HDMI 5m. cable).
However some people reported it to work partially: video only is available.
Further investigation is being carried out. (thanks EXCiD3)

Not tested yet:

24. TV Tuner

New v4l-dvb drivers have been released with support for this card’s chispet (Conexant cx23885 ) here: http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/archive/tip.tar.bz2

Note1: to get linux recognise the video card you must have it inserted into the express card slot at boot time. Unofrtunately it is actually not plung&play. At least so far.

Note2: v4l-dvb breaks webcam support, to bring it back working you have either to uninstall these drivers or recompile gspca driver (howto will follow)

25. SVideo Out

==========================================
If you find out some other ways to make those things work or work better i would really appreciate if you could drop me a comment (no need to register for it)
Hope this tutorial helps to ease the job of switching from Windows Vi$ta http://badvista.org to an Ubuntu GNU/LINUX free laptop