QUESTA GUIDA E’ DISPONIBILE ANCHE IN ITALIANO (aggiornata di rado)

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.

As recommended by Ajnaeye this line is just to make clear that almost almost all features of HP Pavilion DV2000 DV6000 and DV9000 series are fully supported by newest Ubuntu: Installation and configuration of Ubuntu on HP Pavilion dv6000 was easier and much faster then installation of Windows Vista!

Please drop me a line with your laptop model if this guide helped you!
(if you still have issues please send output file of sudo lshw >lshw)

Changelog:
2009 05 19 - fixed resume from suspend/standby issues in Pavilion DV4 DV5 and DV7 models (thanks Enrico)
2009 05 19 - internal microphone support for Pavilion DV4 DV5 and DV7 models (thanks Enrico)
2009 05 12 - updated fingerprint authentication schema either/or
2009 03 28 - added script to automatically update alsa audio drivers to latest stable version to support recent laptops audio subsystem
2009 03 28 - added support for Feiya Technology webcams
2009 03 27 - updated wireless section to support Atheros and better support Broadcom wireless cards
2009 03 25 - updated to Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04
2009 03 07 - further suspend debugging
2009 01 18 - Added details on supposed hard disk wear out fears.
2009 01 17 - Updated S-Video support for Intel video cards (thanks ErikK)
2009 01  14 - HDMI support updated (thanks Giorgio)
2008 10 26 - upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
2008 09 01 - added multiple authentication schemas for fingerprint authentication
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) 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, S-Video & HDMI Outputs
10. Remote Control
11. Firewire
12. Battery Recalibration
13. 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
24. Hard Disk

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.

64-bit version of Ubuntu

• maximise CPU performance. All Pavilion CPUs support x86_64 instructions.
• maximise RAM memory management. This is particularly useful for virtualization.
• maximise addressable memory space >4Gb
• some third party closed source proprietary drivers do not have any 64bit support
• some devices have unstable support, including internal modem (check paragraph for details)

32-bit version of Ubuntu

• maximise software and drivers compatibility. Every program is compiled at least for x86_32.
  Workarounds exist that allow these programs to run on 64-bit operating systems, but they require tweaks to be setup.
• maximise memory space (since shorter addresses need less memory - generally speaking 64bit is better for those who have big amounts of RAM, however it is worse for those who have small amounts of RAM (<1Gb)
• cannot use more than 4Gb RAM space

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

Some users advised against burning with Windows integrated burning utility since it prevents the bootable flag. Instead use a third party burning program. Any other burning program should work, however I suggest using Free Open Source Infra Recorder. Further burning tips available here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

2.Boot into Ubuntu Linux CD

Choosing between 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 if boot hangs or fails, Ubuntu 7.10 onwards should however 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 Jaunty 9.04 the video subsystem is fully supported.

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the video subsystem is fully supported with 3D drivers version 173. However the latest drivers version 177 have some issues during suspend/shutdown (screen getting corrupted and speakers beeping aloud).

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  System -> Administration menu -> Hardware Drivers.

With nvidia drivers, compiz desktop effects enabled and OpenOffice Writer Hardware Accelleration enabled you may experience redraw / refresh problems when editing and scrolling your documents. There is a workaround explanined here.

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 System -> Administration menu -> Hardware Drivers.

ENVY install script

You do not have to use Envy script. Latest official drivers are generally available through the update manager in a week or two from their public release date.

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 video driver.

During installation it will ask you if you would like it to configure xorg.conf for you. Choose ‘Yes’. Reboot.

If you want to use Envy on Jaunty you will only have to follow these steps:

type:

sudo nano -w /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Envy/classes.py (location seems to be changed with recent versions of Envy)

search for cassandra (through CTRL+W in pico or nano editor or CTRL+F in gedit) 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'] == ‘jaunty’:#SUPPORT FOR LINUX MINT CASSANDRA

Save and exit.

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.

—————

When using the drivers downloaded from nVidia website in order to remove the nvidia splash when X starts add option NoLogo in the graphics card section of xorg.conf

Section “Device”

Option “NoLogo” “true”

add also this in order to enable power saving features

Option “OnDemandVBlankInterrupts” “true”

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 Wireless

A) Intel Wireless (3945ABG, 4965ABGN)

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 the wireless subsystem is supported (all ABGN modes).

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the wireless subsystem is supported. However I strongly suggest to install the backport modules which fix a severe bug with N mode which may lead to a kernel panic (system crash).

Drivers are now slipstremed into the Linux kernel (since 2.6.24). Developers site: http://intellinuxwireless.org

To install the linux backports modules open a terminal and type

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

or for intrepid

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid

Note for Ubuntu Hardy 8.04:

with an Intel PRO/Wireless adapters some users have noticed, that after killing the wireless adapter with the kill switch or resume from standby/suspension, it won’t come up again, when I re-enable it. Until a reboot. However, reloading the iwlagn kernel module (the wireless adapter driver), it works again! To achieve this either untick and tick again the ‘enable wireless’ on the right-click menu of network-manager or use this command. (thanks Nicolas!)

sudo modprobe -r iwlagn && sudo modprobe iwlagn

B) Broadcom wireless

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 Broadcom wireless drivers are supported through System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers

With previous Ubuntu versions there was no native support, they worked through two workarounds: ndiswrapper and b43-fwcutter. Nowadays b43 driver has merged into linuxwireless.org project and you should first try simply installing kernel backports, then manually installing modules form latest linuxwireless stable package.

Further reading about supported devices here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

Blacklist your existing not working drivers by editing blacklist file and inserting the affecting modules names

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

append to the file:

blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b43

I strongly suggest at first to try installing the backport modules since many drivers are often backported to stable OS versions:

sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

or

sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-intrepid

you need to reboot before being able to test your device.

If those drivers haven’t been backported yet you have to download and manually install b43 drivers.

Download latest stable drivers and install them:

wget http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2
sudo tar -jxvf compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2
cd compat-wireless-[DRIVERS DATE]
make
sudo make install
sudo make unload
sudo make load

Remember you also need the firmware for your device to work.

This provided with package linux-firmware

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware

however if your device still doesn’t work (since the required firmware is not shipped in this package yet) you may follow these steps in order to download and load it:

Use version 011 of b43-fwcutter.
Download, extract the b43-fwcutter tarball and build it:

wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
cd b43-fwcutter-011
make
cd ..

Use version 4.150.10.5 of Broadcom’s proprietary driver.
Download and extract the firmware from this driver tarball:

export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" wl_apsta_mimo.o

Reboot your computer.

If you have internet access install b43-fwcutter

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

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 folder bcm4328 in your home directory.

Locate into bcm4328 folder file bcmwl5.sys and do

sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcm4328/bcmwl5.sys
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/`uname -r` bcm4328/bcmwl5.sys

reboot

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!

Jlandaw has written a comprehensive guide on this issue here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4808350 also worth reading is http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185174

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 series with model numbers between dv60xx and dv63xx; between dv90xx and dv93xx; Compaq Presario  series between V60xx and V63xx, 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.

C) Atheros wireless

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
and others

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 Atheros wireless drivers are supported through System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers.

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 and Hardy 7.04 this wireless card is not supported, to make latest Atheros wireless cards work in Ubuntu linux:

Blacklist your existing not working drivers by editing blacklist file and inserting the affecting modules names

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

append to the file:

blacklist ath_pci
blacklist ath_hal

I strongly suggest at first to try installing the backport modules since many drivers are often backported to stable OS versions:

sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

or

sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-intrepid

you need to reboot before being able to test your device.

If those drivers haven’t been backported yet you have to download and manually install madwifi drivers.

Download latest stable drivers and install them:

wget http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2
sudo tar -jxvf compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2
cd compat-wireless-[DRIVERS DATE]
make
sudo make install
sudo make unload
sudo make load

Reboot your computer.

6. Webcam

HP Pavilion DV laptops come with several webcams flavors (use lsusb command to locate yours). For a broader support of USB webcams you may also try installing luvcview:

sudo apt-get install luvcview
sudo modprobe uvcvideo

A) 04f2:b015 Chicony Electronics Co. is fully supported 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
sudo modprobe uvcvideo
luvcview -d /dev/video0 -f yuv -s 640x480

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!

B) 05ca:1810 Ricoh Co., 05ca:1870 Ricoh Co., 05ca:1812 Ricoh Co. (in progress), are featured in various models, including some Pavilion DV9000 series and Pavilion DV6502AU, dv6253cl. These are supported. As always I suggest to install luvcview to ensure maximum webcam compatibility.

For Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 this is supported via an external module.

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 won’t cover the first method since 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
modprobe r5u870

C) 064e:a110 Suyin Corp.

This webcam works out of the box with Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04

D) 090c:c371 Feiya Technology Corp.

This webcam works with luvcview

To install luvcview:

sudo apt-get install luvcview
sudo modprobe uvcvideo

7. Synaptics Touchpad

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 and Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 the touchpad is fully supported.

No more freezing, no more need to edit xorg.conf file.

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the touchpad is supported, however some issues may be randomly present: 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. 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"

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Synaptics Touchpad"
    Driver         "synaptics"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
    Option         "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

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 Jaunty 9.10 the media card reader is fully supported: SD (Secure Digital), MMC (Multi Media Card) and MS (Sony MemoryStick).

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the media card reader is fully supported: SD (Secure Digital), MMC (Multi Media Card) and MS (Sony MemoryStick).

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

Modules governing this device are:

ricoh_mmc
mmc_block
sdhci_pci
sdhci

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.

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

9. VGA, S-Video & HDMI Outputs

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04, Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 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.

To manage the second external screen/projector:

• gnome-display-properties (System -> Preferences -> Display) has been completely reworked with Gnome 2.26 and is much more handy and capable. Only works with OpenSource drivers, otherwise will suggest to use the restricted drivers tool.
• nvidia-settings (System -> Administration -> NVIDIA X Server Settings) to configure resolution, refresh rate and display mode (cloned, extended, etc.)

HDMI video works perfectly with nvidia settings and nvidia-glx-180.22 drivers installed from ubuntu jaunty 9.04 repositories. Previously audio did not work.

Note: Some users still have difficulty in having audio work, if anybody comes along with a reliable fix please drop a line! Unfortunately I do not have any hdmi enabled video device.

User Giorgio advised to add three lines in xorg.conf in order to workaround X not starting any more

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
EndSection

S-Video is fully supported by nVidia 3D restricted drivers (nvidia) and AMD ATi ones.

Intel newest drivers also fully enable S-video support (see comment).

Contrast problems can be fixed with xcalib

xcalib -contrast 55 -alter

You can download the latest drivers from

http://intellinuxgraphics.org/download.html

10. Remote Control

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 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 Jaunty 9.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the firewire is fully supported.

12. Battery

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”.

For batteries storage is advisable to leave them in a fresh and clean environment with a charge ~50%. For longer life you should not sotck your batteries full 100% or empty <1% in charge

13. Energy Saving

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

From Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 onwards (including Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 and Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04) several new power saving features have been implemented, so that power consumption can be furtherly reduced (in my case till 13 watts / ~3hours while typing and browsing (no flash content) and minimum of 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

From Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 upwards you do not have to worry for your hard disk Load_Cycles any more.

If you have read websites warning for hard disk wear out due to linux, please simply regard them as deceiving FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt, an unfair marketing strategy). Even before Ubuntu 8.10 this was not true for default install of the OS, only unwise user tweaks may trigger too often hard disk shock protection features and eventually wear it out.

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-tools installed:

sudo apt-get install 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

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 Jaunty 9.04 suspension and hibernation are fully supported with nvidia 3D driver version 180 and nv 2D driver.

With recent HP Pavilion DV4 DV5 and DV7 models resuming from  suspend / standby generally fails (among others dv4-1050). This is a BIOS bug which is (at least partially) fixed in latest BIOS version F34A released on 2009 05 05. You can download it from here.

Please check if your model is supported before installing this update! You could find your BIOS update on HP support website.

Bug reference: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12276

Notice, however, with Ubuntu Jaunty you can face your computer failing to both suspend and hibernate if you have applied a pre-Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 fix for excessive hard disk load cycles (this is not necessary any more starting from Intrepid 8.10).

If you experience this misbehaviour have a look at log file /var/log/pm-suspend.log  for a line stating

“/etc/pm/config.d/disk: No such file or directory”.

If you find it you have to delete the script in folder /etc/pm/sleep.d referring to the file in /etc/pm/config.d/disk.

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 suspension and hibernation are fully supported with nvidia driver version 180. However the latest nvidia version 177 3D drivers cause graphical and sound issues during the suspend/shutdown phase. With the 2D nv drivers the system cannot resume from suspend.

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 suspension and hibernation are fully supported and both work as expected.

If you have issues please refer to Ubuntu kernel team wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/SuspendResumeTesting

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.

15. Lightscribe

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04, Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 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 Jaunty 9.04, Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the audio subsystem is mostly supported (multichannel autoconfiguration support is due in Ubuntu 9.10)

NOTE: In order to enable the internal microphone in recent models series HP Pavilion DV4, HP Pavilion DV5 and HP Pavilion DV7 you need to add an argument to the main configuration file [thanks to Enrico!].

Open in an editor file alsa-base.conf

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

add at the bottom line (ensure there are no other lines starting with ‘optios snd-hda-intel’ in they are delete them)

options snd-hda-intel model=hp-dv5 enable_msi=1

This way you would gain access to the mixer ‘digital input’ section which would enable you to use the notebook internal microphone. Remember to reboot to make these changes effective!

Bug reference: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12440

Very recent models may have a few issues with microphone and multichannel audio. They can try out latest pulseaudio 0.9.15 (for autoconfiguration issues) and latest alsa 1.0.18 (for multichannel and microphone support).

PULSEAUDIO

To install the updated deb packages by hand download it from http://ppa.launchpad.net/themuso/ppa/ubuntu/pool/main/p/pulseaudio/ and double click on the downloaded .deb file. Done it!

If you instead want to have it automatically updated at every new release all you have to do is adding its repository as a third party software source in System -> Administration -> Software Sources -> Third Party Software: click on ADD button and paste

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/themuso/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

You also have to add the PPA authentication key:

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv B88A1AA8
gpg --export --armor B88A1AA8 | sudo apt-key add -

Update the package lists and upgrade the prompted packages

ALSA

If you have decided to try the latest drivers you can use the Bob Nelson script which I have further tweaked in order to prompt you with a choice among few most common modes to try out (download it from here).

Beware that these drivers, despite being stable, do not have any Ubuntu specific patch.

This script supports the following chipsets:

Intel HD Audio ICH6, ICH6M, ESB2, ICH7, ICH8, ICH9, ICH10, PCH, SCH
ATI SB450, SB600, R600, RS600, RS690, RS780, RV610, RV620, RV630, RV635, RV670, RV770
VIA VT8251/VT8237A,
SIS966, ULI M5461

After downloading it you need to change the permission of the script and make it executable, in a terminal type:

chmod 755 alsa_setup

This command assumes you downloaded the script in your home folder.

What this script does is:

- Download the ALSA modules

- Compile the modules

- Enables you to test different module options to see which one best suits you [new]

- Enables you to test the driver with different configurations [new]

- Enables you to undo the changes in case you’ve done the wrong mode choice [new]

- Change your  /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file

- Remove the installer files

To run the script type in terminal window

sudo ./alsa_setup

to see what is your audio CODEC go to System->Preferences->Sound and simply click on any drop down menu to read the code next to HDA Intel (i.e. ALC800)

now confront what mode better suits your specific CODEC by having a look at file

alsa-driver-1.0.19/alsa-kernel/Documentation/HD-Audio-Models.txt

If you need to add a mode not listed in the provided script type in terminal (where auto should be replaced with the correct codec mode)

sudo echo "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Users of recent models (eg. dv4-1117) also benefited from enabling Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI)

sudo echo "options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

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

17. Fingerprint Reader

On Ubuntu Linux Jaunty 9.04 biometrics are supported (login, administrative tasks authentication) thanks to new fprintd support: http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.26/#rnusers.aboutme

Fprintd needs, however, to be manually installed. See: http://reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Fprintd

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 biometrics are supported (only login).

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

Known devices:

08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor - has good support from driver aes2501-wy ( sudo apt-get install aes2501-wy ). This is the standard fingerprinting device in most Pavilion dv2000 dv4000 and dv9000 laptops

138a:0001 DigitalPersona, Inc Fingeprint Reader (which is actually a Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS10) has currently no support. This is the standard fingerprinting device in most Pavilion hp-dv5 and hp-dv7. You can check the developmente status up at: http://www.reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Unsupported_devices#Validity_VFS101

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) With Ubuntu Intrepid 9.04 skip to step 2). With Ubuntu Hardy-backports you first have to enable backport repository in your software sources applet under System-Administration menu.

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) NOTE: if you mess around with those files you can always restore the previous state by selecting ‘Recovery mode’ at the boot menu and then ‘Root console’. There you can go back to the following file and edit them back (or simply comment out the pam_fprint.so line with a # mark)

edit /etc/pam.d/common-auth

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

and add either:

1) if you want to use both the password and the fingerprint to authenticate (more secure) add at the bottom:

auth required pam_fprint.so

2) if you want to use either the fingerprint or the password to authenticate (i.e. completely bypass the password through the fingerprint) the following string must be placed at the top of the file (in any case before auth    [success=1 default=ignore]      pam_unix.so nullok_secure) (thanks lovesane!)

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 Jaunty 9.04 the modem has a partial support through System -> Administration -> Hardware drivers.

On Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 the modem is not supported.

On Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 the modem is not supported.

HP Pavilion laptops come with several modem models, they are all softmodems with poor support for linux.

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 Jaunty 9.04 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10 touch sensible buttons are fully supported, however some models have some buttons not working, among which mostly DVD and QuickMedia ones. If this is your case please refer to: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Hotkeys/Troubleshooting

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.

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

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. 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)

24.Hard Disk

There has been much speculation over a supposed linux/Ubuntu bug that will wear out hard disks prematurely.

Developers have found a viable solution for this problem starting from Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10.

I can’t speak of it as a bug since it is actually not. The reduced hard disk life affected only 2,5″ hard drives (laptop ones) and was due to a non standardized shock protection feature they have built in. Linux with laptop-mode-tools enabled did not provide any tweak for it and certain hard drives were triggering this shock protection too often, hence shortening their lives.

In case you are still skeptical over your hard disk health here is how you can monitor its life parameters:

1) install smartmontools

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

2) edit /etc/smartd.conf file. gksu gedit /etc/smartd.conf

It’s as simple as uncommenting the line best fits to you.

I personally have set this line /dev/sda -a -d sat -n standby with all others commented out with a dash (#).

3) enable smartd so that the hard disk will be periodically checked (Hardware Montor - smartmontools) in System -> Administration -> Services

4) you can manually monitor your hard disk health by issuing in the terminal this command sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda the field that link was referring to is Load_Cycle_Count.

The fifth column should be 200 (but the value may vary according to the disk manufacturer)  for a brand new disk and decrease proportionally to the wearing out of the disk. The last column actually shows the raw data. Generally speaking most laptop disks are guaranteed for up to 600.000 cycles. A laptop hard disk is supposed to reach 600.000 cycles during the 5th year of its life.

This is how mine shows up:

9 Power_On_Hours          0×0032   096   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       3565
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0×0032   197   197   000    Old_age   Always       -       10079

with an average of one cycle every 21 minutes (these actually take place  more often while on battery and much more seldom when on AC)

Please keep in mind two points:

a) this is a FEATURE not a bug. It has to increase and it SHOULD increase with a higher pace when you are using battery power. It better protects your data form damage resulting from shocks and lowers the hard disk power consumption.

b) if you manually disable it tout cour you have to always keep an eye on the hard disk temperature (with package hddtemp) since it may substantially increase and, as a consequence, the disk will wear out soon as well!

It should NEVER stay for a long time over 55 C degrees (however some hard disk have as a maximum working temperature 50C some others 60C, you should search for your own specifications).

For instance I am personally seeing such a wearing out problem also in a Windows XP laptop of a friend of mine. That has already totaled 280.000 cycles over 18 months life! And what’s worse there is no way to manually tweak that feature in Windows!!

==========================================

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 to an Ubuntu GNU/LINUX free laptop!

|  Print This Page |  Email This Page