311 Responses to “HowTo: Ubuntu Linux on HP Pavilion series laptops”

1. Uwe says:

   23 February 2010 at 19:13

   Thank you very much, Aldeby, for this great collection of tips! I found it after solving almost all problems in 9.04 and wished that I had found your site much earlier.

   One hint for the suspend/hibernate chapter: I run a dv9500 with the most recent BIOS, but after a clean install of 9.10, the machine hung while trying to hibernate. There are two more solutions to this topic, one is to use the package “uswsusp” instead of the default pm-utils. The other is to list modules (mostly wifi) to unload before suspending or hibernating. Google “SUSPEND_MODULES” or have a look here:

   http://www.ubuntugeek.com/fix-for-suspend-and-hibernation-problem-for-laptops.html

   Best regards,
   Uwe

   Reply
2. Makis says:

   24 March 2010 at 13:32

   i runed the script setup_alsa and it gets to a point where it says “Choose the mode which best fits you” but when i type my prefered number and i hit enter doesnt do anything.am i doing something wrong?

   Reply
   • aldeby says:

     16 April 2010 at 10:03

     Makis, why don’t you use an utility like meld to compare the original and your customized script to highlight all the differences (and eventually the mistakes)?

     Reply
3. Kyle says:

   20 April 2010 at 16:24

   In the audio section, sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic should be sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic.

   Reply
4. str8upx says:

   4 May 2010 at 18:06

   This site saved my 9.04 + 9.10 ubuntu installations on my HP dv 7 (3165dx) notebook. Thank you! I just did a clean install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and everything works perfectly: sound, front audio jacks, wireless card, web cam, etc. I hope this helps If your considering upgrading.

   Reply
   • CharlesdArvay says:

     9 May 2010 at 21:41

     I confirm my flawless upgrade to 10.04 from 9.10 – on the 6th of May 2010 – kra20kra!

     Thanks for this wonderful website that helped in the first place, when I doubted about buying this machine for Linux.

     So I guess HP should be thankful as well…

     Charlot

     Reply
     • aldeby says:

       15 May 2010 at 2:49

       I’m happy to read your feedback CharlesdArvay!

       By the way I haven’t heard a word from HP yet.
       They seem way too busy making profit to even bother understanding what the opensource approach is!

       Reply
5. Darren says:

   14 May 2010 at 16:14

   Thanks for your detailed site. I look forward to delving in to it. My initial task however is to install 10.04 Server on a Pavillion notebook using an external monitor as the LCD screen is not working. The external monitor initially shows the cdś loading progress and then the screen is completely black. When the off button is pressed the external monitor again details the shutting down process. Is there some way of seeing what is occurring through the whole process? Thanks for any help that can be offered.

   Reply
   • aldeby says:

     15 May 2010 at 2:44

     Hi Darren!
     As far as I recall the external monitor would switch off when the video driver takes control of the video card. As long as is the BIOS controlling both internal and external screens are enabled. You should then be able to enable the external screen from within the driver settings.
     But I guess your laptop has a broken screen…

     Basically I would suggest you to install the operative system in text only mode (so that you would benefit from the BIOS controller and be able to use the external monitor) and not forget to install SSH support so that you could access via network cable your install. Now it would be fairly easy to enable the external monitor by configuring your laptop driver ( /etc/X11/xorg.conf for instance).

     Reply
6. Scott says:

   30 May 2010 at 19:46

   Linux newbit who installed the newest version of Linux Ubuntu 10.04 on my HP Pavilion dv6000 Laptop. Both my wired and wireless connections do not work. Thank you for your help.

   Below is the output of sudo lshw -C network

   *-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   product: MCP67 Ethernet
   vendor: nVidia Corporation
   physical id: a
   bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
   logical name: eth0
   version: a2
   serial: 00:1b:24:8c:7b:fa
   size: 100MB/s
   capacity: 100MB/s
   width: 32 bits
   clock: 66MHz
   capabilities: pm msi ht bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
   configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=forcedeth driverversion=0.64 duplex=full latency=0 link=yes maxlatency=20 mingnt=1 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
   resources: irq:27 memory:f6488000-f6488fff ioport:30f8(size=8) memory:f6489c00-f6489cff memory:f6489800-f648980f
   *-network
   description: Network controller
   product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
   vendor: Broadcom Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   version: 02
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
   configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
   resources: irq:19 memory:f6000000-f6003fff
   *-network DISABLED
   description: Wireless interface
   physical id: 1
   logical name: wlan0
   serial: 00:1a:73:84:5e:66
   capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

   Reply
   • aldeby says:

     3 June 2010 at 9:52

     It seems your hardware is supported. Have you had a look at System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers to see whether your computer needs restricted drivers?

     By the way I find it suspicious to read: *-network DISABLED

     If you have installed the default packages and had not modified any file inside /etc by hand you should at least be able to connect via ethernet. Check right clicking on the Network Manager applet if you can tick Enable Networking.

     Reply
7. Anonymous says:

   12 June 2010 at 17:34

   [...] [...]

   Reply
8. Neva says:

   27 June 2010 at 2:21

   Broadcom also offers closed STA drivers for those chipsets that aren’t yet covered by the b43 driver. Their compiling instructions are pretty distro-inspesific, I found it easier to connect the laptop to a wired connection and install the same closed driver offered by Ubuntu.
   http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

   Reply
   • aldeby says:

     28 June 2010 at 9:19

     Thank you for sharing your suggestion Neva!
     I’ve added it to the tutorial. Have a nice day!

     Reply
9. Uwe says:

   22 August 2010 at 21:56

   Hi Aldeby, it’s me again.
   This time with an addition to 7. (Touchpad):
   Under 9.10 as well as 10.04 I had problems with the touchpad after disabling it with the touchpad’s “on/off”-button. Re-enabling did not work, although the button’s light changed from off to on. Restarting X or rebooting did not work, either.

   Cause: The gnome-settings-daemon interferes with the Synaptics touchpad driver and saves the “off” state forever.
   Remedy: Run “gconf-editor”, navigate to “apps”-”gnome-settings-daemon”-”keybindings” and change the value of “touchpad” to “” (empty string).

   Source: Ubuntu Bug #549727, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/+bug/549727/comments/103

   Best regards,
   Uwe

   Reply