Hp Pavilion dv4000 & GNU/Linux

[WDef]

This is an old thread in need of revival.

I've installed Fedora Core 4 (dual boot WinXP) on an HP Pavilion dv 4162EA, which is a member of the HP dv4000 family. It's been a bitch, I'd have to say.

Googling indicates the Debian/Ubuntu family is supposed to be a painless install on these laptops (same as Compaq Presario V4000 if you're looking), but for now I'm continuing with FC4. I've got graphics working in 1280x800 by applying a different HP laptop's xorg.conf, deleting some options that gave errors and writing a modeline by hand (using Vesa). Looks nice.

PROBLEM: Xine works but dvd's play very badly - jumpy etc.

QU: Shouldn't we be using i915 driver instead of VESA? Or is it the i810? Googling indicates that the i810 on FC4 will NOT WORK until a full yum update is done (what's that, a 500MB download?)

I've tried compiling the i915 and i810 from sources but only the 'common' package (GL libraries?) compiles.

[WDef]

PS: I will be happy to post a detailed install report, including my xorg.conf, some links and how I fixed various things (sound, boot failure, failure of kdm to start during boot). But the bugs are not fully worked out eg that Xine jumpiness.

Help from HP would be greatly appreciated.

[tyoung]

Jorge,
With regard to the jumpy DVD, have you tried running the xine-check program? It seems to run a fairly comprehensive suite of tests on your system configuration. In my case it correctly found that a quick "hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb" would do the trick.

[tyoung]

Oops. Responded to the wrong person. Sorry, WDef & Jorge.

[dsubasa]

I remember reading somewhere that choppiness in DVD playback could be a result of DMA settings on the drive. Try adjusting those and see what happens.

-D

[WDef]

The xine-check suggestion was a good one - thanks. It confirms that things are not right - no XVideo and no YV12 overlays. glxgears only gives ~500 fps.

I've updated Xorg and the kernel to the current release, after which the i810/i915 modules compiled correctly.

Bad news: the new i810 driver won't work, so no way out of a full yum update. So I'll get wireless working, then head to a broadband access point (I don't have broadband at present). Moral: *never* install an early cycle Fedora release. This one came off the front of a magazine about 5 months ago. Buggy as hell.

Good news: got the softmodem and suspend to ram working.

[WDef]

PS: It goes without saying that the next OS I install on this will be Ubuntu or Suse.

[Myka Devane]

Can someone send me their xorg.conf for the DV4000. I setup Simply Mepis 3.4-3 and it worked, but I was messing around with the settings in the GUI and didn't save a back up of xorg.conf. Now I can't get into X anymore even after several attempts at using xorgconfig.

I have the 915GM card, BTW.

Thanks

Myka