Hp Pavilion dv4000 & GNU/Linux

[Jorge Ayala]

I have buy my new notebook pavilion
I work with linux, and i wan't to install this OS into mi notebook, and have two OS (WindowsXP and linux)

What's the best choice ??
Suse, Fedora, Mandrivia, etc, etc ¿¿?¿?
Is there a special versión for mi notebook ???

thankz!!

Jorge Ayala

[Gopi Sekar]

Distributions are inidividual choice, if you ask me then I would recommend fedora core 4 somebody else might say SUSE, it's all individual choice.

For linux to co-exist with windows you need to have free partition. if none exists, you may have to resize your windows XP to give some free space for linux.

Hope this helps,
Gopi

[Jorge Ayala]

I decide to install Suse 9.3
No problem in the process of installation.

*Startup whith linux
Appears a strange vertical lines of many colors, then changes to a black screen.

Any sugestion ¿?

[Gopi Sekar]

looks to be X windows (GUI) is not configured properly in your system.

Try booting in to run level 3, press a key during boot loader menu (where it lists linux, floppy, failsafe). on moving the cursor to linux you will see a list of options in the bottom of the screen go to end of the list and add '3', then press enter to boot. this will boot in to text only (no GUI will come), see whether you are getting in to linux login prompt. if so then we can conclude the problem is with Xwindows configuration and start debugging that.

Hope this helps,
Gopi

[George_235]

Same problem here.

I have entered with runlevel 3 but i cannot enter Sax2 and dont know any other.

When i pluged an external monitor it worked ok (runlevel 5)but SuSe said that cannot recognise the monitor (the TFT of Pavilion).

[Garrett_6]

I have a dv4000 and it's dual booting XP and Fedora.

I had problems setting up the display as well. What finally worked for me was the set the monitor to "HP A7217A Wide-Aspect" and the driver to "VESA driver (generic)".

[bc_5]

Garrett--

I've been struggling with the X-windows and dv4000 problem as well with SUSE 10.0. None of the fail-safe installation methods work and it appears to be a problem with the configuration for X-windows. I can't get to my machine now to try your suggestion but was wondering whether you had to do anything to let the system know about the display monitor: HP A7217A Wide-Aspect. Can you post your configuration file? Thanks.

bc

[tyoung]

Granted you already tried Suse, but I used Ubuntu and it installed in about 15min with no hitches. It recognized the wireless, video, audio, etc. Easiest linux install I've tried yet. If you haven't already solved your video problem, you might give it a go.

Things which did *not* work: The silver audio control buttons at the top of the keyboard do nothing, and the light for the wireless enable/disable button does not come on (but the button does work). Other than that, its just the usual stuff Ubuntu needs added (DVD decoding, some audio codecs, hibernate support, etc.) which you can add or not depending on the legality in your location.

Tom

[dsubasa]

I currently run Suse OSS 10.0 on my HP Dv4170US and it workes great, first try.
Monitor is recognized as LPL LGPHILIPSLCD MONITOR, and runs beautifully in 1280x800. I have also successfully installed Ubuntu without any problems, noting the same issues as a previous poster had.

The only things that (I know of) dont work out of the box is the indicator light for the WiFi, the silver buttons above the keyboard (volume controls), the remote control, and the TI Media Card reader. I did find workaround for the silver buttons and the remote control by creating keyboard shortcuts in the Gnome Control Center, although the volume controls dont work at all when I plugin speakers or headphones - looks like there are seperate volume controls for the speakers and the headphoe jack. Im new to Linux, so I am still trying to figure out how to fix that. Im not worried about the light for the wifi because its just a light and the wifi works great.

My beef is with the media card reader. I will be a very happy man when I can use that. An LSPCI lookup brought this knowledge to me:

06:06.3 Unknown mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated Fl ashMedia Controller
06:06.4 Class 0805: Texas Instruments PCI6411, PCI6421, PCI6611, PCI6621, PCI741 1, PCI7421, PCI7611, PCI7621 Secure Digital (SD) Controller

Someone is working on a driver for this, but it is still in its infancy. It is rumored that TI has the driver but wont release it. Maybe HP can hook us up, since they are now trying to make a very big push into the Linux market.

[mm926222]

--Garrett

You said you installed dual XP and Fedora. That is exactly what I want to do. I am wondering if there are any special drivers, and anything I should be aware of before I launch into it.

If you have any useful links, can you please also post them.

Thank you very much.

[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