Linux SATA Drivers for Compaq 6710 Laptop

[ultiPOS]

G'Day
Does anyone know if Linux SATA drivers are available for the Compaq 6710 series laptop?
HP claims that the model is certified for SuSe, but HP Support simply tells me that there is no support for Linux.
We are wanting to install Red Hat 8 and besides the SATA driver, expect to also run into trouble with the VGA drivers - but will cross that path when we get a sucessful install.
Thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I'd believe HP support on this. If they say Suse is supported then it should work.

HP has a history of not providing Linux support on low end laptops. They recently began following this policy on desktops as well (dc7700).

Compaq laptops have been most difficult in this area.

You will have a better chance with a more recent release of Linux. Newer releases support more hardware in the kernel and make installs easier.

SEP

[John Collier]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't SATA one of the things that should be supported in all of the recent Linux Kernels by default? I know for sure that my last two versions of Fedora (6 & 7) had no issues at all with my SATA-based notebook from HP (dv9335nr).

I am unaware of any extra 'drivers' that would be needed if you are using one of the newer kernels.

[ultiPOS]

Hi guys
Thanks for the input.
I have been advised to try Fedora and have downloaded the ISO to test. The only issue is that the application software we run on Linux has not been certified for Fedora, but circumventing that issue is my problem!

As passing comment, even Win XP does not support the SATA laptop driver and you have to load a special file as part of the XP install before the OS will 'see' the drive.

Thanks for your input - much appreciated!

Clive

[ultiPOS]

Update:
I have tried the Fedora 9 distro and it also
requires SATA drivers. At least it gets to the point of attempting to identify the SATA drive in the laptop.
Tried selecting several SATA drivers from the list...to no avail.

At this stage it sure looks like there is no wide support for Linux on the HP Compaq 6710b Laptops!

Geez - if only I had known

[Jesus-Perez]

Did you tried Knoppix 5.1.1?

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

It works fine with the SATA HD in desktop HP Compaq dc7600 SFF. It is based in Debian.

[Stuart Browne]

Fedora 9? The lastest as John said is 7.

RH8 and RH9 are *WAY* too old to support any modern SATA devices.

[ultiPOS]

Yeeargh! I meant Fedora 7 - not 9.
I was looking at SuSe 9 CD's at the time
Yes, I sussed out the suggested distro - goes way back to 2005 - not even going there at this stage.

Just not sure how hard it is to get drivers written for the SATA. The drive itself is a standard Seagate 2.5" - just have to get Linux to talk to the hardware.

It would seem that anyone buying what is termed a lower end laptop, these is going to be problems with linux drivers. I would have thought that HP/Compaq would represent a brand that is more aware of the need to support open source.

An extra $1000 will likely buy me a linux-compatible Compaq!

Clive Browne

[John Collier]

Strange...

I have Fedora 7 on my laptop with nothing more than a SATA drive in it. I don't even think that they give the option in the BIOS to spoof an EIDE drive (not sure, never checked since it came with the latest Redmond Virus (AKA - Vista) and that is all SATA).

I don't understand how you can say that Fedora 7 doesn't support SATA...

Not my experience at all.

[Stuart Browne]

No, he's just saying that the SATA controller in the 6710 series laptop doesn't work with Linux.

[John Collier]

Well, now I have learned something new. I was mistakenly under the impression that all SATA hardware would be mutually compatible.

This is one of the reasons that I LOVE these forums!

Thanks for clarifying that for me Stuart.

[Menelaos Maglis]

I have successfully installed Debian 4.0r0 (Etch) on a 6710b model with no problem with SATA.

$lspci reveals:
SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)

I have problems with suspend to ram (to disk works fine) and the video driver. A new xserver-xorg-video-intel package is available in unstable and it does work (may have issues). This is meant to be a business laptop for me, so Debian unstable is not a preferred choice.

I will soon try SLED-10-SP1-x86_64 to verify HP's claims that is "certified". A claim that I could not find anywhere on novell site...

Fedora Core 7 and Ubuntu-7.04 did not manage even to install on this laptop.

My overall experience with the laptop is that it is far from Linux capable.

[sledgeas]

I would totaly not agree on that:
Ubuntu Feisty 7.04: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HP6710b

Gentoo 2007.0: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_HP_Compaq_6710b

Foresight 1.3 is also running on my HP 6710b

[ultiPOS]

HP also claims to support SuSe.

HP Technical Support is like a stuck grammophone, insisting that HP does not support Linux - amazing.

Well, if several distros will run on the 6710b, then is there "anyone" or "someone" out there who can modify, adapt, tweak, tune, alter, convert, make over, modify, redo, refashion or tailor an existing supported driver so that Red Hat will work?

Clive

[noldi]

Hi,

I'm also thinking about getting this notebook but need to be sure that Fedora 7 "can be
made to work in reasonable time" (especially the Disk driver).

Do I understand this correctly: when running
it in EIDE Compatibility-Mode, it should work
anyway with the PATA-Drivers? - Also: if it
runs on SuSe, it should not be too hard to
run on F7 . .

I'm writing this on an nx7010 with FC 4 on
it happily for years now and never had a
problem with it (except that it is not meeting my expectations anymore;-).

Even without HP support supporting it . .

[Gene Campbell]

I'm considering getting a HP 6710b. X3100 graphics, Intel 965GM Express Chipset.

This thread is worrying me a bit. I have years of experience with Gentoo and other distros. I don't mind tinkering a bit, because the price is right for this T7500 WSXGA+ machine. But, I want a generally feeling I will have a working machine in the end.

Do what's the latest? Did you get your SATA controller sorted? What about the suspend?

[ultiPOS]

Hi there
On August 14 thread....

1) Could not get Fedora 7 to work. Fedora gets to the point of recognising that it has encountered a "foreign" HDD controller and asks you to choose the appropriate driver. None of the available listed drivers will recognise the drive controller.

2) EIDE - not sure how to switch the HP to this mode - have not tried it.

Red Hat just hangs at the HDD detection stage. Fedora has given the most intelligent 'feedback' so far.


On August 16 Thread.....
1) The HP 6710 seems an OK machine. Good price/performance combination. I upgraded to a 160Gb and kept the 80Gb with Vista for when I need to test business apps that become certified for Vista.

2) I have basically given up with Linux on this HP. I may need to resort to my old trusty Toshiba and carry 2 x laptops around ;-((

3) Have not got SATA to work at all. Unable to comment on suspend for either video or HDD. Once the SATA issue is overcome, the next one will be the video and LAN drivers and suspend/resume. Based on the demand for drivers for this machine, this may all prove to hard (or what?)

Clive (ultiPOS)

[Gene Campbell]

Might be getting a loaner to play with. I'll report back.

[noldi]

Hi all,

after changing a BIOS Setting
(F10 -> System Configuration -> Device Configurations -> SATA Native Mode) to "Disable", I could install Fedora 7 without any further issues.

It is using the "ata_piix" driver for SATA Disks.

Now I have to get rid of the very noisy fan somehow . . .

Best Regards,

Arnold

[Gene Campbell]

That's great news!

But, too late for me. I went with a Dell.

[ultiPOS]

Hi Arnold
Thanks for the information.
I can confirm that the BIOS changes work and that Fedora 9 can be installed on the HP6710b.

I am running it alongside 5 x WinXP partitions using GRUB.

So far I have experienced no issues with either WinXP or Fedora with the BIOS changes even though I had XP running before changing the BIOS setings.

Thanks again for helping to resolve this issue.

Regards
Clive Browne
ultiPOS (Australia)

[Esmeralda]

May 2008. I've just installed Ubuntu 7.10 onto a pre-existing Windows XP Pro system on a one-week-old HP 6710b at work. It seems fine to me. I had used GParted prior to the install to make 60GB of unformatted space from the main Win partition. There is a Linux boot loader which lets me choose Ubuntu or Windows XP.
In the Linux Device Manager, the Hard Drive tree goes:
82801HBM/HEM SATA AHCI Controller
SCSI Device
SCSI Generic Interface
Hitachi HTS54161
Volume (ext3)
Volume (ntfs)
HP_RECOVERY
Volume (swap) Good Luck!

[ultiPOS]

That is good.
I have also installed UBUNTU 7.10 natively and on a Virtual Machine running Windows XP on the 6710b. The installs were flawless. Thanks for the feedback