After initial installation, widescreen resolutions are sometimes unavaible, even if you edit xorg.conf.

For models that have the intel onboard video chipset, installing the package "915resolution" from the repositories will solve this problem. Reboot the system, and your screen resolution should be correct.

Wireless

Intel Chipsets

Some dv6000 models have the Intel 3945 Wireless chipset, and should work out-of-the-box with a basic Ubuntu install. If you are having problems connecting, enable the extra package repositories and install linux-restricted-modules, and don't forget wpa-supplicant if you need to use WPA security.

Broadcom Chipsets

On Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy it is enough to install the package b43-fwcutter . What follows here is for older versions of Ubuntu.

The broadcom AIRFORCE 4113 rev 01 can be made to work with "bcm43xx-fwcutter". I used the script to install firmware and found it buggy using the wl_apsta.o firmware and bandwidth was useless. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Dapper

Preferred method: Install ndiswrapper When set up correctly, works flawlessly. Getting to that point is the challenge.

1. Use synaptic to install the following: ndisgtk ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils ndiswrapper-utils-1.1 ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 module-assistant

2. Follow the guidelines in the link below. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Device/Broadcom_BCM4311_rev_01_%28ndiswrapper%29?action=show

I removed ndiswrapper kernel module and rebooted before proceeding with install

sudo rmmod ndiswrapper

sudo module-assistant

will allow you to see if module has been removed. It would be wise to remove the folder /etc/ndiswrapper before attempting to install the source, as described in the link above.

I used ndiswrapper 1.29 and compiled from source. The sp33008.exe can be extracted with cab extract and you must install using

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

For some reason ndisgtk never correctly installs them and when correctly installed ndisgtk doesn't show them.

Use this command to see installed drivers:

• sudo ndiswrapper -l

if you are lucky then you will get bcmwl5 driver installed, hardware (14E4:4324) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx) If you get a fatal error or it complains that it's not a valid driver it would seem that you haven't removed the original edgy kernel module and/or you didn't reboot after removing and before installing. If you are successful on reboot the wireless light will turn blue and you can install the package gnome-network-manager, if not already installed.

Reported wireless success

Some new DV6000z's have a new wireless chipset 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01) which can be installed following this guide http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=512828&highlight=Atheros+feisty+ndiswrapper

Graphics

You may use Envy, a Python script that eases installation of the official Nvidia and ATI drivers. Please see http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

Envy works without problem with nvidia Geforce 6150 GO

If that did not work, try this:

nvidia Geforce 6150 GO Will run on open GL but requires the beta driver 13/04/07, this can be tricky to get to work nvidia-glx or nvidia-glx-legacy I have also tried driver direct from nvidia and anything apart from nv in xorg results in blank screen and having to boot into recovery and

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

The 6116eu I am having problems with text only terminal and ethernet while in text login-this could be affecting nvidia driver install-will figure out and report findings

You might have to manually ensure that the video card driver in xorg.conf is "nvidia" and not "nv". (This was tested on Debian etch and lenny/sid, kernels 2.6.18 and 2.6.20)

The following guide has resulted in success: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=263851

Tested models

Integrated Devices

Built-in Webcam

On Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy, the uvcvideo driver should be already included and working OK.

On dv6458SE running gusty64 I had just to install "linux-uvc-source" and run "module-assistant a-i linux-uvc" and reboot. It works with no trouble at all. But after using it and booting it only works afther running "module-assistant a-i linux-uvc -f" and rebooting again.

Media Card Reader

The onboard media card reader functions, without additional user configuration, after a new install of Ubuntu Gutsy.

Front Headphone/Microphone Jacks

As of Ubuntu Feisty, the ALSA drivers fully support the hardware used in the dv6000 series. If you are using Feisty or Gutsy, then your front headphone and microphone jacks should function normally.

Modem

Battery Life

To pull some more life from your battery, open a terminal and type

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

Look for the section containing ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false and change this value to true. This will cause your laptop to enter laptop mode when running on battery power, conserving more power. A restart will put this into effect.

Next open Synaptic and make sure you have the extra repositories enabled. Then install the following packages:

ubuntu-laptop-mode
laptop-mode-tools
laptop-detect
cpufreqd
cpufrequtils

or install them from the command line using this

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-laptop-mode laptop-mode-tools laptop-detect cpufreqd cpufrequtils

Additionally you can visit the unofficial Ubuntu Guide at www.ubuntuguide.org and follow the instructions found here http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_enable_your_CPU.27s_Power_Saving.2FFrequency_Scaling_features which has been reported to improve battery life.

Suspend / Hibernate

Suspend usually works out of the box for Ubuntu 7.04. If it does not post in the forums for quick help.

Hibernate is a bit trickier and if it doesn't work out of the box use the following steps

sudo apt-get install uswsusp
sudo s2disk        ## CAUTION: make sure data is saved for this test!

You will have to use that command to hibernate but at least it will be functional.

If you have Desktop Effects enabled, your laptop will most likely not suspend or hibernate correctly. Commonly, the laptop will suspend itself and power down, but upon waking will hang at the command prompt, forcing the user to power off the computer using the power button. If you find that suspend and hibernate do not work properly, you can try disabling "Sync To VBlank" in CompizFusion's advanced settings tool. Next, edit the file /etc/default/acpi-support and change POST_VIDEO to false.

POST_VIDEO=false

Known Issues

1. Reports of incorrect fan operation and risk of overheating. You should monitor your laptop's temperature until you are sure that the cooling system is operating correctly. Because of Gutsy's improved power management, this should no longer be an issue.

2. Occasional shutdown crash.

3. dv6116eu: If you duel-boot, the HP System Check will NOT inform you of BIOS updates as it claims. Both friend and myself have the 6116eu and on random occasions with f.17 BIOS it will not power up without first removing the battery and then re-inserting it. I followed the HP chat person's advice and used the automated updater - when instructed to remove battery & hold power button for 30sec-1 min, insert cable and boot without battery, boot windows and shut down, then re-fit battery.

4. I still get random lockups and crashes, especially when a beep might occur (e.g. pressing tab at a bash prompt to complete a filename).

5. Almost every time I shutdown, the system gets as far as shutting down the system clock, and then it locks up. The few times I've seen it get past that, I see that the next thing to get shut down is the alsa driver, which makes me wonder whether the reason for my lockups and inability to shutdown properly is due largely to the alsa driver.

latest bios allows button beep to be turned off (bios f.27 02/01/07) serious boot issues

The dv6116eu has ongoing issues with edgy - everything I've tried has failed to result in reliable booting:

1) Ndiswrapper and the Nvidia driver don't play nice.

2) ACPI sometimes stalls on boot, Noapic options have zero effect.

3) Occasional screen corruption on gdm login manager.

4) Since bios upgrade I now have some program like xfree86 is trying to directly access hardware - stalls on boot.

5) random hard lockups

Result boot 1 in 8

I fixed the boot issues by keeping an edgy base system and installing feisty kernel 2.6.20-6-generic - Do this entirely at your own risk

Many boot issues can be resolved on at least one model (the 6165cl) by adding -noapic -nolapic to the kernel boot line. This specifically fixes lockups during mandatory fsck-ing at boot.

Wireless Issues:

Compatibility of the Intel 3945ABG wireless chipset has been significantly improved in the latest versions of Ubuntu. Wireless should work without any additional configuration needed.

Compatibility of Broadcom wireless chipsets is still troublesome.

keyboard and touchpad

search

ksynaptics (kde) gsynaptics (gnome)

or

qsynaptics (general for config of synaptic)

panel system>administration>preferences>keyboard you can alter repeat rate etc

Installation using Wubi

Wubi creates a virtual Linux disk on a Windows system. I tried installing Linux on its own but I ended up ruining my dual-boot setup. I suggest you do this to make sure Ubuntu runs nicely on your system before making a full switch. "This has been tested with a dv6402ca." Download the latest Wubi Windows: http://wubi-installer.org/

Step 1

Run the installer. It will download the correct alternate ISO according to your choice. No 64-bit ISOs are listed, but you can get around this by reading up on instructions on how to install a custom ISO. I suggest installing to a new (unused) partition. If you are installing on the same drive as Windows, run Defrag twice. Otherwise, you will get some odd errors when booting into Linux.

Step 2

Run through the test installation. It's quite straight-forward. Once you reboot (installation complete) you will get a boot-up screen with "Windows (default)" and "Ubuntu". You can go ahead and select Ubuntu. Important: Be ready to press the ESC button, otherwise your computer might hang-up. There will be a 3 second pause (by default) to press escape and put in special boot-up options. If you miss this step, you will have to run Chkdisk (Windows usually does this automagically) and reboot to Ubuntu again.

Step 3

You should be at a black and white text screen with a couple of boot options. Using the arrow keys, select the top-most 'kernel' entry and press 'e' on your keyboard. You will now see the boot-up string. Add "noapci nolapic noapic noirqpoll nosmp" to the end of this line. Press enter to exit the edit. Press 'b' to boot using your newly edited kernal options. Note: The next time you boot into Ubuntu, you will have to do this again. To permanently make the change, you must edit your boot options while in Ubuntu. See point #2 here: http://grumpymole.blogspot.com/2007/05/ubuntu-how-to-edit-grub-boot-parameters.html

Step 4

You should see Ubuntu! Log in and mess about. Test everything and begin customizing interface and getting your drivers properly installed. Good luck! am /at/ artform /dot/ ca

Gutsy on DV6620

This section specifically lists troubles and fixes found when porting Ubuntu 7.10 on a DV6620 laptop. Most of the hints are available when googling, but it can take a while to grab all the relevant data.

Screen Resolution for GeForce 8400

Up to Gutsy, using properly the nvidia driver involves some hacks (driver recompilation) or the use of Envy. Personnaly I was not able to use envy because of missing (obsolete) package dependencies. Anyway, with Gutsy things are much simpler:

1. From the menu: System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager, enable the NVIDIA drivers.

2. Reboot the machine to take the change into account.

3. From a terminal run:

sudo nvidia-settings

4. Select "X Server Display Configuration" and choose Resolution to 1280x800. Click on apply to see what happens. Don't forget to click on "Save to X Configuration file" to make it remanent.

That's all.

Having the sound working

If nothing is done, the sound led remains red meaning it is not usable even if the system seems to know it. Most of the advices are to install the drivers by hand by recompiling them first. The easy solution is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=565873&highlight=sound+problem+hp&page=2

1. From a terminal, type:

• sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules

2. Reboot and the sound will work (the led comes to blue).

Having both CPUs working

I don't know if this issue is due to my install process. Anyway, strangely enough I saw that the kernel ignored the second CPU (warning in the dmesg log file). It is due to the fact in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file the 386 kernel is loaded by default. To have SMP working you need to select (and/or move as default kernel) the generic kernel.

To have the generic kernel working as fine as the mono-cpu one, I had to do the following:

1. The first boot on the generic kernel is faulty since the video card is not known. Boot with then default graphic resolution.

2. Install the expected generic modules:

• sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22-14-generic

3. Enable the driver with the System -> Administration -> Restricted driver manager menu, if needed.

4. Reboot the machine. The next time it should smoothly apply the screen resolution configured for the mono-cpu kernel (that is, 1280x800 resolution).

Using 3D Graphics Acelleration

If your 3d graphics card isn't working (and it is the intel model), then you are probibly running gutsy or erlier. Simply swtich to hardy, and the problem should work.

Things that works out of the Box

With Gutsy, things that works out of the box:

* The wireless network. (With the instalation of the proprietary drivers.

* (To Be Completed).

With Hardy, things that work out of the box:

* The wireless network. (With the instalation of the proprietary drivers.

* 3d Graphics Aceleration

Remaining Troubles

* At boot time there is a weird warning message. Anyway it seems to have no consequencies. This bug has been reported here for feisty, but it applies to Gutsy too: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/54294

* If you set the laptop mode to true in the /etc/default/acpi-support file (ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true) you fall into the bug reported here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695 I have experienced it on this laptop. So, I encourage you to *not* modify the default setting (ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false) in which case I don't see the problem anymore unless you want your disk die early.

NOTE

I started this wiki page as much for my own reference as to help others, without their help this page wouldn't be so comprehensive. Because the Dv6000 series varies in hardware, some users will have perfect systems and others will struggle.

My DV6116eu has been an ongoing struggle with bios firmware and compatibility, I have resolved this by moving to Debian etch and beta Nvidia driver.

My dv6159eu perfectly work with this guide. Some problems only with the nvidia driver. Amd64 with Ubuntu 64.

if bios update and power cycle do not resolve power button issue and power on times become longer-indicates hardware failure-interestingly in my case touch buttons then booted system.

If after a year ro so your display dies and computer just gives out 3 beeps and HP refuses to fix this problem have a look at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1842189&lang=en and then call the case managers at 1-877-917-4380 extension 94 option 1 and insist on a repair even if ou are OUT of warranty.

NOTE 2: alternative boot parameters combination

I have recently found a combination of kernel options that seems to make the dv6383eu (dual AMD 64bit, which displays the whole range of problems described above...) work without an itch with the 64bit version of the Ubuntu 7.04 (i don't think that with Gutsy there should be any difference at all): since im testing it since only 2 days (and i have no feedback about other laptops of the same series), im adding this as a foot note (in order not to remove other content).

The options are:

noapic acpi_irq_balance

The good news are that this line doesn't add any overhead on the CPU consumption, in contrast with the noapic irqfixup combination, which wastes 60% of CPU time for IRQ handling (with resulting impaired performances and high power consumption).

I cannot guarantee that it will work on other Pavillion laptops, though the fact that my model shows a wide range of problems with other startup combinations (unhandled IRQ with and USB ceasing to work, hangups at boot, slowdowns and so on...) should be encouraging.

My configuration is:

1. dv6383eu with the latest BIOS installed (F.3B though probably doesn't make any difference...)

2. kernel 2.6.20-16-generic x86_64 GNU/Linux

3. Ubuntu 7.04 64bit version

This is the list of things i have tested (what's not reported, notably the WiFI card, was not checked):

1. The SMP works fine: both CPUs are up and cool, there's no overhead and the frequency scaling works.

2. Sound playing works (recording untested)

3. CD/DVD player works (CD/DVD burning yet untested)

4. X is working both plain and with NVidia drivers

5. the SD card reader works

6. USB 2.0 works

7. the internal webcam works

Feedback about other laptops working with this configuration will be welcome (with eventual integration in the main page).

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