Ubuntu Wiki

• Contact: JureRepinc

• Maker: HP
• Brand: Compaq nx6125
• Model: PY418EA

• Website: Slovenian, English

Hardware details

Notes

For bluetooth to work, you can't disable it in Windows, or it will remain disabled in Ubuntu.

additions by Predrag Petrovic

I tested the function keys (and modified which ones are working below, sorry Jure) and some other features like wireless/pcmcia/bluetooth. Regarding the cooling problem: 'apt-get install sensors-applet' and configure it to run 'acpi -t' if temperature goes over 50C, update interval 1-3 seconds (it's up to you). Additionaly you can set up in BIOS to always run the fan. I currently have 36 degrees on ML-34 1.8GHz.

Wireless works with bcm43xx driver and ndiswrapper. For bcm43xx you have to download the fwcutter 'apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter' and extract the firmware from the .sys file 'bcm43xx-fwcutter bcmwl5.sys' and copy the *.fw files to /lib/firmware/$(uname -r). For every version of kernel you have to do this. see below additions Pietpuk for feisty

3D acceleration works fine. Download the fglrx driver 'apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx' edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and find in the "Device" section where it says Driver "ati" and replace "ati" with "fglrx". After that do 'echo fglrx > /etc/modules'. Reboot the computer and it will be okay, you will be running Ubuntu with 3D acceleration. I've tested XGL and Compiz as well. No problems with installing and configuring it.

PCMCIA is working fine, I've tested Cisco Aironet card without any problems. Firewire is working (DV Capture and IP over IEEE1394).

I am waiting for the docing station to arrive and I will test it fully in several days.

additions by Pietpuk

To install WLAN goto this thread install te dep file by double clicking on it and you are done! http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=197102

additions by Markus Lobedann

I filled the column for Breezy. The model i have is a EK160ES#ABD, seems to be almost the same like the PY418EA. Only difference i can see right now is the processor (AMD Turion™ 64 ML-34 1,80 GHz). Will test some more things when i have time.

strange behaviour 1 : can't adjust screen brightness with the function keys (FN+f9 or f10) when in X. when i switch to a console it works fine. EDIT : adjusting screen brightness in X works in dapper flight6

strange behaviour 2 : the fan doesn't come up automatically when the laptop gets too hot. when i then use "acpi -t" it goes on full throttle until i do an "acpi -t" again. this is a known bug (will try to get links to bugzilla entries).

EDIT (Dapper): when i start dmesg i can see the line "APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)" quite often. continuous testing shows it happens from time to time. no idea why though. (on flight6)

EDIT (Edgy): If the bcm43xx-fwcutter package is installed you can get the firmware through this script :

/usr/share/bcm43xx-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

It just has to be run once with sudo. (it will wget an wl_apsta.o, extract the firmware and install it in /lib/firmware).

To Ronan Paixão : If you install the firmware to /lib/firmware/<kernel version>/ you will get problems after an kernel-update. Just install it to /lib/firmware/ and every on of your kernels (in case you have a few different ones) can use them.

From Ronan Paixão: Thanks. I have tried that in dapper but it strangely didn't work for me. So I kept a /lib/firmware/bcm dir which I used to symlink all the files for everytime I upgraded the kernel. I'll try that again now.

EDIT (Feisty Beta): Got suspend working under Feisty Beta with fglrx! Won't change the entry in the table until other people can verify this.

I had to do the following : Change the following entries in /etc/default/acpi-support SAVE_VBE_STATE=false USE_DPMS=false POST_VIDEO=false Change the entry in /etc/fstab for the swap partition from UUID='random garbage' to /dev/hda6 (my swap-partition). Change the entry in /etc/initramfs.d/resume from RESUME=UUID='random garbage' to RESUME=/dev/hda6 (my swap partition). Add "resume=/dev/hda6" to the defoptions in grub's menu.lst (and of corse do a sudo "update-grub" afterwards). Without this feisty would just hibernate, but won't get back from it (not that it chrashed when booting, it just booted normally without even recognising that it hibernated before).

An "update-initramfs -u" after changing the "/etc/initramfs.d/resume" wasn't enough so adding the "resume" menu.lst was necessary.

This all with fglrx, working 3D-acceleration, working xv (to playback videos), working WLAN through NDiswrapper (am not able to change AP's with the free drivers) and working WLAN after a resume. This *might* have to do with the fact that i upgraded the BIOS to the newest version before getting this all to work (which in itself is an adventure on its own..).

The only things not working right now with Feisty are changing the screens brightness in X (does work on console though) and the card reader doesn't read my SD-card (this worked on edgy before. have to further investigate this).

Please don't hesitate to contact me if some of my explanations are a bit unclear. I would be glad if i can help other users to get sleep/hibernate working.

additions by Ronan Paixão

I have installed Breezy with some restrictions. My model is PZ222UA#ABA, with a Turion64 and 1GB RAM. The first part is that the bootsplash did not work properly, showing a blank screen. If I wait long enough, it loads GDM nicely, however, I can't go to a real terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F#) because I get a blank screen there too. I worked around this by using a vga=XXX kernel option, however I don't remember the number now and can't look, as I'm installing Dapper right now.

I was able to use the external monitor by mixing the xorg.conf file that I was autocreated in install and the one made (and screwed) by fglrxconfig. I don't remember if that's true for a monitor, but to use the TV-Out feature, I had to plug the TV before X started, or restart it after I plugged the TV.

Sleep and Hibernate I got working after some hacks, but I don't remember how. I think I had to use a custom kernel to make it work, and alter some ACPI files in /etc (to make the option appear in gnome). The frequency-scaling worked for me out-of-the-box in Breezy too.

The USB port worked fine, at least for pendrives and a USB mouse. The touchpad worked really nice, even scrolling and tapping with two and three fingers, although it was screwed after I had to change the kernel to make the bcm43xx driver work.

I got the bcm43xx driver working after I did some heavy patching to the kernel. I had to use a RC of kernel 2.6.16, as it was not yet released. Thanks for the driver devs that helped me through that.

EDIT (Dapper): Installation ran really smoothly, with the only problem being forgetting to use the noapic nolapic options. Didn't use the vga=792, but it worked too, although with a terminal with normal-sized letters (not small ones).

The wireless adapter worked great after I put the firmware in the right place, including using an AP with WAP2 after I installed network-manager (which in dapper runs much better than in breezy). However, making the wireless card work breaks Hibernation. It makes the kernel panic when the bcm43xx driver is loaded. To fix I have to manually unload the module and reload it after restore (probably there's some script to modify where I can do it). If the kernel panics, I have to manually use mkswap again on the swap partition for the Hibernate to work again.

The touchpad is somewhat buggy, as I'm having some problems with tap-clicking, when sometimes it enables drag-and-drop without double-tapping and sometimes it does not click when single-tapping.

Couldn't get the TV-Out to work properly. It only worked once after some tweaks and restarting X after plugging the cable, but I couldn't make that again. The keys to adjust brightness only worked with the ati driver, not with the fglrx one. The sysrq key didn't work for me too.

EDIT: Just after install I did a dist-upgrade, so I don't know if this was a bug from the beginning or if it was introduced with the upgrade. I had some problems with the touchpad not working properly (ie. it was clicking-and-dragging even when not double-tapping, the actual mouse button only releasing the button after moving the cursor, etc). I found two fixes for that. The first one is not actually a fix, as I lose the features of the touchpad, like side-scrolling and double-tap-to-drag. It consists of disabling the touchpad entirely in xorg.conf, so the touchpad stops using the synaptics driver and acts like a normal mouse. Just commenting the entry in the Server Layout section will do. The second and best fix was to go to packages.debian.org and grab a newer xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package (I used one from Debian testing) and install it, as the problem seems to come from the synaptics driver itself.

EDIT (Edgy): Most of the installation run smoothly. I didn't have to use the noapic nolapic options, as the problem with the slowdown wasn't present anymore. However, after installing, I noticed some instabilities and investigating further I found in the logs an amazing amount of APIC errors, so I reinstalled using those options anyway. I noticed that I couldn't use the Fn key to use the numpad directly, or better yet, it enabled the numpad but not with the numbers (only arrows, PgUp, PgDn, etc), which I think should not be the default. Only enabling Num Lock made the trick but then you have to disable it before using the keys for letter usage again. Update: To make the keypad work with numbers, use Fn+Shift.

I haven't tested everything yet, but most stuff work out-of-the-box. The most annoying being the wireless card, which you have to get the firmware for it to work, but it's much easier than compiling the driver like in breezy. (you just have to copy the bcm43xx_*.fw files to /lib/firmware/<kernel version>/ ).

Also, the splashscreen for some reason does not display correctly. It displays a darkened grayscale image of what should be the splash (but you can still see the ubuntu logo and the progress bar). Update: This is a problem related to the AMD64 install. I installed the 32-bit version in the same laptop and the problem was gone.

additions by Przemysław Kulczycki

There is a problem with the lightscribe dvdrw drive. There is a partial solution on the Ubuntu forums but the problem may come back with every Ubuntu update when HAL files are changed. I haven't found any submitted bugs corresponding to this issue. Tested on my friend's HP NX6125 (PY537ES) with Dapper and latest updates (05-Jul-06). Edit: Also I've noticed that the installation went pretty slow. After installation the system still was pretty sluggish. Adding "noapic" to boot parameters solved the problem.

additions by Benoît Rouits

I have model PY418ET#ABF (AMD Turion 64 bits) which is rather like Markus's one. I installed Ubuntu Dapper 64 bit.

I had to run the installation of Dapper 64 with the "alternate" CD which allows a non-X11 mode installation. Indeed, the Live CD of ubuntu 64 simply gives a black screen once X starts. This may be due to a problem with the restriced driver in 64 bit mode (?).

Ubuntu 64 works flawlessly only with the noapic nolapic options given at boot time (otherwise, it will be very slow and consume almost 100% CPU).

The "Airforce One" Broadcom wireless device works with the bcm43xx linux driver, assuming you have (on 64 bit architecture) extracted the firmware from the bcmwl564.sys file provided by your OEM win64 distribution. This works alsmost fine with the ubuntu generic 2.6.15-26 kernel, but not with the (older) 2.6.15-23. Sometimes, the IP address cannot be set because of the "Invalid Acces Point" bug, but it is said to be fixed in the 2.6.17 upcomming linux kernel.

On the PY418ET#ABF model, the soft modem is an ATI IXP. It works fine once you installed the hsfmodem package (or with automatic online detection/installation) from http://www.linuxant.com/. You can even make an ubuntu package, since they provide a "make debdist" target. (there is a 64 bit version too).

Additions by Yung-Chin Oei

Wireless card driver seems to be picky about access points. With some it connects without problems, with others it just sits trying. I have been able to use open, WPA-, and WEP-encrypted connections, but at other places I couldn't even connect to a simple open AP. This may explain why some users report success and others report failure for the same installation methods.

Details: I'm using Dapper for amd64, with NetworkManager and ndiswrapper, both from the official Dapper repositories. The wireless device in my machine is listed as "Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)". Have been able to connect to Siemens, Linksys, and Belkin APs, and others, but failed with another model of Belkin AP, as well as a Cisco AP (sorry, no record of model numbers and configurations). I could connect to all these APs when running the preinstalled Windows XP.

Other subject: suspend works with the "ati" display driver, but doesn't with the "fglrx" (proprietary) driver. Plus, you need to enable suspend-functionality in /etc/default/acpi-support, even though it seems enabled if you don't; otherwise screen will stay blank as reported below. Reported before here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1111309&postcount=15

Current Issues

When the installation should start the screen went blank. I had to close and reopen the lid to get the screen back. This way I was able to finish installation. Now the screen also goes blank while booting up and shuting down. See bug 20780.

CategoryLaptop