General Remarks

ThomHurks: I tried loading the live cd with the cdimage from February 9, 2008. Ubuntu did not get past the "Executing local boot scripts" part of loading. I also tried all the extra options mentioned here. It seems that, despite the new kernel, Hardy is still broken for the 6715b. Update - 2008-03-10: The laptop works fine now. Without any extra options it boots right into the Live CD and it installs flawlessly. CompizFusion works out-of-the-box with fglrx enabled. Now the wireless. The whole b43-fwcutter story is way too complicated, for each user it works there are 100 it doesn't work for. I recommend good old ndiswrapper. [Tested with 64-bit Live-CD Hardy from March 08]

Update - 2008-01-06: Wasn't content with "almost everything working except compiz" and tried hardy alpha2 - didn't work. You've been warned. I also made an attempt with ENVY - again no success. No more experiments for me.

RomanBrodylo - 2008-01-02 - My experience with this notebook has been a different one - I cannot support the impression given below. There are quirks and rough edges but not nearly as devastating as depicted below. I'll just pass on what works (and what doesn't), and how it worked for me.

nilgiri - 2007-12-17 - I have had so much trouble with this machine, trying both Feisty and Gutsy, that I have contacted HP to trade it in for one that has a better reputation on the wiki and forums. I went ahead with this purchase based on this wiki page only to find that the machine suffers from random lockups of the USB and Bluetooth when using them, particularly when USB 2.0 devices were in use and even more so when a USB 2.0 hub was in use. These bus locks often lead to the entire machine freezing with a black screen, an event that may have occurred a few times without out being related to USB or Bluetooth. I have not even bothered to try and get the Broadcom 802.11a/g/n card to work. I also has some bizarre issues displaying the mouse cursor on a second monitor. My only hope is that HP will allow me to exchange this. Save yourself the headache and stay away from this machine unless some one updates this page with better news from later Ubuntu versions.

System Info

HP Compaq 6715b, AMD Turion TL60 2GHz, 2GB, 15,4 WSXGA+

Current Issues

1. No visual effects (aka eye-candy) for the time being.

   • I like Compiz and appreciate visual queues as an enhancement to usability - it just isn't worth the hassle to try to force them on now. I'm sure this will be fixed by the next release. Remember, this is Ubuntu - there are 2 new releases a year!
   • There are a lot of suggestions out there - but among all the different approaches I couldn't find the right one, that was easy and not too disruptive. There is plenty of room here!
2. Wireless works, but only with Ndiswrapper. So what. Again, see the above argumentation.
3. Suspend and Hibernate don't work and leave the system in a (for me) undefined state. I really need a fix here.

And if you have some spare time maybe someone can help with power management - The machine just reports 2,5 hours of battery power; It was sold claiming 4,5! Any ideas?

Switching wireless off with the touch switch (hardware) also disables bluetooth.?

You cannot launch the live cd.

Succesfull Installation of 7.10 (Gutsy) despite existing Problems

Booting with the Installation CD

The normal desktop live CD will not work. You can install with the "Alternate" CD. A lot of people suggest adding options (with the F6 key) before booting I added (after 2 backspaces to remove the two dashes at the end of the command):

noapic nolapic  

I dont know what they do; seems they at least didn't harm.

Maybe someone can explain those parms together with all the other suggestions:  irqpoll pci=noacpi noapic nolapic acpi=off  Here is a listof all boot options: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

I then followed the first part of a relatively short and easy guide from "debian hk". Thank you folks.

• http://www.debian.org.hk/blog-entry/ubuntu-7-04-installation-hp-compaq-6515b-notebook-installation-amd-turion-tm-64-mk-38

Then another well written and easy to follow guide to get the wireless driver working - with the windows driver in ndiswrapper. Here again, thank you a lot.

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff

Getting over the hanging install

Install a working graphics driver

Switch to a free console (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a
sudo aticonfig --initial

Reboot (Ctrl+Alt+Del). Don't forget to remove the CD.

The graphical user interface should be working - Welcome to Ubuntu 7.10!

Get wireless working

Open a terminal for the following commands (Applications/Accessories/Terminal).

Install NDISWrapper and Blacklist Native Driver

echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
mkdir ~/bcm43xx; cd ~/bcm43xx

Download and Extract Drivers

sudo apt-get install cabextract
wget ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34152.exe
cabextract sp34152.exe

Configure NDISWrapper (and WPA Supplicant)

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.orig
echo -e 'auto lo\niface lo inet loopback\n' | sudo tee /etc/network/interfaces
sudo ndiswrapper -m
echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo 'ENABLED=0' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/wpasupplicant

Now, REBOOT. Don't forget to remove the CD. You can now have wireless connections.

Older Remarks

Current Issues

Issues with ubuntu feisty:

• xorg-driver-ati does not support graphics chipset (X1250)
• WLAN: bcm43xx module doesn't work (some IRQ_XFER error), ndiswrapper works but no WPA

Issues with ubuntu gutsy

• xorg-driver-ati does not support graphics chipset (X1250)
• WLAN: bcm43xx module doesn't work (some IRQ_XFER error), ndiswrapper works (ndiswrapper-utils)
• Sleep doesn't work (black screen).
• Frequent undebugged lock-up (2-4 times a day)

Graphics Chipset Problem Resolution

• information source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488332

When you boot the CD and the xserver fails and display the message you select no. then in the console you type in this order:

• sudo -s
• killall gdm
• apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
• depmod -a
• aticonfig --initial
• gdm start

After that the xserver loads and you can install ubuntu.

• When you install Ubuntu doesn´t load the restricted drivers so the same problems show up, but you can do the same and it works.
• If you want this device to work wully, then install the proprietary driver that ubuntu notifies you of on startup.

Hardware details

==Team Contact for Page:== Andrew Owen E-mail: m3g4_1337_h3r0@hotmail.com

Notes

Can I please have some contact information for the tester? (KarianneFogHeen)

CategoryLaptop