Tuesday, July 22, 2008

HP 6910p on Ubuntu 8.04 / Hardy Heron

I have upgraded from Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) to 8.04 (Hardy). This is not a clean install however I made some effort to remove any post install steps that was done previously with my 7.10 Gutsy guide.

HP 6910p specification:



CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4Ghz)
Display: 14.1" WXGA+ 1440x900
GPU: AMD/ATI Radeon X2300
RAM: 2GB (2x1GB)
Harddisk: 120GB 7200rpm Hitachi 7k200 Travelstar
Optical Drive: MultiBay II DVD SM DL
Wireless: Intel Pro/Wireless 4965 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, Infrared
Ports/slots: 3xUSB 2.0; MultiBay II; Intel 82566MM 10/100/1000 Lan; Modem; S-Video out; VGA out; Firewire; Audio in; Audio out; internal microphone; SD/MMC card reader; Smart Card Reader; Type I/II PC Card Reader; SIM card slot; Docking connector; Second battery connector.
Other: Finger print reader, Touch stick with 2 buttons, Touch pad with 2 buttons, Volume up – down, Volume mute, Presentation, Wireless, HP Info Centre touch sensitive buttons.

Status:














Ethernetworks
Wirelessworks
Videoworks, using radeonhd
Suspend and Hibernateworks
Splash screen and virtual terminalsworks
Harddisk Power managementneeds post install steps
Fingerprint readerworks
Audio and Micworks
Bluetoothworks
Screen brightnessdoes not work inside X, but light sensor works
Card readerdetected with intrepid kernel, some issues see comments below
Docking stationworks including dvi


Post Install Steps:


Harddisk Power management



It seems this isn't resolved yet. I brought back my changes for the hard disk not to park its head excessively. This only affects a few select 6910p using a particular model of harddisk. This is not a 6910p issue but more of harddisk issue.

Summary:


The upgrade to 8.04 Hardy removed the post install steps that was needed for 7.10 Gutsy, which is what I expected. Since mine is not a clean install and I am unlikely to do a clean install due to the lack of time, anyone has a story from a clean install?

11 comments:

kiemlo said...

Fingerprint reader works fine with fprint. I used it for some time for sudo.

Card reader - works fine with a more recent kernel. You can use a 2.6.26 kernel packages from Ubuntu Intrepid repositories.

Jun said...

Thanks again PK. I have updated the summary.

kiemlo said...

Sorry, I was too fast. The card reader works for a couple of minutes and then its IRQ becomes disabled. A bug against the kernel was filed at http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10916. I'll try to provide the kernel devs with some more information.

Jun said...

No worries PK. Thanks for helping out.

Unknown said...

Hi

First the driver for wlan seemed to work, but I couldn't enable it (no AP's were found). After installing the new 2.6.26.2 Kernel from www.kernel.org, wireless finally works (the blue led turned on) and the SD-reader works too.

But the fingerprint reader doesn't work. The packages from http://legacy.madman2k.net/comments/105 are only for 32-bit.
And bluetooth is still not working. lshw doesn't even show the bluetooth hw!
Does anyone know a solution for this?

Thanks in advance.

Jun said...

Simon,

Your wlan maybe a higher revision than ours. I had to fiddle with mine on gutsy, see my gutsy guide.

This is what i got.

Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

For hardy no custom stuff needed.

My fingerprint reader did work on gutsy, PK confirms that his fingerprint reader works on hardy. My bluetooth does work. I am just running 32 bit kernel, not 64 bit.

Unknown said...

Hi Jun

Yes, this might be possible. Unfortunately I can't check this at the moment, because I've left the notebook at my workplace, but I will check it soon.
Couldn't it also be possible that the b43 driver isn't that good supported in the 2.6.24-64-Bit kernel like it is in the 2.6.26-64-Bit, could it?

Concerning the fingerprint reader: Because I failed installing the DEBs I tried to compile the thing from source, but it didn't work, although the compile-script was successful.

To the bluetooth problem:
So in your machine the bluetooth device is displayed correctly with lshw?

Thanks

Jun said...

That is odd. You got a broadcom card on your 6910p? I thought they only put intel wireless on 6910p and broadcom are on HP consumer laptop? My other laptop which is a HP dv6000 uses the b43 driver. It does work alright with hardy kernel. It needs to download some firmware though, but it already done through the 'Hardware Drivers' gui on hardy.

It seems bluetooth devices are not shown on lshw, lsusb or lspci. It does show on 'hciconfig -a'. here is the last bit of my output

HCI Ver: 2.0 (0x3) HCI Rev: 0x2129 LMP Ver: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subver: 0x41cf
Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)

Unknown said...

Hi Jun

Yes, it really seems to be a Broadcom chipset. lshw sais the following about it:

description: Network controller
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Corporation


I've also had to install firmware to make b43 work and used the "Hardware Drivers" app from Ubuntu for this task. And like I've said in my first post, it seemed to work (the wlan interace was recognized correctly). But the hardware button to enable the wlan function didn't. From time to time it doesn't even work under the brand new 2.6.26 kernel (only a reboot helps)...

To bluetooth: On my laptop unfortunately also hciconfig doesn't show anything.
Could there possibly be a problem because I'm using a 64-Bit kernel?

Thanks

Jun said...

Its possible that its the 64-bit kernel. I am not sure. You can try to install on another partition or maybe use the live cd to see if your bluetooth works.

Anonymous said...

Hiiiiii
Fingerprint reader works fine with fprint. I used it for some time for sudo.

joseph
smart card