Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon On HP tx1000 Laptop
It’s that time of the year again. A new version of ubuntu is out and I had to update. I have had a not so good experience with upgrades so I decided to go for a fresh installation. I downloaded the 32bit standard cd from the ubuntu website, took a backup, formatted my feisty partition and took the plunge.
I have an HP tx1003au laptop which is known to be slightly difficult to configure with linux. There is a huge thread(33 pages so far) on ubuntuforums.org specifically for this series of machines. I’ve been following this thread right since the beginning and I am posting the steps that I had to take. The information in this thread is a lot more than you need and it took me hours to go through it and get every piece of hardware going one by one.
Booting from live CD
As with recent ubuntu distributions gutsy comes with a live CD. I was not able to boot from the live CD directly. I had a similar problem with Feisty so I knew that I need to supply a certain set of kernel parameters to get my laptop to boot. The following parameters seem to work for me
quiet splash noapic irqpoll
If you are new to linux then follow the following steps.
Load the CD in your CD ROM and restart the computer. You will be shown a screen with options. Press F6 for “other options”. Now a line of text would be visible at the bottom of the screen. Type “noapic irqpoll” at the end of the line(before the –) and press enter.
Installation
Once I was able to boot from the live CD the installation went off smoothly. The only thing was that after installing the boot parameters were not automatically added to the boot configuration. So don’t restart your system straight away after installation. Edit the following file em>/boot/grub/menu.lst and add the boot parameters string at the end of the line that looks something like this
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=aa0998d4-b656-4ad4-854f-8fe9d950d17f quiet splash noapic irqpoll
Wireless
The first thing that I needed to configure was wireless networking. For this I used ndiswrapper. The instructions are given very nicely in this post.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3491929&postcount=257
Note: I needed to install wine since I wasn’t able to extract the driver directly from the exe. For installing wine type this in a terminal window(applications -> accessories -> terminal)
sudo apt-get install wine
And after installing wine I double clicked on the driver file and installed it. Then I was able to locate the driver file by browsing the the following directory on my system
~/.wine/drive_c/SWSetup (~ stands for home directory)
For connecting and disconecting to wireless networks you can use the networking application provided by default which can be accessed via system -> administration -> network. But I prefer to use the software wifi-radar which seems to work better in my case. For installing wifi radar type this in a terminal
sudo apt-get install wifi-radar
Note: You might need to enable some repositories for using the above software. For more information see this
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories
Audio
The audio didn’t work by default. To make it work I had to add the following line to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=3stack position_fix=0 single_cmd=0
I had to restart after this. The audio now works but the front jacks are not recognized. I’ve read that the front jacks can be made to work by downloading and compiling the latest version of alsa drivers. I will try that at a later stage. For the moment I just wanted basic functionality running so that I could start using my system for some coding 
Edit: The audio works perfectly after compiling and installing latest alsa drivers. Here are the instructions.
- Download the latest alsa drivers from here
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.15.tar.bz2 - Untar the archive
$ tar -xvf alsa-driver-1.0.15.tar.bz2
- Compile and build the drivers
$ cd alsa-driver-1.0.15/ $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install
make should take a few minutes because it is compiling the source code.
(in case you get a message that make cannot be found then you need to install the “build-essentials” package) - Reboot your system
Audio should be working now. In case it doesn’t try unmuting the controls in the volume mixer or increasing the volume.
Things that work out of the box
Not everything required tweaking and some of the things worked by default. Here’s what I was able to test.
- Hardware buttons (Sound volume buttons, DVD button and playback control buttons)
- Memory card slot (tried Memory Stick Pro)
- Infra-red remote
- Microphones on the screen
- Web cam (To use the webcam select the V4L2 as the video driver in your selected application. I tested this with Ekiga)
Display Drivers(NVidia)
For installing the display drivers System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager. Click on the Nvidia accelerated graphics driver checkbox. The drivers should be installed automatically.
Touchscreen
This is the most tricky bit. With my previous installation I spent many days making this work. And I was hoping that this time it would take less time. I still have to calibrate the touch screen and I will be able to do that later in the evening. In the meantime here are the steps that I followed to get it running and some notes that I had from last time. The basic steps are given in this post.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2792971&postcount=16
Edit: The touchscreen works perfectly and is very easy to setup based on this post by waspbr on the ubuntu forums
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4197376&postcount=542
External Display
I tried connecting my laptop to a projector. The standard System -> Administration -> Screens and Graphics did not work for me. I then installed nvidia-settings.
sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings
After installing you can launch the application by typing “nvidia-settings” in the shell. This seems to work well at the moment and I was able to connect to an external display.
Things I did not try
- Getting the remaining buttons on the panel to work
- Internal modem
That’s it for the moment. Hope it helps save time for others with a similar setup.
use this:
noapic acpi_irq_balance irqfixup irqdebug pci=biosirq pci=nomsi acpi_osi=”!Linux” acpi_os_name=”Windows 2006″ pci=routeirq doscsi
for all ur problems
where would i put that line exactly
These are kernel parameters. If you are using Live CD then the steps are stated in the paragraph with heading “Booting from live cd” in this article. If you already have ubuntu installed then you can set these parameters in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst. You have to find a line that looks something like this
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST9120821AS_5PL4KY3G-part2
append the parameters at the end after a space
ok, cool i have got that working, if you dont mind do you know the exact procedure for downloading the v4l2 drivers
For the web cam I tried it with Ekiga softphone and it works out of the box if you go to edit -> preferences -> video devices and select “V4L2″ in the video plugin combo box. I haven’t tried it with any other software though I’ve read about people using it with skype.
After your comment srooj I was looking for a software for testing the webcam and came across “cheese”. It works out of the box and I discovered a nice software for capturing videos or taking photos via the webcam
alright thanks man, my name is srujan jonnadula by the way and i think it would be a good idea to keep in touch atleast via email seeing as we are both trying to put linux on the same type of computer
My microphone on the screen is not working. what program did you test yours with?
thanks
-david
Since I wrote this post I have gone on to install the latest version of alsa drivers from their website but I remember clearly that my mic used to work before that as well.
I think you have to select “ATATPI Mic” in the mixer for it to work. Also by default the volume is muted so if you can’t see ATAPI mic in your mixer try enabling it from edit -> preferences.
hi guys
just read about installing linux on this laptop…
actually my friend with this tablet was really impressed with Linux after seeing Ubuntu Gutsy on my Acer laptop….
i googled about issues related to linux on hp tx 1003au…
it seems its a lot of heck installing & running Linux on this system….
finally i am deciding not to install Linux on his tablet as he is a total Linux noob….and it will be problematic for him (though i will install), to use and upgrade later…
its really sad that company like HP is not providing support for Linux on notebooks like this…..
Deepak
You are right you have to do a couple of work arounds to get things going but it’s not that difficult. Just by using noapic as a kernel param you can get the basic OS to work fine.
I think the reason that the hardware is not well supported in linux is because this is a relatively new machine. A lot of people are having problems with recent HP laptops but I hope this will change very soon with software catching up to the changes. For example the alsa drivers which were beta have now been released as a stable version so you will find those drivers in the newer versions of ubuntu and sound should work out of the box then.
If a new person wants to try an open source operating system we should encourage that and get more people to be ‘free’. So it would be great if you go ahead and help your friend install linux. There are a lot of people out there to help if needed. You are most welcome to give him/her my contact!
Cheers
I am having a bit of an issue trying to get the touchscreen to work. Up to /etc/init.d/gdm stop i understand. but once i execute that command it gets stuck at running /etc/rc.local and i am forced to shutdown the computer do you think you can further explain the steps for getting the touchscreen to work?
After stopping gdm try pressing alt + ctrl + f1 or alt + ctrl + f2 to open another prompt and you should be able to login after that and access the shell.
Hi Manu,
I’m anxious to get my Gutsy going so I can get back to coding. I’ve successfully made it through the installation, but despite appending the ‘quiet splash noapic irqpoll’ to my root= etcetcetc boot options, I’m not having any luck. My ubuntu load bar hangs at about 1/8th. I’ve also tried the extended parameters piyush recommended.
I’m not a linux noob – I tried removing the ‘quiet splash’ for some verbose output to troubleshoot the problem step by step, but I’m still not able to get anywhere past the first 1/8 of the Ubuntu load bar.
I have no problems editing grub from the command line before booting the OS – I’m wondering if anyone else out there has suggestions as I’m unclear on what is stuck.
Best,
~Angelina
Hi Angelina
How did you install gutsy? Were you able to boot the liveCD? If you were then technically you should also be able to boot from your hard disk with the same settings.
If you remove quiet and splash what is the last message that you get before your computer hangs?
I am just using noapic as a boot parameter. Seems to work best for me.
All the best!
Manu
I installed Gutsy via a 1GB USB Key, Live Booting from it. This worked perfectly once I had the noapic options added for GRUB.
Why did I boot from USB? Well, I was in a hurry when I picked up the computer (I need to be coding for both school and work immediately) and -failed to notice- the disc drive, so I assumed it didn’t have one. A completely brainless moment (I was thinking about other things, like processor scheduling optimized for multicore systems and other geekery) I must have had. >_
Oddly enough, removing quiet splash and adding:
vga=0×317 noapic noirqdebug splash
Did it! I’m in. I’ll have to play around and see what’s working and what’s not now.
Hi m having HP-1218au.. i managed to install Gutsy by booting using ‘noapic’ as kernel boot parameter… i installed the latest video driver 169.07… but after rebooting my system doesnt recognices the video driver… it hav only display resolution of 800*600.. and also my installed video driver is not shown…wat to do…. help me plz….
also im using dialup connection… but i failed to configure my modem in linux… any body know how to do it…
i have successfully managed to install unbuntu but i can seem to calibrate the touch screen. i have tryed what you suggest but i am getting an error about ‘”…” is not a valid keyword in this section’ any idea what i am doing wrong??
Rome
For your video driver can you specify which card do you have? A good place to look at people with similar problems is here
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=138
and you might find someone who has faced this issue before and similarly for the modem you need to find out what chip you have and find its appropriate drivers.
Creature
I might be wrong but It seems to me that there is an error in your xorg.conf file. I have seen that error appear if you mistype something in that file.
Thanks…manu bhai … i managed to install my graphic driver using the restricted driver option..
how can i configure my dialup modem.. m using ‘HP Pavilion tx1218AU’ … i think its almost same as tx1000 … so conf setings used in tx1000 should also work with tx1218….
i cant see anything but im still a noob so i could just be being dumb!
# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) # # This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using # values from the debconf database. # # Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page. # (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) # # This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only* # if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg # package. # # If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated # again, run the following command: # sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Generic Keyboard" Driver "kbd" Option "CoreKeyboard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "gb" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "stylus" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "eraser" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "cursor" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Generic Video Card" Driver "nvidia" Busid "PCI:0:5:0" Option "AddARGBVisuals" "True" Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" Option "NoLogo" "True" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Generic Monitor" Option "DPMS" Horizsync 30-70 Vertrefresh 50-160 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Generic Video Card" Monitor "Generic Monitor" Defaultdepth 24 EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" screen "Default Screen" Inputdevice "Generic Keyboard" Inputdevice "Configured Mouse" # Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet # InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" # InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" # InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents" Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad" EndSection Section "Module" Load "glx" EndSection ##################################################################################### # user added ######################################################################## ##################################################################################### Section "Files" ... InputDevices "/dev/input/event2" ## correspond to the touchscreen event number ... EndSection Section "InputDevice" # neue Section anlegen Identifier "touchscreen" Driver "evtouch" Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2" # correspond to the touchscreen event number Option "DeviceName" "touchscreen" ######################################### # ein guter Anfang, wird später editiert: ######################################### Option "MinX" "0" Option "MinY" "0" Option "MaxX" "2000" Option "MaxY" "2000" ######################################### Option "ReportingMode" "Raw" Option "Emulate3Buttons" Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50" Option "SendCoreEvents" Option "Calibrate" "1" # wird nur zur Kalibrierung gebraucht! EndSection Section "ServerLayout" ... InputDevice "touchscreen" "CorePointer" #Zeile hinzufügen ... EndSectionwoops sorry that was suposed to go in a code box soz deleate it if u want
Hi Creature
This is causing the problem
Notice the lines with “…” They shouldn’t be there. You probably copied that from somewhere. Please remove that. Same thing is there under ServerLayout also.
Another thing, I just discovered the best way to install the touchscreen drivers. Instead of the previous posts try this.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4197376&postcount=542
Thanks to waspbr on the ubuntu forums. I am going to edit the link in my post to point to this.
thx dude that fixed it the link u sent also makes life alot easier
my sound card startd after editing
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
but after installing the alsa driver it stoped working…!![:(]
I would say from my personal experience that, please stay away from installing that touchscreen driver.. just stay with the basic, i tried instaling that, it worked fine for once then screwed my entire graphics..
very helpful site for configuring ubuntu :
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy
Thanks for sharing
WANNA GET YOUR BLUETOOTH HEADSET WORKING WITH SKYPE ON UBUNTU ON HP TX1000???? JUST TRY THIS LINK:
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2007/10/04/how-to-connect-a-jawbone-headset-to-a-bluetooth-laptop-on-ubuntu-gutsy-and-then-use-skype/
it worked for me… am more than happy
still there is bit of distortion .. am trying to work on it.., if anybody is able to clear the distortion then let me know..
Ubuntu Hardy alpha 4 seems to solve the ACPI problems. It doesn’ t require noacpi or irqpoll options to boot / install properly.
is there any way to enable front audio jack, with out installing alsa driver?
My audio system just stops working after installing that driver…..HELP…
Vishnu, The alsa drivers seem to work well. If you are not getting any sound check your mixer controls because by default they are muted. Also you have to reboot after installing them. For me the “front” channel controls the speaker volume.
Also after installing the alsa drivers the blue light on the mute button should go away and it should become orange. Did that happen?
thanks SOOOO MUCH for this.
cheers mate
Hi. I’m having the same problem as vishnu. If you have a solution, it would be nice.
My tx is 1020ea. I for some reason did the alsa installation first, thinking all would be good then. Before, I could not hear any sound and it definately was not muted (but XMMS was plying and its graph worked). Which was strange. The mute button was orange – even when the it was not supposed to be (never changed even if pushed). No change after I added the line to alsa-base.
After alsa the button turned blue and system lost all (”ghost”) audiocapabilities: can find any devices to controll.
Now I don’t even know how to return to previous state.
Hey after installing the alsa drivers, i have an X on the sound icon and i tried unmuting but it does not detect the onboard soundcard, also before installing the alsa, the mute button on my laptop was orange not blue, after installing it its blue…
One more thing i installed fedora and it has sound support without any extra drivers, i looked at the onboard sound chip that it detects and its HDA Nvidia (alsa mixer) is there any way we can use fedora drivers on ubuntu?
Hey i anstalled ubuntu on my hp laptop but befor restarting i didnt change my boot parameters. Can somebody tell me what should i do nw?…………My ubuntu is not startin…i get a blank scree when i choose ubuntu as an option…shud i reinstall from the live cd again without uninstalling the earlier version
hey shruti,
do you have a boot loader? or no, if you do all you have to do is press e on it to go into edit mode, then after ur there there will be a line that says
kernal … somestuff
at the end of that kernel line you have to add the noapic irqpoll and then press b to boot and you should be back in ubuntu
hope that helps
Hey Starman and Pyro
I have read that if you install ubuntu hardy which is the next version of ubuntu(still in development though), then sound works by default (including the front jacks). Also I would like to believe that fedora is also using the same alsa drivers. I just checked the latest release is 1.0.16 but I haven’t tried that. Everything works perfectly for me with 1.0.15. Which version have you installed?
Hi
I just tried with 1.0.16 (tried .15 also) and added just about every additional driver, file and library that I could think (all alsa files from their site, curses, gstreamer files… I went wild) of with no change. The soundcard just isn’t seen, recognized or used and as I said before, this is slightly worse than previously.
I haven’t been able to find any similar problem descriptions from any forums aether. I wonder what changed when I first installed ALSA and what in the original 7.10 installation went right as something was recognized…? All ideas are wellcome.
awesome info dude. Wanted the exact info what you provided. I got more concepts cleared, beyond what i required. Nice job. I am buying HP tx2001 series shortly and will log in to follow the detailed steps required.. and hope ubuntu will provide inbuilt drivers for touchscreen in the future releases.
Thanks again
Dushyant
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Well, first I would like to thank you. i had also stumbled upon that forum in the ubuntu comunity and used some of the stuff in there. Yet this just picks the besto info spread along that huge thread and puts it in a silve plate. thanks. now i would like to say (i dont know if you already know, because i didnt read all the comments) that msot of the things here also work in the 64bits version. the jacks dont work as in the 32bit, every thing else (to my knowledge) works just fine.
again, thank you very much. nice job
Hi Vishnu, Starman, Pyro
After installing alsa drivers 1.0.15 I too had no sound at all. In var/log messages I got a number of messages: ’snd_hda_intel: disagrees about version of symbol xxx’. Googling for that string gave me the solution. On the command prompt:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-generic
After a restart all sound is enabled (I used kmixer).
Hope this helps.
dingess thx for your help, mi sound is enabled
Hey umm… does wine work for the 64bit version? because im afraid to install due to it messing up my old computer that was a 64bit. BTW this is so i can get the wireless working unless there is a easer way to get the wifi working
DINGES IS THE MAN!
Worked. Got sound. Thank you.
Now to see what 8.04 LTS does to the system…
*
… and 8.04 works good. Upgrade was a hassle (servers busy, I guess) so I opted for a clean upgrade from cd. With Hardy all seems to work (haven’t tried setting up touchscreen yet) by default on this tx1000ea (using the suggested Broadcom and Nvidia drivers is a must though, IMO).
I have a HP TX1209AU, and doing some research on 8.04LTS before installing Ubuntu on it. From the sound of StarMan, it looks like 8.04 Hardy is working on our HPs.
I am just curious what is the “Suggested Broadcom and Nvidia drivers IS A MUST” ? I don’t quite understand this part.
2 hours later, i simply took the plunge and installed Kubuntu 8.04 on my HP TX1209.
Sad thing is, Wifi doesn’t work even though I followed the instructions.
only eth0 & lo appeared
Sam
Try this for installing the wireless on 8.04. It should work
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=760568
First, thanks for the well written guide. I have a TX1003AU and 8.04 seems to install without too much trouble.
Have you been able to get suspend and hibernate working on this? The machine doesnt seem to recover properly from suspend and hibernate – the screen starts off bright at the edges and dark in the middle, and goes through some kind of fade until it is mostly bright. No response to any keys, and I have to hard reboot.
The forums seem to give some instances of one or other working, but none of the fixes seem to work on this machine so far. Would appreciate any pointers.
Thanks.
Hi Nitin
I have tx1003au as well and hibernate works out of the box for me on 8.04.
The bright colors that you describe are due to a bug in the nvidia driver but the laptop does hibernate in the end. Suspend doesn’t work though….
Hey,
I just installed Ubuntu because it generates a lot less heat. However, I am havin’ a few problems with my HP TX1220us tablet.
1. When I type, the cursor jumps to the place where the mouse pointer is, and/or automatically brings up the right-click menu at that point
2. Screen orientation button doesn’t work
3. When I close the lid, or if system goes to standby on its own, then when it comes back the resolution is all messed up, the screen is interlaced and I need to log off and log in again to fix it.
Can anybody please please help me, because I really love ubuntu and I don’t wanna stop using it. By the way, I am really very new to Linux, so I’d be grateful if you could explain things in detail
Thanks!
Hello Kobe
1. Is it possible that you are touching the touchpad while typing. I’ve found the touchpad to be a lot more sensitive in ubuntu.
2. Getting that button to work is not simple but its possible. You first need to have a script to rotate the screen and then you have to point that button to run that script. If you want I can send you the detailed instructions.
3. This is a bug with the nvidia driver. You can update it to the latest version and the problem should go away.
I have an hp tx1220us with Ubuntu 7.04.
I have this on /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base to have headphones working ( note the param in model ).
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=3stack-dig position_fix=0 single_cmd=0
Hey Manu,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
1. Yes I am touching the touchpad while typing, but that is inevitable. I was wondering if there is a way to reduce its sensitivity just like in Windows.
2. It’ll be great if you could send me that script.
3. How do you update to the latest version of NVidia. Can I use apt-get update? Also, how do I know which NVidia drivers I need?
Thanks a lot!!
Kobe
1. Try system->preferences->mouse and decrease the sensitivity there.
2. I haven’t been able to set up the touch screen / screen rotation since I installed gutsy. I’ve just been really busy need some time to work on this. So I’ll get back to you when I get it to work.
3. apt-get install nvidia-glx-new-envy
Cheers!
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