pda_h4x0r

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I ordered a customized notebook online at HP's website. Overall it's a superior machine, hardware-wise. Configuring Debian Etch to work with the hardware, however, took a small amount of effort.

The net-install disk was able to recognize the SATA drive and the ethernet card, two things the Sarge install CD couldn't do. Upon installation of the Desktop Environment and Laptop packages, sound was automatically detected by ALSA, video was automatically detected by the nv driver, the Synaptics touchpad was automatically detected by the X configuration program, and the PCMCIA card slot was automatically detected by Cardmgr. Symmetric multiprocessing (i.e. using both processors instead of one), hardware accelerated 3D rendering, wireless, and flashcard-reading, however, have to be set up manually.

Enabling SMP was easy--just type "apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.15-1-686-smp" into the command prompt as root (or use Synaptic, if you must). You'll notice the speed boost once it's installed. You'll have to reboot for it to take effect.

Hardware acceleration took a bit of research. To get hardware acceleration, follow these steps:
1. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add to the list of mirrors the location of Debian Sid (unstable) packages. I just added "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free" and "deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free" to mine.
2. Run "apt-get update" as root
3. Run "apt-get install build-essential gcc module-assistant nvidia-glx-source nvidia-xconfig xserver-xorg" as root. This will get you the latest X.org X server and the compatible nVidia kernel module source. I have had no luck with the equivolent packages from Etch, but you're welcome to try.
4. Run "module-assistant" as root and build the "nvidia-kernel" module (NOT the "nvidia-kernel-legacy" module). It should be version 1.0.8762. Make sure you execute "Prepare" before building. Install it when prompted.
5. Run "nvidia-xconfig" as root
6. Reboot (or you could try "modprobe nvidia" and restart X, but since I never tried it I will not warrant that it will work).

The card-reader I never got working. I just use my USB card-reader instead.

The Intel 3945abg driver I eventually got built and installed, but it is very unstable. When enabled on my machine, it took up half of the CPU time (it's a user-space daemon) and it disabled the keyboard. For now I'm using a PCMCIA wireless card. It really is a shame that in order to get the nVidia GPU you must also have this card installed (HP won't let you get the nVidia GPU without it).

The Ethernet card works perfectly, for the record. I like how there are LEDs that indicate activity and connection.

The Synaptics touchpad works with or without the Synaptics driver. With the driver, however, you can use the vertical scroll feature if you enabled it in the xorg.conf file. However, it's a bit sensative, and sometimes there are read errors (i.e. about every 10-15 minutes clicking won't do anything, and sometimes the pointer suddenly moves to a new point on the screen when you touch the pad). In the former case, just click both left and right buttons quickly for a few seconds until they work again. I'm still looking into how to fix the sensativity.

The sound card uses the Intel 82801G (ICH7 family) driver with ALSA, but sound output is a bit scratchy under KDE's sound server (it works fine in games, however).

To be tested:
modem (probably a winmodem--ugh)
PCIe port
S-Video port (probably enabled with the nVidia module)
VGA port (probably enabled with the nVidia module)
Expansion Port 2 port
Microphone jack (probably enabled by the Intel 82801G driver)
Speaker jack (probably enabled by the Intel 82801G driver)
Media buttons

Misc:
The machine's heat output is very minimal, given it's power. The 12-cell Li-Ion battery lasts about 5-7 hours. (Debian Etch automatically installed the acpid package).

The 15.4" WXGA screen is beautiful and crisp. The form factor is near-perfect, but sometimes you can accidentally touch the touchpad with the lower part of your right thumb while typing (given the sensitivity of the pad I mentioned earlier, this can get annoying).

The Fn key works automatically, allowing you to use the numeric pad and brightness controls (as well as enabling the Num Lock).

The right pop-up menu button works in KDE at least (not sure about GNOME or XFCE4).

Strangly, the internal clock doesn't work! You will notice a slight delay when the boot process complains about being unable to initilize it.

Unfortunately, you can't get it shipped without an OS.

Customer service is quick in theory (via instant messaging), but a bit dim-witted (or just slow in practice). It took all of half an hour to answer my question about having my machine shipped without an OS to save money.

Overall:
Great machine, but it's a bit new and needs some drivers written for it. Not for absolute newbies.

pda_h4x0r

Update: I got the Intel 3945ABG card to work by using the the IEEE 802.11 1.1.12 subsystem source to build recent enough modules to use with the Debian ipw3945 module (now available with module-assistant). None of the problems mentioned before have been replicated since. You will need to manually start the ipw3945 daemon and configure the interface at first, however, and possibly insert the modules, but you could write a script to do if for you.

Still nothing on the media card reader :(

Interestingly, the DVD button (originally used with QuickPlay) will turn the computer on and off like the power button.

pda_h4x0r

Also, using module-assistant, it is possible to build the latest ALSA drivers (1.1.11), which greatly improve the sound quality (i.e. no scratcy sounds).

To whom it may concern: Please merge these three posts into a single review. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.