reed68

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Came installed with Windows Vista Home Premium which ran abysmally slow.

Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition Brightview Widescreen (1280 X 800) Display Screen glare is unacceptable. The only case I can see this screen being used effectively is in a dark room watching a DVD as you fall asleep.

Keyboard layout is unacceptable. The space key is very tiny and located in a position that was awfully close to the mouse pad. So, every time I hit the space bar I moved the cursor. Not fun.

Machine would not install Slackware 12. It stopped during boot up. Didn't get so far as the installation setup.

Installed Slackware 11.

Returned product from Staples because it was just so bad and poorly made.

faheyd

HP aka compaq is worthless when it comes to Linux, absolutely no help at all. So I wholeheartedly recommend Dell laptops if you can get a good deal on one.

The average linux user will not be able to get this lappy up and running. Plain and simple.

Try adding this to the kernel boot line when first booting:
acpi_osi=!Linux noapic irqroll
After you get up and running (you will probably need a wired connection until you get ndiswrappers working, search google), use this on your kernel boot line in your /boot/grub/menu.lst:

splash noapic acpi=on irqroll

(I take out the 'quiet' so that I can see what's loading).
Many people have gotten various results with a whole bunch of different boot parameters (see ubuntu forums, search for F572US). Without the irqroll, my sound stutters. Hope this helps someone. Loading up linux on my dell e1705 was so much easier than this piece of crap. May HP crawl under a rock and die a slow death for dropping their linux support.

doctorcisco

Guys, it's not all that difficult!

1) While Windows is still on it, install BIOS update sp37608.exe. It fixes a battery life issue.

2) Boot the install CD with parameters acpi=off noapic irqpoll=off. This is necessary because of the NVidia chipset, not Compaq.

3) After install, use Envy to install the current closed-source NVidia drivers for the chipset. (You may need to install it on Ubuntu; it's there by default on Linux Mint).

4) Remove the weird boot parameters. I boot the stock Gutsy Gibbon kernel with no unusual parameters and the NVidia drivers, and it works just fine. (I kept the parameters as a 2nd GRUB option, just in case.)

4) Go to the Ubuntu forums and search for f572us no-fluff, and you'll find a process for installing the wireless drivers using ndiswrapper. Basically, download the XP driver pack for the wireless from HP, cabextract the files from the .exe, and put the resulting files into ndiswrapper.

Drawbacks:

1) Battery life on this isn't the best with the stock battery (2 hours or a bit less). There's a 12-cell battery upgrade that would make that a lot longer; you can get generic batteries on EBay for about $65 shipped -- search for EV089AA.

2) The touchpad is in a very poor location ... it's where your palms want to rest. There's a little button on it to turn it off; just use a USB mouse. (I hate touchpads anyway; I leave it turned off all the time.)

I picked up this laptop for $430 in September; for the price it does just fine as far as I'm concerned. The glossy screen is something you'll either love or hate; I like it. I use it in my easy chair at home with a lamp right next to me, and on the train during my commute under fluorescent lights, and I notice no glare problems at all. The glossy screen also makes video playback look fantastic.

doctorcisco