Hi, I have being reading this forum for over an hour so have looked at some other topics. There just dont seem to be any for the zv6130us so just thought Id ask if anyone has one and how do they find it?
Some of the other topics seem to say theres no driver at all the ati card but the link on linux-on-laptops for the zv6015(which has the same card) says it works with a high resolution.
Basically I would just like some advice on this laptop as it has very good specs for a good price but I would hate to buy it and find linux wont install.

ATI and Linux, don't get along at all...

Linux on laptops is doable but is a bit of a pain to get working, especially wireless, unless you buy a Cisco card. If you want to try it, good luck my friend, but I would recomend dual booting.

Hi

I am new to this forum. I too, have the HP zv6130us Notebook computer and I installed Fedora Core 4 distro in dual boot just in case I would encounter problems. Although the distro installed with no problems, I find myself having to take care of some post installations issues as follows:

1) Getting my Lexar 1GB Jumpdrive to mount
2) Determining why my sound driver can't be found (Altec Lansing)
3) Setting up wireless connectivity

If I can get these issues resolved then I would be good to go. I'm hoping Fedora Core 5 will take care of these issues, but it would be nice to have them resolved before then.

Try this link for more info. The person loaded fc4 and posts a real good "how to" at this web site. I haven't had a chance to get it done on my sons system yet but plan to try soon.
Mike

Send me an email as I can't post the link. Some lame error about having to have made five posts before you can send a link. Now what's up with that???? Oh well.......

mdm985@charter.net

I bought an HP zv6130us (yes, specs looked very good for the price) and am trying to get linux up and running. At my boss's strong recommendation, I am trying to install Mandrake 10.1 so as to match his configuration.

The DVD boots to the first screen (press <Enter> to install or upgrade) then goes splat claiming it cannot find a CD-ROM drive. This machine has a dual DVD+-R/RW and CD-RW combo drive.

Any suggestions?

I am running the Debian Sid (386)(Kernel - 2.6.14-7 and KDE 3.5) on the Compaq version (R4000) of this laptop without problems. Try the following link for more information.

http://notebookanalysis.com/modules....=viewforum&f=3

Oh, I'm sure there are tons of other ways to get Linux on this laptop. The point being, the boss is "STRONGLY RECOMMENDING" that I use the Mandrakelinux 10.1 because that way the platforms will be consistent for software development.

Another thing, all the URLs in the PowerPack 10.1 manual point to empty web pages on verisign. What is up? Is Mandrake going away? Or, have those web support pages just been moved without telling some DNS?

This would be a lot less frustrating if I could get to the second screen of the "official installation"

I do not think anyone has any luck with mandriva on this laptop, I belive I also tried mandriva 10.1 with the same result.

From everything I have read Fedora Core, Suse and Debian based distros are you best options. Also if you stick with i386 versions rather than the amd64 versions you may have better luck. However, there are many peaple reporting success with the amd64 versions, the problems you may face is not all programs have been ported to amd64 (flashplayer and openoffice are two that quickly come to mind.

If you check out the link in my above post you should be able to a linux distro on that laptop.

Just an FYI, if it helps anyone--->
I am the proud owner of a zv6130us and am running SuSE 10.0 in a dual boot configuration with XP (gotta have Windows for work ). The linux side works fine with the following exceptions-

- the ATI installer works OK with pretty good 3d acceleration, but the video memory in the BIOS must only used shared memory. Don't know why, but if you use the dedicated video memory the drivers won't work. At least I have not been able to get it to. Also, the resolution is limited a bit. Seems I have seen a post somewhere that adresses this but have been unsuccesful in locating it again.

- I have not been able to get the wifi to work even with ndiswrapper, but I have confidence I will. Others have had success.

Otherwise, everything works great!

I got FC4 64 bit version dated(June 2005) successfully installed on my zv6130us. So far most everthing works. As far as the video display is concerned, I discovered that if I selected the HP D5063A L1520 as my display, that I can switch to 1024x800 mode instead of the default 800x600. But I have to keep the card set at the default VESA. I was going to next tackle the wireless setup using the recommended ndiswrapper stuff.

Mensahel-

I tried your suggestion, but did not see the D5063A L1520 listed in SAX2. I figured I'd check the HP website for the specs on this machine and the display was listed as 15.4” WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800) Display. Sounds like marketing stuff to me. I confess the thought of checking the display settings never occured to me, although it should have. I think I'll pursue this line - thanks for the help!

I downloaded Mandriva-Linux-Powerpack-2006-DVD.x86_64.iso. The good news is that it installed on the zv6130us. (Yeah, one step up from Powerpack 10.1 )

The bad news is that it doesn't completely boot before getting a "black-screen-of-death".

I am REALLY hoping that the comments I'm hearing aren't real. (about dropping it back to VGA, or disabling the dedicated video memory, or running as a 386) My main reasons for selecting this particular laptop was its powerful CPU and Graphics support. I've got plans to use it as the development platform for a CPU and Graphics intensive product.

Nano -

Make sure you are using only shared video memory in the BIOS and give it a try. Yeah, I got this unit for the dedicated memory, too - I know it sucks, but it does work. Maybe if we petition HP and /or ATI enough they will find a solution that allows us to use the dedicated memory. But I won't hold my breath.

Thank you for the reminder to not play Don Quixote. I've got a desktop.

Thanks for the pointers.

Now to get the wireless working. Something about ndiswrapper, right?

I tried to post the output of my commands, but the system said I had too many images in the post. Strange, since it was a cut and past from the terminal - no image at all. Oh well-- I'll try to post it later.

The output from ifconfig makes it look like wlan0 is doing something, but the iwconfig output indicates its dead. No connectivity of course, either. Also, when ndiswrapper is modprobed into the kernel, the sound recycles after about 1 second of play.