seeking new linux-loving laptop recommendation

Timothy Miller · 04-25-2018, 06:44 PM

Directly from HP, I don't believe you can. I know at one point there was a company that re-sold refurbed HP's with linux, but not sure if anyone still does.

beachboy2 · 04-26-2018, 02:23 AM

SaintDanBert,

Yes, but possibly only in the UK:
https://www.ebuyer.com/819841-hp-255...es-3kx70es-abu

Braveheart77 · 05-09-2018, 01:38 PM

I;m new here and new to Linux, so sorry to butt in

I was watching this thread with interest. I'm also looking for recommendations, albeit for a cheaper machine. That HP you linked to the HP 255 G6, is that known to work well?

Anybody have any experience of the Aspire ES1-132

I'm just looking for a really cheap machine for cloud based work, google apps, connect to RDP etc, so thinking one of these would fit the bill, as long as they don't have any huge issues with Linux.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

beachboy2 · 05-09-2018, 04:25 PM

Braveheart77,

Welcome to LQ.

The £199.97 HP 255 G6 which has FreeDOS installed, will work fine with Linux:

https://www.ebuyer.com/819841-hp-255...es-3kx70es-abu

You may need to bear in mind the following.

Linux RDCs:

https://www.techradar.com/news/5-of-...esktop-clients

Team Viewer:
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/linux/

Google Chrome apps:
https://venturebeat.com/2016/08/19/g...in-early-2018/

Acer ES1-132:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...sb-4175618070/

_roman_ · 05-09-2018, 05:14 PM

i would not buy hp or lenovo. as tehse have a whitelist for certain hardware, like network cards.

just bad and causes issues later. just do not support such hardware

beachboy2 · 05-10-2018, 03:50 AM

Just to put things in perspective, Lenovo has dropped WLAN whitelists since Broadwell (after BIOS update) and Skylake CPUs. It still whitelists WWANs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/co..._wwan_options/

To the best of my knowledge, HP has dropped whitelists, but I cannot find a specific cut-off date.
In any event, whitelists do not affect recent and current HP laptops.

In the last 4 years I have purchased over 20 HP laptops on behalf of others for use with Linux (Mint) and there has not been a single problem.

With regard to Lenovo, I have purchased 4 of their laptops. No problems there either, with the exception of a backlight problem on a Lenovo G780.

This was solved by adding:

Code:

 acpi_backlight=vendor

to the grub file ( /etc/default/grub) , then:

Code:

 sudo update-grub

Braveheart77 · 05-10-2018, 10:23 AM

Thanks very much beachboy2. Loads of info there and a great help. I don't want to be gambling my hard earned cash on something that might not work well, so thanks very much

I'll give the HP 255 G6 a try I think

Have used lenovo in the past, flex 2-14, found that there were some issues with the wireless card. If i remember rightly I resolved it, can't remember how though.

Will report back on my purchase

Thanks again.

Braveheart77 · 05-10-2018, 10:37 AM

Quick question HP streams? anybody used them for Linux?

Timothy Miller · 05-10-2018, 11:42 AM

I had several Stream 11's that worked AMAZINGLY with linux. Worked significantly better in linux than in Windows, actually.

Braveheart77 · 05-10-2018, 11:50 AM

Good to know

Great help guys.

I've got an HP 255 coming tomorrow, but quite like the HP streams so we'll see.

I see you have an Acer Aspire 1 14, is that similar to the Aspire ES1-132? thats another option i liked the look of.

All the info here is much appreciated.

Timothy Miller · 05-10-2018, 12:21 PM

It's SIMILAR but IMO far better. It's the quad core N3450 instead of the dual core N3350, and it's a nice IPS 1080P LCD instead of the low resolution TN panel. But overall, yeah, they're extremely similar.

beachboy2 · 05-10-2018, 02:36 PM

Braveheart77,

For initial setup of the HP 255 G6 laptop, look at post #3 on:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...op-4175626596/

You may decide to use a DVD instead of a USB drive for installation. In which case, modify the above instructions accordingly.

I usually partition the hard drive in advance using GParted prior to using the Linux installation media, but this is not essential, since it can be done using the media and manual partitioning:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=122276

Something along the lines of:

sda1....formatted as ext4 as the root partition (/)......Size: 20000MB

sda2.....not formatted (no X in the box). Use as the swap partition....Size: 2000MB.

sda3......formatted as ext4 as the Home partition (/home)......Size: Remainder of hard drive.

GParted:
https://gparted.org/

beachboy2 · 05-11-2018, 08:24 AM

Braveheart77,

Just to add that AnyDesk Free is an alternative to TeamViewer:

https://www.lifewire.com/anydesk-review-2625154

Both are free for personal use.

Braveheart77 · 05-12-2018, 05:54 AM

Having real problems getting lunix to work on this

working with Linux Mint, tried installing from USB key, live session works well, after install fails to boot the OS, goes to

BusyBox v1.18.5 (Ubuntu 1:1.18.5-1ubuntu4) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

upon rebooting the live OS and looking at gparted i see this warning;
"The drive descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 byts, but Linux says its is 512 bytes."

Then looking at the partitions they all seemed messed up. I checked the disk, then changed uuid (I had read somewhere that the fail to boot may have been caused by loss if uuid) and it booted to OS then hung 5 mins later. Failed on reboot.

I used gparted to remove the partition table, redone the partitions and checked disk.

I then reinstalled from the USB disk and manually set out partitions sda1 at root 60000, swap sda4, sda5 /home rest of disk. Installed and rebooted.
next reboot failed to start again back to initramfs.

i've updated the bios still no change.

I found these posts which seem to describe the same issue;
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...re-4175617006/

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1034...es-with-ubuntu

which seems to suggest its acpi related? this was all in legacy bios mode.
I'm going to try Ubuntu now, see if that makes any difference.

Any ideas people?

Thanks

beachboy2 · 05-12-2018, 08:36 AM

Braveheart77,

Ubuntu 17.10 or other distro with a more recent kernel may work.

Also you could try try using a DVD instead of the USB drive.

EDIT

Here is somebody with an HP 255 G6 running Linux Mint MATE 18.3 and kernel 4.10.0-38:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=261918

Code:

System:    Host: gajic-HP-255-G6-Notebook-PC Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: MATE 1.18.0 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: HP product: HP 255 G6 Notebook PC v: Type1ProductConfigId
           Mobo: HP model: 8330 v: 27.26 Bios: Insyde v: F.11 date: 07/05/2017
CPU:       Dual core AMD E2-9000e RADEON R2 4 COMPUTE CORES 2C+2G (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 5988
           clock speeds: max: 1500 MHz 1: 1300 MHz 2: 1100 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 98e4 bus-ID: 00:01.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,amdgpu (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD STONEY (DRM 3.9.0 / 4.10.0-38-generic, LLVM 4.0.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 157a
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:09.2
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 15b3
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Device 24fb driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-3: Atheros AR9271 802.11n driver: ath9k_htc usb-ID: 002-003
           IF: wlxe8de270d20c0 state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (2.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST500LT012 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455G used: 6.2G (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.17GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0C mobo: 20.0C gpu: 0.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 195 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 771.0/3900.1MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

He then switched to Ubuntu 17.10.

Comments:

Quote:

Many thanks for the help, but it seems that the problem had something to do with Mint, rather than faulty memory. I've switched to Ubuntu and haven't experienced the problem ever since.

I'm glad Ubuntu 17.10 worked. That might suggest you did need a newer kernel, per prior discussion.

I don't know whether a kernel update might have saved it.