hp envy 14 degrades with kernel upgrade

Simon Bridge · 03-02-2011, 09:02 PM

hp envy 14 works perfectly except for hybrid graphics with 2.6.32 kernel, but upgrade to 2.6.35 kernel - to get vga_switcheroo - breaks other things. What I need help with is:

1. enabling trackpad recognition (I only get the one button and no multitouch stuff ... used to have both buttons and two-finger-scroll out of the box. I have seen the following bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/582809

2. wireless is disabled from boot .... the card is:
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 4353 (rev 01)
... other people seem to have bcm43222...something. This card was autodetected and enabled without any intervention with the 2.6.32 kernel. With this one, the wireless-enable switch (fn+F10) does not even function.

There was an error message related to this on kernel install:
"bcmwl kernel module failed to compile"

I installed:

2.6.35-25-linux-headers-generic-pae
2.6.35-25-linux-image-generic-pae
2.6.35-linux-backports-compat-wireless-generic-pae

via synaptic - so dependencies also got installed.

Bug reports related to 43xx and 2.6.35 all talk about a "morse code" problem ... I do not experience this.

searching for anything specific to "envy 14" is very frustrating because "envy" is so commonly used for other things :/

incedentally, there are a bunch of acpi errors appearing in the syslog that were not there before:

Code:

$ dmesg | grep -i error
[    1.514354] ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514359] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node f744e6f0), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514411] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node f744e648), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514807] ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514812] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node f744e6f0), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514863] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node f744e648), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.514914] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU1._PPC] (Node f744e6d8), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515250] ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515255] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node f744e6f0), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515306] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node f744e648), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515370] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU2._PPC] (Node f744e840), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515703] ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [NPSS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515707] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0.PPC_] (Node f744e6f0), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515758] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PPC] (Node f744e648), AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.515809] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU3._PPC] (Node f744e7e0), AE_NOT_FOUND
[   13.185645] EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro

vga_switcheroo seems to work, however... which is better than last time I tried it. I want this so I can enable the ATI card for HDMI output (fingers crossed) and, therefore, do presentations (no vga out).

business_kid · 03-04-2011, 01:34 PM

Hmmm, I was going to politely say "Find out how to build a kernel, noob" except you are anything but a noob. I do feel you may not have the ideal distro in ubuntu. I certainly had bad experiences with my HP laptop & ubuntu, and ran away screaming.

I had fun with the HP synaptics thing until someone solved it in hal (resorts to google)
See This Thread

Your ACPI errors are known. Is it Intel Graphics?
http://www.mail-archive.com/intel-gf.../msg00849.html

There was also something around those kernel versions with (at least Radeon) agp cards because some cut&paste maintainer cut some table out that pcie has but agp needs. I bellyached on phoronix.com and got the patch (which I still think I have) for 2.6.35.4 which works. The explanation was so terse I never twigged it, but didn't care anyhow.

bmlwl sounds like a Broadcom proprietary driver, and I've used b43, so you're on your own there. I'd double check firmware. If some <expletive deleted> turns off the wifi on my laptop (bcm 4312) I have to boot windows to find it! Check for the ssb module, as that has a sneaky broadcom driver which makes usb stuff appear on pci, and it's the best kept secret around except for the firmware.

Simon Bridge · 03-05-2011, 09:25 PM

I know what you mean - compiling a custom kernel is one way to go, and canonical have made some decisions lately that have me fuming somewhat. I use UBuntu because the maintenance is very simple otherwise it would be more slackware or gentoo.

The main frustration with all this is that the 10.04 release works fine except for the hybrid graphics ... in fact, the live disk uses the ATI card while the installation uses the intel and I have not found a way to change that selection without vga_switcheroo (though I could go back to writing an xorg.conf and blackisting the intel driver...)

I also have to support Ubuntu installations for novices around here so I prefer to know what solutions do not require maintaining my own kernel.

hp synaptics:
that link does not look like my problem ... I have a touchpad with two tap-zones at the bottom but only one physical button. In 10.04 it works correctly. But if I install the 2.6.35 stock kernel, the rt-click does not work. If I reboot to the 2.6.32 kernel it works.

The graphics cards:
The envy uses hybrid graphics - intel and ATI. Yes, the intel card returned those errors.
vga_switcheroo works fine with the 2.6.35 kernel - no problems spotted so far. If I could just boot to the old kernel whenever I wanted the wireless I would be fine. It does not look like these errors will mess with that.

Broadcom Wireless
Yeah - most threads talk about installing the proporietary driver/firmware manually - which will mess the updates. This issue seems to have been around a while. Fun part is that rebooting to the older kernel does not help - wireless is disabled for all installed kernels. So far the only way to get wireless back is to purge 2.6.35. I did get an error on installing the wireless-compat package which I hoped someone would have known about.

Like you I have been using the liberated driver with 2.6.32 in lucid ... this worked out of the box.

Of course, one main difference is that 10.04 is an LTS release while 10.10 is supposed to be experimental ... I can wait for the next LTS if I have to: I already advise local users to do just that.

Summary:

I want to either: use wireless with 2.6.35 kernel or the ATI graphics with 2.6.32. All the other stuff I can probably figure out in time.

Simon Bridge · 03-05-2011, 10:41 PM

filed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/729993

related:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/584753
Bug poster says: "I started ubuntu from the CD and I choose the try option. I was able to have wireless. Then I restarted and I boot fro hard disk. I have again wireless now. It doesn't make any sense though!"
... admittedly I have not tried this.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...wl/+bug/584180
dpkg-dev installed so this one does not count.

Error returned by synaptic for reinstalling is:
E: bcmwl-kernel-source: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 10
... lets switch to CLI for more information...
[code]$ sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
bcmwl-kernel-source is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-backports-modules-compat-wireless-2.6.35-2.6.32-29-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 17 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3) ...
Removing old bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom DKMS files...

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 5.60.48.36+bdcom
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Loading new bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom DKMS files...
Building only for 2.6.35-25-generic-pae
Building for architecture i686
Building initial module for 2.6.35-25-generic-pae

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 2.6.35-25-generic-pae (i686)
Consult the make.log in the build directory
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/ for more information.
dpkg: error processing bcmwl-kernel-source (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 10
Errors were encountered while processing:
bcmwl-kernel-source
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
[\code]

Build directory:

simon@envoy:/usr/src/bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom$ ls
dkms.conf lib Makefile patches src

... no make log?! Gah: its been too long since I had to troubleshoot a build like this!!!!!

$ locate make.log
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/make.log

... gotcha!

$ cat /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/make.log
DKMS make.log for bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom for kernel 2.6.35-25-generic-pae (i686)
Sun Mar 6 17:13:38 NZDT 2011
make: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25-generic-pae'
LD /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/built-in.o
CC [M] /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.o
In file included from /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.c:19:
/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/src/include/linuxver.h:23:28: error: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build/src/shared/linux_osl.o] Error 1
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/5.60.48.36+bdcom/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25-generic-pae'

Note error: this usually happens when the kernel header files are not installed - typical newbie mistake that I did not make.

$ uname -r
2.6.35-25-generic-pae

Hmmmm....
simon@envoy:/usr/src/bcmwl-5.60.48.36+bdcom$ locate "autoconf.h" | grep "2.6.35"
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25-generic-pae/include/generated/autoconf.h

do I read this right - the build expects to see autoconf.h as:
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25-generic-pae/linux/autoconf.h

business_kid · 03-06-2011, 08:58 AM

I have an ati rs690 northbridge & graphics, and believe you me, you do not want ubuntu's offerings in graphics. It thrust vesa on my box when the thing is congenitally incapable of vesa modes.

(Note to self: Avoid ati/intel graphics if a guru can't sort himself out :-/.)
You are updating the HCL, I hope :-P?
Get onto the phoronix forums and bitch about the graphics there. It's the only place amd developers hang out.

I'm going to take you on about the wifi. As you will see, every chip id for the broadcom things is 43xx or higher. Are you sure 4253 is the wireless? Wash out your modprobe blacklist as wl blacklists all the kernel b43 stuff. You need ssb, and b43 and feel around for it.

Simon Bridge · 03-06-2011, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

(Note to self: Avoid ati/intel graphics if a guru can't sort himself out :-/.)

Nice - please note: graphics on either by themselves is fine. Hybrid graphics seems to be under development so the advise is to stay clear of the hybrid stuff for a while. It will tend to vary a bit in support from machine to machine.

Quote:

You are updating the HCL, I hope :-P?

when I have something to say - yep. Recall - this machine is completely supported out of the box in Ubuntu 10.04 (kver 2.6.32) except that the graphics cards do not switch over. All distros have the same sorts of issues with the 2.6.35 kernel - it is not limited to Ubuntu.

That said - the hybrid graphics stuff works fine. It is the other stuff that doesn't.
The Phoronix people know all about this so the graphics part seems to be improving steadily. Right now it is functional and will probably switch on acpi events out of the box in a future kernel release.

Quote:

I'm going to take you on about the wifi. As you will see, every chip id for the broadcom things is 43xx or higher. Are you sure 4253 is the wireless? Wash out your modprobe blacklist as wl blacklists all the kernel b43 stuff. You need ssb, and b43 and feel around for it.

You have misread my post - the card does, indeed, start "43xx"

But blacklisting the b43 stuff may well be why the other kernels stopped. Lookee:

Code:

$ locate modprobe.d
/etc/modprobe.d
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
[b]/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf[\b]
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-local.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-watchdog.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
[b]/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf[\b]
/etc/modprobe.d/libpisock9.conf
/usr/share/man/man5/modprobe.d.5

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf 
# Warning: This file is autogenerated by bcmwl. All changes to this file will be lost.
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
blacklist bcm43xx

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf 
# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with ssb
# We must blacklist the following modules:
blacklist b44
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b43
blacklist ssb
install wl /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install wl $CMDLINE_OPTS

... so, presumably I delete those two.

Simon Bridge · 03-06-2011, 09:08 PM

Found:
http://www.downloadatoz.com/driver/a...ntu-10-10.html
... the bcmwl-kernel-source package has not been updated for 2.6.35, these patches are supposed to do the trick.

Almost there ... tested switching the cards over and so on, tried using the better graphics to play a game. Now to see if I can make it output through hdmi on the ati card. After that, ket to acpi events - eg: use the ati card if AC connected.

All goes well I just have the clickpad to fix.

business_kid · 03-07-2011, 02:36 AM

If you're worried about a module being blacklisted stalling the kernel, use

install module /bin/true in modprobe.d/ :-D.

Simon Bridge · 03-08-2011, 09:21 PM

The big toothy grin has me worried...

Hmmm... I cannot find the patches to make the source work... this suggests I need a more recent kernel is needed instead, grief. Time to compile a kernel.

business_kid · 03-09-2011, 03:04 AM

I did come up with that kernel notion around post #2. . .

You get the opportunity to junk a lot of unnecessary crap and a gigabyte of modules.

Simon Bridge · 03-10-2011, 08:35 PM

Yes, we've had this conversation.
Likely the next release will have fixed these problems - so I get to advise people to wait a bit.