HP Pavilion dv2172 on (K)ubuntu

Updates: Card Reader works without any configuration and Compiz doesn’t suffer anymore of the black windows problem.

General Hardware Specifications of HP Pavilion dv2172:

Basic Installation of (K)ubuntu Feisty:

• I tested both Kubuntu and Ubuntu and I’ve found the first is much more compatible. With Ubuntu I had troubles in making sound card, wireless card and bluetooth working correctly. (Now Ubuntu Feisty works without problems)
• You can download (K)ubuntu Feisty from here.

Setting up additional features for (K)ubuntu Feisty:

• Kubuntu and Ubuntu Dapper Drake and Edgy works with an old version of ALSA driver. In this case your system won’t recognize the front audio ports of your laptop so if you connect headphone sound will be always played only in internal speakers. Someone made them work compiling ALSA using ./configure –with-cards=hda-intel, someone only with ./configure. After sudo make and sudo make install go to /etc/modules with your favourite text editor and add “snd-hda-intel” on a new line within the file. Then reboot and should works. Now you will have three volumes in the sound manager. The first is the master, the second is the external and the third is the internal. You can switch them off when you want but if you take off the headphone jack you’ve got to turn to the internal manually and viceversa.
• I tried to use the s-video out but i had some problems in clone screen mode. In a first configuration I had second screen in black and white, in a second configuration with a non regular resolution. However you need the nvidia-glx drivers avaiable in the repository. I’m working on it.
• Multimedia keys and fn combinations work flawlessly. The remote controller is not compatible with all applications.
• The Orbicam is just a Logitech webcam and is supported by the Linux UVC drivers. I compiled them and amsn recognize the cam, the blue light turns on too, but no video appears. I’m working on it too. UPDATES: with the latest V4L drivers webcam works perfectly with Ekiga and with amsn SVN version.
• Nvidia drivers got a known bug that draws black windows if too many are opened. To solve the problem edit your /usr/bin/compiz script, find the line COMPIZ_OPTIONS and replace its argoument with “–replace –indirect-rendering gconf &”. Be sure that in the Screen section of your xorg.conf there are
  

  Option “DisableGLXRootClipping” “True”
  Option “AllowGLXWithComposite” “True”
  Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”

Contact Information

If you’ve found this guide useful, if you have troubles, suggestions write me om:

• khoma1985 @ gmail . com (both email and jabber)
• Skype: michele_ontherocks
• MSN: khoma80 @ hotmail . com

Links:

• A very good tutorial for 6000 series but useful for us too