8.10 on an HP 2133 Mini-note: Observations

[michealk]

I've just done a fresh install of 8.10 on my HP 2133 Mini-note laptop (1.2 GHz, 120 gig HD, 1 gig RAM). The laptop testing team has updated their HP2133 wiki page with some 8.10-related info, but I thought I'd share my observations here.

Install was done using an external USB cdrom. The 8.10 notes in the wiki don't mention having to pass xforcevesa as a kernel argument, but I found that I needed to do so. If I didn't, the GUI seemed to freeze shortly after loading (but not with the typical white screen you see in 8.04). The good news is that I was able to remove xforcevesa from my grub config after everything was installed.

Sound works out of the box and the headphone fix required for 8.04 is no longer needed.

Onboard ethernet works without trouble, as expected.

Onboard wireless is also supported via a proprietary Broadcom STA driver that you can install thru the Hardware Drivers preference pane. You no longer have to use ndiswrapper, which is great. Even better: wifi works after a suspend/resume.

Video: I wasn't able to get the VIA drivers (built for 8.04) to work in 8.10. So right now I'm stuck with VESA graphics at 1280x720 - not the native resolution of the display. This is minorly annoying but I can live with it for now.

Anybody else have anything to add?

[woodp]

Similar positive experiences with 8.10 here as well. And in my case the target was the low-end KR922UT.

It was a joy to have wireless networking come up so easily, but I do look forward to better video drivers - My eyes just aren't as good as they used to be ...

[woodp]

I do look forward to better video drivers - My eyes just aren't as good as they used to be ...

Ask and you shall receive!

That was quick! New 8.10 video drivers (2D beta) have been published at http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action and installation worked similar to the 8.04 installation. Rebooting didn't bring up 1280x768 - For that I had to manually select System | Preferences | Screen Resolution

So far, so good!

[michealk]

New 8.10 video drivers (2D beta) have been published at http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action

That's great news! I had started to try and build their drivers from source, but being lazy, I'll just go grab the beta now.

[xjgnsdof]

I can't even boot into the OS, regardless of whether I input xforcevesa. See my sig for the 2133 model I have.

[michealk]

I can't even boot into the OS, regardless of whether I input xforcevesa. See my sig for the 2133 model I have.

What happens when you try? Are you booting from CD or flash drive? I have the 1.2 GHz model (KX869AT), so I'm not sure what other differences exist besides CPU and storage, neither of which should matter.

In my case, I'm booting off an external USB CD drive. I press F9 while the HP boots in order to get the boot device menu from the BIOS, and I select the CD. Next:

1. Hit Enter for English install
2. Select either "Install" or "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" (both worked for me)
3. Press F6
4. Append "xforcevesa" without quotes onto the end of the boot string.
5. Press return

[michealk]

and installation worked similar to the 8.04 installation. Rebooting didn't bring up 1280x768 - For that I had to manually select System | Preferences | Screen Resolution

Following the instructions provided in the new 8.10 via drivers didn't work for me - what I ended up with was a screen that cycled through a series of test colours and patterns (red, green, blue, then alternating black/white stripes). I half-expected this to happen though, because the xorg.conf file that the via drivers install is somewhat ... sparse.

I grabbed a copy of the xorg.conf file from the 8.04 installation instructions and dropped that into /etc/X11, and everything looks much better now.

[woodp]

I grabbed a copy of the xorg.conf file from the 8.04 installation instructions and dropped that into /etc/X11, and everything looks much better now.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that - Yes, I grabbed the 8.04 xorg.conf as well.

[Theril]

There's some problems with xorg autoconfiguration with the 1024x600 panel even with the VIA's driver. It starts working after forcing the LCD, PanelID (updated to 17) and mode. I'll post some xorg.conf instructions later and maybe update the ubuntu wiki page.

Edit: Oops, some old news.

[valentinox]

There's some problems with xorg autoconfiguration with the 1024x600 panel even with the VIA's driver. It starts working after forcing the LCD, PanelID (updated to 17) and mode. I'll post some xorg.conf instructions later and maybe update the ubuntu wiki page.

Edit: Oops, some old news.

Yes, everything seems to be fine except this 1024x600 ussue.
Please somebody post the correct xorg.conf settings.
I tried to use my old xorg.conf settings from ubuntu 8.04 via driver but the chrome driver crashes...