Saturday, September 30, 2006

Compaq Presario V3000 with Ubuntu 6.06

Got a new laptop last month. The specs are AMD Turion 64 X2 DUal-core processor with a Nvidia 6150 graphics card, 512 MB DR2 533MGHz Ram and a NForce4 chipset motherboard with inbuilt wireless and a 100GB SATA hard disk. Screen is a nice HP 14.1" widescreen Organic LCD display and its truly the best LCD screen i have seen around.

I tried installing FC5 onto it but there were complications as several modules such as the ethernet, sound etc dint work. so i decided to foray into uncharted waters and tried out Ubuntu 6.06. these were the installation steps i followed:

download the ubuntu amd64 generic cd and instal.
update the system
install the nvidia drivers and restart X

wireless is a problem and took me a while to figure out but its simple really. i had a lot of problems because i was using 32 bit driver instead of the 64 bit required.
  • .install all the development packages ( linux-kernel-devel & linx headers )
  • download the latest ndiswrapper source and extract it.
  • go into the extracted directory and do
    • make & sudo make install
  • . get the wireless drivers from Compaq's website as the ones on the windows partition are 32 bit ones and linux needs the compaq 64-bit versions to work. Get cabextract and get it to extract the compaq drivers exe file using the command
    • cabextract sp33008.exe
  • . there will be a bcmwl5.inf and a bcmwl5.sys file in the current foder. run the command
    • sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
  • this will install the drivers and doing
    • ndiswrapper -l shows
      • Installed drivers:
      • bcmwl5 driver installed, hardware present
  • Now run
    • sudo ndiswrapper -m
  • Reboot the laptop.
  • Upon startup run
    • sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
  • the wireless modles are now working. run iwconfig and there should be a wlan0 with wireless extensions. yu can now connect to a network using
    • sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid name-of-essid
    • dhclient wlan0

Sound gave a little trouble. Apparently there a bug in ALSA ( pre 1.0.13 versions ) which cause trouble with the headphone jack. The 1.0.13 version fixes this problem though and can be downloaded from here. Compile and install it and it creats a "sound" script in the /etc/modprobe.d folder. Open this file and add :
options snd-hda-intel index=0 disable_msi=1

Failure to add this results in the sound playing for half a second and getting stuck in an infinite loop. Well now the headphone jack works, its just wierd that the laptop speakers and headphone jack dont have the same control but different controls. Also the laptop speakers dont shut off when one plugs in a headphone, since their volumes are independent.

Now for the 64-bit issue. A lot of problems arise out of using a 64-bit kernel which basically highlight how behind the world still is in 64-bit computing.

For starters i had a bad time trying to find a video player as the 32-bit codecs for wmv, mov and others dont work here with any midea player ( Xine, Mplayer, Vlc, etc ). The sollution was this : I installed that cool software called Automatix. I dont remember how I got it but just google it I guess ( If you try it and get it working please send me a msg and I will edit this post ). In Automatix there is an option for a 32-bit Mplayer and its codecs, install it and your video should work.

Then I also was unable to view flash media on firefox. The solution, install a 32-bit version of Swiftfox and flash as well. This can also be done through Automatix.

Aside from this I have not really come up against any hurdels on accound of using a 64 bit kernel. Again let me know if any other problem arises.

EDIT : this stuff on XGL/Compiz is old now, my next post has some goddies on XGL/Beryl.


Have XGL running on it now with tons of effects. The matrix screensaver is running as a background pic almost and these streams of matrix code beautifully flow over everything. The last 2 pics are of the multiple desktops in action in XGL using the inside walls of the cube and the outer walls of the cubes ( watching a movie on 1 desktop and browsing files on the other ).

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are no 64 bit compaq drivers (even on the site you mentioned).

PS, I am surprised you got the compaq broadcom working. I had to download a dell broadcom 4311 driver to get my v3000z up.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, there is a wiki now for the v3000 series where people can pool their findings and solutions:

http://hpwiki.cactii.net/hpwiki/Presario_V3%2A%2A%2A

Anonymous said...

cool~

do you using xb3000 expansion base on linux?

Anonymous said...

have you tried installing a 32-bit version of Linux and got the wireless working on that one as well?

Anonymous said...

cool. i just bought one of these laptops. umm... the matrix series is crap and isn't the matrix effect a bit 2000?

Anshuman Garg said...

This entry was on the Presario V3*** Wiki so I thought for those whose answers i was unable to answer check this place out as well.

http://hpwiki.cactii.net/hpwiki/Presario_V3***

Anonymous said...

HI~
do you have problem with built in Ricoh card reader?

here is the answer for card reader
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1931380&posted=1#post1931380

simply three command

$apt-get install ivman
$modprobe sd_mod
$modprobe scsi_mod

and thank you for solution of wireless :)

ps. I'm using compaq v3016

Anonymous said...

i am newbie in linux..... just install ubuntu 6.06LTS 64bit
I am using the same laptop as your, can i know how u install nvdia geforce go 6150 drive. what is the command?
hope u can help me

Anonymous said...

I've been trying for days to get the Broadcom bcm4311 wireless adapter working. Documentation varies widely at the Ubuntu forums. The 64bit version seems to be causing the trouble, but some people have got it working.

As for Nvidia GoForce 6150, I recommend the instructions at href="http://beryl-project.org/"

Once you get the Nvidia driver setup, the graphics are beautiful!

Nimal said...

Hi,

I got a new Compaq Presario V6211 laptop which has

* AMD Turion 64X2 1.6GHz
* NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150
* Preloaded Vista Home Basic

I tried to install Ubuntu 7.04 64bit, 6.06 64bit, 6.06 32bit, Kubuntu 6.06 32bit

Bit I encountered the same following problems in all:

* It has got stuck while loading.Just after hardware check it hangs, doesn't proceed ahead.
* It is just throwing a blank screen.

I don't know what the problem is..?
Can you please help me...

Yours,
NiMaL-TalkOut

Anshuman Garg said...

i think Ubuntu 7.10 is now out mate, give that a shot. otherwise i don't see what the problem could be, i am using 7.04 myself right now.

Anonymous said...

hi all.. i have the compaq v3149 au series notebook which came with XP. I am trying to install the Ubuntu in that. Is there any place where i can get all the drivers for the hardware?

Anshuman Garg said...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=3321400&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us

here you go mate, just select the OS and you will have everything.

devie said...

i use v3220 with core 2 duo not turion. the headphone jack already can be used, but if i use headphone, the altec speaker still active. do you have solution to make inactive the altec if i use headphone?

[sorry if my english not good]

skbohra said...

Hi,

I got a new Compaq Presario V6211 laptop which has

* AMD Turion 64X2 1.6GHz
* NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150
* Preloaded Vista Home Basic

I tried to install fedora 7
Bit I encountered the following problems in all:

The installtion completes succesfully but when system reboots , it goes black


I don't know what the problem is..?
Can you please help me...

Yours,
shree kant bohra

Anshuman Garg said...

devie: i could not figure out a way to correct that, had to adjust the volume manually for the speakers and the headphones seperately. post here if you find a sollution.

skbohra: no clue yaar, never had that problem. perhaps it is FC7 bootloader failing to start up, it doesnt even show an option for vista i am guessing ? try to see if there is a way to fix faulty booloaders, GRUB in FC's case.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Thank you for nice information but still i can't get NVIDIA Driver for prasario v3000 64 bit Xp adition.

Jim
TatvaSoft
http://www.tatvasoft.com

Unknown said...

I have another guide for this laptop which you can read at:
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/HP-Compaq+Presario+V3000z

Anonymous said...

Hi,
for those who have compaq presario v6000 series and have the following config
*AMD Turion 64X2 1.6GHz
* NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150

try opensuse instead of fedora or ubuntu. Opensuse works.. even i had same prob with all versions of fedora and ubuntu.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jay Boado said...

has anyone noticed if the cpu fan is spinning when runnung ubuntu?

Anshuman Garg said...

yes, i recall it used to keep spinning. dont know if the new ubuntu fixes it though.

Dutchaa aka Sriram said...

hi, i have V3424 version witht the same graphics and amd config.
I tried to install f7, f6, ubuntu 7.04, and kubuntu also. but i was unsuccessful........
but f8 got installed but i am encountering constant difficulties in runniong it as it gets stuck in between...... could there be any hard ware problems?

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Unknown said...

HEY. FOR EVERY ONE WHO HAS AN AMD AND A NVIDIA CARD OR MOTHERBOARD.
I almos install a SuSE but i didnt cuz i found this page ( below) showing step by step how to sintall the drivers, one more thing fedora is amazing, lastly use the prompt by using the terminal on Aplications - system tools - terminal; cuz that way u can just copy the code lines (edtion tab) from the post.
The drivers are downloaded from the prompt, after u have tiped the line codes.

http://iyanmv.com/2010/11/04/tutorial-instala-los-drivers-propietarios-de-nvidia-en-fedora-14/

PdT: im not an english speaker so i apologize myself for all the mistakes.
PdT2: i highly recoment to isntall the kmod driver which is aparently an standart driver.
Im newbie in linux i apologize my self for all the mistakes about the theory.
Bye