27.8.09

Ubuntu and the HP Mini 5101

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I just got a new HP Mini 5101 netbook and the first thing I had to do was rip out Windows and install Ubuntu. I'm just more productive that way.

Unfortunately, not all of the hardware works "out of the box". After two days of Google research, I've got two important things working.

Bluetooth and wired networking work fine with the default installation of Ubuntu 9.04. The trouble spots come from ACPI, WiFi and sound.

Getting the WiFi interface up and working was easy. Just install the linux-restricted-modules package and reboot. Everything comes up on its own then.

Sound was a little more tricky. You need to do two things:
  1. Install the linux-backports-modules package for your kernel version (sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-`uname -r`)
  2. Add the line options snd-hda-intel model=laptop to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf then reboot.
ACPI is much more complex as it seems to cause a lot of problems booting — enough so that you can't get past kernel errors when you start up. You can get around this by adding acpi=off to the kernel parameters in your grub startup, however this doesn't give you battery information, disables the second CPU core and can cause system lockups. My current workaround — as strange as it is — is to boot only while on battery power, but the battery has to be mostly charged. This has worked every time so far, although I'm not sure why.

I wrote this entry on my new HP Mini and I have to say the best thing about this netbook is the keyboard. It's almost full sized so I don't feel cramped or like I need a special keyboard wand.

More as I find other things that don't quite work as expected. I haven't tried the webcam yet, but I'm not sure that I even care about it at this point.

2 comments:

  1. StatsSaturday, September 12, 2009 at 10:52:00 AM EDT

    I am considering a purchase of the HP 5101 and like you I want to install ubuntu immediately.

    I have a few questions about your hardware configuration as there doesn't seem to be that much info on the 5150 yet.

    Did you get the HD 1366x768 screen?

    Did you get the Broadcom or the Intel WIFI chip?

    TIA.

    Cheers,
    Rich

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  2. SPHThursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:16:00 PM EDT

    Hi Rich,

    Thanks for taking the time to read this and post a comment.

    To answer your questions, first I have the Broadcom WiFi chipset. This means I had to use the proprietary Broadcom STA driver in Ubuntu, which works well, but does not have a "monitor" mode. No war-driving for me.

    Second, I purchased my 5101 as a Smart Buy from HP, so it came with the 1024x600 screen. It's a smaller resolution than what I'm used to, but my eyesight is still pretty good so I just set all of the system fonts to 8 and 9 points. It's a little hard to read at full arms' length, but I hate scrolling even more. The HD option would be a good idea I think, since many web pages default to larger font sizes which make me scroll again...

    The Ubuntu installation was actually quite smooth. Once I got the ACPI kernel problem figured out everything has been rock solid. Even sleep and hibernate modes work as expected, and it is less than a minute from a powered off state to running when waking up from hibernation.

    Have fun with your installation.

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