Linux on a HP Pavilion ZE4360Last updated: 12.12.2003, by Bernhard Steiner, mailto:steiner@it-cockpit.de Some annotations on Windows on a HP Pavilion ZE4360
This how-to gives some configuration steps on how to set up Linux (in my case Debian GNU/Linux 3.0) on the Hewlett-Packard notebook HP Pavilion ZE4360ea. Some technical details of this notebook:
As this is the AMD-version of the HP Pavilion ZE4xxx notebook series, there are a few things you should think about before deciding for this specific notebook: It's getting quite hot after running a while (not only the battery and the bottom of the notebook but also the power pack will get really hot). As a result of this typical AMD heat-effect the battery "only" lasts for about 2-3 hours (depending on what you're doing and what components are active. Hint: Switch off WLAN if you don't need it, this results in a noticeably longer battery lifetime). A known but yet not explained problem of the HP ZE43xxx series
when running on battery (and only in that case!) the notebook produces
a very high but not very loud tone when pressing
a key or moving the mouse. I read several articles on the net concerning
this phenomenon but there seems to be no solution at this moment.
I find it not very disturbing, but of course, this is subjectively. Ignoring these small problems you get an excellent equipped (look at that list above!) and very fast notebook from the consumer series of HP which is faster than most other currently available Intel-based notebooks. And all this for a very reasonable price, especially if you compare prices a bit on the internet. I ordered mine on the german website technikdirekt.de for EUR 1420,- and got it after only 2 days. Good job! Note that this version of the HP Pavilion ZE4300 series doesn't come with an IrDA interface, which is the only bad thing on this notebook I discovered up to now (I think the ZE4385 would have one). Up to now I'm very very happy with this notebook, even though installing Linux and as well Win2k/XP wasn't that easy (see also the page on installing Win on this notebook). The following steps describe a reasonable order for installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 on the HP Pavilion ZE4360ea, beginning with compiling a suitable kernel and then going on to the more and more "nice-to-have" features. Kernel with ACPI & software suspend Most actual linux distributions ship with common and often handy kernel configurations. Anyway, if you want to enhance your kernel and add very specific features like software suspending, you won't come around building your own kernel. As a purist I recommend this in any case, because you don't have to drag around features that others meant to be helpful for you. Decide this on your own ;-) The following lines describe step-by-step how to build a kernel with ACPI and software suspend support. ACPI is needed in order to watch your battery fitness e.g. or to use the brightness buttons (fn-f1, fn-f2) on your notebook. Software suspend is a very sophisticated feature you probably know very well from Windows, there it's called "hibernate": it writes your whole memory to the hard disk before turning off the power. When you startup your machine again, memory is restored from disk again so that you can continue working exactly where you stopped before. First, get a actual kernel source (latest stable release is 2.4.21, which I took and used for the example here, get it here). Apply the ACPI patch (version acpi-20030619) first and then the software suspend patch (version 1.0-2.4.21):
Now go to the kernel source dir, configure your kernel (make
menuconfig), choose all you need, especially "General setup",
"Software Suspend" (if applied) and "ACPI Support": [*] ACPI Support <*> AC Adapter <*> Battery <*> Button <*> Fan <*> Processor <*> Thermal Zoneand build your kernel and modules (make dep, make bzImage, make modules, make modules_install, make install). For a more detailed manual on how to build a kernel in general, take a look at the kernel HowTo. You can also download my kernel config file and load it using the menu item "Load an Alternate Configuration File". As append-line in lilo.conf I'm using the following:
append="hdc=ide-scsi nomce idebus=66 resume=/dev/hda3" After installing the kernel with the ACPI features enabled, the
power on/off-button is automatically mapped to a system halt, no
more to the cruel "zzap-the-power-is-really-off". Also
the brightness-buttons already worked with only ACPI turned on. event=button[ /]lid action=/usr/local/sbin/hibernate What you can do in any case: Run your XFree server in VESA mode,
this works for sure. Disadvantage: It's very slow, especially when
running a resolution of 1400x1050 which is supported by the HP Pavilion
ZE4360. The resolution of 1400x1050 is used even with or without
a special ModeLine for this resolution (ModeLine "1400x1050"
107.85 1400 1448 1500 2000 1050 1058 1070 1150 ) . From version 4.3.0.1 on XFree supports the ATI Radeon Mobility graphics chip which is used in the HP Pavilion ZE4360. In principle, that means 2D graphics are accelerated, 3D graphics NOT! So if you're happy with only 2D acceleration you have finished now. Just use the option Driver "radeon" in the device section of your XF86Config-4 (take a look at my example XFree configuration file). If you're also keen on 3D acceleration support, you will have to take on of the latest developement versions from XFree, starting with XFree 4.3.99.9 and patch the sources before compiling it by hand. So try this solution only if you are familiar with patching sources, compiling XFree and so on. What you also have to do: Patch your kernel and build a DRM kernel module for your ATI Radeon card. Only after having loaded the DRM kernel module, XFree can use DRI (direct rendering interface), which takes over the part of 3D acceleration. Here's how I did it:
Network adapters (ethernet
and WLAN)
Update: Bought a 12 dbi antenna (from www.der-wireless-shop.de) for the access point and now got much higher distances covered. Important: Very soon you should turn the option
in bios "USB legacy support" to OFF, otherwise your machine will
crash when trying to load a USB kernel module. Quite easy: just load the module "trident" (modprobe trident) and it's OK. If you want to use the cool blue lit keys on your notebook for launching your favorite email program, browser and so on, you have to use at least the kernel module named "omnibook" (get it here: "omnibook kernel module" and "omke-1.0"). Compile the omnibook kernel module according to doc/INSTALL in the omnibook-dir. Compile the omnibook module seperatly and don't do a "make kpatch", as it may screw up your kernel source dir (it did so for mine). After successfully compiling the module load it with
OneTouch keys should already be enabled by default, but we want to go really sure, so enable them explicitly by using the little perl-script omke.pl (get it here: "omke-1.0")
As a first shot the OneTouch keys now produce so called scancodes. To use them as you want, you have to assign them also "keycodes". I did this using setkeycodes in a small sript, which I call at bootup time straight after loading the omnibook-module. Also put the "enable OneTouch keys" directive here. See your Linux distributions doc how to add a script at bootup time (e.g. for debian: put it in /etc/init.d and make a link to it in the according runlevel-dirs e.g. /etc/rc5.d/S45omke)
Annotations:
This notebooks has an integrated Conexant HSF softmodem chip, so download the suitable driver (for HSF chipsets), which is available only directly from Conexant and install it. This requires that you already have a configured kernel source. See Conexant driver install file, very easy and worked at once for me. Great improvement for this section: PCMCIA now works completely,
thanks to Nocho!! Take
a look at his howto and setup PCMCIA according to his document.
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