| Specs | Installation | Graphics | APM | PCMCIA | Drives | Sound | Ethernet | Modem | Ports |
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On May 9, 2000 I installed RedHat Linux 6.2 on an HP Omnibook 6000 laptop, model F2087WT#ABA. I have used the machine heavily since, and find it to be a great Linux laptop. X windows, APM, PCMCIA, the built-in Ethernet, and sound all work well (the latter with a commercial driver). Only the internal modem is not supported under Linux.
The keyboard is full size and supports, simultaneously, a track point and a Synaptics touchpad (these work fine under Linux). At the time of purchase it was one of the thinnest and lightest laptops available with a 14.1" inch screen. Here is HP's spec sheet.
The machine arrived with two partitions: hda1 was about 550 MB for a hibernation partition, and the rest, hda2 was for Windows 95. After defragging from inside Windows I used FIPS to squeeze the Windows partition to 2 GB. I then booted from the RedHat 6.2 install CD (it is straightforward to set the desired boot device from the BIOS set-up screen), and did a straightforward workstation install in GUI mode. The install script identified the graphics system as generic Mach64, which seemed to work alright, but I changed it to the ATI Mobility and entered the 8 MB of video memory. I also told it that I had a 1024x768 LCD panel. The only difficulty I had during the install was that the floppy drive, which I needed to use to run FIPS, was fussy. Several times the machine refused to recognize that a floppy was in the drive.
X windows works flawlessly in 1024x768 resolution with 24 planes. The graphics performance on graphics intensive jobs seems to be better than on my Dell Precision 410 desktop Linux workstation which has a Diamond Viper 770D, nVIDIA TNT2, Video Card with 32MB. Here is my XF86Config file. I am using XFree86 version 3.3.6 from the RedHat 6.2 distribution. David Topper (topper@virginia.edu) reports that XFree86 version 4.0.1 also works flawlessly.
For APM, I had to uncomment the line 'CHANGEVT="7"' in /etc/sysconfig/apmd. Otherwise either suspending or hibernating when X windows was running would cause problems. (Suspending would even wedge the machine, requiring a hard reboot.) The indicated change causes the kernel to switch virtual consoles, and so get out of X windows, before suspending or hibernating, and then to return to X after resuming. This completely cures the problem. Currently the sleep button suspends and Fn+F12 hibernates to disk. (This is true for XFree86 3.3.6 and both the 2.2.14-12 and the 2.2.16-3 kernels from the RedHat 6.2 updates directory, without any recompilation.) David Topper (topper@virginia.edu) reports that after upgrading to XFree86 version 4.0.1, the machine responds perfectly to all BIOS APM calls--suspend, hibernate, display off, and disk down--without the need to switch virtual terminals. If you want to have APM automatically invoked by the BIOS, this appears to be the way to go.
The PCMCIA bays work well. I have used modem, network, and flash memory cards, including hot-swapping, without problems.
The floppy drive and DVD drive work fine under Linux. I have tried the latter only for standard CD-ROMs so far. If anyone has experience using it as a DVD drive, please let me know.
On July 10, 2000, 4Front Technologies announced support for the ESS Maestro 3 sound card in the Open Sound System 3.9.3n for Linux x86. Their driver can be downloaded from the OSS web site, either for a free time-limited evaluation or as a licensed copy costing $30. I have used it to play audio, MP3, and MIDI files, to play music CDs on the integral CD player, and to record via the integral microphone, all without problem. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Linux sound driver available for the Maestro 3.
The ethernet functionality of the built-in 3Com 3C556 mini PCI modem/ethernet card is supported by the Linux 2.2.17 kernel. There is also support in the 2.4 kernel series starting with 2.4.0-test7. So a network connection just requires running a cable to the integral 10BaseT port--no PCMCIA card or dongle needed. The 3C556 driver can also be found in the form of a loadable module for use with earlier versions of the kernel or to avoid a recompilation if you're using a kernel compiled without 3C556 support. Further information, modules, and source code for the driver can be found at Fred Maciel's page for the driver. (For a small proviso concerning power management; see here, although I'm not sure how this applies to the latest kernels.)
The same 3Com mini PC card that hosts the ethernet has a modem. Unfortunately as far as I know this modem does now work under Linux. However, in May a 3Com engineer posted a note asking how much interest there would be in Linux support for the modem from 3Com--see here. It would be great to be completely free from dongles and XJACK connectors, so please let them know of your interest. And if you know of any other efforts to support this modem, please let me know.
The external ports are
I haven't yet experimented with the USB port, the infrared port,
or any kind of docking station, although I wouldn't anticipate problems
with these. If anyone has experience with these
please let me know.
Under kernel versions 2.2.14 and 2.2.16 there is a small problem with rebooting. When I try to reboot the machine either by running "reboot" or via various GUIs, the machine halts but does not reboot. It is left in a power-on state, but frozen with black screen. To reboot, it is necessary to first hold the power button in on position for several seconds, which forcibly halts the power. (By contrast, the "halt" and "poweroff" commands both power-off the machine and it is enough to touch the sleep button to reboot.) This is not particularly important to me, but could be important, if, for example someone wants to do a remote reboot. Fortunately, Frank Sweetser reports that this problem appears to be fixed under kernel 2.2.17pre15. To help users of earlier kernel versions, if you know a way around this quirk, please let me know, and I'll post it here.